Wednesday, December 01, 2010
IN HIS OWN WORDS, THE ROSH AGUDAH, RABBI YAAKOV PERLOW, NOVEMBER 24, 2010, AGUDATH ISRAEL CONVENTION
IN HIS OWN WORDS, THE ROSH AGUDAH, RABBI YAAKOV PERLOW, NOV 24, 2010, AGUDATH ISRAEL CONVENTION
...."Let me mention something else, another painful subject, which has arisen in our tzibbur, and its time that we recognize it, even in public (inaudible short Yiddish phrase). And sweep it out from under the carpet.
There's a need, an obligation, particularly on parents, to inform and teach children to be careful and alert and safeguard their bodies, their Yiddishe gufim, and not allow potential predators to abuse them.
I'm sorry that I have to bring this up in public.
But the olam doesn't know. Very few people outside the halls of Agudas Yisroel and Torah U'Mesorah know, that the Vaad Roshei Yeshiva of Torah U'Mesorah, together with the Moetzes Gedolei Torah of Agudas Yisroel have held many joint meetings and spent many hours discussing all the aspects of this sensitive topic that has crept out of the woodworks in recent years.
Yes, there are molesters out there, tragically enough, in the yeshivishe and in the Chassidishe community, and our children have to be attuned to the nishmar (inaudible) nafshosaychem.
And let me mention that several years ago the Moetzes of Agudas Yisroel approved a statement sent out by the Director of Camp Aguda to all camp directors about behavioral standards of staff and campers, plus a letter to be sent to parents before camp begins.
Torah U'Mesorah likewise issued guidelines and standards for mechanchim sent to all principals suggesting they also communicate on this subject with their parent body.
The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah discussed thoroughly all the legal questions, all the legal aspects of this tsurah.
We came out publicly against the Markey Bill, in order to protect the integrity of our mosdos haTorah. But it did acknowledge the tsar and anguish of the victims of molestation.
A short while ago, a committee of the Moetzes met with some of these victims, and was shaken to hear first hand of the long term ruinous affects and the deep pain of these people. I'd like to acknowledge here publicly how many of these individuals who suffered severe trauma and carried this tsar all these years have, nonetheless, b'ezras Hashem, succeeded in rebuilding their lives, have raised families in the Torah true tradition and they deserve the chizuk and encouragement of the community at large.
There's a lot more to say on this painful subject, but this is not the place".
IN MY OWN (UOJ) WORDS - WHAT PERLOW IS REALLY SAYING!
Oh yeah chevrah, by the way, we were caught with our pants down lying about everything to protect our fellow gangsters running their "pay for play" yeshivas. So...I'm sorry to bring this silly topic up, but the lawyers think its a good idea to cover our collective tuches, so I'll cry a little now, I'll do a head-fake, I'll add a crack or two to my voice, but do not be disturbed, it's a big show. The Viennese table is loaded with goodies (yummee) after I finish my brief 3 minute Purim shpiel, I do not want you for one second to let this really non-existent issue affect your weekend. The people that came forward are not really gezunt nebach, but they claim to be Yidden, who knows, maybe they're really goyim. Gedalya, check their yichus... ZEITS MOCHEL!FRESS ZICH UN A GUT YUR!
When kids drop out today, “they’re condemned to poverty and social failure.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/opinion/24friedman.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=general
Op-Ed Columnist
U.S.G. and P.T.A. -- By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
The New York Times
For me, the most frightening news in The Times on Sunday was not about North Korea’s stepping up its nuclear program, but an article about how American kids are stepping up their use of digital devices: “Allison Miller, 14, sends and receives 27,000 texts in a month, her fingers clicking at a blistering pace as she carries on as many as seven text conversations at a time. She texts between classes, at the moment soccer practice ends, while being driven to and from school and, often, while studying. But this proficiency comes at a cost: She blames multitasking for the three B’s on her recent progress report. “I’ll be reading a book for homework and I’ll get a text message and pause my reading and put down the book, pick up the phone to reply to the text message, and then 20 minutes later realize, ‘Oh, I forgot to do my homework.’ ”
I don’t want to pick on Miller. I highlight her words only because they’re integral to a much larger point: Our unemployment today is not only because of the financial crisis. There are some deeper problems. If we’re going to get more Americans back to work, we will need more stimulus from the U.S.G. — the U.S. government — from the top down. But we will also need more stimulus from the P.T.A.’s — the Parent Teacher Associations — from the bottom up.
The deeper problems fostering unemployment in America today can be summarized in three paragraphs:
Global competition is stiffer. Just think about two of our most elite colleges. When Harvard and Yale were all male, applicants had to compete only against a pool of white males to get in. But when Harvard and Yale admitted women and more minorities, white males had to step up their game. But when the cold war ended, globalization took hold. As Harvard and Yale started to admit more Chinese, Indians, Singaporeans, Poles and Vietnamese, both American men and women had to step up their games to get in. And as the education systems of China, India, Singapore, Poland and Vietnam continue to improve, and more of their cream rises to the top and more of their young people apply to Ivy League schools, it is only going to get more competitive for American men and women at every school.
Then, just as the world was getting flattened by globalization, technology went on a rampage — destroying more low-end jobs and creating more high-end jobs faster than ever. What computers, hand-held devices, wireless technology and robots do in aggregate is empower better-educated and higher-skilled workers to be more productive — so they can raise their incomes — while eliminating many lower-skilled service and factory jobs altogether. Now the best-educated workers, capable of doing the critical thinking that machines can’t do, get richer while the least-educated get pink slips. (We used to have a receptionist at our office. She was replaced by a micro-chip. We got voice mail.)
Finally, just when globalization and technology were making the value of higher education greater than ever, and the price for lacking it more punishing than ever, America started slipping behind its peers in high school graduation rates, college graduation and global test scores in math and critical thinking.
As Education Secretary Arne Duncan put it to me in an interview, 50 years ago if you dropped out, you could get a job in the stockyards or steel mill and still “own your own home and support your family.” Today, there are no such good jobs for high school dropouts. “They’re gone,” said Duncan. “That’s what we haven’t adjusted to.” When kids drop out today, “they’re condemned to poverty and social failure.”
There are barely any jobs left for someone with only a high school diploma, and that’s only valuable today if it has truly prepared you to go on to higher education without remediation — the only ticket to a decent job.
Beyond the recession, this triple whammy is one of the main reasons that middle-class wages have been stagnating. To overcome that, we need to enlist both the U.S.G. and the P.T.A. We need teachers and principals who are paid better for better performance, but also valued for their long hours and dedication to students and learning. We need better parents ready to hold their kids to higher standards of academic achievement. We need better students who come to school ready to learn, not to text. And to support all of this, we need an all-society effort — from the White House to the classroom to the living room — to nurture a culture of achievement and excellence.
If you want to know who’s doing the parenting part right, start with immigrants, who know that learning is the way up. Last week, the 32 winners of Rhodes Scholarships for 2011 were announced — America’s top college grads. Here are half the names on that list: Mark Jia, Aakash Shah, Zujaja Tauqeer, Tracy Yang, William Zeng, Daniel Lage, Ye Jin Kang, Baltazar Zavala, Esther Uduehi, Prerna Nadathur, Priya Sury, Anna Alekeyeva, Fatima Sabar, Renugan Raidoo, Jennifer Lai, Varun Sivaram.
Do you see a pattern?
Op-Ed Columnist
U.S.G. and P.T.A. -- By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
The New York Times
For me, the most frightening news in The Times on Sunday was not about North Korea’s stepping up its nuclear program, but an article about how American kids are stepping up their use of digital devices: “Allison Miller, 14, sends and receives 27,000 texts in a month, her fingers clicking at a blistering pace as she carries on as many as seven text conversations at a time. She texts between classes, at the moment soccer practice ends, while being driven to and from school and, often, while studying. But this proficiency comes at a cost: She blames multitasking for the three B’s on her recent progress report. “I’ll be reading a book for homework and I’ll get a text message and pause my reading and put down the book, pick up the phone to reply to the text message, and then 20 minutes later realize, ‘Oh, I forgot to do my homework.’ ”
I don’t want to pick on Miller. I highlight her words only because they’re integral to a much larger point: Our unemployment today is not only because of the financial crisis. There are some deeper problems. If we’re going to get more Americans back to work, we will need more stimulus from the U.S.G. — the U.S. government — from the top down. But we will also need more stimulus from the P.T.A.’s — the Parent Teacher Associations — from the bottom up.
The deeper problems fostering unemployment in America today can be summarized in three paragraphs:
Global competition is stiffer. Just think about two of our most elite colleges. When Harvard and Yale were all male, applicants had to compete only against a pool of white males to get in. But when Harvard and Yale admitted women and more minorities, white males had to step up their game. But when the cold war ended, globalization took hold. As Harvard and Yale started to admit more Chinese, Indians, Singaporeans, Poles and Vietnamese, both American men and women had to step up their games to get in. And as the education systems of China, India, Singapore, Poland and Vietnam continue to improve, and more of their cream rises to the top and more of their young people apply to Ivy League schools, it is only going to get more competitive for American men and women at every school.
Then, just as the world was getting flattened by globalization, technology went on a rampage — destroying more low-end jobs and creating more high-end jobs faster than ever. What computers, hand-held devices, wireless technology and robots do in aggregate is empower better-educated and higher-skilled workers to be more productive — so they can raise their incomes — while eliminating many lower-skilled service and factory jobs altogether. Now the best-educated workers, capable of doing the critical thinking that machines can’t do, get richer while the least-educated get pink slips. (We used to have a receptionist at our office. She was replaced by a micro-chip. We got voice mail.)
Finally, just when globalization and technology were making the value of higher education greater than ever, and the price for lacking it more punishing than ever, America started slipping behind its peers in high school graduation rates, college graduation and global test scores in math and critical thinking.
As Education Secretary Arne Duncan put it to me in an interview, 50 years ago if you dropped out, you could get a job in the stockyards or steel mill and still “own your own home and support your family.” Today, there are no such good jobs for high school dropouts. “They’re gone,” said Duncan. “That’s what we haven’t adjusted to.” When kids drop out today, “they’re condemned to poverty and social failure.”
There are barely any jobs left for someone with only a high school diploma, and that’s only valuable today if it has truly prepared you to go on to higher education without remediation — the only ticket to a decent job.
Beyond the recession, this triple whammy is one of the main reasons that middle-class wages have been stagnating. To overcome that, we need to enlist both the U.S.G. and the P.T.A. We need teachers and principals who are paid better for better performance, but also valued for their long hours and dedication to students and learning. We need better parents ready to hold their kids to higher standards of academic achievement. We need better students who come to school ready to learn, not to text. And to support all of this, we need an all-society effort — from the White House to the classroom to the living room — to nurture a culture of achievement and excellence.
If you want to know who’s doing the parenting part right, start with immigrants, who know that learning is the way up. Last week, the 32 winners of Rhodes Scholarships for 2011 were announced — America’s top college grads. Here are half the names on that list: Mark Jia, Aakash Shah, Zujaja Tauqeer, Tracy Yang, William Zeng, Daniel Lage, Ye Jin Kang, Baltazar Zavala, Esther Uduehi, Prerna Nadathur, Priya Sury, Anna Alekeyeva, Fatima Sabar, Renugan Raidoo, Jennifer Lai, Varun Sivaram.
Do you see a pattern?