Two Teachers, Same Students, And Bottles of Norvasc & Lisinopril

B"H

"I Kill Them With Kindness"

Deveira:  I can't get these kids to do their work.  Not in the classroom and nothing at home.  They won't listen to me. I've been taking blood pressure pills for years.  The kids, they are killing me.  How do you do it?

Hinda:  Well, Deveira, when I was their age I was a prisoner... treated worse than cattle, worse than farm animals.  Nazi guards, may their souls be erased from the universe, had some very effective means to make us obey them.  Those techniques are not allowed here at our school.  In any case, I did not survive the impossible to emulate my captors.  I remembered a better way from before the madness.

Deveira:  Hinda, they do anything and everything for you, not so for me.  Why?  How?  

Hinda:  I think my numbers puzzle them.  Always, always I wear short sleeves.  And I am happy.  Life is not just good, it is miraculous.  It seems to puzzle them that I have numbers on my arm and that I am happy.  Or I could be wrong.  Maybe they are not puzzled, perhaps they don't know anything at all.  But, they are not the little monsters that you think they are.  Actually, they are quite weak and most feeble in spirit.  They would all cower before a Nazi.  Although, who knows, perhaps there is the stuff of survivor in some of them.  I wouldn't know which ones.  You never know the answer to that question until you have been tested.  Oy, may they never know testing like I have known.  Heaven forbid.  We could lose them all.  But, enough, enough, back to the point.  I get them to do their lessons because I kill them with kindness.  "Oh, honey, you forgot your pencil.  Please take mine.  The dog ate your homework.  Oy, va voi!  Thank G-d, it didn't eat you.  Try again tonight at my home study session and please bring your mom.  I baked mandel brot.  No paper, no problem.  Here is a fresh page."  They are finished before they even are aware of having started.  The parents are amazed too.  I think it is just me maybe.  But they ARE so soft, so spoiled.  (a sigh) Like I was once, ... oy, Mameh, Tateh, ...

Deveira holds Hinda in her arms and the two ladies comfort each other swaying like a prayer straight to heaven.