Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/97177
���I can think of no more powerful legacy than helping young people realize their potential as people as well as students.��� It was a morning like any other. Except when you walked into the upper school and headed up the main staircase, there was a bicycle suspended by ropes over your head. It was clear that it was the headmaster���s bicycle��� and it had been painted pink. By mid-morning, the school was buzzing. What was going to happen? Would there be expulsions? A couple of days after the pink bicycle made its appearance, as the teachers and students filed into the theater for morning gathering, we noticed that the curtain was drawn, and on stage there was a lone rocking chair. Everyone sat down, and you could hear a pin drop. Dressed in a robe and stocking cap, Slater stepped through the curtain, sat down, opened a book, and proceeded to read a fable about the Land of Latin. I don���t remember many of the details of the fable, but it was spellbinding. It related the happy people of the Land, and the good king who tried to rule with compassion and cared deeply about his subjects. Life was good in the kingdom. Then, one day, some of the kingdom���s senior serfs absconded with the royal bicycle and painted it pink. The king was astounded, hurt and perplexed by the act. He sought the counsel of the greatest minds in the kingdom. These turned out to be the Lord Protector Sir Richard Dolezal and the Grand Vizier Humphrey Cordes, who were two revered members of the faculty. The king valued their advice and pondered what to do about the assault on the royal bicycle. He recognized the youthful enthusiasm that prompted such action and acknowledged that change is difficult for the young, with their heightened sense of justice. His decision? I quote from the fable���s manuscript: ���I must this one time forgive my senior serfs,��� the king said. ���But I must warn them: Not again, not in our kingdom, will we tolerate such a corrupt act.��� He decreed: ���All will now be well. ��� With that, Headmaster Slater exited through the curtain, and the theater went wild, a standing ovation, as I recall. A masterful solution to a potentially sticky situation, if you ask me. Further confirmation that Latin was a special place. So I start my 31st year at Latin just as excited as I was in my first. I remain in awe of you, my colleagues. I admire your energy, your passion, your love of teaching. I can think of no more powerful legacy than helping young people realize their potential as people as well as students. I hope you will be the kind of teacher your students will remember with gratefulness for the rest of their lives, even long after you have passed on. n LATI N SCHOOL OF CHI CA GO 23