When I was a kid, maybe 17, I wanted to start a school. When I was an even littler kid, I wanted to be a teacher.
I got to teach for one semester at the University of California/Berkeley, a night class in Employee Benefits. Some students loved the class, some hated it, and I guess that’s about par for the course.
I would have taught for longer, but moved back to New England, and haven’t been involved in a face-time role with education since.
A conversation with my oldest grandchild in January 2004 got the brain cranking, though, and it looks like the Cape Technology Workshop is going to be a reality, thanks to some enthusiastic teachers and the Barnstable County 4-H.
This school is pretty much everything that I envisioned when I was 17, except that it’s part-time – teaching and learning for its own sake, no grades, no exams.
We’ve signed up a few kids from the County Fair, 3 teachers (maybe a fourth), and we have our first corporate donation. Plus, I’m working on supplies and equipment.
It won’t be Ivy League, but it will be an opportunity for kids AND adults who love science and technology to meet, exchange knowledge and maybe accomplish something that they’ll be proud of.
And I thought you had to have millions to start a school.