Flatbush isn’t soft enough

Flatbush has gone soft. Flatbush is spoiling its students.

We’re so used to having the new building and post-Covid changes that we barely even know there was a time before it all. As someone who knew Flatbush preCovid and basically grew up in the prenew building Flatbush, I see the effect it has on all of us.

Don’t get me wrong, all the changes are wonderful. Flatbush is now more enticing, prettier, grander, and bigger.

But students don’t appreciate what they have. We’re so lucky to go to a school that cares about everything Flatbush cares about. We’re so lucky to have a two-floor library. We’re so lucky to not smell like chlorine all the time. We’re so lucky to have the new gym. We’re lucky to have Pathfinders. We’re lucky to have so many clubs. We’re lucky to have so many events.

So many positives. So many wonderful additions.

But Belle, you may ask, are there any negatives? Absolutely.

Remember at the beginning of the year when all the Hebrew teachers told you they’d be speaking only Hebrew in the class? Yeah, tell me, how’s that going?

With all the spoiling Flatbush has done over the years to empower and inspire their students, they forgot one of their three core values: educate.

Programs are taking students out of more and more classes. Teachers are so busy trying to make sure that their students aren’t ditching class to go buy Crawford’s that they don’t focus on teaching.

תירבעב תירבע, the one thing Flatbush is known for throughout Jewish schools in America, barely exists anymore!

Students, you are so, so spoiled. Take it from someone who grew up in this building. Appreciate your time in Flatbush. Remember how lucky you are. And thank Hashem every single day for Crawford’s, because God knows we all need a milkshake every once in a while.

By Robyn Beyda School News Editor

A commonly shared sentiment by the bitter senior citizens of society is that the world has gone soft. Kids these days, with their technology and their fragile mental health, are spoiled brats who don’t appreciate the gifts of living in their time. Don’t they know what things used to be like?

High school students Uber to school? We used to walk 10 miles in the snow! Flatbush students aren’t forced to swim in a crusty swamp at the bottom of the basement and walk around with wet hair all day? They actually get to see the light of day, instead of walking up before the crack of dawn to get to school and leaving hours after the sun has set? What kind of blasphemy is this?

Wait, don’t tell me: Flatbush students actually understand what their Judaic studies teachers say in class? They changed the test schedule to minimize student stress? The kids have time for a social life? They enjoy going to school? Oh, shame, shame! Flatbush has gone soft. Kids these days, unlike the hardworking pioneers of the early Joel Braverman days, are a bunch of sissies.

It’s easy for aging generations to lament any significant change to the school that they grew up in. Everyone wants to feel like they had a better high school experience than everyone else, which is why it ails many old-timers to see current students enjoying a school that looks and feels so different from the one they attended. What critics of change are missing though, is that students, too, look different than they did 20 years ago, and that each change made to Flatbush is a change that directly benefits the students of the present and the future.

But … but … but … students are so spoiled! They’re having too much fun! They aren’t studying enough, and they don’t know what it means to work hard!

Let’s be real here. In terms of education and rigor, Yeshivah of Flatbush definitely passes the bar. Even the rare student