Transformational Education > A new way of teaching
Peter Slavin (MBA 1990) on his experience of "passing" in a class
Transcript
I had the great fortune to have my introduction to finance professor be Jay Light. And I found him to be incredibly smart, funny, effective, effective teacher. I had Jim Cash for information technology in second year, and, again, found his course to be very interesting and relevant to what I'm currently doing.
As it turns out, I was—I was violating one of the school's policies when I was in school. I was moonlighting some nights during the week, when I wasn't supposed to be working and study instead. And indeed, during one of Jim's classes, I had been up the whole night working in a local emergency room, and so came to class totally unprepared. And called on me to open the class. And then I had no choice but to pass.
Well, it turned out many years later, when I took on a management role at Mass General Hospital, I found out that he was on the board of the hospital. And then when I decided to apply for the presidency of Mass General, I learned that he was on the search committee. So I guess I'm a firsthand—I guess I'm an example of the fact that you can pass at Harvard Business School and still—and your life is not necessarily over. And I'm grateful to Jim for his kindness and forgiveness, which he and I joke about all the time.