N o matter how many times I leave the teaching profession I always seem to find myself back in front of a classroom.
I was embarking on yet another Retorno adventure — teaching the very same Twelve Step Methodology course I’d taken a few years ago as part of my training. For 22 weeks I’d be teaching a group of Bais Yaakov educators — principals teachers and guidance counselors.
The first half of every class was given by a different lecturer each an expert in his or her own field on topics ranging from substance-abuse prevention among teenage girls to the difference between yetzer hara and addiction. My role during the second half of each class was to teach the 12 steps both in theory and in practice.
Our basic texts were the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and selections from a book written by one of Retorno’s former counselors focusing on what characterizes addictive thinking and behaviors. The selections — all together eight pages for the entire course — were important reference material but they and the printed steps were merely a starting point. True understanding came from anecdotes and examples questions and answers… and of course diving in.
