Page 19 - HaMizrachi #9 Yom HaAtzmaut 5779
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Education
Dr. David Pelcovitz
SURGERY AND JAZZ:
EMBRACING MISTAKES
r. Charles Bosk, a sociology When sociologist Dr. Sam Oliner was keyboard produced sound that was harsh
professor at the University 12 years old, the Nazis came into his and thin because all the felt had worn
D of Pennsylvania School of town in Poland and murdered his family, away. The 17-year-old girl in charge of
Medicine, analyzed the difference neighbors and friends. During the producing the concert desperately tried
between the most outstanding chaos, he escaped to a farmhouse on the to obtain an appropriate replacement
neurosurgeons who, after years of outskirts of town and was taken in by a but was not successful on such short
extensive training and practice, had the Polish gentile family who sheltered him notice. When Jarrett told her that he
best success rates and lost the fewest at tremendous risk to their own lives. As would have to cancel the concert, she
patients, and those at the other end of an adult, Oliner dedicated his career to became extremely upset at the prospect
the spectrum, who lost so many patients researching what the active ingredients of being publicly humiliated. Jarrett
that their privileges at their hospitals were in the childhoods of these moral took pity on her and agreed to perform.
were terminated. giants which resulted in such remarkable The performance that evening, on this
courage and ethical clarity. Oliner found ostensibly unusable piano, became the
The top surgeons weren’t those with that a crucial contributor was how best-selling piano recording and the
the best manual dexterity, the highest their parents handled their children’s best-selling jazz piano solo in music
MCAT scores, or graduates of the best mistakes. When they did something that history. If you listen to the recording,
training programs. Rather, the best violated the moral code of the family, you instantly recognize how the
predictor of being in the top tier of rather than berating them, their parents seemingly insurmountable challenge
this select group of doctors was how patiently explained what was wrong with became the source of genius. The
they handled their mistakes. If they their behavior. They conveyed a clear adjustments that Jarrett had to make to
lost a patient, these top neurosurgeons belief in their child’s ability to engage cope with this broken piano made the
wouldn’t rest until they determined in a teshuva (repentance) process that music better. Forced to avoid the harsh
how they could do the surgery better would repair the mistake by making registers, Jarrett stuck to the middle of
in the future. They would go to the appropriate apologies and righting the the keyboard. This passion and effort
medical library to see if they missed a wrong done to the injured party. brought out a level of sublime artistry
recent study and they would call leading that over 40 years later hasn’t been
surgeons around the world to discuss In contrast to the prevailing atmosphere surpassed.
what approach might work better the our children are exposed to in the media
next time. In contrast, the transcripts of and through many of our leaders, we The Talmud tells us: “A person does not
the interviews with the worst performing should act differently. Adults should try understand statements of Torah unless
surgeons were chilling. They would to teach children to have broad enough he stumbles in them” (Gittin, 43a). The
blame the lighting in the operating room shoulders to accept responsibility lesson of the jazz concert is that parents
or the incompetent nurses assisting for wrongdoing. And calmly suggest and teachers need to educate children
corrective action while simultaneously
them with the surgery. These doctors communicating a belief in the children's not to be afraid of failing, to appreciate
externalized all blame and failed to learn ability to grow from their mistakes. the power of risk, and to view mistakes
from their mistakes. Stanford University as a crucial engine of growth.
professor, Robert Sutton, quotes similar In 1975, world renowned jazz pianist,
studies that document how creating an Keith Jarrett, arrived early to try out the Dr. David Pelcovitz holds the
atmosphere marked by emotional safety piano he would be using for his sold-out Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Chair in
and the ability to calmly view mistakes concert that evening. He immediately Psychology and Jewish Education at
as an opportunity to grow and improve discovered that the piano was not usable. the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish
is a central ingredient in effective The black keys stuck, the pedals didn’t Education and Administration at
teaching and leading. work, and the upper register of the Yeshiva University
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