Monday Musing

One of the fascinating frameworks I learned of in graduate school is the ecological approach to social work. The idea is that we live within various worlds (fancily referred to as ecosystems). Some branch out from others, some exist on their own. Sometimes these worlds meet, sometimes not. I wrote a paper using A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (I highly recommend the book and the movie. Each has elements that the other does not. Click here for a full copy of the film script) that was, in part, to illustrate this concept. When Fancie's father dies she goes to the barbershop to pick up his shaving cup. The barber tells her to tell her mama that Johnny Nolan was a good man and to "tell her that I, his barber say so." This was a vivid image for me, which got me to imagine Francie realizing at that moment, if only semi-consciously, that her father lived within several worlds.

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Whenever you are within one world you run the risk of forgetting that other worlds exist in a real way for you as well as for others within the "ecosystem" you now stand within. My father (HSLABW) has told me many times about great men that "they put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us." And the world where the CEO or Rosh Yeshiva puts on their pants is a different world from the one where they are their title. I am remeinded of the mussar master who a friend of mine was enthralled by, only to feel he witnessed him being demeaned by his family after the lecture. When a friend of mine visited his father at work for the first time he was amazed at how his father, a gym teacher, would blow a whistle and have a room full of teenage boys squat on one knee and quake into silence.

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School is an ecosystem I frequent. I wrote the following poem while proctoring a Spanish final today. Feel free to offer your thoughtful answers to these questions.

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What is the point of teaching?

What is the goal we are striving toward reaching?

What do we recall of teachers we've had?

What makes us consider some "good" others "bad"?

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What should we make of the worlds we live in?

The places we'll go, the places we've been?

Could life be more than a school, than a test?

How do we balance this world with the rest?

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Is failure reflected by a failing grade?

Do numbers reveal true judgement was made?

What would happen if everyone did great?

Would that ruin the world, tamper with fate?