By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

When children begin learning the alpeh bais, every time they open a siddur, their excitement is contagious as they would point at the letters they know and call out with great excitement, “Look, an aleph! There’s a bais, and a little yud…”

When they are young their learning is made exciting, interesting, the teachers are vibrant, every day they look forward to learning something new. They know Morah loves them, and they love her. Every day they color something; they learn and review a new letter every week. Every Shabbos they are excited to show off the letter they learned that week. Friday is the most exciting day of the week; they know they will have a Shabbos party; they know they will get to bring home the little arts-and-crafts they and their morah spent a whole week coloring. They know they will bring home a parsha sheet and a letter for their mommy and totty.

As children get older, the challenge for their teachers is to make every subject come alive and to avoid the pitfalls of monotony that turn kids off. The challenge for mechanchim is to provide children with the essential tools to help them to build and grow. Look around and see the successful rebbis, moros and teachers, those who are excited about what they are teaching are the ones who can convey excitement to their charges.

Those familiar with the complex issues of chinuch today know there are no pat answers.
Even the most seasoned and gifted rabbeim and moros feel taxed by the myriad problems encountered in many of today’s classrooms. Thankfully Torah Umesorah is there to help them deal with their issues. We need to help Torah Umesorah develop books and curriculums designed to engage today’s talmidim and help them learn and grow.

To learn, students need to constantly have their attention charged. If we want kids to learn, we have to make learning come alive and we have to keep it interesting. Torah Umesorah’s Aish Dos has been training rabbeim for decades to be the best they can be so that they can make your children the best they can be. 
Projects, assignments, contests, contribute to make going to school something a child wants to do and the Torah Umesorah Teachers Pavilion is where moros everywhere go to get ideas and learn how to implement them. 
Take a closer look at teachers who breathe life into their lessons, whose love of learning is contagious, who build incentives and motivation into the fabric of their teaching. Watch how they inspire and stimulate their students by, above all, caring about them and believing in their ability to succeed. Observe how their students revere them and exert themselves to the utmost to win their praise and approval.

These outstanding mechanchim make an art out of winning minds and souls. They invest huge amounts of energy into keeping the young minds occupied and engaged —they are masters of motivation.

We can never properly compensate them for the gifts they pass on to our children—the lifelong love and excitement of learning. We need to do more than feel appreciation for them; we need to demonstrate it, to show the special rabbeim and moros that we do not take them for granted, that we realize that they are carrying out a sacred task—and in so doing, aiding us in what is essentially a parent’s foremost obligation—to be mechanech the next generation in Torah and yiras shomayim. We do that by helping Torah Umesorah help them.

Mechanchim restore our belief in the goodness and dedication of the Jewish people. If you take the time to speak to your local mechanchim and hear them talk about their sense of mission and their hopes for their students, you would also be inspired. It never hurts to express gratitude to this wonderful cadre of men and women to whom we are so indebted. How can we do that?

Let us reward the passion and devotion of the rabbeim and moros whose caring and mesirus nefesh guarantee the transfer of our precious mesorah to the next generation by supporting Torah Umesorah’s efforts to help them in their holy tasks. 
As we reap the rewards from their hard work, let us follow their example of giving of ourselves unstintingly for a good cause and help this campaign reach its goal.