Jewish Education – Story Number 1

My mother is a teacher at a Jewish day school. The following story was told to her by the new Director of Education at her school.

This new Director, lets call him David, used to be a student at the same school he is now Director of. One day in science class, his teacher calls on another student to do a problem. The student can not do it and the teacher keeps on him and thoroughly embarrasses him for not being able to solve the problem. David is appalled by this speaks out to the teacher, telling him that it’s not proper to publicly embarrass a student like that. Of course, the teacher did not like this and sends David to the principal’s office.

I need to give some context about David here before I go on. His father is from a Hasidic family and was a survivour. David’s father felt that part of the reason for the passivity of many Jews (especially the Hasidic) was that they had always been taught to respect and obey authority figures, so they could not speak out against the Nazi’s. Because of this, his father made an “about face and became Modern Orthodox”. He wanted to make sure his children were able to stand up for what they believed in. David was sent to a more “public” Jewish day school, rather than the more religious one, because his father felt that school would teach his son these principles.

Back to our story. David was scolded by the principle. When he went home and his father found out what happened, his father scolded him. David was lectured on the importance of respecting your teachers and that his actions were inappropriate.

When David was getting ready for bed that night, his father came into his room and said “one more thing… I’m very proud of you for standing up for what you believe.”

My mother has not been happy with the way her school has been run lately. But after meeting the new Director and having him tell this story (with tears running down his face) she decided, you know what, with a man like this running things, maybe this won’t be such a bad place to work until retirement.