Photo by Paaz PG

Living Wisdom International High School — Afghanistan Program

At the heart of EFL is a single, luminous idea: The overarching goal of the system is to help each student develop maturity—defined as “the ability to relate appropriately to realities other than one’s own.” And from that maturity flows something even more precious: true success, defined as the ability to face life’s challenges with joy, wisdom, and inner strength—creating a life that is both personally fulfilling and beneficial to others.

Photo by Mahmoud Hamdi

The Journey from the First Afghan Student to the First Afghan Teacher at Living Wisdom

It was January 2023. Life in Afghanistan had become unbearably difficult for girls. For us, education was not just about books or classrooms. It was our only path to freedom, to dreams, to proving to our community that we too could build our country alongside our brothers. For me, school was more than a building; it was a sanctuary of hope. I dreamed of becoming a doctor, of healing the sick and giving families a reason to believe in tomorrow.

Reader Response: Arnold Richards

This communication is a response to the two articles published in ROOM 6.23 about the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians in Israel and on the West Bank: Naftally Israeli’s essay “From Erasure to Exclusion” and Richard Grose’s book review of Lara and Stephen Sheehi’s book, Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine….

Reader Response: Jenny Shepherd

I love this name, the space it brings with it. It feels ready for me to fill it with whatever I need to. Sometimes, that’s all we need—a space, and time to fill that space and maybe just the silence that comes within and is held there. It feels nourishing and it also enlivens those moments when a creeping dissatisfaction occurs as to how one is doing in this heavy, wide, and unruly war-torn world that we belong in. Memories also slide out when we are in this place of reverie.

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Letters to Room: Stefanie Hofer

It has been over a year that I had sent you my piece “Playing with Guns” after attending a church Halloween Festival for children that had many games centered around toy guns. I am happy to report that Blacksburg Christian Fellowship has made changes to its Halloween celebration.

Spring Daffodils. Watercolor by Rona Silverton

A TOAST

Sheldon Bach is a Training and Supervising Analyst and on faculty at IPTAR, He has written five books on psychoanalysis, most recently “Chimeras and Other Writings: Selected Papers of Sheldon Bach” (IP Books, 2016).