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Jerry Unterman writes: If one only teaches that Avot are fallible to
mature students, you are running the risk of cognitive dissonance. If
the students have learned at a younger age that the Avot are incredible
tzaddikim who never sin, then you just simply are unable to come in
later and say, "Well, the Avot did sin once in a while" without causing
serious problems.
Why is cognitive dissonance a risk? It is precisely at those moments
when our current conceptions meet up with new and different ones that
learning takes place. Many contributions to the discussion about how to
present the avot seem to be predicated on a view of learning as telling.
If students are exposed to the actual Torah text, no matter what the
teacher says about the avot a child with questions about their
fallibility will remain with those questions. It would seem to me that
our goal is to make sure that these children stay engaged with the
struggle to understand. Simple answers will only shut down further
exploration over the course of their life as learners.</HTML>
