When read at face value, the eleven verses of Genesis 37:1\u201311 describe deeply troubling family and sibling dynamics, with both implicit and explicit signs of conflict.<\/p>\n
To turn this story into a \u201cmedicine for the mind\u201d borrowing Howard Deitcher\u2019s expression, a sequence of pedagogical steps based on his bibliotherapy approach can be applied. In this article, I apply it in a hypothetical lesson for a group of 15- to 17-year-old high school students.<\/p>\n
First, noticing the themes<\/strong> in the story helps set the stage for later discussion: Jacob\u2019s favoritism of Joseph, resentment and hate among brothers, bringing negative reports about one’s siblings, and escalating the conflict by recounting his dreams.<\/p>\n These themes warrant what Deitcher called \u201cguided reading,<\/strong>\u201d encouraged by particular exploratory questions: \u201cHow do brothers respond when they hear about Joseph\u2019s dreams?,\u201d \u201cHow does the story make the favoritism visible?,\u201d or \u201cIs there a progression in how brothers respond over time to what Joseph does and says?\u201d<\/p>\n Such close reading is an invitation to give voice to multiple viewpoints<\/strong> and provide a framework that connects the story to students‘ lived experience: \u201cWhy do parents sometimes show preference for one child openly?,\u201d \u201cHow does it affect relations in the fam ily?,\u201d \u201cWhat does it take in sibling relationships to build mutual support rather than rivalry \u2013 and can parents help by modelling or helping students internalize certain values?,\u201d or \u201cWhy do we sometimes say or do things that we know will make others hate us?\u201d<\/p>\n To activate the story\u2019s healing potential, the experience of the story characters needs to be felt by students, not just imagined. This is achieved by \u201cmediating dialogue<\/strong>\u201d when some students replay possible conversations while taking the role of Joseph\u2019s brothers, another taking the role of Joseph, and still others playing Jacob or a less visible character from the story or even an imaginary character showing how Rachel might have responded to the situation, had she had a chance \u2013 with Rachel being the mother figure missing from Joseph\u2019s life.<\/p>\n To follow up the mediated dialogue, Deitcher suggests follow-up activities<\/strong>, possibly involving an outside expert such as a psychologist specializing in family dynamics. Even watching an educational video or film excerpts on the topic of sibling rivalry is a relevant \u2013 and less logistically demanding – option.<\/p>\n To close the lesson, students need an opportunity to reflect on which perspectives speak to them, how their understanding of the story changed through the discussion, and if they see their own family relations in a new light through this experience. This internalization<\/strong> helps students make the learning their own and equips them to better navigate similar situations in their lives \u2013 with the story effectively doing the therapeutic work Deitcher describes.<\/p>\n This methodical sequence progresses from reader-level engagement with the text to personal encounter and ensures the students are familiar with the text before they are invited to see themselves in it.<\/p>\n To illustrate the application of the method, verses 2 to 4 can be taken as an example:<\/p>\n The theme is status in a family.<\/p>\n The guided reading question: \u201cIn light of the fact that Joseph’s mother Rachel had died, why is Joseph described in verse 2 as \u2018a helper to the sons of his father\u2019s wives Bilhah and Zilpah?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Multiple viewpoints question: \u201cWhy did Joseph bring bad reports on his brothers \u2014 and what does this action signal about his position within the family?\u201d<\/p>\n Mediating dialogue arrangement: one person performs an internal monologue of 17-year-old Joseph after he is treated as a \u201chelper\u201d to his brothers.<\/p>\n Exploration for internalization: Reflect \u2013 individually or in pairs \u2013 on what you did to improve your standing in the family when you were made to feel like you mattered less.<\/p>\n Such sequence can help students feel another side of Joseph \u2013 typically admired for his character and closeness to God in later chapters \u2013 that of a\u00a0teenager fighting for his place in the family.<\/p>\n As powerful as the tool of bibliotherapy is, it does require that students engage with the text not just intellectually but through personal encounter. The approach also has inherent challenges.<\/p>\n One challenge is allocating sufficient time for students not only to engage deeply with the text but also to bring that engagement to a proper close. The recommended sequence should not be abruptly ended without proper closure.<\/p>\n Second is psychological safety needed in case the story touches on a student’s deep vulnerability and leads to intense emotional reaction. This requires the teacher to adopt a non-typical role \u2013 not quite a regular teacher, and not yet a therapist \u2013 which the teacher must be confident in handling.<\/p>\n Third, it is a challenge on its own to shift the lesson objective from \u201cstudents understand the narrative\u201d to \u201cstudents use the narrative to understand themselves.\u201d The teacher needs to be aware that making the lesson more personal \u2013 even if still a pedagogical tool rather than a clinical therapy session – makes it emotionally more charged. Designing such an encounter with the text gives the teacher less room to retreat to the safety of simpler „content delivery.“<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Deitcher, H. (2019). Bibliotherapy and teaching Jewish texts: \u201cMedicine for the mind.\u201d Religious Education<\/em>, 114<\/em>(1), 17\u201329. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/00344087.2018.1526363<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When read at face value, the eleven verses of Genesis 37:1\u201311 describe deeply troubling family and sibling dynamics, with both implicit and explicit signs of conflict. To turn this story into a \u201cmedicine for the mind\u201d borrowing Howard Deitcher\u2019s expression, a sequence of pedagogical steps based on his bibliotherapy approach can be applied. In this… \u010c\u00edta\u0165 viac »Using bibliotherapy approach with the story of Joseph and his family<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-huji"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clovek.sk\/sk_sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}