The Memory Factory

It is hard to believe we are almost there. The school year’s end is upon us and the finish line is rapidly approaching. Both teachers and students are filled with the bittersweet feelings of anticipating the freedom summer brings while leaving the friendly classroom environment with the uncertainty of what next year’s class will bring. As a Rebbe, the end of the year is an extremely important time that requires thought and planning.

Recently, I viewed a lecture by Nobel Prize winning professor Dr. Daniel Kahneman regarding the role of memory on our feelings about an event or place. His studies have demonstrated that a person's positive or negative associations with a previous experience relates directly to how they remember the experience, not the reality of the positive or negative occurrences during that experience. A classic example would be to imagine a situation in which a person spent an amazing summer in Paris. They stayed in the most wonderful hotels, ate in the best restaurants and saw the magnificent sites. Unfortunately, as they were walking home one night they were mugged and their passport was stolen. It was quite scary and a pain to find the US consulate to replace it. How do you think they will remember the trip ten years later, positively or negatively? One could easily imagine that although the trip was filled with many positive aspects, all that will remain of the trip would be that one memory of terror and fear. This memory has defined the trip as a bad one.

What defines our perception of life experiences is how we remember them, not the reality of what has taken place. How does your average Jewish male feel about his bris? Most of us do not have any feelings about this painful and momentous day. This is because we have no working memory of it. It is our memory of the event, not the event itself, which matters most.

Dr. Kahneman brings a study that was run in the 1990’s in which two patients underwent a painful medical procedure. The participants were asked to report on their pain every 60 seconds. The two patients had similar procedures but patient A’s was a shorter and less involved procedure and he reported less pain every 60 seconds during the procedure itself. The surprise was that patient A had a mush worse memory of the procedure than Patient B. The reason was that although A had an easier experience it ended in more pain than patient B did. It was the level of pain at the end of the procedure that defined experience most. "Endings are very, very important and in this case, the ending dominated the memory."

Here is a link to the lecture;

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html

This information is quite important for a Rebbe as the year ends. Regardless of the success or challenges a talmid has throughout the year, if the Rebbe can find a way to highlight the positive experiences in the talmid’s memory, which will define the year. More important than the specific grades and achievements that a Talmid has throughout the school year is the way he perceives the year. My aim is for my Talmidim to walk away from the year energized and positive about their academic ability, with enthusiasm for learning and for the Yeshiva experience. To this end, I attempt to find ways to focus their thinking on very specific and positive memories. I do this in primarily two ways.

1. We have an end of year final in which we review each page of Gemara we covered. After we review the amud we write up approximately ten facts that they must memorize. Throughout the weeks in which this review is taking place, we review multiple times. By the end the boys have close to 10 basic facts about the mesechta that they have committed to memory and take a final with over fifty questions. We focus on the importance of this review and the magnitude of the number of facts and information each talmid has. So far every talmid has risen to the occasion and succeeded on this defining test. My hope is that this huge sense of success will overshadow any less positive academic memories from the year.

2. My class sizes are generally under ten and therefore I am able to write a short paragraph to each talmid about how much I appreciate them and highlight some of their accomplishments and talents. These notes are given inside a small Tehilim. This note serves a number of important purposes. Among them is the ability to solidify the talmid’s memory of their rebbe in a positive light. My hope is that they will remember the positive words of encouragement and associate them with our relationship for the future.

These are two of the ways I attempt to focus my talmidim on the positive aspects of the year and hope that as they move on in their education this positive energy will define the experience.