By Carol Oseran Starin, Special to JTNews
Morah Dorothy reaches into the large paper bag and out comes “Ari,” a beautiful lion puppet that seems to be an extension of her arm. Ari is a regular in Dorothy’s class. Just prior to Yom Kippur the class read a story about the importance of saying “I’m sorry.” In discussing the story, the children tried to help Ari understand what happens when people talk to God, where to find God, and how people do t’shuvah. One student told Ari, “God is in my heartbeat.”
Alice has had the same Thursday evening ritual for five years. Before going to bed, Alice sends a “Shabbat shalom” e-mail to all her high school students who graduated from her program — most of them scattered in colleges and universities throughout the country. Alice includes community news as well as news about her own family. She says, “Even if they delete it without reading it, they still know I care.”
After Hebrew school Bob rounded up a group of his Hebrew High students, invited them to his home to bake cookies, organized car pools and led a caravan to the Bernstein’s where classmate Sarah was sitting shiva for her mother.
Vivian Gussin Paley wrote: “There should be a sign above every classroom door that reads, ‘All teachers who enter: Be prepared to tell your story.’ ”
Paley is a teacher who tells stories. She tells stories about her students because she knows the power of stories. Stories help us understand who we are and where we come from. Stories connect us to our past and to our future. Stories help us get inside of ideas and feelings. Stories help teachers understand students and students understand teachers.
Telling our teachers’ stories is one way to honor our teachers. Telling stories is a Jewish thing to do. Jewish Education Council chair Robin Boehler has appointed Tina Novick to head a committee that will develop programs to honor Jewish teachers. The goal is to begin creating a culture in which Jewish teachers are valued, honored, and recognized — for the work they do, for the commitment they make, and for the Jewish future in which they invest their time, their energy, and their hearts.
A.J. Heschel said “Everything depends on the person who stands in the front of the classroom. …What we need more than anything else is not textbooks but textpeople. It is the personality of the teacher which is the text that the pupils read; the text that they will never forget.”
Dorothy is a textperson because she knows that young children sometimes feel more comfortable expressing their feelings to a puppet than to an adult.
Alice is a textperson because she knows that Jewish teaching is about relationships — and relationships, in order to influence lives, last more than a year.
Bob is a text person because he knows that it’s not enough to teach about life cycle and community. The real learning is in the living of those values.
What is the text you learn from your teacher? How has your teacher influenced you, the way you think, the way you learn, the way you live? We want to hear from you. We invite you to tell a story about your teacher, your colleague, or your child’s teacher. Send your story to The Jewish Education Council or The Jewish Transcript. The stories will be read by Novick’s committee. Each month her committee, comprised of lay leaders and teachers, will select one of the stories to become part of the Transcript’s new monthly “Teacher Feature.” At the end of the school year, the Transcript will list the names of all the teachers whose stories were submitted. “Teacher Feature” forms are available on the Web sites of The Jewish Transcript, at every school, and at the Jewish Education Council.
Carol Oseran Starin is the Assistant Executive Vice President for Education of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.