Mesivta 404 Mesivta 404: Our Story of Risk-Failure-Opportunity | Page 12

“
After a while we realized we could just
do whatever we wanted and it looked
like we were on the screen paying
attention...eventually I was just wasting
time and playing games while class was
on.
Yoni Ben-Oni
Tenth Grader
”
Morah Rivkah describes a bottom moment
By the time spring arrived, the boys were barely showing up for classes or learning. The few who were
enrolled in math and language classes in the afternoon had fallen behind and dropped out. The space
they were occupying was filled with clutter, garbage and worse.
They all seemed to spend hours playing video games together.
And they didn’t really seem happy. Although it must be every teenaged boy’s small dream to be able to
experience true freedom from structure and responsibility. They had arrived in that place to find it quite
Pull Quote from Rabbi
empty.
Fenton or a kid
We adults seemed to be at a loss to reign in what had begun to grow into a monster. We tried to hire an
assistant to at least provide supervision. They talked right over him. Every way he tried to add structure
made them almost laugh.
ROCK BOTTOM