I spotted this recollection about a teacher who was fired for behavior "unbecoming for a teacher," and wonder how Lookjed readers would have responded to the incident.
An excerpt:
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I was a 7-year-old second grader at the Ramaz Academy (that’s what the Ramaz School was called then). We started each day with the Shacharit morning prayers. Our Hebrew teacher was Mr. Gottlieb, a new addition to the staff. Mr. Gottlieb was middle- aged, a recent immigrant from Germany. He spoke with a very distinctive, heavy German accent. We were not the best-behaved students during the service, and talking, passing notes and other such inappropriate behavior was all too common. Mr. Gottlieb, on an almost daily basis, explained that proper decorum was expected of us. After all, we were talking to God and not being respectful.
As the weeks went by, with little improvement, Mr. Gottlieb went from trying to reason with us, to ultimately raising his voice, sending individuals out of the room, and other such rebukes, attempting to have us do the right thing. Then one day something happened that became etched in my memory. How many things do any of us remember from our early elementary school years? Well, this day was one.
The day began, as did all others, with Shacharit. The buzzing of misbehavior started, getting louder and louder with Mr. Gottlieb’s face getting increasingly red. Suddenly Mr. Gottlieb took his siddur, his prayer book, and flung it across to the other side of the room, where it thumped on the floor. A large gasp was heard from all of the class. Hands went up to our mouths. We were all shocked and stunned. The teacher deliberately throwing his siddur, a book that we kissed if we accidently dropped it? There was a deafening silence in the room. Mr. Gottlieb then explained that if we could not respect the prayer service, then the book in which we prayed had also been disrespected. He then said he would give us one more chance. Each of us began to pray and there was not a hint of any further disturbance or distraction. This decorum continued day after day and almost all of us began to concentrate on the prayers. And to this day, that incident has remained with me. As for Mr. Gottlieb? He was fired soon thereafter for the action taken that day that was unbecoming for a teacher, despite our protestations.
And Mr. Gottlieb, wherever you are, I just want you to know that you had a life-long effect at least on one little boy in your class. Yasher Koach!
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For the full article, see
[
www.thejewishweek.com]
Abie
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2016 08:02AM by mlb.
