A Test*
I really enjoyed a book in which Charles Grodin free associates in short essays on life. I read it years ago (got it at The Strand Bookstore for half price) but certain strong statements stand out in my mind. Like the fact that he hates teachers. He did a good job of describing the negatives of the teachers he remembered. And he theorized that most people didn't have very positive takes on most 0f their teachers.
Anyone care to share about whether or not Grodin was right? Are your memories more positive, negative, or just there? What made the good teachers good and the bad teachers bad? Are there many good teachers out there? Explain your answer (in essay form). How would you react if your offspring told you they wanted to be a teacher? Would your reaction be different for a daughter than for a son? Write about how the answer to these questions about your offspring may relate to the situation at large? A friend of mine (married with 3 little kids) just left a great job at a law firm to teach in a Yeshiva. On one interview he was asked if his parents wanted to kill him.
Discuss.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 8:32 PM
3 Comments:
I had only a few really great rabbeim and teachers. Some were okay but not great. Lots were less than okay but not terrible. Some were utterly awful.
From my perspective, the stats are pretty much the same for my boys, except there are less really great ones, but that might just be my view as a parent; my kids might feel differently.
Thanks. It's hard to find good teachers, especially when good teachers are paid more to become administrators. Most people don't flock to become teachers, most people don't encourage their kids to become teachers. It's hard to support a frum family on a teacher's salary. In conversation with someone I dated not so long ago salary came up. I'm proud of how hard I work, and how hard I've have worked for my salary to go up to what it is over time. Yet it's not comparable to some other fields (although it's better than my other field of interest - social work). My date informed me that the previous guy she dated made $400,000 a year. Anyway, I'm rambling here, may have said too much already, but I'm holding back a lot and will cut myself off now. Thanks again for the thoughtful, honest, articulate comment.
Here in the yeshivishe world, we have both ends of the spectrum. There are many who will become rabbeim for idealistic reasons, to teach Torah. This doesn't necessarily make them great rabbeim, but at least one piece of the puzzle fits. Then there are the guys who become rabbeim b/c there aren't a lot of other career options in avodas hakodesh. Some of these guys may turn out to be really good rabbeim, but most are just time-servers. Such people should become insurance agents or whatever. They are destructive.
I'm glad, though surprised, that you do better financially as a teacher than you would as a social worker. I guess you don't mean private practice. From what I can see, those guys clean up.
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