Skip to main content

Report Card: who can tell me what this means?

image So I’m sorting through stacks of miscellaneous yeshiva correspondence this afternoon during the littles’ naptime!

Below is the “comments” section from one of the kids’ report cards.  I have blanked out the kid’s name for anonymity.

Here’s what I can make out:  “Kid’s name (n”y = nero yair, “may his light shine”), nitkaven k’nishronos me’ulim umitztayyin k’hivaneh myuchedet yoser mechaverav (=”his very special understanding among his peers”?).  Zehirus (care/caution to… what?) l’natzel bizman k’shleymosa ya’aziv l’havi hakochos hag’dolim (“to bring the big strength”?) el tachlisam (“to their goal/conclusion”?).  Okay, then!

imageThis report card is, I’m sure, the yeshiva’s way of saying “YOU – your weird baal teshuvah family – does not belong here.”  We will pretend to make a million exceptions for your boy in the name of “understanding his background” and then we will send you a report card in a language you never learned.

Here’s one line I did understand:

image

This boy belongs in yeshiva.  This boy has a gift for gemara, but apparently I can stand here on my blog (okay, sit) chanting it all I like because the yeshiva world is clearly not prepared – is utterly unequipped – to accept him, or understand us.

I am utterly ashamed that I am such an impediment to my children’s education.

Comments

  1. I know very few diaspora families, whatever their background, who could understand this. I fully support teaching in hebrew but it's ridiculous to expect the parents to understand this!
    That said, you should be very proud of your son. it says - roughly: "Kid has outstanding talents and stands out for his special understanding, more than his friends. Due care to use all his time [presumably during tests or some such??] would help him completely realize his great powers."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks!!! Actually, another friend translated it for me as well. Here's her version, which is basically the same thing.

    "Kid neiro yair nisbarech b'kishronos m'ulim umitztayein b'havanah miyuchedes yoser m'chaveirav. Zehirus l'natzeil hazman b'shleimusah yaazor l'havi hakochos hagedolim el tachlisam."
    (the transliteration is actually helpful to me in deciphering it)

    "Kid is blessed with excellent abilities and excels with/in an unusual (level of) understanding (that is) greater than his peers. Care to take advantage of the time completely will help to bring these great strengths to fulfillment."

    Thanks to both of you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmmmm. I am thrilled to have stumbled into this discussion. As his Grampa, I likely have said "Kid is blessed with excellent abilities and excels with/in an unusual (level of) understanding (that is) greater than his peers. Care to take advantage of the time completely will help to bring these great strengths to fulfillment" many times with various iterations and to the amusement of many friends bound to listen to a very proud grand parent. I have spoken of sister in similar ways and with identical enthusiasm. Good raising, Mom!
    JP

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love your comments!

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful.  Three pages are included:  one page with two po

Are Jews an "underrepresented community" in children’s publishing?

I applied for a writing award yesterday. I'm not going to get it, but that's not what I wanted to share with you. Here's what I wanted to share. This box:   I stared at this box for a long, long time. And then I decided not to check it. Even though I believe people like me truly are underrepresented, we probably wouldn’t fit the definition in other people's minds. Why? Well, because we're European. Because we are white. Because as everybody knows, Jews control the media. (do we???) If anything, some people say, Jews are over -represented in publishing. And yet. Some definitions are careful not to include people like me. Like this random definition from the State of California which defines underrepresented for some very specific business purposes as: "an individual who self-identifies as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native, or who self-identi