AdvanceBlog

I have recently returned to my alma mater as an administrator and professor.  On the first day of staff introductions, I was reacquainted with the former Dean of Students.  I thanked him for listening, for giving my situation full consideration and having a heart of empathy.  For you see, the code of conduct explicitly states that fighting is prohibited and at that time when I was full of immature bravado, Dean Smith had more than enough justification to expel me.

Instead he chose to listen to all the circumstances, factor my immaturity and consider my potential.  He chose to keep me as a probationary student.  Had he chosen otherwise, we definitely would not have had our encounter this week.

My father is an electrician.  Instead of giving me money, he made me earned it.  I carried tools, installed a few light switches, held the ladders he climbed, swept up sawdust, got jerked around for holding drills improperly and held the flashlight while he worked after twilight.  On one occasion, we were installing an outdoor lamp that was to be attached to a house.  I had worked enough with my dad to earn his trust in bending and cutting pipe.  Only eight feet of those ten-foot metal pipes were necessary to house the wiring for the light.  My father with his penchant for uniqueness preferred two 45-degree bends as opposed to one 90-degree bend.  Since he approaches his work like a craft, the precision of those 45-degree bends were a testimony to his skill and diligence.  He entrusted me to carry out his signature bends and cut the pipe with the same assiduousness that he would.  He said, “before you bend and cut that pipe, you better measure it twice to be sure the markings are right so we only have to bend and cut it once.”

He used this simple directive to masquerade a profound life-lesson – measure twice, cut once.

Regarding that pipe, I half-heartedly measured and commenced to produce unevenly distributed bends on a pipe cut too short.  My dad docked my pay – the nicest part of learning that lesson.  The disappointment on his face, the haphazard handling of his craft and the casual disregard for his directive all manifest itself in a midget-crook-in-the-neck pipe that we couldn’t use.  Because when dealing with something essential, before making a choice that will alter its form, we should measure twice and cut once.

When administrators are overburdened with disciplinary issues, it’s easy to “suspend them all”, and in our fatigue, our frustration, and impatience we will make midget-crook-in-the-neck pipes of some of our students.  Indeed, rules serve their purpose but for the child who would rather fight back than be bullied – we should measure their situation twice before dispensing discipline once.  For every student kicked out of class for daring to stand-up to tyrannical teacher – we should measure twice, cut once.  For every apparently combative parent that interrupts our day – measure twice, cut once.  For every choice you make that impacts the life of another – measure twice, cut once.

Dean Smith chose to measure twice.  When he accurately made the one cut slicing off my immaturity, he in fact contributed to building a future colleague.