High grades - by Chaya Simon (as told by Marcia)

Now it goes without saying that all of our abilities are a gift from Ha-Shem. In those rare cases where someone is extraordinarily gifted, he has the responsibility to use those gifts in the best possible way. In Gedaliah's case, it was a true Kiddush Ha-Shem. You see, at that time when we Shaffers went to school, there were very few frum families living in Boston. The people of my parent's generation who had experienced World War II and the holocaust went off the derech. My father A.H. was a very rare individual indeed, who was committed to giving his children a Torah education. But he had to face constant criticism from people who told him that he was ruining his children by not giving them a complete education and they would never be able to get into college or get decent jobs. So when Gedaliah became a National Merit Scholar, got the highest possible score on his college boards and was accepted at Harvard and MIT, it gave my father the perfect argument. Just send your children to Yeshiva and they will get a better education than at the fanciest public schools.