Teachers, Students, Friends

Ronit Sherwin

I have the privilege of being a teacher. I am currently and have been in the professional position of serving as a teacher to various kinds of students. My students have varied as children, teens, adults and seniors. I have taught formally in a classroom and informally in living rooms and even in dorm rooms. My teaching experiences have ranged from Sunday school to adult education courses to even teaching teenage Ethiopian Jewish girls in Israel. And now I have the greatest responsibility of teaching my own children.

I recently had a “friend request” pop up on my Facebook account from a name I did not recognize. Fortunately, it was accompanied by a message: “Remember me? You were my first grade Sunday teacher in Columbus, Ohio.” That was eighteen years ago! This young man was six years old when I met him in 1992. We did have a special bond that year, but I never would have expected him to remember me today. I underestimated the impact of our relationship.

My work in St. Louis the past ten years has afforded me the opportunity to work with some fabulous teenage girls. Many of these girls are now in college and I continue to remain in contact with them. They are now my friends. One young woman in particular has spent many evenings at my home this summer, playing with my kids and keeping me company. She is bright, confident, warm, funny and incredibly loving. I continue to be amazed by her poise, as well as her insight about herself and others. I do not recall being so mature at nineteen years of age. What I have learned most significantly from this young woman is authenticity, being true to oneself.

With each passing year, I have realized that my teacher-student relationships are evolving and circuitous. While I may be the teacher one day, I am just as easily the student another day or even simultaneously. The wisdom of the Jewish tradition in the Ethics of the Fathers is once again on point in teaching: “Make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend . . . ” (1:6). We learn from whom we teach and we are in turn better friends as well.

 

Previous Posts: 

• Life’s Expectations

• Going Home

• Living in the Middle

• Where are you?

• Standing Tall

 

About Ronit: Ronit Sherwin is the Executive Director of Nishmah:The St. Louis Jewish Women’s Project, which she co-founded in 2005. Ronit has served as an educator in the Jewish communal field for 14 years, teaching families, teens and adults, with a particular focus on girls and women. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Ronit received her Bachelor’s degree in Education from the Ohio State University and then later completed a Master’s in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. Ronit is also the glowing mother of boy-girl twins, Natan and Batya.