Why Become a K12 High School Teacher

This is Dedicated to all the teachers and all the people who have made a difference in the world, who have made it a better place.

In 1958 the 5 and 6 year old kids were going to kindergarten.

They remember:

Privacy, WW2 fathers and mothers, Grandparents who knew and remembered the 1890’s and 1910s,  Pledge of Allegiance, The Lords Prayer, Eisenhower, Commies, Duck Cover and Roll, Betty Boop, Roy Rogers, Tonto, Hi Ho Silver and Away, Mr. Greenjeans, Make Room for Daddy, Lambchop, The Flying Nun, Walter Cronkite, American Band Stand, Mash Potatoes, The Jerk, Line Dancing,  Colored water fountains and pools, The Funk Brothers, Standing In The Shadow of Motown, The Beatles, Little Richard, James Brown, Black Power, Cream, Dress Codes, Reggie Jackson only allowed into their house through the back door, 6 day war, Walk outs, Sit ins, conscience raising, Civil rights, Kennedy, Martin Luther, Malcom X, Vietnam, Riots, Drop Ins, Drop outs, Acid, Potheads, the stock market crash, 17% mortgage rates, and so much more.

These Teachers will attend their Students 70th Year High School Reunion

Tom Sexton and Mr Buri (+ their wives) were invited and will all be joining the reception only – of the 70th year High School Reunion.

Since not everybody will attend some thought they would write a note instead. The notes are from folks in their 70’s and the teachers who are reading these — on paper — are now in their late 80’s.

Excerpts

— “Roy Buri was one of the most influential people in my entire life.”
“If anyone thinks that a good teacher / mentor can’t make a difference in the lives of the people they touch, they’re dead wrong. I can’t overstate the influence Mr. Buri had on me and on shaping the person I have become. I thank him with all my heart and am so happy he is being recognized.”

— “Tom Sexton — I wasn’t at all surprised by how many of his runners had the same experience as I had.  He taught me several life lessons, the most important ( to me anyway) was how to access perseverance.  That particular trait has been so important to me…. To this very day… to this very night.”

— “Mr. Buri taught me to be a critical thinker.”  To not accept only one opinion… even if it was from your own experience. To listen to others’ experiences to get a more complete understanding before forming an opinion of your own. Two very influential men in my life.  In one regard it seems like such a small percentage when considering all the teachers I had.  The reality I’m guessing is that having had two influential teachers makes me a lucky man. 

— “I do not know if you will remember me after all these years, but I took your Honors World History class and have never forgotten it.  I remember being struck most by your intensity of purpose as you tried to impress upon us the importance of learning about the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. And I hope that a miracle will occur that will allow you to attend our reunion.”

“Dear Mr. Buri,
You won’t remember me but during this class I learned a friend of mine had lost her husband in the “6 day war”.  He drove a tank. She was the first women I knew who was a widow.  Also I remember Netanyahu was in the room for some reason.

“Dear Mr. Buri,
I am not going to the reunion, but could not miss this opportunity to write a note of “thanks” to the one and only high school teacher who helped to change the direction of my life.  You, Mr. Buri, influenced me to find a professional, and personal direction, that resulted in me having the most wonderful, happy, and joyful life. You exemplified, for me, the kind of human being I wanted to be.  It was your genuine, and gracious, personality, along with the intellectual bend, that I agreed with, that led me down the road, to become an attorney, and then as a law school professor for the past 41 years, so that I might possibly make a difference and have the same effect on students as you had for me.

Please understand, with certainty, how much your influence has meant to another person. You helped, in that one sociology class, to lead me in such a positive direction. It supported me, to choose a path of both professional, and personal, fulfillment that led to great happiness in all aspects of my life!!  Thank you, again and again!”

-//-

1970 Wang computer from the year book

Learn about Programming with Punched Cards in 1973
Programming with Punched Cards © 2005 Dale Fisk da******@gm***.com

 

‘WOMEN WANTED!’
The Army wanted women with mathematics degrees to HAND CALCULATE the firing trajectories of artillery for the war effort.

In 1964, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, peered into the future, to the year 2000, and described what he saw. And a pretty good guess it was. Ours would be a world in which…

We could be in instant contact with each other, wherever we may be, where we can contact our friends anywhere on earth, even if we don’t know their actual physical location. It will be possible in that age, perhaps only 50 years from now, for a man to conduct his business from Tahiti or Bali just as well as he could from London…. Almost any executive skill, any administrative skill, even any physical skill, could be made independent of distance. I am perfectly serious when I suggest that one day we may have brain surgeons in Edinburgh operating on patients in New Zealand.

1967 Buckminster Fuller told us about electronic money
The architect and theorist Buckminster Fuller, who in 1964 told a financial columnist that, “just fifty years from now the word ‘worker’ will have disappeared from the American language. We will have to look it up in the dictionary.” Instead, Fuller argued, industry and government would employ citizens through fellowships—a variant on a basic income—allowing them to educate and better themselves.

1973  ELECTRONIC MONEY
Harry in Your Pocket told us about Credit Cards we were there for that

They were talking about cash and the future of credit cards the electronic money versus computers that would encourage communism and how it was all inevitable.

1991 The Internet arrives and made legal for the citizens to use.

1994 Business is allowed to conduct commerce on the internet

2009 BITCOIN whitepaper arrives.
Bitcoin is Money for the Internet