"Here, take a drink," Mr. Cohen started to pour the juice
into Shimmy's cup. Suddenly, Shimmy grabbed the cup and
pulled it away. Juice poured out onto the table and made a
big orange stain on the tablecloth. Shimmy squealed in
delight.
Shimmy had his fun -- but he stays thirsty.
*
"Yossi, please do the exercise," Mrs. Levine pleads with her
son. Yossi shrugs his shoulders.
"If you do the exercise, I'll buy you a treat on the way
home." Yossi shrugs his shoulders.
"If you do the exercise, I'll buy you a ..." Mrs. Levine
leans over and whispers something in her son's ear. Again,
Yossi shrugs his shoulders. Again, Mrs. Levine whispers
something in Yossi's ear. She seems to be increasing her
offer, but still she cannot meet Yossi's level.
"I'm sorry,' Mrs. Levine turns to the young lady who is
trying to remediate Yossi. "He just does not want to do the
exercise."
Yossi gets his way and he leaves the office victorious - -
but he still cannot read.
*
"Just copy these pictures onto this sheet of paper," Miss
Izrael hands a pencil to Ari.
Ari takes the pencil, throws it on the floor, takes the sheet
of paper, tears it into shreds and then throws the book with
the pictures to the other side of the room. He then sits back
with a contented smile on his face.
Mrs. Reuveni gently remonstrates her son. "Ari! you must not
behave like that." She goes down onto the floor and picks up
the pencil, gathers together the pieces of paper from the
floor and puts them in the garbage. Then she retrieves the
book from the other side of the room. "I really must
apologize for my son's behavior, Miss Izrael. I'm sure he
will behave better next time."
Ari had his fun throwing the stuff around, watching his
mother go down on her hands and knees to clear up the mess he
had made and then embarrassingly apologizing to Miss Izrael,
and he continued to have fun that afternoon -- but he is
still below his age level in many developmental areas.
*
R' Shimon was giving his daily gemora shiur to the
students at the yeshiva. As he was giving his shiur,
Chaim was covertly kicking Chaskel under the table and
Chaskel was kicking him back. Chaim and Chaskel succeeded in
hiding their surreptitious activity from the rebbi but when
the shiur was over, neither of them understood the
gemora.
*
Yossi and Ari and Chaim and Chaskel are all failing in the
system. They might have learning disabilities, but that is
not why they are failing. Many disabilities can be overcome
and dealt with.
Yossi and Ari and Chaim and Chaskel's problem is that they
cannot be educated. They are like Shimmy, who gets his fun by
not letting anyone fill his cup -- but stays thirsty.
Clearly, Yossi and Ari's problems stem from their parents'
failing to discipline their children effectively. Many
current guidelines for bringing up children, derived from non-
Jewish sources, almost guarantee that the children will be so
lacking in self-discipline that they will be
uneducable.
Chaim and Chaskel might be misbehaving because they, too, are
lacking in self-discipline, but that scenario is much more
complex and there might be other reasons why they are not
relating to the shiur.
