Josh, left, and Jordan Sable demonstrate their juggling skills in a light moment at CHAT. [Frances Kraft photo]

TORONTO - Jordan Sable, a teacher with a low-key classroom style and a signature baseball hat, is sometimes known as “the other Mr. Sable” at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto’s Tanenbaum campus.

His younger brother Josh, who teaches dramatic arts and is director of student activities at the Downsview school, began teaching there in 1998, a year before he did.

The brothers, 38 and 33, share a sense of humour, a similar teaching philosophy and a family interest in education that often manifests in dinner table discussions at their parents’ Shabbat table.

Their mother, Gayle, is a former teacher, and their father, Martin, left a career in law after 25 years to become a teacher. Jordan’s wife Kate teaches at the Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School, and Josh’s wife Simona – his high school sweetheart when he was a CHAT student – is a speech pathologist for the Toronto District School Board. Their brother Jamie, 35, a psychiatrist, lives in Vancouver with his family.

Although both Josh and Jordan are CHAT alumni – as are about a dozen of their colleagues – “after the first 30 seconds, there’s not much that’s weird” about being back at the school, Josh said.

Instead, he sees it as an asset. Students know “that you’ve been there and you get it. You understand the workload and the demands on the students.”

“You understand what the kids are about,” added Jordan, who returned to Toronto to become a social sciences and history teacher after a decade doing graduate work in history in the United States. Although he enjoyed it, as he approached his 30th birthday, the idea of returning to his own community and working at a school like CHAT, with which he has a connection, seemed increasingly compelling.

Jordan, now the father of a baby boy, spent his first few years at CHAT doing the “Buffalo shuffle,” heading off to Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., every week to complete his bachelor of education degree.

At one point the brothers taught the same media course. Now, although there are days when they don’t run into each other at school, they still “bounce ideas off each other” and brainstorm about issues.

Josh admires the way Jordan “challenges his students to think and be analytical in a way that maybe they’re not used to, but he does it in a non-threatening way.” In 2002, Jordan – who like his brother, has a background working at summer camps – was named a Teacher of Excellence, a privately sponsored award for Toronto Jewish day school teachers.

Jordan, in turn, praises Josh’s ability to take “kids who are going in a million different directions, and somehow with only a few words move them in a direction that works.”

Josh, who has taught classes on classroom management and “creativity in the classroom” at UJA Federation Board of Education’s Midrasha L’Morim, studied theatre as an undergraduate at York University. He entered teaching because he realized how much he enjoyed working with young people at summer camp. The father of two young children is still involved with camp during his summer break.

Being the school’s director of student activities, a half-time position that involves supervising extracurricular programming, “is similar to being a program director at a camp, but in a school environment,” he said. “I like the balance [between student activities and time in the classroom]… It allows me to be creative and get involved in a lot of creative projects like the talent show, the school play and the fashion/dance show.”

The school has a “work hard, play hard” atmosphere, Josh said.

“I think you have to have that mix to be successful as a student, and as a teacher,” added Jordan.

A lesson from the teachers: “It all starts with trust. You have to establish that [the classroom] is a safe place. The way you do that is by treating everyone decently,” says Jordan Sable.

Josh adds, “Work doesn’t have to always be very serious. Learning is fun, and it’s contagious.”