Comments on: Coercion is not Chinuch

By: lawrence kaplan

lawrence kaplan — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:51:20 +0000

A very thoughtful article.

By: SephardiLady

SephardiLady — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:48:27 +0000

Beautiful article.

By: Baruch Horowitz

Baruch Horowitz — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:22:58 +0000

[my e mail was submitted as my name, so I'm resending the comment]

Kar,

I think it was R Yaakov. I may be wrong about this, but I think that he actually was comparing the legacy of an eclectic educational philosophy and social environment based on R Shraga Feivel Mendelovitz’s ideas. But I will defer to Jonathan Rosenblum on all matters of R Yaakov(or R Shraga Feivel).

“is to some extent a Sdom bed”

The “extent” issue is the operative word, as some schools are less conformist than others. If individuality is important to someone, then that’s as an important factor as any in choosing a yeshiva. In the year immediately after I switched yeshivos, for example, I was able to feel the difference as far as the diversity/conformist issue, since the comparison was fresh in my mind—so there are definitely degrees in these matters.

By: Steve Brizel

Steve Brizel — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:19:00 +0000

This is a very important post. One of my wife’s dearest aunts always says that values are caught, not taught, and especially in the family setting. IMO, there is a lot of truth to that observation. I would add that R Wolbe ZTL wrote a very important sefer on Chinuch that IMO should be read by any would be parent or educator-Zeriah UBinyan BChinuch -which was translated into English-as well as a section in Alei Shor on “Frumkeit.”

By: kar

kar — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:43:35 +0000

“Every yeshiva, Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky, zt”l, once said, is to some extent a Sdom bed, cutting or stretching talmidim to a certain standard.”

I believe this line is attributed to R Hutner zt”l.