Principal Carrie Sanchez knew there was nothing that could be said to make the student feel better. But that didn’t mean there was nothing to be done. So she offered him a hug. A full, one minute hug. And as Principal Sanchez explained, it was so their hearts could talk. And it worked. The Hebrew word for education is “chinuch” and its root means “to initiate.” As explained by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh and shown through Principal Carrie Sanchez’s hug, “the teacher is an ‘initiator’ in that his task is to awaken the latent potentialities of his students. He does this by bringing down the light of knowledge to the students’ level, and so inspiring them to a new way of thinking and seeing the world.”
