Saturday, May 21, 2011

Education is like a shoe

Hi,

"The fact that the maxim חנוך לנער על פי דרכו ('Raise the boy according to the course his life will take when he is grown') directs our attention separately to each individual child whose education has been entrusted to us, and bids us raise each of our children according to the future course of his life, should make us mindful of yet another reflection that is no less worthy of our consideration: Every child must be raised as an individual…

"The practical means by which we are to guide each individual child to this height of pure devotion to duty are not the same. They are as different from one another as the tendencies and abilities, the temperaments and proclivities, the intellectual and emotional potential are in each individual personality. Every shoe does not fit all feet. The objective of our educational work should be to raise children as different as Jacob and Esau in such a manner that both of them will grow up to be good and capable men. But if this purpose is to be achieved, the two cannot be raised by the same method."

(Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, Thoughts on Education, Collected Writings 7:419)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

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