- Hasten Hebrew Academy of Indianapolis
- Mrs. Gettinger's Blog
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 3/21/2024 5:00:00 PMPurim is coming to a theater near you! Purim is celebrated this year on Saturday night and Sunday while exciting pre-festivities were held today in school including the costume parade, carnival and tzedakah chance auctions. Dubbed the ‘reverse Halloween’ as we give rather than request food treats packages in display of communal unity, the focus on costumes, both individual and or family themed enhances the joyous celebration of our salvation from Haman’s diabolical plot to annihilate the Jewish nation, an antecedent of the current global rise of overt anti-Semitism.
The origin of the costume tradition stems from the Midrash regarding King Achasveirosh’ s lavish ball where he donned the vestments of the kohain gadol/ High Priest while utilizing the ancient goblets of the destroyed First Temple, mistakenly proclaiming Daniel’s prophecy of the Temple being rebuilt after 70 years to be defunct. In fact, miniature bigdei keuna vestments are a popular costume in some traditional circles while still others feature sports, cartoon, animal and celebratory icons. Additionally, the theme of masquerade and hidden identity underscores the Megilla narrative where G-d’s name and divine role in directing the miraculous turnabout events is seemingly ‘masked.’
Costumes are an integral part of performance skills, allowing children to break out of their normal persona mold and ‘be in character’ with whomever they are depicting be it whimsical or historical. ‘Playing the part’ aptly metaphors perspective taking and cognitive /emotional flexibility to imagine the situation from another’s viewpoint and behave accordingly with the requisite empathy, patience and rehearsal. The term “acting out” implies the child is behaving inappropriately for the context and often connotes the difference between the way a child behaves at home with family versus the way they behave in the school structure. Fortunately for us, the latter with its routine and structure is generally where children do not put on a show although we have all witnessed some Oscar performances!
This year’s teacher costume theme was ironically movie characters and I literally and proverbially rolled out the red carpet for them shouting them out as the true stars of HHAI, daily modeling the imperative life skills of flexibility, problem solving and perspective taking for our students. In fact, one of the most insightful quips I heard from a Middle Schooler recently was how hard it is to be a leader when no one follows as they were challenged with a position of responsibility for a program. G-d’s ultimate sense of humor yoshev bashamiyim yischak (Psalms 2;4) plays out when children grow up and became parents or when students mature and become teachers themselves. That is the epitome of the Purim’ turnabout’ motif of Vinahapoch Hu!
Layehudim hayta ora visimcha visason../May we merit light, gladness and discovery
Happy Purim☺
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 3/14/2024 10:00:00 AMDo nice guys really finish last? Today celebrated the second trimester Middle School honor roll recognizing student conduct, work habits and grade point average of 3.5 on a 4-point scale. Not surprisingly, there is significant overlap between the students qualifying in both the academic and work ethic categories suggesting that effort and perseverance are valued attributes correlating with cognitive achievement. Ironically though, the term ‘grit’ popularized by educational psychologist Angela Duckworth a decade ago has been called into question in future college and career arenas where how hard one works is secondary to how well the assigned task is executed, ’sweat equity’ in areas of interest or aptitude is replaced with measuring resilience and determination to bear down and plod along in areas of challenge.
Yet my professional manta regarding these honor roll programs has always prioritized the behavioral category (aligned with our simultaneous elementary Aspiring Higher program) in recognizing character growth. In fact, 88% of the students qualified for this conduct category, far exceeding the work habit and grade point average metrics. At the program, 8th grader Micky Fineman spoke about the pre Purim message of crediting one’s sources as the miraculous salvation of the Jews in Persia came about through the retelling of Mordechai’s heroics in saving the king from an assassination plot. Micky went on to speak about academic integrity and the high school preparatory skills he has learned regarding MLA citations crediting his teachers and parents for their guidance.
I in turn must credit Dr. Allon Friedman for sharing a video clip with me years ago about this very topic of what we as parents want most from our children, identifying the ultimate source of the nachat they bring us. In the video, Dr. Dennis Prager challenges us to survey our children about their perceived metrics of our successful parenting; which do they think we most want them to be - smart, good or happy. Not surprisingly, most select the happiness followed by the intelligence options; we delude ourselves into believing that our children somehow know that we value character/ mentschlachkeit prioritizing being good kids above all else as we continuously praise them for their academic, athletic and artistic accolades.
While this year is a leap year in both the lunar and solar calendars and with the extra Adar month Passover seems far off in the distance, it is always timely to remind ourselves that the Seder night experience and Haggadah focusing on our children and their questions is the foundational pillar of Judaism. Importantly, the four sons chahcham, rasha, tam and sheano yodaiah lishol, the wise, the wicked, the naïve and the ignorant sons include these very personality caricatures. We may aspire for our children to be smart and or happy (the Tam depicts the child who wants his today and his tomorrow confused by the myriad of options in pursuit of elusive happiness and fulfillment) all while we shun the “bad boy” or ignoramus images. Yet in the end it is only the “goodness’ which we teach and model for our children which is the source for our spiritual freedom and the raison d’etre of our Jewish nation. Nice guys finish first at HHAI!
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 3/7/2024 3:00:00 PMWhy do rich people leave their windows uncovered? While the Atlantic and New York Times magazines have recently opined sociological insights into this curious topic, I actually alluded to it in my Middle School Judaic teacher blogpost last week depicting integrated instruction of Torah textual study with arts and technology. Assuming that less people might click on that feature buried towards the bottom of the Weekly Five section than normally open the lead article I am unabashedly repeating a nuance from that blogpost!
Studies conducted globally over the past decade reveal that people earning over $150,000 are more likely to leave their windows bare or with curtains opened than those with lower incomes. Numerous factors are advanced as plausible explanations including safety and privacy concerns mitigated by the location of these more affluent homes in gated communities or large estates with security measures and already enhanced privacy design or in urban hotspots as luxurious condominiums and penthouse apartment buildings with armed doormen around the clock. Cultural differences may also be at play as well as the trend toward high quality and modern interior design and furnishings with clean lines and unobstructed views. Moreover, the architecture and design of these high end homes might prioritize openness and aesthetics, letting in natural light and providing breathtaking scenic views over traditional window coverings. While all concur on the mental well-being correlation to natural light, for city dwellers the connection to nature is at an even higher premium with Manhattan apartments with a view of the Hudson River or Central Park commanding over $10,000 a month in rental fees.
The kindling protocol of the Menorah candelabra in the Mishkan Tabernacle was intentionally designed to ‘cup’ the flames towards the center lamp so as not to produce abundant light; the spiritual essence outshining literally and proverbially the physical light source. Similarly, the windows in the Beit Hamikdash/ Temples were ‘shikufim atumim’ wider on the outside and narrowing inward so as not to convey the diffusion of exterior light as the primary purpose of those wall openings. To the contrary, the spiritual light from the Temple was designed to radiate outward underscoring our metaphoric role of being ‘a light unto the nations.’ Students engaged in architectural study of Frank Lloyd Wright homes and engineered some Lego models of the Temple window design before designing their own mini stained -glass Judaic themed windows.
Our school is blessed with beautiful wide windows and an interior courtyard on its campus facilitating abundant natural light streaming into the classrooms and Cultural Arts Center lobby. Upper class students actually enjoy no glaring or jarring artificial light in their instruction, preferring only the natural suffused light coming in from the windows. Natural light and fresh air with the windows cracked open a bit even in the heated atmospheres awaken their minds and spirits and are the harbingers of spring. More significantly, they depict our hope for the complete release of all the remaining hostages from the dark dismal tunnels of captivity. May HaShem answer our daily recitation of the prayer of ‘Acheinu’ on their behalf as we poignantly yearn for their salvation ‘Mafeila Liora’ from dark despair to the light of freedom.
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 2/23/2024 10:00:00 AMHaving skipped kindergarten and using that as my excuse for my lack of artistic talent while also being from a family of non-musical folk who self-proclaim that we can’t ‘carry a tune in a paper bag’ I sometimes muse about the hereditary vs. environmental nature of creativity. The debate is an old one discussed by philosophers including Maimonides; is creative talent be it musical, artistic, musical or novelistic, innate or something which can be acquired with practice and dedication (a la Gladwell’s 10,000 hours’ theory?) Obviously, in the nature vs nurture debate arena we conclude that both play a significant role in the child’s development. Additionally, while genetic predisposition presents strongly anecdotally, scientifically we no longer view creativity as a monolithic entity but rather as a constellation of factors including personality traits, risk taking, divergent and associative skills as well as even the debunked multiple intelligences theory.
Fascinatingly, research by Yale University Psychologists Tan and Grigorenko explored creativity in the area of creative writing with over 1300 participants of a wide age span responding to writing prompts such as ‘The World from the Point of View of an Insect’ or ‘Were I a Zebra Stripe.’ Analysis of the plot development, vivid vocabulary, originality and sophistication of the writing pieces revealed strong familial as well as heritable skills. The Bronte and Dumas families are legendary cases in point. Personally and professionally, I have seen this to be true as I am a creative thinker/ writer as was my mother and as are my daughter and some of my granddaughters!
How thrilled was I to have Robyn Plaskoff with her journalism background offer to lead a creative writing elective this semester for our elementary students. Perhaps they can replicate some of the researched writing prompts. For the record I would definitely write the zebra striped one as neither from the black nor the white perspective but rather as deliberately ambiguous, a reflection of G-d’s creativity in the natural order and his insidious directive to humans to seek unique multiple perspectives.
Kabed et HaShem Mahonecha / Honor G-d with your talents adjures King Solomon in Proverbs 3;9. The Jewish perspective on creative talents is that they are divinely bestowed gifts meant to enhance the global community in which we interact. The inspiring singing of prayers by the chazan / cantor, or the artistic and crafted designs of the Mishkan/ Tabernacle are depicted as chachmat halev, the wisdom of the heart, synthesizing intelligence and innate talent with spiritual and emotional growth and presentation. Interestingly, the architect of the Tabernacle as well as the name of Israel's premier art school is Betzalel, meaning in the shadow of G-d.
Significantly, HHAI is currently exploring art therapy as an SEL support through an IU /Herron second year intern for next school year blending students’ love of diverse artistic media with emotional intelligence and expression. This week we look forward to an upcoming professional development for Giving Tree and HHAI staff on ’Creativity in the Instructional Process’ presented by Miki Hamstra inaugurating an annual team building educational event sponsored by the Maya Shmoel Memorial Fund.
And so it is ironic that as an ‘out of the box’ thinker, the single image I can confidently draw is a cube. Everything I really needed to know in life, I seemed to have otherwise missed because I skipped kindergarten ...but I do color in the lines and am a left brained organized rule follower, a unique zebra of sorts!
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 2/8/2024 6:00:00 PMAs the verse in Psalms aptly declares G-d has a sense of humor… “yoshev bashamaim yischak”. The ironic sense of perspective when children mature and become parents or teachers themselves only to face children with the same annoying mannerisms and idiosyncrasies they once plagued their parents and teachers with, is indeed G-d’s last laugh! This week I had the fortune/ misfortune of helping a Middle Schooler clean out their locker replete with scrunched papers, long overdue assignments, missing library books etc. and it gave me pause to reflect upon the world of the organizationally impaired child from the vantage point of a super organized adult. I can not leave my office at the end of the day if there are uncompleted tasks or papers not perfectly placed and yet I patiently endeavor to help my students organize their chaos…
In their wry and whimsical book, A Perfect Mess, authors Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman postulate that “moderately disorganized people frequently turn out to be more efficient, more resilient, more creative and more effective than highly organized ones.” They compellingly assert the subliminal value of chaos, randomness, accidents and messes in our lives in everything from the strategic advantage of terrorist “surprise” attacks tragically shaking our highly ordered military and necessitating counterterrorist measures to constantly adapt to shifting prospects, to transportation studies which show that speed bumps and widening lanes designed to organize traffic flow often yield the opposite effect for drivers.
Interestingly, they cite the fact that in German there is no word for “mess” as the term “unordnung” defines it in terms of what it is not rather than what it is; the haunting irony of the “order” and eerily ‘organized’ concentration camps of the Holocaust. Finally, the authors comically purport that randomness fosters thoroughness as Thomas Edison tried indiscriminate materials before hitting upon tungsten as the ideal filament.
Our daily prayers/tefilla depict the delicate balance between structure and spontaneity. The very word “siddur” meaning prayer book actually is derived from the Hebrew cognate “seder” connoting order as in the Passover “Seder” wherein we follow 15 prescribed steps of ritual. The tefillot, prayers, are organized and graduated beginning with Pesuka d’zimra, praising of G-d and concluding with the Amidah where we make our personal and collective national and human requests of G-d. The language is codified and universal creating potent unity in our prayer. Nothing is more inspirational than standing at the Kotel, the Western Wall, and hearing a myriad of different dialects resonating from the same prayer service! Yet tefilla is intensely personal and there is an appropriate place to insert our individual prayers and supplications.
One of students’ pet peeves in the instruction / recital of tefilla is the rigidity with which they can misconstrue prayer often resenting being told to parrot specific words in a foreign language. Tefilla is ultimately, avoda shebalev, worship of the heart and we must endeavor to integrate this message of spontaneity into their world of order. After all, prayer is an emotional process for authentically engaging, grappling with, and overcoming challenges, both intra- and interpersonally, as we seek self-regulation attempting to maintain control of our lives in a world that is increasingly divisive, materialistic, and technologically addictive.
At HHAI, where many students struggle with the compulsory nature of tefilla, we use art, music and technology inviting student voice and choice into their learning, expressing authentic and engaging SEL in Judaism through their individual and collaborative styles. One of my favorite aphorisms is the mussar/ethics directive that when donning the tallit to wrap in piety, one must take care not to poke another’s eye with its fringes!
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 2/1/2024 10:00:00 AMTwice in the past two weeks, I have been left dumbfounded by student reactions to social scenarios in which they were invited to share their personal perspectives and or strategies for problem solving. During advisory, Middle Schoolers viewed an authentic video vignette of an Indiana high school freshman who had recently relocated and endured lonely rejection in her new school. After a week of feeling poignantly invisible, her spirits were lifted when a peer chatted with her and even invited her to it with her lunch. As she and her new friend placed their books at the designated table and went off to obtain their food, she returned minutes later only to find her books cast to the end of the table, another sitting in her spot, her pain exacerbated by the oblivious silence of her supposed new friend.
When asked to reflect and comment upon what they watched, some of the students smugly blamed the girl herself, believing that she should have been more outgoing and forward rather than passively and meekly anticipating to be noticed or welcomed as new to the group. More significantly, students struggled with how and why they may be contributing to unintentional bullying. While adult leaders capably guided the discussion and reflection questions at each table, I nevertheless felt the sting of the generational chasm and the challenge to hone our Torah instruction to the myriad of mitzvot dealing with kindness towards strangers, converts and those less fortunate than us.
In the second instance, I was teaching a group of 3-5th graders Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers and discussed Hillel’s famous quip of : ‘Eem ain ani li mi liucheshani liatzmi ma ani/ if I am not for myself who will be for me and if I only for myself of what value am I?’ The students had no trouble generating examples of the first phrase of agency and advocacy and yet were stymied as to how they might do the same with the dictum to wholeheartedly do for others. Interestingly, while they identified needing to stand on line to get food at a synagogue Kiddush rather than rely upon their parents or magic to obtain it for them as an example of doing for themselves, their extension ideas for depicting kindness and empathy in the Kiddush analogy were pathetically absurd as in tell others to push too or to say please as they cut in the line!
Not surprisingly then, this attribute of thinking and seeing others and not only themselves and their own needs proves especially challenging for students in our smaller school and warm familial school culture. The gift of ‘homeschooling without actually having to homeschool ‘complicates the social dynamic for our students who comfortably view peers more as siblings than outside strangers. Covid and social media / addictive screens have also contributed to the innate social skill deterioration of Gen Alpha, who in a staggering two of three cases present with emotional baggage and increased anxieties.
As we teach our students that ultimately their self-worth is intrinsic and not inextricably bound up with their GPA or other extrinsic metrics, we tamp down the pressure of perfectionism which plagues so many of them and seek to increase their sense of autonomy and independence to solidify their self-confidence and risk tolerance. Yet research points to the imperative for giving to others and genuine real world problem solving as significant antidotes to their very anxieties.
In our Aspire Higher Jewish values and character program, assistant principal Lori Halperin pointed out the precipitous drop in overall elementary student points earned for last week’s kindness and empathy Gemilut Chasadim goal, a phenomenon we discussed with students challenging them to redouble their efforts to 150% growth this week. Targeted instruction and interactive activities and role modeling in Judaic, General Studies and specialty classes yielded the desired bump up in this week’s point total!
Students will continue to work on resilience, perseverance and facing challenges in advance of their incentive rock climbing experience. After all, the name Yisrael /Israel connotes that very struggle, the grappling with challenge and the imperative for vigilance in our growth in all areas of endeavor -academic, socioemotional and spiritual. Rock on!
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 1/26/2024 2:00:00 PMSleepy, Dopey and Grumpy are three of the interrelated “dwarves” we all recognize amongst our children from time to time. Many children require a minimum of ten hours of sleep nightly to function positively and pleasantly the next day – a tall order when balancing homework, extra-curricular activities, dinner, showers etc. And unlike adults, children cannot “store” sleep on the weekend to compensate for sleep lost during the week. I read a recent article in Science Daily discussing the correlation between sleep and learning. Researchers at the University of Chicago found that sleep actually helps the mind process complex tasks. While the study involved learning to play video games, the results are significant for learning language processes such as reading and writing as well as eye-hand coordination skills. Sleep it seems helps people recover learning they thought they had forgotten due to competing distractions over the course of the day. Subjects in this study actually improved their test scores after a night’s sleep compared to their results twelve waking hours after training.
The old adage “I’ll sleep on it” is actually not the lazy way out of pondering a problem or trying to recall information. The brain truly processes information, particularly semantic (language) knowledge during sleep. Studies have shown that while rats are in the deep sleep stage called REM (rapid eye movement) their brains, in fact, replicate the exact same patterns as those used for learning while awake. While tweens and teens often brag about circumventing their bedtimes, sleep deprivation is a serious injurious process to both physical and cognitive development. Late night study sessions may really be counterproductive as they rob students of learning rehearsals vital to transferring information to their long term memories.
Recently reading Warren Berger’s classic A More Beautiful Question about the power of inquiry in the realm of innovation, the author postulates that connective inquiry, those ‘what if’ questions, in fact, deepen learning and open neural pathways to creativity by spending time with those provocative challenges and allowing them to incubate. Significantly, his research and extensive interviews with entrepreneurs in diverse fields of endeavor, led him to conclusively correlate going quiet, slowing down, allowing thoughts to meander and information to coalesce as in the sleep and relaxation modes with profound ingenuity.
In the original design of Creation, G-d established the luminaries principally to distinguish between day and night-L’havdil bein hayom u’vain halilah. With the advances of technology, it is we who have created the 24/7 lifestyle or the “city which never sleeps.” Power outages are perceived of as annoying nuisances when, conversely, they can be a welcome break from the frenzied pace of our lives, a point worth pondering particularly on Shabbat, the day divinely designated for rest and rejuvenation.
Fascinatingly, Berger cites the model of filmmaker and social media persona Tiffany Shlain who adopted a “tech Shabbat” for herself and family. In her book 24/6, she described the invaluable experience as a chance to grapple with questions instead of automatically going online to seek answers, the opportunity to allow thoughts to marinate and develop innately. Shabbat affords the gift of social connection and importantly time and space for deep critical and creative thinking in unplugging from constant distraction and interruption.
Significantly, sleep eludes many of us as well a genuine connectivity to Am Yisrael should in the past few months from that fateful Shabbat of October 7th. Social media has brought the frightening reality of the Hamas massacre and the ensuing global antisemitism to the forefront of our lives leaving us anxious, restless and on edge. Personally, I awake several times a night and have even taken to creating math sums, products and equivalent fractions from the numbers illuminated on the digital alarm clock to snap out of my brain fog. Yearning for Divine vigilance...Hennei Lo Yanomami Vilo Yeeshan Shomer Yisrael/ the Almighty neither sleeps nor slumbers as Guardian of Israel. May this nightmare end soon.
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 1/18/2024 10:00:00 PMWinter 2024 headlines the national news with many cities breaking records for snowfalls and frigid temperatures, even impacting the NFL playoff games. The Floridian in my background incredulously
quipped on such windy tundra days like this while attending high school in Chicago: ‘you mean we have to go to school today!?'Biblically, animal metaphors abound as the twelve tribes of Israel are compared to images of the regal lion, the pouncing wolf and cunning snake. King Solomon classically adjures us lazy and slothful folk to learn from the ways of the lowly industrious ant who plans ahead and stores food in anticipation of the cold winter months ahead. “Lech el hanimala” (Proverbs 6;6) As I ponder the animal metaphor which best depicts Winter 2024 for me personally and professionally, I envision the emperor penguin whose physiological adaptations and cooperative behavior allow them to survive in an incredibly harsh environment where wind chills reach -76 degrees! Personally, I have an affinity for the black and white color pair and prefer cold to unbearable heat, setting my home thermostat at 64 degrees.
Professionally, I am intrigued by the penguins huddling together to conserve warmth and escape the bitter winds with individual birds taking turns moving to the protected center to warm up a bit before moving back to the perimeter of the group for others to ‘come in from the cold.’ The teamwork parallel for humans is obvious and I must express appreciation to our staff who graciously stand out in the cold and move students efficiently to their carpools as well as to Simon who salts and shovels the walkways despite the forged temperatures for our collective safety.
Especially fascinating to me as a ‘non - animal person’ is the two month babysitting task at the breeding site ascribed to the male penguin. While the female seeks food for the newly hatched chicks, males stand, balance the young on their feet and cover them with feathered skin to protect them against the Antarctic elements. While this touching parenting bond underscores the significance of paternity leave, the educational parallels are striking. Male teachers in early elementary grades are indeed ‘rare birds’ with only 17% of elementary teachers male as compared to 42% at the high school level and less than 2% at the early childhood through third grade demographic. At HHAI, I love the potent message of both genders nurturing and modeling for students from a younger age.
Pedagogically, I was drawn to the penguin analogy while rereading the book The Five Levers To Improve Learning (Frontier and Rickenbaug.) The authors liken the penguins’ ability to dive 1850 feet beneath the water line, deeper than any other bird, and stay under for twenty minutes to the significant instructional focus on depth versus breadth in content information, on concept learning vs memorization of facts and figures readily accessible digitally. Deeper instruction compels the learner to connect the dots, examine the patterns and probe the elusive what if and why questions which personalize and intrinsically motivate students.
In January, summer in Antarctica, the pack ice breaks and the young penguins are ready to swim and to fish. The takeaway for me is that summer is a glorious opportunity for children to ‘break the ice’ socially in interacting with new peers and pursuing their passions and hobbies independently through camp and family experiences. From the ridiculous to the sublime …with heavy hearts we acknowledge the continuing hostage crisis in Israel after more than 100 days and pray for their safe release and a breakthrough in the horrific global war in which our young and our old are frozen in time since October 7th.
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 1/12/2024 1:00:00 PMWelcome to January, the coldest, dreariest month of the school year just off winter break with weeks of uninterrupted instruction, a time for marked indoor focus and academic growth. A linguist/ verbal reasoner at heart, I am fascinated by the alphabet and am hooked on word puzzles of every sort. So today’s column is brought to you by the letter J, the most frequent initial letter of the calendar months of the year and as a Wordle trivia buff, the letter with the toughest words to solve - Jazzy 5.82 turns to solve, Joker 5.69 turns to solve and Judge 5.57 turns to solve! Funnily enough, The New York Times revealed Joker to be the all-time hardest Wordle puzzle with less than 70% of players finding the solution :)
Jabberwocky is Lewis Carroll's whimsical poem of inventive nonsense words depicting a young boy’s slaying of an imaginary evil creature in ‘Through The Looking Glass', a time travel sequel to Alice in Wonderland where she navigates her journey to adulthood. Alice could only decipher the verbiage through a mirror imaging backwards reading, an educational metaphor for overcoming personal and instructional challenges in a discombobulated ambiguous world where reverse reflection is the only true
way to see beyond the reality in which we are mired.Fascinatingly, there is no Hebrew equivalent for the letter J with modern Ivrit utilizing a diacritical mark above a gimmel or zayin to connote the actual J sound. Ironically though, the letter J is synonymous with Jewish as other than known Levites or Kohanim priests clearly from the tribe of Levi, the vast majority of Jews today descend from the tribes of Judah or Benjamin. We have been dubbed ‘Yehudim’ / Jews since the early Babylonian exile more than two millennia ago.
The name and persona of the Jew is derived from Yehuda /Judah and has significant educational messaging resonating with our school mission of developing future leaders as the monarchy descends from this very tribe. Our matriarch Leah named her fourth son Judah as an expression of gratitude for having been granted more than her fair share so to speak as the prophecy for twelve tribes birthed by the four mothers was well known to her.” Haapaam Odeh at HaShem’ /this time I thank G-d! Inculcating the perspective of gratitude and appreciation for the myriad of blessings in their lives as well as the talents and opportunities they have been gifted remains a unique challenge for today’s children who often present as entitled and coddled with unrealistic expectations and demands for unadulterated happiness and guaranteed outcomes of success.
Importantly, Judah's salient character attribute underlying his leadership role centers around his shouldering responsibility, he alone of Jacob's sons stands up to protect Joseph from the brothers’ plot to kill him in addition to demanding to serve instead of Benjamin as a slave to the Egyptian viceroy. "Anochi eravenu’.../ I will be responsible, and guarantee his safe return he classically promises." Moreover, Judah assumes a posture of resiliency as he admits his errant ways humbling himself in the Tamar narrative even at the risk of great public humiliation.
The above values are the spiritual underpinnings of a proud Jew, the imperative for a rich Jewish education especially meaningful in our current global crisis of overt antisemitism. Rabbi Jonathon Sacks astutely quipped: ‘A Jew believes that to defend a country you need an army but to defend a civilization you need education.’
Hope springs eternal. We pray for peace in Israel and Jerusalem/’vinatata Shalom baretz’ well before June or July.
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A Message from Principal Gettinger
Posted by Diana Kogan on 12/14/2023 10:00:00 PMCountless times each day, we catch ourselves asking in self-righteous indignation whether we would rather be right or do the right thing in any given scenario. Children, especially innately stubborn ones, would definitively rather be right than do the right thing and are often mired in intransigence unable to extricate themselves from a mess they alone have created if they deem it an issue of fairness or injustice. How might we help them gain perspective and see the bigger picture?
Myopic and ‘this moment is everything’ children are challenged to see another’s point of view or reflect upon the ripple effect of their words/actions on the group or situation at large. Commonly advised to ask themselves whether this upset will matter in a month or five years falls on deaf ears particularly when they view graceful concession and compromise stances as signs of weakness. They may view the world in black and white absolutes particularly when adults around them struggle with nuance and shades of grey living in a world of unprecedented vile anger and screaming rhetoric. We are adjured to model for them that being right sometimes comes at a high cost and significantly that being right never excuses being mean in communication and or behavior. We do well if we teach them that
‘you don’t have to RSVP to every argument you’re invited to!’C.S. Lewis famously quipped: “humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.” Significantly, Moshe, the paradigmatic Jewish leader known as the greatest prophet of all times, is paid the supreme compliment in the Torah in being dubbed ‘anav mikal adam’ the humblest of all men. Humility involves putting aside pride, position and ego to genuinely engage with others. Arrogance is its polar opposite on the service leadership and self-efficacy continuum. A learned skill, humility is honed
through active listening in understanding another’s needs and emotions as well as by quieting the judgmental voices in our head space and replacing them with an authentic mindset of seeing and appreciating the good. Importantly, humility requires us to admit when we are wrong and resiliently ask ‘what can you see here that I am missing?’ or ‘what would a collegial critique be of my idea or impending action?’Aside from the obvious security benefit, living in the Alexa /‘Ring doorbell’ milieu where all the happenings and conversations of our daily lives are automatically recorded keeps us humble, a default reality check providing a constant opportunity for looking ourselves in the mirror and replaying the “recording in progress” video in self-reflection mode. Children may need this reframing to be specific and or with visuals so that they see that whatever they are upset about or wherever they are hopelessly stuck is truly a small fraction of the totality of their day in a more accurate perception of what actually transpired.
You may surely disagree with me as I remain humbly aware of the fact that I do not always have to be right:)
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