What excites me the most about Limmud Negev, is the people that I have met throughout the process. I realize it sounds quite obvious. You start a new project and you meet new people. You get excited. No news here at all.
But something about how the group formed, and the different personalities, and our discussions taught me a lot about myself.
Here is an example. As we built the program a few questions arose, and I was surprised to learn how important choice was to me, while for others it resembled chaos. I can see how free choice can lead to some level of unexpected results. But on the other hand restricting choice felt like an abuse of power to me.
I believe that my aim, as an educator, is to offer as many opportunities to relate, reflect, learn and grow. I believe this is what inspires me. It makes me tick. I can see how I grew to be the woman I am, through decisions I made. I would love to hear, in 20 years time someone saying, that the moment he had to choose between a session about solar energy in the Negev or a creative writing workshop, was the moment they realized what kind of a person they want to be.
But for the others it raises some level of discomfort, maybe fear. They rightly argue that learning all together in a pairs – Chavruta style is such a powerful experience we must have everyone going through it. I want to agree with them, to be part of that, but I keep thinking about those few who might not feel comfortable studying in pairs. It might be too demanding, daunting. In a way I wish to offer a few sessions, but in the end everyone chooses to go and study together.
And I didn’t even reveal the tip of the iceberg here. I have learnt many many lessons in the past twelve months.
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