6/29/2010 Cover Story - The Transformer

Reuven Feuerstein is the quintessential believer in the power of the human spirit. Just ask 16-year-old Alex, the English boy who had half his brain surgically removed and who experts said would, at best, attain the mental level of an idiot.

Alex Oliver is not Jewish, but for the past year he has lived in , at Professor Feuerstein's Center for Learning Potential, where his progress has defied his dismal diagnosis by the British medical community. Alex was born with a disorder of the blood vessels in his brain, leading to epileptic seizures. From infancy to age seven, Alex's fits were kept in check by daily doses of powerful drugs, yet he hadn't learned to speak. One day his brother accidentally took Alex's medication and lost the ability to talk. Alex's brother didn't say a word for five days, behaving much like a severely mentally handicapped child. At that point, Alex's mother, Helena, realized how Alex's medication had handicapped him, and understood that if she ever wanted him to have a shot at a normal life, he had to get off the medication.

Undaunted by pessimistic medical predictions, Mrs. Oliver collected a team of neurologists and a neurosurgeon to remove the damaged left half of Alex's brain; they hoped this would enable the right brain to begin functioning properly. The operation was a surgical success; when the drugs were halted, Alex even began to speak. But after years in a special school, Alex was still unable to read, write or do arithmetic.

Then Mrs. Oliver contacted Professor Feuerstein. Known as "the Transformer" to the parents of thousands of disabled children around the world whose lives he has changed, he gained notoriety in England two years ago. At that time he became the unintended hero of a scandal involving former Cabinet Minister Lord Cecil Parkinson and his illegitimate handicapped daughter, Flora Keyes, for whom Feuerstein cared in Jerusalem. jewishhomemaker.com/…/cover.html 1/9 6/29/2010 Cover Story - The Transformer

Flora had developed a severe form of epilepsy as a baby. When she was four, brain surgery controlled her seizures but left her with severe learning difficulties and an IQ of 48. Psychiatrists in England wrote her off as incapable of integration with ordinary children and uneducable. A British television documentary team filmed Flora's progress in Jerusalem. Over a period of three months, Feuerstein transformed Flora from a child who could not sit still for more than 30 seconds, who could not concentrate and would not listen, into a young girl who loved to study and was able to sit quietly and pay attention. Lord Parkinson, wanting to save face over the embarrassment of abandoning responsibility for the daughter he had never seen, made sure the film was never aired, successfully petitioning the High Court that the publicity would be detrimental to the girl.

The unwitting winner in the episode was Feuerstein. During the legal haggling, censorship rules required that the girl be identified as "Child Z," but Professor Feuerstein was mentioned as the girl's miracle worker in every newspaper article.

Mrs. Oliver followed the case and thought her son Alex might have a chance at a normal life with Professor Feuerstein's help. After Feuerstein administered a battery of tests to Alex at his Jerusalem institute, he determined that the boy could be taught to read and write.

In less than a year Alex has made spectacular progress, all the more surprising since the left brain – the part Alex is missing – is thought to be responsible for language acquisition.

"He is starting to achieve what everyone said was impossible," says the professor. "He can add four-digit numbers together, he can read by phonetically decoding words, and he can write beautifully."

Professor Feuerstein calls the system he has developed over the last 50 years "cognitive modifiability." He starts with tests designed to identify the source of the child's intellectual deficit. He then imposes a rigorous regime of cognitive exercises, which he believes gradually builds up some of those deficiencies. "I have a belief that people can be changed for the better," says Feuerstein. "I have a system for how to accomplish that. It's not miracles, just a lot of hard work."

Reuven Feuerstein, an Orthodox Jew who is readily identifiable by his trademark blue beret and flowing white beard, looks like a cross between a Biblical prophet and a 19th-century French artist. At his International Center for Enhancement of Learning Potential, Feuerstein is revered by the 150-member professional staff, which considers him the genius of transformation. He is referred to simply as "The Professor" jewishhomemaker.com/…/cover.html 2/9 6/29/2010 Cover Story - The Transformer both by the staff and children.

Reuven Feuerstein was born in Botosan, Rumania, in 1921. He escaped to Palestine in 1944 and began his life's work with children of the Holocaust, helping them overcome the traumas and handicaps they had acquired because of the Nazis. Since then he has evolved a series of systems for working with children who manifest a range of difficulties – from being slow learners to having almost no response to those around them.

The Feuerstein Theory, technically called Structural Cognitive Modifiability and Mediated Learning Experience, and the Feuerstein Method, called Instrumental Enrichment, are founded on the premise that intelligence is not a fixed quality, determined at birth by one's genes. Rather, it is a variable that can be developed at every stage of life. "Human beings," insists Feuerstein, "have the unique characteristic of being able to modify themselves no matter how they start out. A person can overcome even inborn barriers and traumas." Special children need more input than others, but Feuerstein has proven thousands of times that children classified as hopeless can reach surprising levels.

Feuerstein doesn't believe in IQ tests, which he says indicate what the child has learned, not what he's capable of learning. To Feuerstein, the key is to discover the barriers to a child's learning so that they can be bypassed.

"Our methods are based on the idea that every person has a healthy part," he explains. "We are not looking for the pathological part, the weakness, but the strength. We believe in reshaping the person through accessing his healthy part. The Torah teaches that people can be changed to come closer to G-d, in whose image we are all made."

Feuerstein's success stories are inspiring. They include the drama teacher who was brought to him as jewishhomemaker.com/…/cover.html 3/9 6/29/2010 Cover Story - The Transformer a child with an IQ of 60, and the mentally limited girl who finished regular high school, was an editor of the yearbook and became a parachutist. Then there is Jason Kinsley, a Down's Syndrome young man who wrote the book Count Me In. And Roman Aldubi, the yeshiva student whose skull and brain were smashed in a terrorist ambush of a youth group. Despite the doctors' dire predictions that he'd remain a vegetable if he survived, Roman functions normally and works in computers,

Many of Professor Feuerstein's clients are Down's Syndrome children, once routinely institutionalized for belief that they could not function normally in society. Feuerstein has proved the experts wrong. Many of his clients attend regular schools and reach a moderate level of self- sufficiency. The institute is now training eighty Down's Syndrome young adults to be caretakers for the elderly, a profession for which Feuerstein says they are excellently suited.

In addition, Feuerstein, with top Israeli and European plastic surgeons, has pioneered the use of surgery to improve the appearance of the Down's Syndrome child.

Chaya Shore is a chassidic woman who recently gave birth to her thirteenth child, a Down's girl. When the baby was just weeks old, the professor evaluated her. "What can I expect from her?" Chaya asked. "Grandchildren," he answered.

"When a distraught couple comes to me after having a Down's baby, I can't give any limiting predictions," he says. "Neither I nor they have any idea how far their child may go. One thing I tell them is to start preparing a dowry. Today many of my students are able to get married."

Professor Feuerstein's first experience with the learning disabled came when he was eight. He learned to read at age two, and was reading his mother's Tzenah U'Renah (a book of Torah stories popular in Europe) by three. One day, the elderly father of the town troublemaker, a 15-year-old boy who never learned to read, approached young Reuven with a request. Perhaps he could teach the troublemaker, the man's only son, how to say Kaddish. jewishhomemaker.com/…/cover.html 4/9 6/29/2010 Cover Story - The Transformer

"To help the father die happily, I took on the challenge. I found the key to unlock the boy's intellect. Today he is 84, with a slew of grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

When the war came to Rumania, Feuerstein was studying psychology at the university in Bucharest and teaching in a school that was set up for children whose parents had been taken by the Nazis.

"Afterwards, I heard that the school director told others, ‘Reuven has a good heart, but he's stupid. Why is he teaching these poor children to sing, to think and to express themselves? He should be teaching them how to use a hammer and nails. That's what they need to know!' "

Feuerstein was active in underground work. On Erev Purim in 1944, coming home from a clandestine meeting, a Rumanian secret policeman arrested him. On the way to the police station, the officer arrested four drunkards. Feuerstein convinced the officer to go with him to get something to eat before the imminent interrogation. Feuerstein brought the entourage to the home of Rabbi Yitzchok Friedman, the Bahusher Rebbe, zt'l.

When the rebbetzin opened the door and saw Reuven flanked by an armed officer and four drunks, she immediately grasped the situation, seated the group, and plied them with liquor until they were out cold. Reuven was soon out the door, supplied with hamantaschen, and several days later made his way to a ship sailing to Palestine.

Feuerstein remained close to the Bahusher Rebbe, who escaped Rumania and settled in Tel Aviv. In fact, it was the Rebbe who gave Feuerstein his blessing for success as he embarked on his career in . "I felt the Rebbe's words indicated my chosen profession was not just a privilege, but a duty," says Feuerstein.

Arriving in Israel, Feuerstein joined a religious kibbutz. He studied in a teacher's seminary and began working with Holocaust survivors. In 1948, with the outbreak of the War of Independence, he contracted tuberculosis and was sent to Switzerland to recuperate. He involved himself in aliyah work, serving as Director of Psychological Services of in Europe, and spearheading French and North African immigration to the fledgling state. He had to prepare reports on prospective olim, including information on their mental capacity. Reuven knew that if he mentioned a mental handicap, he was dooming that person's hopes of aliyah. That's when Reuven began to formulate methods for helping people reach their potential even if their situation looked hopeless. jewishhomemaker.com/…/cover.html 5/9 6/29/2010 Cover Story - The Transformer One of the most touching moments in his career was a reunion with a young man who everyone said was a lost cause. One day, in the pre- immigration holding camp in France where he was stationed, Feuerstein met a 12-year-old boy whose emotional and physical world had hit bottom. Orphaned as an infant, he had lived like an alley cat in the open markets of Morocco. He was violent and had no apparent ability to learn. He also suffered from ringworm, so that none of the other youngsters went near him. There was no place for him to sleep, and he wound up in Feuerstein's bunk. Feuerstein saw the boy as an opportunity to put his ideas to the test.

Feuerstein took him to Paris to clear up his skin condition and began teaching him to read and write. He discovered a boy of extraordinary intelligence. The boy was sent to Israel, where he excelled in his studies and became an army officer. Years later, Feuerstein was lecturing at an army base when a handsome officer ran up to him, threw his arms around his neck and cried, "Abba!" It was the Moroccan boy.

In Europe, Feuerstein studied advanced psychology under the world- famous behaviorists and . He returned to Israel in 1955 with an advanced degree, a great deal of theoretical knowledge, and some novel ideas how best to help the disadvantaged youth of the young country. He established two pioneer youth villages, and in the past 40 years thousands of productive citizens have been educated there. In addition, hundreds of educators and psychologists from all over the world have done their training in these villages.

Feuerstein received his doctorate in at the Sorbonne, in Paris. Six years ago he received the esteemed Israel Prize in Education, which he simply added to dozens of other international awards he has collected over the years.

One of Professor Feuerstein's biggest fans was the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt'l, who over thirty years ago began to refer people to the professor for assessment and assistance. The two maintained contact over many cases, and Feuerstein says he was always amazed at the Rebbe's ability to pinpoint the depths of a person's essence in seconds, when it would take him many professional hours.

During one stay in the U.S., Feuerstein was invited by a Congressional team to examine the high suicide rate of young Native jewishhomemaker.com/…/cover.html 6/9 6/29/2010 Cover Story - The Transformer Americans living on reservations. A basic principle for Feuerstein is that tradition is an essential part of a person's mental health, regardless of his religion or nationality. Feuerstein discovered that the young people on the reservations were missing the link to their tradition, and that American culture didn't offer them a meaningful alternative. Feuerstein set up a program with the Indian chiefs to instill cultural pride in Indian youth.

He returned to Crown Heights for Shabbos to be with the Rebbe. "During the farbrengen," Feuerstein recalls, "the Rebbe talked about the need to teach the Noahide Laws to non-Jews, emphasizing that one aspect of this mission is to help humanity in need, whoever they may be. I was having mixed feelings about all the time I had spent helping American Indians on a reservation, but the Rebbe took away all my hesitations. I felt he was addressing me personally. Several times he turned to me and said l'Chaim.

"Since then I have emphasized tradition with all my clients. If you can activate the internal Jewish spark, you can see amazing transformations."

Feuerstein says it is his outlook on life that has led to his achievements. "If you have two alternatives, don't make the pessimistic choice. Always choose like an optimist. At least that will bring you to action, to test the waters. If you take the pessimistic route, you'll never accomplish anything. Even if you don't think you'll reach the highest levels, you still have to try to climb up."

Rachel Ginsberg, a frequent contributor, lives in Israel.

HOW TO REACH DR. FEUERSTEIN

If you wish to contact Dr. Reuven Feuerstein about a particular case, the address is:

The Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential Rechov Narkiss 47 P.O.B. 7755 Jerusalem, Israel

The fax number is 011-972-2-561-9815. They ask that you send along any relevant details, including test results and evaluations.

DOWN’S SYNDROME HITS HOME

jewishhomemaker.com/…/cover.html 7/9 6/29/2010 Cover Story - The Transformer When Reuven Feuerstein's own grandson was born with Down's Syndrome, his decades of work hit home.

"I had often wondered how I would react to such an event. I had said to parents so many times that the birth of a Down's baby was not a cause for sadness, but for joy. Then it happened to me. But I have to tell you, I passed the test."

Elchanon, 9, is Feuerstein's pride and joy. Elchanon davens, reads, and attends a regular school, and with enrichment hours has kept up with his class. Elchanon's father is Rafi Feuerstein, Rabbi of Kibbutz Ein Tzurim and a psychologist at his father's institute. Rafi began studying his father's methods when Elchanon was born, and was so enthused by Elchanon's development that he is now completing a master's in cognitive psychology.

"Elchanon is genetically handicapped. With a Down's child you can't ignore it," says Rafi. "But the question is what we can do about it. If we say intelligence is internal, we can't do anything, but if we say that Elchanon has a barrier that won't let the knowledge in, if we can find a way to bypass that barrier, he will be able to learn."

When Elchanon was a few weeks old, Professor Feuerstein gave his grandchild the basis of learning to speak. Feuerstein would repeat a syllable hundreds of times. Slowly Elchanon would move his lips, trying to imitate. Before he even spoke, he learned the precondition of imitation, so that by age two, jewishhomemaker.com/…/cover.html 8/9 6/29/2010 Cover Story - The Transformer he had a vocabulary of hundreds of words.

Feuerstein says of his grandson: "I know that Elchanon is slower, so I have to talk to him more slowly than I do to my other children. I have to repeat things more times until he understands. He is also not so focused. That is one of his barriers and is one of the conditions for learning. Because we understand the barriers, we work within his limits. If Elchanon would take a multiple- choice test in school, he would fail, because he's impulsive. He would automatically pick the first choice without thinking. Does that mean he can't think and elaborate? No. It just means he has to be guided and given tests that won't sabotage him."

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