The Pitfalls of Praise

Last week I took my twelve-year-old son to the first meeting with the tutor who'll be helping him learn the Torah portion for his Bar Mitzvah next June.  (Eeeek!)

Half-listening to the tutor's introduction and my son's clumsy reading of a couple of Hebrew prayers, I was about to check out altogether and succumb to my mental to-do list when I heard the tutor clap and declare, "You are SUCH a good reader!"

I cringed.  I'm no Hebrew scholar, but even half-listening it was pretty clear to me that o...