The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

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The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

The Forum

The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

The Forum

Two Assemblies in Three Days Leaves Conflicting Message with Latin Community

Lily Campbell Howard Tullman, CEO of 1871 in Chicago, once said “You get what you work for, not what you wish for.” As a generation of emerging entrepreneurs and potential world leaders, it is important to blaze our own trails– but still, we have to take notes from those who are successful today. Tullman taught us much more than just “you get what you work for” during his presentation last week.          Junior David Malkin and senior Nick Rose brought in Tullman as part of Innovation Day last week. “I got the idea for Innovation Day after being inspired by Chicago Ideas Week, to bring in a speaker and do a workshop all with the topic of innovation in mind,” said Malkin. “I reached out to Mr. Tullman because of his involvement with 1871.” Many students, including sophomore Nick Schuler, enjoyed how realistic Tullman’s presentation was. “I appreciated that Tullman touched upon the fact that if you don’t work hard, especially as an entrepreneur, you won’t do as well in life,” Schuler said. “If you don’t put in the effort, someone else will.” Freshman Olivia Reichl also explained Tullman’s message resonated with her. “He made me understand that although you have to endure trial and error, the end outcome is always worth it if you’re determined,” said Reichl. But, as with any presentation, there was some disagreement. Upper School math teacher Mr. McArthur was a bit taken aback after Tullman said he considers saying “I don’t know” to be a reflection of laziness. McArthur, when expressing his confusion in a letter on RomanNet, said Tullman’s “banning and belittling of a phrase may be his blunt way of communicating to employees to do the grunt work of seeking out answers. But it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as an educator.” Ironically, the phrase “I don’t know” received praise from Eduardo Briceño in his presentation just a few days earlier. Co-Founder and CEO of Mindset Works, Briceño briefed the Upper School on Growth Mindset, the idea that we can achieve success and improve as long as we have the right mindset. While the ideas were all there, some classmates felt as though his delivery didn’t completely sell the already-foreign concept. Sophomore Morgan Kmety did not feel inspired by Briceño’s message. “I felt like his presentation sugar-coated everything, and it felt more like a lecture,” said Kmety. “But it’s difficult to discuss growth mindset in an exciting way.” With Latin being the competitive environment it is, it is difficult to truly implement “growth mindset.” At Latin, we are groomed and prepped for college the day we walk through those double doors, and it is hard to focus on having a growth mindset when everything around us feels like a competition. But we shouldn’t accept this reality; there’s no reason why growth mindset can’t soon become a staple of the Latin education. In fact, while I was in my Latin American Revolutions class with Ms. Hennessy, she acted in a way that encouraged a growth mindset, which was comforting to see as a student. As opposed to returning our writing assignments and allowing us to do what we please with her feedback, Ms. Hennessy gave us time to reflect on our feedback and write goals for our next assignment based on the areas we didn’t do so well on. Seeing a teacher give us ample time to work on the ideas of growth mindset was inspiring, and I began to think about all the possibilities for education at Latin. Maybe we should all take a page from Ms. Hennessy’s book.  ]]>

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The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago
Two Assemblies in Three Days Leaves Conflicting Message with Latin Community