In church today, we started a series that is exploring why we are even on this planet. It got me thinking about my value to this world, something Cheryl has wondered about as well. I would bet we all do that at some time or another, and that is what the discussions at church will be about. I have asked myself that question many times before, usually when things are not going so well. Things are going fairly well now, even considering my recent adventure with cancer. So I started wondering, once more, if I am making a difference in this world once more.
Note
I do not consider myself to be an overly religious person, so I do not talk about that very much. I am a believer, though. This world is so full of wonders, there must be a higher power in charge of things. I grew up going to a Methodist church in Falls Church, Virginia, but never really felt like I belonged there, it was too big, and too formal. Cheryl and I looked around Austin for a church home we could feel comfortable joining, and finally decided to become active at Gateway Community Church in Austin, Texas. This church was founded to help those exploring this thing called religion figure things out. No pressure, just a place to explore and meet others doing the same thing. It has been a huge success here, so much so that Gateway is getting big as well. To keep it feeling like home to everyone, Gateway has split up into a number of smaller campuses that focus on one area of Austin. We even have satellite campuses around the U.S., and even in Europe and Australia! Hardly small, but we are trying to keep that small feeling. Cheryl is even on their Board of Directors.
When I think about it these days, I end up feeling that my value to the world, and through that, my reason for being on this planet, comes from my drive to help use technology to make our world a better and safer place. I dedicated the first part of my professional life to the safety part. Growing up as a child of the war fighting men and women of WWII, that drive to serve came naturally. As hard as it is to understand today, my parents watched the world come unglued, driven by maniacs who wanted to force their will into our minds and souls. My parents generation fought long and hard to stop that, and I listened to their stories and came to understand why we need a strong military force even today. We here in the United States do not seek to force our wills on anyone, we seek the freedom to explore the lives we want to explore. We are willing, and able, to defend ourselves, and are willing and able to help others who need our help in preventing others from imposing their wills on them as well. I am hugely proud of that part of my life!
When I left the service, I first started out working as a consultant with non-profit organizations who needed help getting computers involved in their work. Many of those organizations had little money, so they used hand-me-down equipment, and I got to figure out how to make all that work. I was pretty good at that, but it was not as fulfilling as my third career. I discovered that I liked to teach, something the Air Force let me do in their graduate school in Dayton, Ohio. So, I decided that I would once again become a teacher!
So, how did I become a teacher?
Simple, really. If you have read any of my other stories, you might know that I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and spent a lot of time as a kid in the Smithsonian museums on the Mall. In those museums I saw hundreds of exhibits on all kinds of things, and was captivated by them all. Some were fun, some scary, some even grossed small kids like me out. But having access to all of those neat exhibits started shaping my mind very early. I started understanding how all kinds of things worked, and started asking myself how other things worked as well. I started becoming a curious person, and I think that was a key part of shaping who I am!
Curiosity
Being curious means you want to know more about something. Some people are very limited in what they are curious about. Some are curious about the wrong things (like what your neighbors are up to behind those closed blinds). Being curious about how the world we live in works seems just fine to me. What fascinated me even more was learning about the people who figured things out in the past, and learning how those folks learned how to figure things out in the first place. I started learning what scientists and engineers did with their lives. It occurred to me at a very early age that learning how airplanes worked well enough to design them might make for a great profession. Far better than becoming a fireman! (Not that firemen are not very important folks, my apologies to any firemen, or firewomen, reading this!)
So I headed down the path to become an engineer, specifically an Aerospace Engineer, since spacecraft were becoming very important flying vehicles as I grew up! That explains how I ended up working as an engineer, but not how I became a teacher.
Teachers
There is an old joke that says "those who can, do. Those who can't, teach" I seriously hope that is not true.
When I first heard this joke, I thought that they meant that good engineers and scientists eventually reach a point in their careers where they burn out and stop wanting to do that work any more. Since they have all this knowledge about the past, they decide to start telling stories about their past work and become teachers.
On the other hand, I have run into more than a few teachers who started teaching the day they graduated with their new degree! Those folks have never really "done" much, and I always felt that was a mistake as well. They have not burned out, but neither have they applied their knowledge to making the world a better place. They have not felt the satisfaction of doing a job well, or felt the pain of having a project fail. They have not lived the life of an engineer They may feel that they are helping by working to create new engineers and scientists, but I am not satisfied with this approach.
My curiosity drives me to explore how the technologies we depend on in our daily lives are working today! As I see new developments popping up, I am driven to figure out how those developments work, and how they might be used to improve some part of our lives.
The joy of discovery
When you study something, trying to figure out what is going on, that moment where the light goes on and you suddenly have it mastered is one not to be missed. Even as a kid, when a display at the Smithsonian made sense, I was full of excitement. I wanted to share that feeling, so I started telling my parents, sisters, and friends all about it. Most of the time, they rolled their eyes and wished I would go away. But, the joy of discovery was like a drug, I wanted more of that feeling. So, I would tackle another subject, and try to figure out something else. I never seemed to run out of things to explore. Normal people figure out that they are more interested in certain subjects, and limit their explorations and study to that one area. I seemed to have done that with all things aeronautical, but I always kept my eyes open for interesting topics, and eventually, computers jumped up and needed exploring.
Figuring out how computers work absorbed my interests long enough to change my direction in my professional career. Not that I liked aviation less, I just discovered that I was pretty good at figuring out how computers worked, and making them do things I thought they should do. I became a "Computational Fluid Dynamicist" Boy, that is a fancy term for someone who uses computers to figure out how airplanes fly!
Telling stories
When I started sharing my excitement when I figured something out, I discovered that helping others learn about those things was fun as well. Every once in a while one of my friends would get excited enough to want to join me in exploring something. The first time that happened in a big way was when a bunch of us decided to start building our own flying vehicles, and we began building model airplanes.
The story telling part is important, since that is what teachers do, They try to tell a story that excites a student enough that they want to figure out something. Unfortunately, far too many students end up in classes they really do not feel are important to them, and the excitement is missing. That is the challenge of teaching. The instructor is obviously excited about what they teach (or should be!) Their goal is to pass that excitement on to the student by making the material interesting and showing them how it can help them in their lives. That last point is where those teachers with little experience outside of the classroom fall down.
I like telling stories, and those who sit in my classroom (and Cheryl, bless her) will tell you I have a bunch of them. They will also tell you I am pretty passionate about the material I teach, and about the things I have done in my life. I talk about all of that, always trying to make something click in their heads that will cause them to have as much fun in their lives as I have had in mine.
So I teach
I take my intense curiosity and stay on top of those technologies I find most enjoyable, work to figure out how it all works, and work to figure out where that technology fits into the lives of other folks. I grab a bunch of students in a closed room and try to push the joy of figuring things out into their heads. If they can get off of their Facebook page long enough, some times it all happens in just the right way. I see the light go on, and I see the excitement building up in them!
A teacher can ask for no more. A teacher should settle for no less!
That is how I became a teacher!
Postscript
At no place in this review did it ever occur to me that I was working to make my life better. It was all about figuring out how the world around me worked, and sharing my discoveries with those around me, so they would understand their worlds better. Unfortunately, it seems that many folks I encounter are just focused on what they can get out of anything that occupies their time. I wish them well, but I think they are missing the point. It ain't about you, folks! I am betting that will be the theme in our new church series!
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