Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/97177
FIRST PERSON First Person by Tom Bower, Athletics Director The Headmaster���s Bicycle This is an edited version of Athletic Director Tom Bower���s Inspiramus (the words of inspiration shared with faculty and staff each year at their opening meeting in August and a tradition that was started by Richard Dolezal). Thirty-one years ago today, I was sitting where all of you are sitting. I could tell right away Latin was going to be different. The new headmaster, Jonathan Slater, provided me my first clue. He gave the Inspiramus that morning, and it seemed like the greatest speech I had ever heard. I wanted to burst out of the theater, run onto the street, and yell: ���I���m a teacher, the greatest profession anyone could ever aspire to!��� Instead, I walked up to the faculty room to check my mail and found an apple in my mailbox. There was an apple in every teacher���s mailbox, put there by the headmaster. Another sign to me Latin was going to be special. So, I settled into my teaching routine. Like any young teacher, I made plenty of mistakes, and it took me a long time to realize how important mistakes can be in the learning process. I recently heard a story about the value of oriental rugs. A shopkeeper explained why a genuine oriental rug is so expensive. ���It���s one of a kind,��� he exclaimed. ���And you know why it���s one of a kind?��� He turned it over. ���Because of the mistakes!��� This story confirmed something I have been thinking about ��� that mistakes are important to learning. Or rather that helping students overcome the fear of making a mistake is important. ���There are two kinds of winning, the traditional method ��� results on the scoreboard, and winning in terms of ���mastery��� or effort, learning and response to mistakes.��� 22 L AT I N M AGAZINE Jim Thompson, the founder of the Positive Coaching Alliance, an organization with which Latin partners, coined the phrase, ���mistakes are OK��� and made it a principal concept of PCA philosophy. Another concept of Thompson���s is that there are two kinds of winning: the traditional method of results on the scoreboard, and winning in terms of ���mastery��� or effort, learning and response to mistakes. Studies have shown that the most successful athletes are those who put their hearts into mastering their sports, rather than focusing on the score. Similarly, our students are most successful when we allow them to make mistakes and learn from them. It is one way we can support them as they strive for ���mastery.��� Now to the legend of headmaster���s bicycle, which should tell you a little more about teaching and learning at Latin, and how we as educators handle a mistake can have a great impact on our students. So, my first year at Latin was also Jonathan Slater���s. As often happens when a new head of school is installed, there is a certain amount of uncertainty, even upheaval, in the transition. One group often affected by new school leadership is the twelfth grade class, and for reasons that escape me now, the upperclassmen were unhappy with Headmaster Slater. Most days, Jonathan Slater rode his bike to school. Not a 10-speed or mountain bike, but more of a Goodbye Mr. Chips bicycle. He was tall, and he cut a bit of a figure cruising through Lincoln Park and DePaul. One morning the seniors declared war.