Instead of constantly reacting to past occurrences, it’s important for parents and teachers to switch roles and start taking charge—to spearhead the chinuch, emphasize Pele Yoetz experts.
This is the #1 Principle of Al Pi Darko, Pele Yoetz Center’s flagship early-intervention chinuch project, which applies the above practice with outstanding success.
“Instead of constantly checking and rechecking retroactively to see what and how something happened and what one can stand to prevent and/or improve, the idea is to look ahead and plan for the future—well in advance,” explains Rabbi Avraham Vitman, Educational Consultant and Project Director of Al Pi Darko. “People have two choices: To sink into the painful past and to plan for a better future. When dealing with Al Pi Darko kids, we make a point of meeting separately with each tutor, noting any special occasions or activities on schedule in the imminent future, and preparing the kids for whatever it is they are about to face.” After such preparation, the results are incomparably better, parents confirm.
The Al Pi Darko Project, which includes a professional-development course for tutors, assembles all the project staff members once a month for a fascinating learning seminar, in the course of which they’re exposed to wide variety of educational issues, new developments in the field of education, and discover new ways of advancing their students.
During any yom tov period, such as now during the month of Nissan, discussion often focuses on the upcoming yom tov, its background, halachos, etc. When students benefit from advance preparation, they are able to come prepared—both to class and home—with a solid grasp of the essence of the particular yom tov, its meaning and distinct halachos and minhagim.
“Children who struggle either academically or emotionally are not always capable of absorbing information like their peers, and they are sometimes unaware of what to expect on the upcoming yomtov. They don’t necessarily grasp what’s happening from their environment alone, and they feel frequently bewildered and lost. They need to receive information piece by piece, stage by stage, in a personal, individual manner, according to their capacities. When we prepare them for what’s to come, we avert many hardships and challenges before they arise,” elaborates the project director.
One of the facets of Al Pi Darko is creating a special seder hayom for the boys during the days of Bein Hazemanim as another means of leading the way in chinuch rather than getting dragged again into a state of reaction. Tutors also keep in touch with their students throughout the course of Bein Hazemanim.
This forward-looking approach corresponds with Al Pi Darko’s winter summary which mapped the progress of the boys in all educational, academic, and social realms, and underscored the program’s achievements. Extensive feedback indicated that, in many cases, the project also tremendously impacted parents and extended family in a special way, as they learned to assume responsility for themselves and enter the treatment cycle in order to solve new problems and start anew.
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