Thank you, Larry, for this article.
I just wanted to share my first thoughts about the article.
I think it's important for us to read these parents' perspective. The article does not make any attempt to do any fact checking about anything they say. It's a sounding board for their opinions.
We all must be more sensitive that much of what we say to parents (before and after they switch) may be looked at as condescending.
Having said that, I found that these parents equally make many snide and condescending comments about how Yeshiva teachers don't know how to teach and don't know our kids, and that the teachers and the admins are not willing to do anything extra for children's benefit.
I do not envy the tuition assistant committees, and I can only speak for the people I know who are on such committees. Though I have not received assistance, my experience, as an observer, is that they take what they do very seriously, sensitively and discreetly. They are faced with a very difficult task of distributing tzedaka money to people who need it and conducting an assessment process to determine if there is a need and who needs it more. That does not mean that everyone does this well. But my experience is that they work very hard to be fair and sensitive.
We all have perceptions of areas that "we know" that our schools can do better. For me, since this article is mostly about people's perceptions, it serves mostly to remind me that I have to measure my words and be sensitive about what I say and how I say it - both about our schools and about people's personal decisions regarding their children.
Benjy
Rabbi Benjamin Kramer
Director Educational Technology
Yeshivah of Flatbush H.S.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2018 05:12PM by mlb.
