I Spent My First Rosh Hashanah in a Church School

Surrounded by posters advertising the goodness of Jesus.

Fortunately, I was doing secular work: teaching my first grammar class at a program called College Bound, which prepares teens for law careers and helps them get into top colleges-- even though many of them come from tough, tough neighborhoods and backgrounds.

The head of the entire program actually demo-ed the first lesson (would that such things occured in the Public School System) and I saw that the kids were infinitely ninth grade: they giggled inapproriately, occasionally sassed the instructor, whispered, fidgeted, showed undisciplined thinking.

But oh my god, were they eager to learn, to participate, to be polite and respectful and successful. I've never seen anything like it, except during Regents week; even as the class stretched into its fifth hour and the students were bored and hot and hungry, they still tried. rather valiantly.

I can't wait for next week, where our subject will be, well... the subject!
And it was most definitely a better way to spend my time than a shofar-less saturday at shul.