Page 105 - 16-40 Feb 12 2020

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Winning the Blame Game;

Losing the War

By Rifka Schonfeld, Director of S.O.S.
(Strategies For Optimum Success)
Teaching Responsibility to Our Childreneaching Responsibility to Our Children
T everyone but themselves.
Schools have long been grading students for “My child isn’t doing well because he doesn’t
responsibility. But in recent years, teachers have a good rebbe.”
report that marks in responsibility have been
- “I didn’t behave because the girl next to me
ing phenomenon – but it is no coincidence. made me be chutzpadik.”
Responsibility is becoming a rare virtue.
- “I’m late because the bus came early.”

– and fail to take responsibility for their ac- Maybe your child doesn’t have a good rebbe,
but that doesn’t preclude your halachic obli-
follow suit. Instead of behaving with respon-

the blame for their mistakes onto others. but that doesn’t grant your daughter a license
to misbehave. Maybe the bus came thirty sec-
- onds too soon, but you could have caught it, if
you had been at the stop a minute early.
Homeowners who bought houses with risky
mortgages blame the banks for taking them damaging, both on an individual level, and to
away. CEOs asking for handouts for their com- society as a whole.
- -
crats and Republicans, presidents and simple -
folk, and teachers and students refuse to act
responsibly and take responsibility for their that the phenomenon of children rebelling is

withers into a total mess, as the culture of ir- the Ribbono shel Olam cried out in anguish,

mechanchim, this plague - I grew and raised children and

our chinuch problems. As the years go by, chil- felt that pain and should have responded im-
dren and adults are becoming less account-