A Short Bio and Some Opinions

  Born in Coral Gables, Florida in '40. We had a great summer house in bucolic
Hendersonville, N.C.  Graduated Gables High in '58 from summer school.  U.S.
Army, post maintenance, '58-'61. Lived in perfect village Delta Junction,
Alaska '59-'62.  Started college in Embry-Riddle Aero Inst. in Miami in
'63-'64.  Moved to new (and desperate) Brevard Engr. Coll. (now Fla. Inst.
Tech.) '64-'65. Flunked differential equations, so came to new (and desperate)
Florida Atlantic U. in Boca Raton and into science education '66-'70. Married
Kathy Wheeler '66. (Best life decision!)  Graduated with B.S. in '70.  Taught
first year at a middle school in Plantation, Florida ('71).  Then North Shore
High in West Palm Beach '72-'81.  Finally John I. Leonard High in Lake Worth,
'82-'01.  Now retired.
   PHILOSOPHY: Wonder, read, learn, do, think, know.  No fiction, too many
               real books to waste time on someone else's wild imaginings.
   PERSONAL CHALLENGE: Learn everything. Question everything. Make everything.
   RELIGION: Personal spiritual enlightenment experience.  At one with the
             universe.  Note: Believing in (X) and/or being "in a religion"
             is not the same as the enlightenment/oneness/rebirth experience.
             Not even close.
   POLITICS: Leave me alone.  Small minds love big government.
   TEACHING DISCOVERY: Students give you 75% of what you expect.  Expect
                       less, get less.  Expect more, get more.
   TEACHING GOAL: Pass on basics of physics so students are science literate
                  and able in turn to pass on knowledge to their lineage.
                  Prepare student for impersonal college experience and all
                  of life's inevitable changes and challenges.
   MYSTIFYING COINCIDENCE: I can listen to the exact same songs from the radio
                           that I did when I first started driving in '56!
   GREATEST AWE:  How everything in the universe works together for everyone
                  and everything all the time synchronously and beautifully.
   GREATEST SORROW: There are precious few skills left today that the average
                    person knew how to do when I was young. Every man knew how
                    to do everything to keep the family car running properly,
                    plant and maintain a garden, build a wood shed with hand
                    tools, make a sandbox, make you a swing, a seesaw, a "soap
                    box racer, show you how to build a tree house, etc.
                    Every woman knew how do cook anything "from scratch", make
                    a dress or shirt from a pattern and cloth, darn socks,
                    crochet or knit a vest or winter cap, can the fruit from
                    the tree in the back yard and the garden vegetables, etc.
   CONDENSED WISDOM: Everything is dangerous if you're stupid.
                     What the truth is depends on who you ask.
                     A lie repeated long enough becomes a fact.
                     Everything starts out being a great idea and ends up
                                   being a problem someone else has to fix.
                    Students learn in spite of, not because of, schools.
The workshop pets.