HOME & FAMILY

It's just like the weather -- people agonize over it, experts analyze it, conferences discuss it, but no one seems able to do anything about it.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
by A. Ross

The classic definition of an optimist and a pessimist illustrates the personalities of positive thinkers and of those who think negatively. One person sees his glass as half full and the other sees the same quantity in his glass as half empty. A person who says, "With my luck, we'll have to wait half an hour for that bus," is usually proven right.

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Relating to the Brighter Child
by R' Zvi Zobin

A major challenge facing every teacher is how to deal with the wide range of children in his class. If he relates to the faster children of the class, he will lose the slower ones. If he gives time to the slower children, the brighter ones will become bored and might start to make trouble.

LETTERS, EITZES, FEEDBACK

Getting There...

We're trying and we hope we're getting there, but we make mistakes, and what better time to admit them than in Elul. The article, "Getting There," Parshas Rei, was NOT written by Rosally Saltsman, as stated, but by Leah Subar. Our deepest apologies. (Readers may have wondered that it was not Rosally's style...)

Making Mealtime More Meaningful
by KSR

"Pessy! Sit down! Don't throw peas at your brother. Yanky, why did you pour your water over Dassy's rice? Now she's crying! Shmuely, get off the table!"

"Mommy, the noodles are mushy! I'm not eating them."

Your Medical Questions Answered!
by Joseph B. Leibman, MD

Some thoughts I'd like to pass on to you. Due to scheduling problems, this week I'll be working 16 straight hours, then return the next morning for 8 more. Still, it's not as bad as residents who work 36 straight hours without a rest.

Poet's Corner

Exile
by Tzippora Price

In Russia
My great-grandmother was no parlor room aristocrat,
Answering questions of eternity in gold and brocade gowns.
Her answers had to be drawn beating laundry against rocks
Drawing well water
And stretching one chicken across her family's endless hunger.

My ancestors had no place at Plymouth Rock,
In Poland it was still winter.
It wouldn't be till later
That my family would cross the ocean
Seeking their own freedom from Hitler's night.
Later, those that broke bread at Plymouth Rock
Would turn them away at the shore.
Immigrants.
Go home.

The New World writers did not write about parents
Separated in barbed wire camps,
Waking from their sleep to find their nightmares real.
Children snatched from their beds,
The sheets gone cold,
The sheets gone,
The beds bunks to four or five.
American novels don't tell my grandparents' story
Meeting in camp for displaced persons
A wedding with no family present
Waiting two years before believing they were really all gone.

As a child, I wanted to be a princess
Like every little girl
But my grandmother taught me to begin gathering `firewood'
Things of different value, exile value.
Our palaces burned in Europe, bubbeleh,
Our temples burned in Israel,
If you want to be a princess,
You'll have to be a princess in exile.