MY FAMILY
THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM
STARTER
Teachers should begin this unit with the following thought experiment:
Imagine you’re a swimming coach. A young student tells you they’re planning to jump into the pool to swim 50 lengths. You know this student well. They have neither the skills nor the stamina for this task.
You think carefully about what to say. You don’t want to discourage the student entirely – after all, your shared hope and dream is that one day, the student will be able to swim 50 lengths! But before you can say anything, the student jumps in and starts swimming exuberantly. Although the effort is valiant – this is their dream! – the student stops and gasps for air in the middle of the swim, worn out.
The student swims to the edge of the pool, takes a short breather, and then turns around to complete another length. You smile. You know your student is determined, and with a little more stamina and skill, you have no doubt that one day, they will reach that 50-length goal.
Your student knows something else, too, something they’ve never shared with you: They’ve been thinking about reaching this 50-length milestone since the very first time they stepped into this pool. They won’t stop trying until they swim 50 lengths, no matter how long it takes.
Teachers should conclude this lesson by explaining that when people are motivated by a particular dream, they won’t let anything get in their way. Sometimes their dreams seem unreachable, but the truly hopeful know that they must keep trying – so they stop along the way to reflect, breathe, and recalculate their strategy. With hope and effort, we can reach our dreams, no matter how far away they seem now.
