Rabbi Claude's Scribbles

 Jo and Walter were born nearly fifteen years apart.  Jo, on 5 th September in Chicago and Walter, on 19 th March in Idar-Obestein in what was ‘West Germany’. Her father, Armando Tejada, was a Bolivian aeronautical engineer, whilst her mother Josephine was of English descent and the daughter of an architect.   Jo was the eldest of three children.   The family moved to San Diego when Jo was two years old and she attended the Pacific Beach Presbyterian Church with her mother every Sunday morning.   At the same time, her mother enrolled her in ballet lessons.   Many years later, she recalled her father as being a ‘dominating and tyrannical figure’ which led to her parents divorcing around the time she was finishing high school. Blessed with beauty from a very young age, she won a number of contests which led to her being crowned the ‘Maid of California’. Walter’s father was an American soldier and when he was two, his parents moved to Carney’s Point in New Jersey.   He had a young

‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’ (George Bernard Shaw, ‘Man and Superman’, 1905) ‘Those who can't do, teach.   And those who can't teach, teach gym.’ (Woody Allen, Annie Hall, 1977) A few years ago, my youngest two daughters went to New York on a sightseeing trip.   Neither had been before and they had a wonderful time together.   They brought me some souvenirs, one of which sits on my work desk and makes me smile every time I glance at it. It’s a desk plate displaying the following legend: Any fellow teachers out there (and presumably non-educationalists too) will appreciate the irony of the quotation.   For if that were really the case, many of my colleagues and friends would not be standing on the picket-lines losing a day’s pay to make their point.   If anything, carrying out our jobs leads to infamy!   I didn’t become a teacher to curry favour with students.   I chose this profession because I believed, and still do, in the intrinsic importance of educat

 Before I begin, I would like to confirm that although I am Claude, I am not ‘Claude’ , as per the subtitle of this Drasha.  This does not mean that I have been replaced in an ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ type operation.  I have not lost control of my faculties.  Far from it.  It’s simple really. I’m just not ‘Claude’. A short while ago, a close friend introduced me to something that could potentially change my life and perhaps yours.  It will certainly have an impact on the lives of your children and grandchildren in ways that may not yet be fully understood.  We are on the cusp of a transformative technology which you might have heard of recently. Friends, I am of course referring to ‘ChatGPT’, the world’s most advanced AI, which we know is an acronym for Artificial Intelligence.  The company behind it, OpenAi was formed in December 2015 by a number of people including Elon Musk.  Its founders pledged $1 billion to develop its potential with Musk selling his share to Microsof