[SBE] FW: Classes, SBE Membership, and keeping a pool of qualified members coming from young folks

[Mike Langner]

Labor day.

Today.

For 14 years I taught one semester (tri-mester, actually, there were three
terms per year -- fall, spring, & summer) at what was at that time a
post-secondary educational institution (Albuquerque Technical-Vocational
Institute) here in Albuquerque, NM. The semester-long course was a 4th
trimester level electronics course -- preparation for the FCC 1st and 2nd
class license exam.

I told my students "Not only will you be able to comfortably pass the FCC
exams at the end of this course, you'll actually know what to do at a remote
transmitter site in the middle of the night when all you know is (1) the
transmitter doesn't work, and (2) you can't leave until you fix it!"

I'd been in that situation many, many times.  It can be very uncomfortable!


Back to my story --

I'd finish my day's work at the radio station where I was Chief Engineer,
grab dinner, then teach from 6:30 to 9:30 Monday and Wednesday evenings.

My six-years-old-when-I-started-teaching daughter would grade my students'
papers, using a correct-answer-mask on the "bubble-in" answer sheets I
created.  Good students (they were all adults) would get smiley-faces drawn
on their answer sheets.  Poor students would get 6-year-old words of
encouragement.  Our daughter would ask my wife, her mom, how to write words
of encouragement, then she'd do her best to mimic what her mom wrote in
six-year-old printing.  My students were really touched. She continued to
grade all my papers for the 14 year run of the class.  Some years she'd
visit the classroom.  The students loved here, and she loved grading adult's
papers.


Late in the semester the second year I taught, one good student missed a
week.  When he returned, he apologized for his absence.

"No problem," I said.

"We're all adults, and we all have responsibilities.  Welcome back.  I've
saved copies of last week's material for you," I said.

He said "But I want you to know why I was absent.  You see, when I came to
take your class I didn't have a job, didn't have any money, and I was
running out of unemployment compensation.  And I've got a wife and 2 kids to
support."

He continued "Last week I had a chance to get a free ride to Denver to take
the FCC tests.  Since we're almost through with the semester, I figured I
had a pretty good chance of passing the test.  And y'know, I did.  So thanks
to you, today I have a license, I have a job, and I will keep putting food
on our family table."

He and I, not particularly sentimental fellows, stood in front of my class
of 40 students, with tears streaming down our cheeks.

It was a strong enough moment to keep me in the classroom for 14 years.

Oh yes, my daughter?

Thanks to her exposure and inclusion in dad's teaching by grading my papers,
and thanks to the influence of her mom, my wife, a career high school
teacher, she decided she, too wanted to teach as a career.

Today she is teaching English as a Second Language to recent arrivals from
many lands at one of our Albuquerque larger high schools, and loves it.

As for me?  I've retired now, after a wonderful 45 year career in
broadcasting.  But all these years later, and in retirement, I still run
across former students, now middle aged or older, who tell me the hours we
spent together in my classroom made all the difference in their career path.

I simply ask them to share the knowledge they've accumulated over the years
with others so that more lives can be improved.

For me, a retired broadcast engineer, this is indeed a wonderful Labor Day.

My best to everyone !

Mike Langner, CPBE
Albuquerque, NM
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