Vision for<strong>Taft</strong> Robert Falcetti
<strong>The</strong> Systems Guy Charles Thompson uses new tools for timeless tasks by Tracey O’Shaughnessy Charles Thompson may be one of the few seventh-graders who dreamed of becoming an accountant. “I was totally nerdy,” says Thompson, the school’s new director of information technology. “One of my best friends was the Commodore Vic-20. In some ways, I’m still nerdy.” Fortunately for Thompson, he lives in an era where nerds, so to speak, rule. <strong>The</strong> 43-year-old Brooklyn native ultimately had the insight to determine that a life spent jostling numbers, even if he were to realize his goal of becoming the vice president of a bank, might just bore him to tears. “I realized, Oh, my God, for me that would have to be the most boring job in the world,” says Thompson, laughing heartily. Thompson is the school’s new director of information technology. He came to <strong>Taft</strong> in July from St. George’s <strong>School</strong> in Newport, R.I., where he began as a computer science and math teacher, and theater technical director, and ended 21 years later as the school’s director of technology. In a wide-ranging conversation, Thompson, tall, lean and gregarious, reflected on his own development as a computer science specialist and theater enthusiast, as well as his own excitement and concerns about the possibilities and pitfalls of emerging technology. Garrulous and affable, with a self-effacing wit and accommodating demeanor, Thompson spoke from his ground-floor office at the school, a place studded with computer manuals, keyboards and a patchwork of memos that attest to the large job Thompson has ahead. It was a chance encounter with the early Commodore Vic-20, the popular 8-bit computer Thompson’s mother bought him, that convinced him that there were elements of his old accounting dream that could engage him. He enjoyed numbers, loved logic and became something of an autodidact in those embryonic years of home computing. “I really enjoyed taking a problem, and writing a program to solve it,” says Thompson, a squash player who sports a pair of black-rimmed glasses. “I taught myself to write these programs in BASIC, save them on a little cassette tape drive and then play with them later. That was my introduction to the world of computers.” As director of information technology he is charged with making communication inside and outside of the school run more smoothly and efficiently. “One of his primary tasks is to either overhaul or find a new student information system,” said Jon Willson, <strong>Taft</strong>’s academic dean. “That’s just a monster job. <strong>The</strong>re have been so many cooks in the kitchen over the years that (the system) is just meandering and clunky and bizarre.” But Thompson, Willson adds, “is just so affable and fun to be around. He really connects well with the students.” Already, Thompson has established three critical goals for the school that he hopes will streamline how faculty and students use the computer tools they have and integrate technology into student learning. First, he said, he would like to make communication between and among faculty and students more effective. “It is important for us to evaluate our methods of communication,” he said. “For instance, we have a great email server, but we don’t use much of its functionality at all. I am hoping to get our information flowing more effectively.” <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Winter 2012 33
Change language