Teaching Styles In The Modern Age

A friend and I were trading Rav Soloveitchik stories, especially about his fiery and intense teaching style that he employed before his wife died. For example, the story goes that there was a column in the room where he taught that students would come early to be able to sit behind, so that they wouldn't get called on. The fear was that if you got called on to read the relevant passage, and you didn't do it right or explain it correctly, the Rav would give you an incredible tongue-lashing. Another story goes that the Rav went down the list of names and called out a random one. The class was large, and the Rav didn't know everyone who attended his shiur. Anyway, the person with that name calls out, "He's not here today." He wanted to get out of being called on. The Rav looks at him, smiles, and says, "Ok, then, you read."

I remarked to my friend that the fear in the classroom could not fly today, and I wondered out loud if hat was a good thing. Having just seen the movie Whiplash the night before, I pondered whether the lack of teachers pushing their students beyond their limits was the cause for the seeming lack of Talmudic masters today.

Interesting, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks recently referred to the movie Whiplash in a conversation. For him, the person who pushes us all to achieve excellence today is really the Jewish mother. Start at 1h5m08s