We’ve become great at categorizing people. We’ve become horrific at just seeing people.

We see a political position, a religious label, a social type, a difficult child, an underperforming employee, or someone who has disappointed us. We decide what they represent without giving much thought to what might be beneath the surface or to discovering who they truly are.

More often than not, we have very good intentions. But as parents, as educators, as mentors, and as friends, we fail to appreciate the consequence of a top-down approach of “I know what you need, I know who you should become, and my job is to impose that upon you,” which is that the child – the human – can disappear beneath the program, the rules, or the educator’s authority.

In this week’s portion, as the Jewish........

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