Avram > And I don’t expect a rebbe to know the background of every talmid’s grandparents and great-grandparents.
I was not clear – I meant he could encourage kids to ask parents about family history. But, frankly, thanks for the thought: the Rebbe obviously needs to know where the kid comes from in order to influence him in the right way. This is like a surgeon not reading X-rays before operation.
But this goes hand-in-hand with the overall theory of schooling: if the teacher is sure that he is “frummer” and he just needs to save kids from the parents’ aveiros, then there is no need to inquire.