By Rivky Orzech
When I saw the advert for the “מעגל ההצלחה” reading chug taking place at the Benjamin Library I wondered if my children would greet it with the same enthusiasm as last year. My boys were willing to do it…in theory, but being a year older they might just consider themselves a year “cooler,” consider it beneath them and put their foot on the brakes after week 1.
That would of course be a crying shame as I quite looked forward to an hour of relaxation, sitting in perfect air-conditioning. A harsh lesson in parenting has always been this: just because they like something one week, doesn’t mean you’ll have the same sweet luck the next week.
As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. The library is not somewhere a child is embarrassed to select their choices of reading material. Whether it’s Phineas and Ferb or an older classic, the mentors (called chonchim/chonchot) are flexible and know just how to make the hour fun and pleasant. But not only that, a child who required sensitivity for his aversion to crowds meant that his mentor simply understood and sat cross-legged behind the book shelves, ensuring they were far from noise and running traffic.
You say tomato, I say – tomahto; the info/bonding sheet each child fills out with their mentor shows exactly how different each is from the other. He likes Biggles – which to be fair, I think still needs to be translated into Hebrew! – And she likes, Our man in Damascus. And yet, the comments on the bonding sheet display friendship and recognition of his talents and attainments. You want to read and play a game today, that’s fine. You want to draw a map of the adventure, that’s acceptable, too – let’s just write down the new vocabulary you learned today. You want to draw a picture of an alien, that’s ok – let’s do some reading, as well. At the end, a heartfelt note of bracha was left in the file but I’ve revealed enough and that’s private. I am pretty sure all the notes have been stashed in their ‘everything drawer.’
A note on the teenagers of Beit Shemesh as evidenced at The Benjamin Children’s Library: The teenagers of Beit Shemesh aren’t volunteering by half measures, they’re putting their heart and soul into this arrangement and are doing a great job. They are quite capable of taking a child’s reading level up to the next one and motivate them for at least the next six months.
From a parent’s point-of-view, I see them, and others like them, babysitting so adults can work, arranging tzaharon, doing special needs camps and volunteering at the library.
Beit Shemesh, your teenagers are treasures.