My knowledge of American History is very small. I was in a
Advanced preparation American History in High school and did not do very well.
The teacher gave me the most seething review of a paper I had every received
until then. I found it discouraging. Later I find myself grateful for the very
harsh criticism I received from my teachers and Roshei Yeshiva but at the time
it was hard to receive and accept. Of course they were right.
In hind sight I realize
I gained a lot by my teachers being critical of me. This is a general fact
about human development. Criticism is hard to take but necessary for us to rise
above our limitations.
I was very used to being the best at anything I would
try to do. I can still remember almost every little bit of criticism that
anyone gave me because it hurt so much.
The US History teacher wrote a long note in Bold Red
Letters a whole two paragraphs that I was not a scholar and that my essay was a
poor piece of scholarship. I was comparing the policies of two different presidents
in that essay. One was Andrew Jackson.
My first Rosh Yeshiva made it known publically that I
did not have gratitude- which of course is true.
I spoke once to a police officer in my usual arrogant way He said “You
have an attitude problem.” I answered "Attitudes change."
A Police officer in Israel in told me I have a problem that I don’t
treat people with respect.
The director of Star Wars with Anakin Skywalker and
Obi Wan Kenobi has this very same theme. And the director of that film mentioned
that that was part of his intention in the film to bring out this point --how
hard it is to accept criticism from our mentors and yet how necessary it is.
People judge criticism by the intension of the critic. That is not good. Even if the intension of the critic is not positive still we should accept as much possible
]People judge criticism by the intension of the critic. That is not good. Even if the intension of the critic is not positive still we should accept as much possible
