I Suppose I Could Bare My Soul on Medium

Maybe that’s why I’ve stuck to this sometimes abusive forum. I’ll give my new project a try here.

Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash

I’m past retirement age, but I’m thinking of going back to teaching.

It’s that there is so much ignorance out there and I want to help turn on some lightbulbs. I was educated at a young age in STEM basics, and added languages too, which was part of the original plan (Eisenhower, Congress, 1958, Sputnik, American technical and educational incompetence).

I’d love to mentor one person, or perhaps a few, in the subjects needed to understand our world. I would prefer to avoid students intending careers in computer sciences, because . . . well, I just would.

I haven’t quite figured out how I might accomplish this dream. I don’t want to leave Panama. I might have to have students come here, which would be great for English speakers, because I believe in coupling two languages with the science, technology, engineering and math that STEM stands for, and everybody in Panama speaks Spanish. I have a spare bedroom (for now — I might move out).

Alternatively I could do a distance program using technology. I don’t have the equipment I’d need, but if I had prospective students who couldn’t come here, that equipment could probably be arranged. Panama has ties with China and China has some great equipment.

Not to say the U.S. doesn’t have the equipment. I really don’t care where the equipment comes from, and it doesn’t have to be perfect or fancy. People tend to get lost in their technology — that’s something I prefer to avoid. I could probably use a stand of some sort for my phone and call it good. I like to write stuff on paper with ballpoint (because then my work has to be perfect you see). I just have trouble steadying the phone while writing formulae.

I don’t need perfect equipment. But otherwise I’m a perfectionist. Which is necessary in my technical and scientific work. All four of the subjects in STEM demand errorless execution if you think about it. The language part that I have included is naturally full of errors. That leads to a balanced diet, so to speak. Languages are fun and funny, and they open our minds to other possibilities.

I can’t explain what other possibilities are opened, but they are.
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There is historical history that shows the possibilities of a well-executed STEM education. This was the education that I got starting in 1961 — the same education that led to the Apollo Program and the only time that humans went to the Moon. (I didn’t work the Apollo Program, but I did work on high-altitude UV radiosondes for NASA. I didn’t get to work on Apollo because I was just a kid. They used NAZIs instead, at least in part — the CIA erased the NAZI’s histories, true fact.)

In case you don’t know, the whole moon program was technically impossible. It was science fiction. But the engineers and scientists who accomplished the project were science-fiction dreamers with a great education. They also had the entire defense budget of the United States to spend. And hey — it somehow worked. Nobody really knows why, but I have a clue. It was STEM mentality.

Nobody has walked on the Moon since Apollo days.
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Yeah, so here I am, pushing age 70 and wanting to work again.

If you are interested you can write to me at FredyPanama@protonmail.com. I check that email about once a week, but not really deeply. Protonmail won’t let me invent new emails. You also could write a story on Medium about this story. I read probably 20 or 30 Medium stories per day — so there are probably better odds I’d find you and vice-versa that way.

I know I’m being ridiculous, being hard to reach*, but that has worked in my favor in the past. (I’m hard-wired that way. Such is genius.) If my dream of mentoring comes true, it’ll probably have quite a story behind it.

Thanks for reading regardless. I’m thinking something will happen, and I won’t be passive waiting. I’ll figure something out. I know a few people who could help me, people who have better people skills than mine.

Though I have to say, my mentoring work and teaching have always worked miracles for my students. The end justifies any means, and that’s a fact.

*Being hard to reach: My mother and later my wife both observed that I didn’t need wires to use my telephones. They said I shouted so loud on the phone that whoever I was talking to could hear me wirelessly. That hasn’t changed. Even in these modern times I actually don’t need my wireless phone to be charged at all.

Fred