From teacher to student and back again

The second day of reading comprehension was an ounce more productive with S2, who grasped the vocabulary and themes of the article (the breakout of WWII--whoopee!) a bit better than S1.  There are certainly some surprising frustrations, like having to eek out that London is a city, not a country, in England, but overall I think that the extra reading comprehension practice is a better way to attack the spelling/vocabulary problems which kids and teachers are struggling with.  And the mini history lesson is a nice add in!
After class I joined my third Yeshiva class, where they were discussing prayer (shoutout, Dad!)  The discussion surrounded what prayer, or more broadly, a service, should include.  Suggestions included things like "unity," and "respect for the individual," a learning opportunity (such as a discussion or dvar Torah), participation, and spiritual uplift.  With these concepts, the rabbi started a discussion of how one might make a service more amenable to a congregation with limited language skills and limited understanding.  What I found most interesting about his suggestions was his urging to reevaluate the siddur (prayer book), with the thought of ensuring that prayers were not only good for "us" (Jews) but good for everyone. His main issue was with prayers that specified the Jewish people as being "better" than others. Some steps he suggested included thinking hard about the inclusion of some of the best known parts of the liturgy, such as aleinu, and lines like "asher bachar banu mikol haamim" ("who chose us from among all the nations").  There was some pushback from myself and a few others, wondering if there was a way to interpret these prayers in a manner which reaffirmed a pride in being Jewish without putting down others while maintaining the traditional prayers which have been canonized in Orthodox and Conservative prayer books.  Also, from perhaps a more academic perspective, the notion of designation as a religious group, and an embrace of this designation, entails some sort of self-specification, in prayer, no? (Thought welcome!)  His main argument back, which I agree with theoretically, was that many of these prayers (a good example he brought is Shfoch Chamatcha, from the Passover seder) were written in a time when Jews were necessarily separatist and on the defensive, and that one must be attentive to a changed, modern attitude.  I'm not sure I can buy that as a strong enough answer to dispense with a traditional liturgy, though it doesn't seem he plans to do that at the moment anyway, and referenced rightly the notion that large-scale changes would occur only with a teshuva (joint Rabbinical statement about halacha, roughly) to that effect.   In any case, it was a very interesting discussion, and it great to get some more insight into the rabbi's practical religious interests and struggles.
After this discussion, I had my first day back at Hadassah (thus a day of teacher-->student-->teacher), where the music competitions seems to have wrought some sort of plague which kept half the students out of class today.  I have realized, though I don't want to play favorites, that the P4 kids (the first Hebrew-learners) are by far the most rewarding to teach--the group of girls who really try and are coming to read as well as some of the P7s are not only adorable but pride-inducing in their efforts.
Looking toward the weekend, this Shabbat will be a busy one--the AJWS Volunteer Summer group in Uganda (my alma mater, so to speak) is coming through tomorrow which will make for the most muzungus I've since since arrival.  Should definitely be a change, but it'll be great to meet some new people and hear some stories about my old village!