Rav Avigdor Miller on Teaching Your Son How to Learn Gemara vs. BT schools

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Q
How can we train young boys to make a laining on a piece of gemara, to be able to read a gemara on their own, without the agmas nefesh that a lot of children and parents suffer through? 

A:
To help young boys make a good laining, I would say as follows. When someone begins to learn gemara but he’s not prepared for it, it’s like climbing a high mountain with a heavy pack on your back. You must first lighten the load. 

I would say that the first thing is to let the child learn all of Pirkei Avos. And he should be able to translate every single word. It’s not difficult, but it takes time. And he must be able to translate every word. And once he’s able to daventhrough Pirkei Avos without any hesitation, then give him an old mishnayis, without nekudos, and let him say Pirkei Avos. And when he learns to daventhrough Pirkei Avos without nekudos, now he’s ready to start Elu Metzius. Take Rabbi Lomner’s Elu Metzius. It’s a linear translation – a very easy gemara to use. Let him learn Elu Metzius. Even if he doesn’t know the meanings of the ideas – even though he doesn’t catch on to the arguments, nevertheless let him know how to translate Elu Metzius from beginning to end.

Now once he does that, then he’s ready for gemara. Yes, I guarantee you that a boy who follows this system, and he can, after a while, bentch Elu Metzius from beginning to end, he’s ready. He’ll start catching on.

Then, the problem is no longer the style of the gemara – the idiom. He knows all these things already. Now it’s the arguments of the Gemara that he’s faced with. And arguments alone he’ll be able to deal with. But without this preparation that I’m telling you about – if he’ll have to deal with the arguments plus the translation of the words and also the gemara’s style – that’s too much for him. And most boys therefore stumble on that big problem. They never had any preparation. They were never prepared properly. And I guarantee you that following this system will lead to success. 

TAPE # E-198 (November 1999)

Here's what we did in BT school. Open up a yeshivish mesechta like Baba Matzia or Kiddushin and start. I spent time in 4 schools. In none of them did we get any background on the style of the Gemara or its history, the design of the page. We didn't even get a vocabulary list. And we certainly didn't start with Pirkei Avos or Mishnayos. 

Here's my theory of why this happens. It's because the guys who run BT schools can't find any other kind of employment. They have minimal secular education and no job experience. All they know is Gemara lomdus and they have been indoctrinated to believe that's the only worthy activity in life. They aren't really interested in education or kiruv, so they just pick up where they left off after kollel, not stopping to consider that they had a entire childhood of buildup to Gemara lomdus. They see a 25 year old BT and have him do whey they did at age 25. They weren't studying Mishnayos at that age, so they don't teach that. They weren't studying Hebrew at that age, so they don't teach that. They weren't learning about mitzvos at that age (they did that as boys), so they don't teach that. Unfortunately, the poor BT needs to study Hebrew, and mitzvos, and hashkafa, and Chumash, and Pirkei Avos, and Mishnah. Too bad for him because the former (or current) kollel guy who is responsible for his life now isn't interested in that stuff.