I was sitting in a sidewalk café as I watched five Minneapolis Jewish Day School students aged 6 to 12 run past. They dashed into a shop, followed shortly by the father of two of the children. A couple of minutes later the children scampered out of the store and ran on down the block to their next destination. The father joined the mother of the other three children and followed slowly.

Just over four years ago, when I was chosen to be the founding headmaster of the new Jewish community high school in Houston, I considered at length the sort of culture I wanted to help create. More specifically, I thought of the different schools I had attended as a student and how each sought to inculcate certain behavioral norms — reflecting on those that were effective and those that were not.

The "Jewish goals" of a school are always stated in an abstract way in the school's mission statement. However, from the mission statement to everyday practice is a long distance that most schools do not successfully travel.