It's Yom Kippur

Tonight and tomorrow are the Jewish sacred day of Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur literally means the Day of Atonenment. Traditional Jews spend the day in synagogue and do fast completely from sunset tonight to tomorrow about an hour after sunset. I once heard a well known rabbi, Shlomo Riskin, speak about the fact that though Jewish people fast on Yom Kippur it is not a sad holiday. In fact, it is a happy holiday. The reason it is happy is because we have the ability to fast. Aside from human beings, all other forms of life eat on impulse. Regardless of religion, it's important to think about the fact that as people we can control our own behavior. As teachers, it's our responsibility to help students recognize this idea. There are appropriate ways to behave and inappropriate ways to behave. Interestingly, there's currently a conversation about paddeling students in the education blogosphere, read (from The Education Wonks, a new friend of mine) here and (from Get on the Bus) here. I can't help but wonder what kind of connections can be drawn between paddeling and the holiday of Yom Kippur. What do you think?

technorati tags:Andrew Pass, Yom Kippur, classroom management, discipline