College Professor and Website Collaborator
Combine a personality which cares about others with a determination to follow his passion and you might produce a college professor dedicated to helping students develop their own understandings of what constitutes a good human life.
PS was born in Indiana, the youngest of three children. His father was a radio announcer in the Midwest, frequently moving his family for better broadcasting opportunities before finally settling in as a college journalism professor. His mother was also a college professor in the fields of language and literature.
With that parental background, college enrollment was assumed but within that context, PS established his independent thinking:
* In early childhood, PS found a rock that he believed was not ordinary granite but instead, a meteorite! PS would not accept less than full and sincere parental agreement and persisted to the point that his mother finally took the rock to a college geology department, which examined his treasure and confirmed it was indeed a meteorite!
* For his initial college selection, PS opted to enroll in a local community college primarily to enable him to continue surfing in the nearby ocean when not attending classes.
* Later as an adult, PS prioritized taking care of his health – challenged parents over his career.
RANDOM COLLEGE COURSE SPARKS A CAREER INTEREST
Since PS enjoyed his high school math and science courses, these subjects were his initial college focus but he also randomly chose a course in philosophy in order to study how knowledge was acquired. The philosophy professor made the course interesting by relating concepts of logic, ethics and the study of knowledge itself (epistemology) to real life. Studying and applying philosophy appealed immediately to PS’ broad interest in trying to understand “how things came to be” – an early example was the meteorite: had that rock actually come from the sky? How did people learn about the sky and the heavens? How did people learn anything?
Recommendation: Expand your major academic focus by taking a few unrelated, random courses; you may find an interesting path forward! PS’ story is a classic example of the value of pursuing a liberal arts education.
PS decided to pursue his intellectual passion in philosophy by enrolling in a large university. His decision had several benefits: A. PS could concentrate his academic courses in a field (philosophy) which had many dimensions, including logic, ethics and the study of knowledge itself. Accordingly, following college graduation with his Bachelors Degree in philosophy, he enrolled in Masters and eventually a Doctoral degree programs in philosophy and began to teach related courses to college undergraduates.
While PS had no difficulty understanding basic principles of logic, he noted that fellow classmates often were perplexed by strict guidelines to follow principles to logical conclusions. He wanted to help them to understand and be able to use principles of logic in their daily lives. While pursuing his Doctorate in Philosophy, he taught courses in logic and won an award for excellence in teaching.
Candidates for a classical Doctorate Degree must write an extended, well researched paper and then defend their conclusions during an oral interview with a group of graduate school professors. PS’ dissertation topic reflected his interest in understanding how knowledge is achieved: “Is Seeing Believing?” HIs paper was so well approved that it earned publication in an academic journal (Metaphilosophy). While performing the research into learning and writing his disseration, PS began thinking about how to diagnose and treat student misunderstandings in logic, which led to his doing research at a large university while concurently serving as an Assistant Professor at a small college, teaching introductory courses in philosophy, logic, and ethics.
WEAVING TECHNOLOGY INTO A CAREER PATH
While teaching students involved the spoken word and drafting professional articles involved the written word, PS was aware of the expanding impact of technology in all aspects of life so he decided to incorporate prototype software into his logic classes to help diagnose problems students were having with learning and applying principles of logic. He also developed software for teaching ethics, which won an award for the best software application to humanities studies.
DEDICATION TO A PROFESSION MAY ATTRACT FURTHER CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
The combination of education and technology attracted the attention of a wealthy business owner who was looking for ways to provide “content” for his public broadcasting business. In essence, the owner wanted technical help in translating educational programming into the digital world which would significantly increase access in various education topics for anyone with access to a computer.
The business owner presented PS with an offer to join his new business venture as a Director of digital programming for education subjects. PS accepted this opportunity to move from the academic world to the business world for several reasons: (1) the job description matched PS’ dual interests in education and assisting others to learn; (2) he would report directly to the business owner and have reasonable discretion to create educational programming; (3) PS could work in a vibrant city but move his family to a suburban location for the type of residential environment in which they were most comfortable; (4) corporate compensation and benefits were better than he could earn in the world of academia.
PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION YIELDS SUCCESS AND RECOGNITION
Based on his prior university research in student learning issues, PS conceived of, created and with colleagues in-house and at universities and colleges across the country, refined the website learner.org. Throughout his ongoing relationship with that website, learner.org was the #1 Google ranked teacher professional development resource in the world.
CARING PERSONALITY IS COMPATIBLE WITH A CAREER
Although PS had earned success within his profession, his love of family was never abandoned. When his aging parents needed daily care which they could not afford to hire, PS took a temporary leave from his employment, which turned out to be a full resignation after several months when a schedule for his return to even part-time employment could not be predicted due to his parents’ uncertain medical needs.
Fortunately, PS’ experience to date plus his skills and continuing energy would enable him to find new opportunities to return to either the business or academic worlds. Accordingly, PS found part time teaching positions (“Adjunct Professor”) within local universities, to enable him to practice his continuing interests in teaching and assisting students. He undertook these teaching activities for several years until fully retiring.
CHALLENGES EXIST IN ACADEMIC AND BUSINESS WORLDS
Common to the worlds of teaching and business is human instinct and behavior: to better yourself and your position in the world, sometimes unfortunately by pushing aside or stepping on others. Where assets (leadership positions and money) are limited in number, competitive behavior can range from annoying to extremely stressful.
In business, the goal is usually to rise to the top in order to be the best compensated while the least supervised.
In legal circles, the attorney’s quest is from law clerk to associate to partner to the law firm’s Executive Committee. Judges – no longer competing for clients or differentiating compensation – are known to lobby for the best office (“Chambers”), assignments to the most complex litigation and leadership among their peers as President Judge.
In the professors’ world (academia), promotions are sought from part-time (Adjunct) to full time, tenured professors and then to such leadership positions as Head of the Department and Chair of the Faculty Senate.
Recognizing such challenges before being swept away by them, PS endeavored daily to avoid harmful competition while engaged in his teaching and research.
