The Old & The Disappearing Teacher

A couple of interesting cases have been sent into the website recently, specifically to do with the complex topic of teachers:

“In our neighborhood there is a girls school with a headmistress who is ancient. It is a private school and it would appear that she has a strong hold over it, to the extent that even though she may no longer be the correct person for the position, she refuses to step down and no one has the power or the guts to force her out.

Continue reading “The Old & The Disappearing Teacher”

The Beautiful Mask

(Adapted from a story by Renée Fuller)

He had a mean streak, which often gave him considerable pleasure. He enjoyed embarrassing and putting others in their place. The gossip that he shared was exquisitely crafted to cause as much turbulence as possible. Nor did he mind that the meanness was mirrored on his face. On the contrary, he thought it reflected the power he gained by creating fear. Besides, creating fear was more important to him than to be attractive to look at. That was until he saw Her in the marketplace. Continue reading “The Beautiful Mask”

Parenting Through Fogged Up Windows

In the previous parenting article, we explored Rabbi Wolbe’s concepts of Planting and Building in education.  One of the areas that us parents often fail in is mistaking a “planting” moment for a “building” moment. Our child displays an undesirable behavior in front of our eyes and our knee jerk reaction is to want to fix it right now – to change the behavior instantaneously and “re-program” the child’s external actions! Continue reading “Parenting Through Fogged Up Windows”

The Inauguration – Make Ourselves Great Again!

Let me start by saying that this is not a political piece. I am not going to be taking sides, putting down one side over the other, doing a compare and contrast exercise of all the evils (real or otherwise) the two main candidates for the position of leader of the ‘free world’ demonstrated. I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, I am not even a US citizen (and another reason – I write a blog on improving speech)! Continue reading “The Inauguration – Make Ourselves Great Again!”