<HTML>I read Aaron Ross's comment in Lookjed 59 with interest. Enough people
have written about the financial problems of being a day school
teacher/rebbe or principal, and I agree with them wholeheartedly. However,
I would like to address the issue of attitude.
How can we expect to encourage outstanding people to go into chinuch if
what they hear from the klay kodesh themselves is that "the only job worse
than a pulpit rabbi is a Jewish day school principal"? What kind of values
are we inculcating in the day schools -- that academics are the most
important thing, so you'll be able to get into a good med school? Isn't
saving Jewish souls just as important as saving lives -- or learning how
to sue people?
Just as self-image and -esteem are almost totally a function of attitude
and not outside forces, "job prestige" is a function of how you yourself
feel about the work you are doing. Avodat kodesh is just that -- kadosh.
Think of all the daily opportunities klay kodesh have to influence
students and their parents, or congregants, by their very mundane actions
-- not to mention their shiurim, lectures, sermons, private sessions, and
Shabbat meals. What could be more important than that?
We need pulpit rabbis, teachers, rebbes and principals to tell prospective
klay kodesh, "yes, there are upsetting things, but the rewards are great.
Even if you end up influencing only one person, it's worth it. You never
can tell what a well-placed word or a Shabbat meal can mean to a person
even a year, five years, or even ten years later."
By the way, how many doctors, lawyers, accountants, or computer
programmers love every single thing about their jobs? There's no such
thing as complete satisfaction in anything.
Finally, on a personal note, we spent four wonderful years in a small
midwestern city as klay kodesh, and although we knew we were doing good,
it was only after we left and even now, four years later, that we have
seen the fruits of our labors. We might have been, in financial terms, the
"shleppers" of the community, but never for one second did we feel ashamed
or bothered by it. And it was OUR attitude set the tone for the respect
and "prestige" that the community gave us.
Deena Nataf</HTML>
