Rav Shimi Bar Ashi and Rav Papa: Text Study - Essay Example

?"Rav Shimi Bar Ashi and Rav Papa: A Text Study What would be different ways to understand Rabi Papa's perception of Rabi Shimi posing questions?One way to understand this, aside from perceiving the questioning as insolence, would be to accept and encourage Rabi Shimi's questioning as an example of a curious mind. A curious mind is something that is very useful to educators, and could be seen as a positive trait, and the educator could use the questioning as a way to enhance and encourage learning in the pupil. 2. What would be different ways to understand Rabi Shimi's understanding of Rabi Papa's role as a teacher? We could understand Rabi Shimi's opinion of Rabi Papa's role in many different ways. Here, Rabi Shimi seems to believe that the role of Rabi Papa is to answer questions and help him to understand his educational goals. Perhaps Rabi Papa wishes Rabi Shimi to learn through observations (“do as I do, not what I say”) which may be more beneficial in some cicumstances as educators. 3. What would be different ways to understand Rabi Shimi's understanding of Rabi Papa's reaction in prayer? It could be suggested that Rabi Shimi misinterpreted the words of Rabi Papa in prayer. Rabi Shimi perhaps felt that Rabi Papa was asking him to be quiet, whereas Rabi Papa was perhaps just asking for patience and understanding when dealing with the insolence of the pupil. It could be construed in many different ways. 4. What would be different ways to understand Rabi Shimi's decision? We could understand Rabi Shimi's decision as an overreaction to a simple request from Rabi Papa. Rabi Shimi could have perhaps been hurt from the comments on his insolence, but a truly patient and understanding man may have continued to ask valid and important questions of his teacher to try and understand the ways of the Talmud. 5. What would be different ways that Rabi Papa might have explained Rabi Shimi's silence? Rabi Papa would not have known that Rabi Shimi heard his prayer. He may have felt that his prayer was answered and that it was not this simple overhearing that led to the silence of Rabi Shimi. Rabi Papa may have also felt gratitude that his prayer was answered and become more patient with his pupil thanks to the protection from insolence. 6. What each one of them thought, felt or where wondering about? There are many different emotions portrayed in this short piece of text. For one, the teacher seems to have perhaps overreacted and not have the patience that a teacher should. Rabi Papa may have been aggravated or even annoyed at the questioning. He may also have felt relief that the questioning had stopped. There is also a lot of hurt felt on behalf of Rabi Shimi, who may have been insulted or confused as to why his teacher did not welcome his questioning and learning. 7. Why no one try to find out what lies behind the behavior of this colleague? There is no clear answer to this, but it could be said that each one may feel shame at their emotions and perhaps this would lead them not to directly ask about the emotions and behavior of their colleagues. There may also be embarrassment at having to ask for help dealing with the insolence of a student Rabi. 8. What might this story be about? This story seems to be about issues that can be present in trying to correctly deal with the teacher-student roles. It could be about bad teaching practice, or simply about how emotions can lead to prayer. 9. Is the narrator critical of one of the characters? Explain. The narrator seems to be critical mostly of Rabi Papa for not having the patience to deal with the questioning and needing help to deal with the insolence of his pupil. The narrator seems not to be proud of someone needing to 'fall to his face' to deal with problem-solving. 10. What might have been alternative ways to deal with the problem from RabiPapa's perspective; from R. Shimi's perspective? Rabi Papa could have dealt with the problem by discussing it with his pupil and trying to understand where these questions came from. There could have been a bit more understanding when trying to deal with such an inquisitive pupil. Rabi Shimi may have appreciated this approach to his questioning. Rabi Shimi could also have confronted his teacher and found out more about why his actions appeared insolent and discussed other ways to answer his questions. From here, Rabi Shimi may have been ashamed and go without true Talmudic learning, which may be a detriment to his future profession. 11. If you would have been in the position of the principal of this Talmudic learning center, what would had been your intervention alter the event related in the story? Why? As a principal of this center, I would have tried to get the pair to come to an agreement that lead to increased learning for both teacher and pupil. For example, encouraging Rabi Shimi to search for his own answers under the guidance of Rabi Papa would have been a good solution. This would have meant that there would be less hurt and embarrassment on the part of Rabi Shimi. 12 What more would you like to know about Rabi Papa, both in general and in this situation in particular? Why would that be important? A history of Rabi Papa's role in teaching would be interesting, to see how he would generally deal with an inquisitive pupil. This would help me to understand why questioning appeared insolent to this teacher. It would be interesting to know if Rabi Papa felt any regret or guilt at asking for help during this process. 13. What more would you like to know more about Rabi Shimi in general and in this situation in particular? Why would that be important? It would be interesting to know how Rabi Shimi answered his questions after the event, because this could allow us to see how Rabi Shimi develops after this point. More information about the previous history of Rabi Shimi and how he felt his questions should be answered would allow us to see why questioning was his preferred option of learning and would allow us to explain his silence upon hearing Rabi Papa's prayer. This exercise is interesting because it illustrates the teacher-student relationship from two different angles. We do not know where the differences in opinion of the learning process are coming from, but it can be said that Rabi Shimi feels that the role of teacher is to encourage learning by answering questions, whereas Rabi Papa may prefer a more independent research role in a student. Past experiences may have shaped this; Rabi Papa may have been encouraged to answer his own questions by his own teacher whilst he was learning the Talmud, and may feel this is an important part of development for a Rabi. Conversely, Rabi Shimi may feel that a teacher should answer all questions posed to encourage true learning and help to put any information gathered from the Talmud in a more personal light. He may have had a previous teacher that encouraged questioning, and may have been brought up in a household that encouraged this sort of curiosity. The role of this text is to help illustrate that people have different opinions of the teaching process, and that there will always be different interpretations of text. In this case, some may feel that Rabi Papa was right to fall to his knees in prayer to ask for help dealing with the insolence of Rabi Shimi. This could be seen as positive, because the alternative is a confrontation with Rabi Shimi that may have been more hurtful. The prayer was obviously not intended to be overheard and was perhaps an attempt to spare the feelings of Rabi Shimi, something which could be seen positively. This is just an example of how important interpretation is in text readings, even in one so short as the one above. It would be easy to be surprised by this text. Someone offering another viewpoint on the text could alter personal perceptions of the text and put a more positive spin on it than originally seen by someone who is sceptical of this teaching method. It is always good to have an open mind to such readings because surprises are always welcome in the teaching world and should be expected as the personal opinions of others begin to have an impact on teaching and learning styles. It feels good to have an open mind because this leads directly to learning more about others and how they perceive and react to open texts such as this. It is also a little scary to be always open to changing your mind and perhaps the possibility that the text may not be as it originally seems. The nature of the stance that I adopt is that Rabi Papa should have more patience with his pupil, but equally it is possible that Rabi Shimi should not have been so insolent in asking questions. It is interesting to see how personal histories and opinions can affect a reading of a text such as this one because it means that everything is always open to interpretation. This stance seems to be similar to others I have taken when reading real-life teaching examples and also to others in the group, because many feel that a teacher should be patient with a pupil. However, there are differences because all situations within teaching are different and it must be noted that we must be prepared to expect the unexpected in this world. We must always be careful to not overuse our personal opinions when trying to interpret texts because first expressions may be wrong in some cases. We should also be prepared to listen to the opinions of others and not dismiss them as wrong because they differ from ours. It is difficult to say how this stance is different or similar to other teaching examples because every situation should be looked at as unique, because every teacher and every student is unique. Read More