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

[Larry Bloomfield]

Mike:

This is reminiscent of my last night teaching at Southwestern College in 
Chula Vista, CA (the school near San Diego I mention). I was concluding 
my fourth and final year teaching evenings there and one my students 
from the first year I taught came into the class room. During that first 
year, this fellow wanted to drop out of my class only after weeks 
complaining he just didn't get it. I told him he didn't know enough at 
that sage to get anything and I talked him out of it. That last evening, 
he asked if he could address the class: I had no idea what he had on his 
mind, but I'll never forget what he said.   Pointing to me, he said: 
"That man is responsible for me moving from janitor at Mercy Hospital 
(San Diego's country hospital) to being a maintenance man at that same 
hospitals on their electronics equipment." He concluded by saying: " I 
now make five times as much as I did when I wanted to drop out of his 
class. Thanks to him I didn't."  I simply said: "Class is dismissed - 
there's no way I can follow that. Good luck and good by."

 
* Larry Bloomfield* - /KA6UTC/
1980 25th St. - Florence, OR 97439
(541) 902-2424 (Everything)
* WWW.Tech-Notes.TV <http://WWW.Tech-Notes.TV>*
See you on _* The Taste of NAB Road Show 
<http://www.tech-notes.tv/2008/2008-Itinerary.htm>*_
& the video @ * www.Tech-Notes.TV/DVD.html 
<http://www.tech-notes.tv/DVD.html>*



Mike Langner wrote:

> 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

>  

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> _______________________________________________

> The SBE Roundtable, SBE at sbe.org

> To unsubscribe, go to http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/options/sbe

>

> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/sbe

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/sbe/attachments/20080901/2b91eaaa/attachment.htm>