Page 13 - Issue 29

because she would be embarrassed to admit she
didn't know.

The next week Shaked came back and Tomer kept
playing. And as our adventure proceeded other
kids sat down at the table and tried the game out
or peeked through the window. Clearly they were
interested in what was going on.

By week three it was time for each player to create
their own character. Six kids created characters
that day. Tomer's character is especially
noteworthy.

She chose to create a male character. A high elf.
Good with animals. But as we got to the part of
the character description where we talked about
his attributes, Tomer made it a point of
mentioning his respect for women. Shaked
wouldn't know this and neither would the other
students but Tomer has seen male violence first-
hand in ways that no child should have to. So
when she mentioned this several times while
building her character I knew where it was coming
from. And when we got to the part of the
character sheet where she had to write about his
values she brought this up again. "Do you want to
say he's a feminist?" I asked. She didn't know what
that word was. "It's someone who wants to
strengthen and advance women". Yes. The word
feminist was definitely going in the values column.
Now when I tell you that Tomer has trouble sitting
through math and language classes, that probably