® A Day in the Life: Using Your Head

When training mechanics at Motorcycle Mechanics Institute (MMI), we tried to teach best practices in everything, but of course students brought some individuality to everything they did. In fact, students expressed themselves in more ways than one. We had a student carry around a pet mouse in his pocket, and one of mine wore a dog collar all day in protest of the school's strict dress code. We had ways of dealing with disruptive students: mostly we let them "hang" themselves eventually, as poor attitudes usually play themselves out in the practical exercises. Despite these few, there was a lot of room for interpretation when it came to the actual job of mechanics, naturally. And that's okay. But one instance I will always remember was when one of my students, after struggling without success through numerous attempts to install a piston into a portable generator cylinder, finally showed me he had accomplished it. With a grin you just had to admire, and a cut on his face. You see, he had finally done just what comes naturally to some folks, he had installed the piston with his forehead!

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