Re: Sacramento, CA

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 10:29 4/13/00 -0700, Leigh Palmer wrote:
> > > I will likely teach the introductory astronomy course in
> > > September as a Sessional Lecturer....

> I'm looking forward to a pleasant
> retirement with a course to teach (introductory astronomy) in the
> fall and, perhaps, the physics of music in the spring. I will be
> Professor Emeritus on my retirement, and the Chairman just asked
> me if, since I was going to be around, I would be advisor to the
> physics majors for the next year.

Different people carry personalized conceptions of teachers.
My ideal is represented by the tutor, who in other times was retained
to impart a completely personal education to his charge.
  This inevitably led to a careful tailoring of means and ends -
to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative, so to speak.

It seems to me you would naturally fit into this conception -
lucky students, I'd think.    But you could be teaching more
elsewhere.

> The only thing that bothers me is that almost every
> other kind of employment is protected from age discrimination. We
> professors have been singled out (in a Supreme Court decision, no
> less) for special exemption from this protection in our Charter
> of Rights and Freedoms, a pale imitation of your Bill of Rights.
>
> Leigh

There are some jobs that God discriminates against, so to speak:
the physician's lifespan is not pleasant to consider. Others,
one could suggest are smiled upon - there's many an ex-teacher who
hangs on to life, clear and free. But of the state-disqualified jobs,
the airline pilot is another example: formerly superannuated at
55 they now walk up the passenger access for the last time
(with a tear in the eye often enough) at 60.
   And for all I know, the same could be said of other public
service jobs carrying an age disqualification - the policeman
comes to mind.

In general, a Bill of Rights, whether pale or bold-faced,
is a piece of paper.  What counts for more is some social standard
of behavior, some expectation of fair-dealing.

 The American truth is about a youth oriented culture, and greatly
increasing difficulty in job-seeking after age forty.

Still and all, I suspect a Physics professor could find himself
a birth as a board advisor in Silicon Valley - this would be a sensible
disposition of a retainer fee in almost any shareholder's mind, I'd think.


brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK