James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© February 7, 2013
We have been attending the Tampa Preparatory School’s Grandparents Day for years, and have seen our grandson, Ryan Carr, complete his studies there, where his sister, Rachel, is now a junior (this year Grandparents Day was on Friday, February 1, 2013).
Grandparents Day is always a festive occasion as the Head of School, Kevin Plummer, takes pride in showing off the school, students, and teachers. Students work their special magic in a musical variety show in the gymnasium. Once that is completed, everyone retires to the classroom. Grandparents can then see their progeny at work. This is followed by a luncheon. On this occasion, we were able to see Tampa Prep play a basketball game against its archrival Berkeley Prep, winning in an overtime 72-70.
A single theme ran through the day, which was “music to the soul” as these future leaders of tomorrow were efficiently guided through their activities by faculty, coaches, and administrators with unobtrusive Mr. Plummer as their conductor.
The comments that follow are personal and partial for which grandparents are allowed. Excellence is clearly the predicate of the movement of these young people as if they seem to sense that with special privilege comes special responsibility, which is another definition of leadership.
IN THE CLASSROOM – AP CALCULUS
When I was in high school, there was no special designation of advanced placement (AP) courses, although about a score of us out of a class of some 200 took four years of math, four years of science, two or more years of foreign language, four years of English with an assortment of other courses (required or otherwise) of history, social science, psychology and music, home economics, shop, etc.
After taking algebra, geometry, and trigonometry through my junior year, my senior year focused on college algebra, spherical trigonometry and analytical geometry. College algebra is called “pre-calculus” at Tampa Prep, and our Rachel completed that course in her sophomore year. She is now taking “AP calculus,” which I was unable to take until I entered university.
Currently, Rachel’s AP calculus class of some five girls and thirteen boys is studying differential equations in the graphing of functions at the point the tangent line of the x and y axis touches the graphed curve. The slope of the tangent line equals the derivative of the function at the marked point.
The process of finding a derivative is called differentiation. It has application to nearly all-quantitative disciplines including applications in physics, such as where the derivative of the displacement of a moving body with respect to time is the velocity of the body, and the derivative of velocity with respect to time is acceleration.
Mathematics is often intimidating, especially the mathematics of college algebra and beyond. That was not the case with me as I was blessed with a wonderful math teacher at Clinton High School in Clinton, Iowa by the name of Leonard Herkleman. He made math approachable, understandable and accessible, and for that I am eternally grateful.
MR. BUTCH JALBERT, CALCULUS TEACHER
On this Grandparents Day, we had the privilege of attending a class in AP calculus taught by Mr. Jalbert, who has been teaching mathematics at Tampa Prep for the past 36 years. I felt the same music to the soul here that I felt those many years before in college algebra with Mr. Herkleman.
My BB claims to be intimidated by mathematics. I argue that her problem wasn’t mathematics, as she is quite an effective business manager at Hillel Academy of Tampa (Florida), but not having had access to a teacher whose love of mathematics translated into music to the soul.
On this day, Mr. Jalbert was conducting his normal class in which his students were looking at several graph functions and asked to write the derivative at the marked point of the various convoluted curves.
He also asked the students to explain what they were doing, what the designation was called, and how they would write the derivative. It would be easy for the reader to visualize this were the reader to see the electronic board capturing this magic in the classroom. I say this because my BB said in an aside, “I think I understand what he is doing.” Of course, she did. This was a credit to Mr. Jalbert.
When we were leaving, I thanked this teacher for the fine class. He smiled, “Some of it coming back to you, yes?” I wanted to say, not as much as it would if I had had someone like you in college, but instead just smiled back.
RACHEL CARR
When Rachel was six – she is now sixteen – I used to drive her to the ice skating rink where she was learning to ice skate. It was difficult for her to learn, and she often fell literally on her face, but would pick herself up without crying or embarrassment, struggle to stay on her feet, and continue until she mastered the challenge. I didn’t know then, but I was witnessing what would define my granddaughter’s approach to life.
Mr. Plummer, in a conversation with us after the luncheon, made special note of the brilliant student that Rachel has become, pointing out that she has maximized the benefit of these environs and should be heavily recruited for college. She, like many other students majoring in advanced application courses, should find the transition to university a seamless one in no small way because that six-year-old girl picked herself up from the ice a decade ago without crying and moved on.
During those years of taking Rachel ice-skating, we would have conversations coming and going that became articles in Personal Excellence, a trade publication to which I was then a regular contributor. These articles would feature my picture as well as byline. Rachel would read these articles and say, “Why is your picture always there instead of mine?” I would tell her, “Because I wrote the article.” She would look at me sternly and say, “Don’t you think that is a little unfair? After all, it is not about you. It is about me!” The six-year-old had a point.
ON THE BASKETBALL COURT
It was reassuring to see the magic to the soul in the classroom displayed as well on the basketball court. Similar music is involved in both places.
The mind, heart and soul in the rhythm of the chemistry of the body guide performance in physical and mental activities alike. They require the same attention to detail, the same embracing our natural resistance to pay the price, to confront failure (defeat) in order to entertain success (victory). Neither academics nor athletics are defined exclusively by such arbitrary measures as I.Q. or natural ability. Heart is the defining variable.
It was Wimbledon Champion Arthur Ashe who said many years ago that if athletes applied the same energy to the classroom they did to sport there would be no limit to the profession they might master. Malcolm Gladwell concurs. Stated broadly, he argues in “The Tipping Point” (2000) that 80 percent of influence and power available goes to the 20 percent who repetitively do the things that guarantee such dominance, whereas the other 80 percent share in only 20 percent of the spoils because they refuse to put forth the effort, preferring to complain about their disadvantage.
YONI WASSER
One of the reasons I wanted to attend this basketball game was to see Amy Wasser’s son play basketball. Amy is head of school of Hillel Academy of Tampa. She, like my mother when I played athletics in high school, attends every one of her son’s basketball games. Yoni, on the varsity since a freshman, is now a junior, but not yet a starter.
He is also small compared to many of the other lads, but has never allowed this to interfere with the music to his soul for basketball. In this highly contested game, he played several minutes giving me an opportunity to enjoy seeing him play.
He, like most basketball players, is much more adept at ball handling and dribbling than in my day. Actually, basketball today is a different game.
In my era, there was no three point shot, no dunking, no carrying the ball while dribbling, no taking an extra step before shooting, and no touching another player on defense. If the same rules of my era applied today, I suspect that nearly everyone would have fouled out by the end of the first quarter.
The rule changes have made the game more exciting, faster paced – there were no time limits before shooting in the offensive court – and more entertaining for the fans. Moreover, basketball players today are in much better physical condition than in my era, doing full court presses and fast breaking on nearly every possession. Clearly, players are far more athletic, perhaps because of this, than in my era.
What I found remarkable in Yoni, and he seemed embarrassed when I mentioned this, is that he was a coach on the floor. It was clear that he is a student of the game, spreads the players out when on offense, handles the ball well, while keeping his dribbling to a minimum, always looking for the open man.
On defense, he is so nimbly athletic that he can press his man effectively man-to-man, which not only takes a great deal of agility but energy as well, and can rotate into a zone press with equal alacrity, always keeping himself between his man and the basket.
You can only teach this discipline to a degree, and then the prehensile mind of the player combined with the fluidity of his autonomic nervous system responds athletically to the situation to maximize the advantage of the player. Translated, this is the music to the soul on display on the basketball court, as it was displayed earlier in the classroom at Tampa Prep and, I’m sure, at Berkeley Prep as well.
Student athletics school the body and the mind to be engaged synergistically. Several of these boys on both teams will move on to promising college athletic careers. All players, however, whatever their pursuits in the future, will use the lessons learned here to take them to the next level in life. To that end, I thank them, the faculty, the administration, and Mr. Plummer for making Grandparents Day such a blessing this past Friday.
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