Intellectual Property Law

techlawyer goes back to school

By Obi

week before last, i went back to elementary school.  ewa elementary, to be exact.  (that's "evah", for the untutored reader.) 

it was "techies day" in hawaii, and folks who were techies or techie camp followers volunteered to visit the public schools to share their experiences and subtly encourage the kids to study math and sciences.  actually, not so subtly: the playbook tied becoming a techie to having lots of discretionary income. 

i didn't follow the playbook.  instead, I told the kids about my latest invention, a huge crystal ball that fits over the hawaiian Islands.  its surface is tune-able, like a TV, and we can tune it to see everything that's coming through the globe into or out of the islands.  we tuned it to "airplane, and saw the tourists aboard, where they were coming from or going to, what they had in their pockets.  we tuned it to fish and watched the depleting stocks in the waters around the islands.  then, cargo ships, where we noticed that the containers coming into the state were full and those going out were almost empty.

from there, we talked about the economy, and why it was important to decrease our reliance on tourism and supporting the military for our daily bread.  thence to why the economy needed to grow faster than the population if we wanted to improve the way people lived, and why knowledge-based industries tend to grow faster and pay better than  our two core industries.  finally, we talked about why it was in their best interest to study hard, to learn math and science, and about the fact that there were lots of people working very hard to make sure that when they graduated from college the good jobs in hawaii's knowledge-based industries would be there for them.

did they get it?  here's a sampling from their letters to me:

"the thing i'll remember the most is that if i want a job like yours i need to stay in school and go to college."

"i will remember that science could be a great thing when you are old enough to get a job."

"I will always remember that cool invention, that dome around the Island  I would wonder if you could see me leave the Island when I go to college."

"I'm going to start to do more math, writing and reading and coming to school more."

check this out: "having bio-tech here in hawaii could be a smart move because then we don't have to depend on the mainland.  they could make it, but we don't have the experts.  that's why we, the kids are here to learn from you, so that maybe when we grow up we could be the experts."

"another thing that you have taught me was that i have to start thinking about my career now, so that in the future i will know what i must do.  your speech has inspired me, and i thank you for that."

"i also learned about economy, because i don't really watch news and barely read newspaper, but when i hear what you told us, i realize that i should start watching news and reading newspaper to know what is happening around the world."

"i am going for computer-tech, but i will keep your kind of job in mind, too!"

then there were the outliers:

"i will remember that gas creates pollution and science is cool, fun, and smart. Also, science can be deadly to man kind."

i will remember that you make a lot of money as a lawyer, but being a lawyer is a tough job.  it can be stressful sometimes, because on some cases you might have to lie.

anyway, i had a great time with those kids.  the only thing nagging me is the promise i made about good jobs being available for them when they enter the job market.  on the state's present course and speed, it's not likely to come true in time, for reasons best left to my other blog.

of course, not ail -- indeed, not many --l those 6th graders will become scientists or engineers or technicians.  as one wrote, "when i was little, i wanted to be an astronaut.  now i want to be an artist."  and that's fine.  but somewhere in the fifty-some students whose faces represented the spectrum of human skin color, somewhere is a next-generation researcher or designer or model-maker -- even a techlawyer.  and i'm going to help them along.  i encourage you readers to get back to elementary school and do some good, too.
    

Full post as published by TechLawyer on April 16, 2005 (boomark / email).