Hatam Soferet

musings upon the dog's graduation from puppy school

2011-02-13T17:33:04Z

We graduated dog school today, my puppy and me. We attended four out of five sessions, did our homework most weeks, and got pretty good at "Sit!" and sometimes even "Lie down!". Today was the last session, so certificates and gifts were handed out. The squeaky tennis ball we brought home; the pretty certificate, with Waan's name written under the word "Diploma," is in a trashcan two blocks from the dog school.

Why give graduation certificates, I mused on the way home. For five weeks we had the right to come to class where, if we paid attention and practiced on our own time, we would learn tools for making obedient dogs. There were no tests, no required displays of competence, no hoops to jump through (figuratively or literally) - so why make a fuss? Beyond the obvious, that is. Dogs do not need graduation certificates. But apparently the teacher is responding to some cultural current that says, if you paid the fee and turned up a few times, you do this thing called Graduation, and you get a certificate.

Is this a cultural current I should be responding to for my own students, then? In my mind, graduation is something you do after years of mind-bendingly hard work in an academic context, and it signifies that you have earned a certain standing in the hallowed halls of academic achievement. It never crossed my mind that "graduating" might be something you do for anyone who paid the fee and showed up. But perhaps I should be doing that? Perhaps that is why I have fewer students this semester than last?

I would like to be able to test my students, yes. If it were not so time-consuming to do well, I would have already written a comprehensive test paper that my students could use to gauge the extent of their knowledge. But I haven't, since I can get a sense of how well they know the material by working with them and that works for me. Perhaps they don't have that sense, some of them; to that end, having them sit tests would serve them well. Graduation would then signify that they'd achieved a certain level of competence.

My students have the right to come to scribe school where, if they pay attention and practice on their own time, they learn tools for making competent scribes. An end-of-semester summary check-in is probably a good idea: "you have these tools in your toolset now, these are your strong points, these are the things to practice if you want to make progress." But graduation certificates for simply paying the fee and showing up? About as meaningful as the dog's certificate is to her, I rather think.

Okay, so from the dog's graduation certificate I have learned that my students would probably benefit from testing as a way to measure their own competence, even if I myself don't really need to administer tests to do that. Further, that progress check-ins and summaries are probably a good idea, as are plans for further study with their particular goals in mind.

But no toy diplomas. Or squeaky tennis balls.

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making toy tefillin

2009-11-30T02:38:42Z

I did a quick photo-series explaining how to make toy tefillin.

Toy tefillin

Originally I made them because Chum said that his Kid got fascinated by his tefillin when he was davening in the mornings, and he thought that Kid would be well-served by having some kiddy tefillin, so as to be able to join in.

So I made him some. Kid loves them, I hear, and Chum can daven in peace.

Apparently the grandson of the Alter Rebbe used to make toy tefillin out of potatoes (scroll to section 26), so for those who say toy tefillin teaches sacrilege, go take it up with the Alter Rebbe, and also with the fluffy sifrei Torah people.

I'm posting instructions because ChumsKid isn't the only one out there, they're awfully easy to do, and we're all about resources here. If they're so rough-and-ready as to be incomprehensible, I can make more detailed instructions, but I should think they're okay for most.

That said, for those who aren't artistically inclined, I can probably knock up a few pairs in time for Hanukah, if anyone's interested, profits split between Yeshivat Hadar and Project Renewal. Comment below or email if interested.

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nice mundana

2009-05-06T03:00:03Z

Nice day writing at Drisha. "Writing at Drisha" usually means helping out one or two people with the odd thing - quill-cutting and so on - and a chunk of hardcore book-larnin with hardcore book-larnin-type student - as well as my own writing.

My writing's coming along nicely - having nice klaf makes SUCH a difference. Take a pen, if you will, and write on some paper. Now write on some sandpaper. Nasty, isn't it? And plays hell with your nib. This is the difference between good klaf and bad klaf with quills. Good klaf makes for a happy soferet.

Squee moment of the day: JW has been working away every single Tuesday this year most diligently, making rows and rows of letters, the sort of hard work that most people skip cos it's boring (like scales for musicians. You really ought to). And she was saying how she'd gone to do a piece of artwork and just found letters pouring out of her pen all fluent and easy, in a CRUMBS I DIDN'T KNOW I COULD DO THAT sort of way. Yay. I do love when my students notice themselves making strides.

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