I write about things I don’t know all that well just to try and understand them. The act of writing is an investigative, learning act. - Grace Paley

A first assignment: to be repeated whenever necessary, by me or the class. Write a story, a first-person narrative in the voice of someone with whom you're in conflict. Someone who disturbs you, worries you, someone you don't understand. Use a situation you don't understand.

I thank you, Papa, for your kindness. It is true about me to this day. I am foolish but I am not a fool.

That word identity has been hard for many women who live secular lives and maybe harder for religious women and also feminists. But the women's movement has made a big difference. I don't know who it hasn't helped in this world. It's given a lot of Jewish women courage to stay Jewish and fight.