How excited would you be if I asked you to do 100 push-ups?
I once heard that Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky ztz”l called schools “Sedom beds.” He was referring to the famous midrash that says that the people of Sedom mistreated visitors by “stretching” short guests to fit long beds and cutting tall people down to size to fit short beds. In a way schools are like that: one size fits all. The problem is that people aren’t all the same size. One child is gifted academically another is not. Some are physically coordinated some are not. One classroom one teacher — and many many types of students. A school simply can’t give each child a tailor-made education.
But our homes are not classrooms. A home is where each child should be given a chinuch al pi darko according to his needs. Most of the year we entrust them to our shelichim our proxies — the school. But come the Yamim Tovim our children are home with us. Unfortunately this holy and happy time often comes with an uninvited guest: flashpoints. A flashpoint is a time of tension anger and emotional eruption (we used to call it screaming) that occurs repeatedly over the same issues.
A common flashpoint of this time of the year is davening since we spend so much time in shul and the demands and pressures on our children to do us proud and daven well are greater than usual.
