What elementary school and client service have in common.

The last network television show I watched religiously was?The West Wing. In the time since, Roberta and I rarely turn to?ABC, NBC, CBS, or?Fox?for entertainment – too formulaic, too unimaginative, too many commercial breaks (this coming from someone who has devoted his career to advertising) – but we recently have become dedicated viewers of?Abbott Elementary, an?ABC?comedy conceived, produced, and starring then relative unknown, now famous?Quinta Brunson.?

Watching?Abbott?prompted me to excavate my time at?Anna Blakiston?Day?school.?There’s not much I remember, with the exception of my last year, when I attended the gifted Sidney Musicant’s class as a sixth grader.?

That he was a “Mr.” when virtually all teachers were “Ms.” was in itself distinctive, with me writing about him?here?and?here.?The teachers who preceded him are largely forgotten, except for the terrifying Ms. Horowitz, who humiliated me in front of class, reducing a fourth grader to tears (who picks on an eight-year-old?).?Sidney Musicant thankfully conjures happier memories.

I have no idea how primary schools teach classes these days, but last century, with the exception of art, music, and phys ed, teachers taught?everything, with days populated by sessions in grammar, math, history, social studies, and god knows what else.?Story time was the highlight of the week:?I see Mr. Musicant sitting before us, reading from my favorite book,?E.B. White’s?Charlotte’s Web.

To be an effective teacher demands being in command of a vast array of subjects, which to put it in another, more streetwise way, means being a mile wide and an inch deep.?It also requires an infinite reservoir of endurance, supplemented by the discipline necessary to maintain order in a class, leavened by the patience not to lose your composure when the situation becomes unruly or spins out of control, not to speak of the skill needed to navigate the unpredictability of some 30 children (or more), each possessing a singular, occasionally difficult, at times unmanageable personality.?

What does this sound like??It sounds very much like Account and client service people, who need to speak the language of and be conversant with strategy, Creative, and production in all its forms, plus be the go-to resource on the client, its culture, and its competitors in service of connecting and collaborating with colleagues and clients.

Mr. Musicant embodied many of the qualities of a good client service person. Did I recognize any of this at the time? Did any of it register?

Of course not; I was 11 years old, a lifetime away from where I find myself now. I gratefully, thankfully, and all-too-belatedly recognize that Sidney Musicant was great at what he did, worth remembering and emulating by those of us in client service.?