The Wisdom of Dumbledor

And so we begin anew.  The fall semester is a recent memory and the spring is upon us all albeit at various stages depending on your class schedules.  One of the things that I like to do on the first day of class is share a Professor Dumbledor quote, the professor in the Harry Potter Series, that suggests “It isn’t your abilities that make you great, Harry, it is the choices you make.”…..


I then speak to the students about whether they will choose to focus on being a student during the coming semester or give in to the distractions that are sure to come their way from fraternities, parties, friends, parents and all the rest.  We then talk about which is the safest choice to make when it comes to preparing themselves for the career path they currently have in mind.

The quote is also the last slide in my classes.  We discuss whether the choices they made were those that enabled them to perform as they had hoped in their classes or if there were decisions along the way that should have been made differently to avoid the troubles they put upon themself.  We also discuss how making smart choices now will increase the probability of a successful career later.  More importantly, have they learned from either choice to continue to be successful while in school.

It is a great discussion to have with students.  It orients them to the reason they are sitting in your class and helps guide them the rest of the way.