I have been making a living working in the field of computer network engineering for the past 14 years. Although I have two bachelor’s degrees from the University of North Texas and a master’s in chemistry from Johns Hopkins, none of those degrees was relevant to this field. In fact, not only is college not a prerequisite for working in this field; one cannot go to college to learn about this field. This is because network engineering technology changes far too fast for colleges to be able to teach it within the confines of a four-year degree. By the time you get the degree, half of the courses you took would already be out of date.

Talk about a generation gap! I’m old enough to be their zaidy, yet we learn side by side. Let me explain how, at 61, I cast my lot with 16 year olds. No, the age inversion is not a dyslexic reading of the application. Rather, at my age, I am beyond taking myself too seriously – but I do take learning Torah seriously. I had heard about a retired physician who attended a yeshiva high school in town, and decided that I, too, could swallow my pride to study with those a quarter my age. It’s like owning up to being dumb, but, as the Chinese say, “One can ask a dumb question and be embarrassed for five minutes, or not ask the question and live in ignorance for the rest of one’s life.” Or, more aptly, “Lo habayshan lomed – The one who is bashful doesn’t learn.” (Pirkei Avos 2:6)

If only summer could last forever. Who doesn’t love the carefree mornings, the leisurely days, the relaxing evenings? How refreshing to go to the park, work on puzzles, bake, draw, swim, and string beads – with no homework to complete and no deadlines to meet. Yet all too soon those sweet summer days ebb away, and the school bell begins to ring. Its shrill tone grows louder and more insistent, like an alarm clock that dutifully yet unrelentingly arouses the peaceful summer slumberer. There’s no ignoring it now. It’s back to the grind.

And then it happens. She awakens with a shriek in the dead of night. Her pulse is racing, and she’s drenched from perspiration; she can barely catch her breath. Her frantic eyes dart wildly around the room. Despair gives way to relief as visions of the classroom in her nightmare are replaced with the comforting, familiar sights of her bedroom. There’s no mistaking it, she’s anxious about that first day of school.

I am a child of immigrants to the United States of America. In general, the immigrant generation had a hardworking, no nonsense attitude about life and a strong hakaras hatov (gratitude) to this wonderful country, a true medina shel chesed. Recent historians and pundits have labeled this group “The Greatest Generation“ for having successfully endured the adjustment to the new country, survived the economic hardships of the Great Depression, fought and won World War II, and then became part of creating the greatest post-war economic boom in American history.

“Hysterics doesn’t seem to be the way to go,” says Mrs. Robin Alberg, recalling a personal meltdown when one of her children acted up in the middle of South Dakota. It was so bad, says this Seattle-based home-schooling mother, that she even threatened to cut short their long-anticipated six-week summer road trip. In her talk at this May’s Torah Home Schooling Conference, in Baltimore, the humorous Mrs. Alberg recommended various constructive strategies for self-care to counteract the common, albeit happy, stresses of home schooling.
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  This was just one of many fascinating presentations at this year’s conference,

This fall, Bnos Yisroel and Torah Institute switched their pre-algebra curriculum to a state-of-theart, “blended learning” course that has students newly motivated to learn and achieve in math. What is even more impressive is that the course is homegrown; it

was developed in its entirety by three administrators at the schools.

A year ago, Bnos Yisroel and Torah Institute were chosen to receive a grant from the Avi Chai Foundationto develop a blended learning math course for their schools. This grant was a result of the initiative of Dr. Harry Bloom, strategy manager of Yeshiva University’s Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education,