10 | AUGUST 27 • 2020
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Teaching Resiliency
I
’
ve been (mainly) sitting
on the sidelines watching
the rhetoric about plans
for school this fall unfold and
have decided it’
s time to speak
up and put my
own personal
stake in the
ground.
I urge parents
to consider an
attitude change
on this topic and
seize the oppor-
tunity to be a role model for
our children in this incredible
teaching moment— rather
than spinning in constant
negativity, frustration and
opposition.
I believe the leaders of our
schools and districts are doing
their best to consider the
safety of all in their decisions
amidst ever-changing guidance
from the Board of Education,
Centers for Disease Control
and other expert sources.
There is no great option
right now — not for families,
students, teachers or adminis-
trators. Personally, I’
m relieved
my district (in Illinois, where I
live) has made the decision to
start the year with fully remote
learning out of an abundance
of caution for everyone’
s
well-being.
I am frankly disturbed and
disappointed by the outcry of
parents — who live in affluent
areas, not low-income com-
munities — who claim their
kids are going to be so heavily
disadvantaged by not attend-
ing school in person this fall
and who are ranting and lob-
bying to get their kids back in
the classroom full time.
Of course, that is what we all
want — when it can be done
safely. I ask you to consider
these points:
• In other generations, par-
ents sent their teenage students
off to war. Many were killed;
many came home wounded or
traumatized. In comparison,
being asked to attend school
via virtual instruction hardly
seems like a hardship.
• What if, instead of worry-
ing about the lack of social and
peer interaction and missed
school activities (or even a
weaker academic experience),
you took this moment to teach
your children the important
life lessons of resilience, pos-
itivity and development of
new skills that include self-ini-
tiative, self-organization,
adaptability and the emotional
growth that comes from con-
trolling one’
s own ability to
see a “disappointing reality”
through a different lens?
• It may not be the exact
education you were hoping for
this fall, but it’
s one that will
certainly build any child’
s skills
to be successful in college
and in life — and something
that simply can’
t be taught in
a classroom. Yes, that takes
some hands-on time and ded-
ication from us as parents; but
that’
s what parenting is — it’
s
modeling positive behaviors
for our kids and teaching them
how to face and navigate life’
s
challenges. It’
s exactly what
we should always be teaching
them “outside the classroom.”
• I would like to see parents
not only focus on this teaching
moment for their kids but to
further model this resilient
behavior themselves by redi-
recting their own energies to
helping to make the e-learn-
ing/remote school reality the
best it can be for our students
and communities.
There is so much power in
what these parents can do if
they use their influence, cre-
ativity and commitment to
developing innovative ways
to make this experience the
best it can be for all involved
instead of fighting against it.
Their kids will all learn a thing
or two watching them turn
lemons into lemonades by
being a part of the solution vs.
the opposition.
I speak from personal expe-
rience and as a single mom
who has to juggle a demand-
ing career with providing
full-time childcare and house-
keeping during this pandemic.
I also have a kid on a 504 plan,
Karen Gold
Stillman
LETTERS continued from page 6
Kudos to Area
Synagogues
Kol hakavod to the leaders
of our Metro Detroit syna-
gogues for their incredible
efforts on behalf of their
congregations.
In our relatively small
West Bloomfield Bnai Israel
synagogue, our rabbi, Mitch
Parker, makes sure that there
are daily morning and early
evening zoom minyanim so
people who say Kaddish for
their loved ones are able to
continue doing so. On the
Friday night service, there is
always a guest who delivers
the customary dvar Torah
just like before the coronavi-
rus, among them the editor
of the Detroit Jewish News who
was warmly welcomed by the
congregation.
Aside from the regular
daily services, there is a wide
array of most interesting
classes in Judaism in which
many congregants partake.
Also, being a Conservative
congregation where a consid-
erable number keep Shabbat,
including the rabbi, special
arrangements are made so
people are able to access
the link before the onset of
Shabbat on Friday.
At this point, nothing is
clear, and it is hard to predict
as far as the future of our
shuls. Yet, it seems to me that
the interest of things Jewish
increased significantly since
the scourge of the virus. Let
us hope that it will contin-
ue. I tend to believe that it
will. Which reminds me of
a Hebrew adage rooted in
the Bible: Me’
az yatzah matok,
meaning: from a bad thing
came a good one.
— Rachel Kapen
West Bloomfield