Earlier this year, the first of my first class of fourth grade students began having their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. There’s a post sitting in the spike file of my thoughts from the first Bar Mitzvah, because I couldn’t get it to work. In the meantime, next Saturday two of the last three (they’re twins) are having their Bar and Bat Mitzvah (they’re boy-girl twins). I’ve been helping them a bit with some of the Shabbat service prayers, mostly because they felt unsure and partly because they needed to attend more Shabbat services. But they’re kids, and kids absorb knowledge like a sponge absorbs water. I have no doubt they’ll do extremely well next Shabbat.
The last Bat Mitzvah will be sometime this spring, and then all of my first class—whom my ex-student M. calls my “lab rats”—will have achieved this milestone. They will have led the congregation in prayer, which is actually something that I have never done. I’m doing that in November of 2007. I’ve let a few people know to save the date, like Judith Weiss, and I also know that she can chant Torah, so I asked if she’d be interested in doing one of my Torah portions. I don’t think I”m up to doing seven. She said yes so quickly, I began to wonder who else I could get to help me. So at the latest Bat Mitzvah (last week, in fact), I asked M. if he’d be interested in learning one of my portions. I told him I wouldn’t be at all offended if he refused. He said yes. Then the kids started volunteering. A. asked if he could do a portion. A new boy, S., said he’d be interested. Another one just volunteered today, asking if any portions were left.
I cannot think of a better way to celebrate my adult Bat Mitzvah than to have my former students taking part in it, but I didn’t expect this degree of participation. If this keeps up, I’m going to have to rescind Judith’s invitation and give her portion to another student. Somehow, I don’t think she’ll mind.
Four years ago, when I said yes to the question, “Do you think you could teach Daled class in our religious school?”, I had no idea that I would fall in love with teaching as much as I have. And when my students do something like this, four years after graduating from my class, it makes me love teaching even more.
Like I told my A. last week: That first class taught me how to teach. Every class teaches me something new and different. But one thing they all have in common: They make me love teaching, and children, all over again.
They can be so funny, too. Last Tuesday, I was explaining the difference between patrilineal and matrilineal, trying to explain the laws about passing your Judaism on to your children. The students found much of it profoundly unfair, and at the end of the discussion, younger A. said, “Boys. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.”
She’s not quite nine yet.
I didn’t laugh then, but boy, did I laugh when I relayed that anecdote to a friend.
Kids are great. Teaching is a blast, most of the time. I’m so glad I was dragged into this.