"Maybe she needed the money." This was my 7-year-old daughter's contribution to what had become a regular dinner conversation about the Roslyn Schools' debacle. Of course my wife and I responded by telling both our kids that stealing is always wrong, and those who robbed our schools should, and would, be punished. I imagine our family discussion has been replicated at dinner tables all across our community. And as more revelations come to light and the trials begin, it's likely that our kids will challenge us further. After all, educational leaders aren't just information conveyors and test givers; they are moral exemplars. Certainly we want them to teach their students math and language and history, but we hope that they will also impart a love of learning for its own sake, a passion for critical thinking and a commitment to society. We want our kids' educators to be mentors to them, inspiring growth of character.

I think we can be proud of Roslyn's response to the school crisis. Yes, there was anger and, at times, nastiness. But there were also individuals who stepped into the void and helped guide us to a new budget we could all support. Others have chosen to run for vacated school board positions under the most challenging circumstances, an act of courage and civic devotion. We owe them all our gratitude. And now, as the new school year begins, one can sense the beginning of a new chapter. We all want to return to the work of sustaining and improving our excellent schools, and we will.

I also believe that this crisis affords an opportunity for some community introspection. Now that the healing has begun, it's a good idea to ask what generates this kind of brazen corruption. It begins, I think, with the evil inclination within all of us. Every decent person devotes ample energy to keeping our demons at bay and avoiding the temptation to take what isn't ours. The great sages of the Jewish tradition called those demons the sitra ahra, the dark side of human consciousness. Every one of us has it. And every single person knows of the struggle to confront it. Laws with the threat of punishment help scare us from crossing the line, but I think children best develop their moral fiber because their parents encourage it. Good parenting means modeling hard work and honesty; it means showing our kids that there are great intrinsic rewards for behaving with integrity.

Our current community priorities make good parenting harder and harder. I am no longer surprised when students tell me that almost everyone cheats at Roslyn High School. Grades are everything, and the pressure to get the A's and gain admission to one of the Ivies trumps everything else, including, if necessary, earning them honestly. I recently heard the following story. A graduate of Roslyn High School, now in college, ran into a former classmate and his father. After briefly catching up, the young man told his father that he should thank this young woman for his admission to college. He sat next to her in class for a year and cheated off her papers. The father laughed and turned to the young woman and thanked her.

With such inordinate stress to succeed, and the fear of failure so crippling, we shouldn't be surprised that so many good kids give in to the impulse to cut corners. Nor should we be shocked that when the weekend comes they let off steam with drugs and alcohol. Not every kid can, or should, go to one of the schools in the top tier of the U.S. News and World Report survey. Does that mean that they are less important to us? Many such students tell me that they often feel like second-class citizens, as if their needs, their dreams, are driven into the closet.

As the dust settles we can be proud of our district's new leadership and of the new mechanisms and oversight that will help prevent such a travesty from happening again. But we would be remiss if we stopped there. Let us reimagine our district's mission. Is it primarily to produce the greatest number of acceptances to Penn and Yale, or is it to encourage all our students to explore their unique passions and gifts. If we value the latter, then we will have to ratchet down the stifling grade pressure we subject them to; we will have to encourage them to take risks in school, to explore different academic vistas. And most of all, we will have to applaud the entire spectrum of options open to them. Many will still go to the best colleges, but more will discover passions for lifetime learning, and less will find themselves giving in to their sitra ahra.

Rabbi Michael White,

Temple Sinai