When my kids were little, one of them still is, they would often accidentally call me Morah (teacher). They would proceed to giggle, blush, and say, “I mean, Mommy!” I often wondered if they sometimes accidentally called their Morah, Mommy?
It didn’t bother me that they would sometimes refer to me as Morah, because it told me two things – that they thought of me as their teacher (which I am) and that they thought of their Morah as a nurturing mother figure (which they are).
Female role models in the classroom offer so much in the way of knowledge, creativity, and warmth. True, there are many male teachers that are very warm and caring. However, I feel it is a shame that after a certain point in the orthodox day school system, most boys no longer benefit from female teachers.
In the elementary school that my kids attend, boys have only male rabbaim for Hebrew subjects after 3rd grade, but they continue to have a mix of male and female teachers for English subjects until 8th grade. The girls have female teachers for Hebrew subjects through 8th grade, and both male and female teachers for English subjects.
However, in high school things change. Girls have a mix of female and male teachers (mostly female) in the all girls high school, but the boys in yeshiva (I have boys in two different yeshivot) only have male teachers for both Hebrew and English subjects. The only women in the schools are secretaries.
In many ways, I wish that my older boys still had Morahs for some of their subjects. I think that boys can really benefit from a woman’s perspective and teaching style. I think it is also a good life skill lesson for a young man to learn to relate to women in a friendly, yet professional manner. It is also healthy for young men to learn that women can be authorities on various academic and religious subjects, and can act as mentors in their fields of expertise.
I wonder if frum men remember their Morahs, or moms-away-from-home, fondly? I wonder if they feel they are missing out by not having a female perspective in the classroom?
