Featured Post

Free The Hostages! Bring Them Home!

(this is a featured post and will stay at the top for the foreseeable future.. scroll down for new posts) -------------------------------...

Dec 18, 2007

what I have in common with the Rosh yeshiva of Ponevezh

Yesterday evening, my son in first grade had a "mesibat chumash". That is a party where the first grade boys receive their "first" chumash to learn from. I put "first" in quotation marks because he has been learning chumash since the beginning of the school year and already has one. So technically this is his second chumash, but in quotation marks it is celebrating his having received his first. It is also funny they made the party now, as the kids have already finished breishis, Shmos and Lech Lecha. I do not know why they did not make the party closer to the beginning of the school year.

Anyways, one of the Rosh Yeshivas of Ponevezh yeshiva was there as a guest, due to his having a grandchild in the class. He was invited to speak. He said something interesting. he said that as the principal was asking the boys questions as a test in front of the parents to show off how much they know, he was very nervous. he was concerned his grandson would not know the answer to the question he would get asked. Everybody is rattling off their answers, but maybe when it came to his grandson's turn, he would not know the answer. That would be very embarrassing. His concern was without basis, as his grandson knew the answer, just like all the other kids.

I thought that was funny of him to say, as I was nervous about the same thing. Maybe they would ask my kid a question he would not know the answer to and he would be embarrassed as the only one not knowing the answer in public... Nobody is perfect and even though these kids have absorbed a tremendous amount in a short period of time, maybe he would get a question he did not know the answer to...

My kid also knew the answer to his questions. I just thought it was funny that the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponevezh was nervous about the same thing as me, and probably as all the other parents and grandparents.

7 comments:

  1. the story humanizes him for people like me

    ReplyDelete
  2. or it mekes you into a gadoll? i'm confused! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. If I just humanized him for you, does that mean I am going to be put in cherem like "The Making of a Gadol" and others...? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. actually, I go to those things and am nervous that I won't know the answer. My son BH I'm not worried about... :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I know I do not know the answer... but I am not on stage so there is nothing to be embarrassed about in that sense....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Halevai the biggest problem with education in this country would be whether or not our kids will know the answer when on stage. I would be more worried if he got the answer wrong, but never bothered to find out what the right answer is. (OK, not so much at this age, but I don't think the situation gets better with age.)

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...