The Riverwalk Roar
Happy Sunday, Pride!
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. The weather was beautiful, making it a perfect time for families to gather and enjoy the outdoors. My family had a really nice weekend—Friday was spent at Clemson, where my oldest daughter, Campbell, did a college visit. That evening, I was at the Clemson University pool running a small Move United swim meet (think Paralympic-style competition). My wife and I also started binge-watching The Pitt on Max, a medical drama that unfolds in real time over a single 15-hour shift in a fictional Pittsburgh teaching hospital’s emergency room.
In one of the episodes we watched last night, a medical student made a significant mistake—one that could have cost a patient her life. Fortunately, thanks to the oversight of the resident and attending physicians, the error was caught in time and turned into a powerful teaching moment. Later, the student was surprised when the attending allowed her to perform another procedure. She thanked him and admitted, “I figured after what happened earlier, you'd bench me.” The attending replied, “Am I still a little upset that it happened? Absolutely. And if it happens again, you’ll definitely be benched. But this is a teaching hospital.”
That interaction really resonated with me. It reminded me of the role we play as educators. If you think about it, there are a lot of parallels between a teaching hospital and a school. In a teaching hospital, medical students put into action what they’ve practiced. In a school, students are practicing “life,” putting into action the lessons they’ve learned. It’s an important reminder for all of us: they are still learning, and there will be mistakes along the way.
Yes, there are times when consequences are necessary—but not every mistake requires the most severe response. I believe in accountability, but I also believe deeply in grace and understanding. When someone makes a mistake, I try to approach it from a restorative perspective: What can we do to fix it? What can we learn from it? And most importantly—how do we move forward?
The same can be said for educators—we're still learners too. What we do each day isn’t a scripted science; it’s an art rooted in relationships, respect, humility, and understanding. Believe it or not, not everything we do goes 100% as planned—and yes, educators make mistakes too. What matters most is what we do after the mistake.
I’d like to leave you with two quotes that I greatly appreciate:
“Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.”
— John Dewey
“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.”
— George Bernard Shaw
Lions, for those of you who are on spring break this week, enjoy your time off—we’ll see you next week refreshed and recharged, ready to tackle the final five weeks of school. For those of you (upperclassmen) who are in session this week, make it a great week of learning.
In Pride and Purpose,
~Dr. Compton
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