Last Post From the North? at Robert Pogson

This could be my last post from the North. My employer played “musical chairs” with the teacherages and I was “caught out”. No teacherage for me… No shack in the community… I did not bring a tent… The employer will not allow me to camp in my classroom. Finally a decision was made and I am heading home tomorrow. Too bad. The last 20 PCs have just arrived. Six years old and 512MB P4s! It could be years before they plug them into the system if they cannot hire a full complement of teachers due to a shortage of teacherages. I was supposed to train local talent but that task is far from complete.

Time for a career-change I guess. Travelling the North looking for work is much less fun than it was years ago. I need something that will ease me into retirement. Consulting might do as long as I can telecommute. Writing might do but I doubt the pay would maintain my wife in the manner to which she has become accustomed

Thanks to Perimeter Aviation for many dozens of safe landings

typical teacherages in the North

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.

9 Responses to “Last Post From the North?”

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1 oldman Jan 5th, 2011 at 12:54 am

Pog:

How unfair! And so close to retirement. One does not know what to say in situations like this. I hope that something comes your way to keep body and soul together.

Will you still be blogging?
2 Robert Pogson Jan 5th, 2011 at 6:34 am

Life is unfair. In the South, probably lawyers would be involved already but there are no lawyers up here and folks make up the rules as they go…

I expect I will continue blogging as long as I have an opinion on anything. I expect topics may change. Perhaps I will blog about hunting deer next year. Who knows? I have a lot of valuable knowledge about teaching and IT in education. I would like to put that to use somehow. I think that would also give the best return on my efforts. I am not a business man nor an entrepreneur and at my age I am risk-averse but I also have ideas for a vertically-integrated PC (all kinds) distribution. I am sure I could push GNU/Linux more vigorously than Dell or Walmart…

It seems I will be here in the North most of the day. The first flight I could book was after close of business today.
3 Richard Chapman Jan 5th, 2011 at 12:32 pm

Somehow I think this change will bring more hardship on your ex-employer than it will on you. Keep us posted as best you can. You have a valuable skill set, it just needs to find a match.
4 oldman Jan 5th, 2011 at 1:24 pm

“Somehow I think this change will bring more hardship on your ex-employer than it will on you.”

The sad thing is I dont think his ex employer cares all that much. Otherwise Pog would still be there and someone else would be gone.
5 Robert Pogson Jan 5th, 2011 at 10:39 pm

No, this is not a reduction in staff. Issues were mixing smokers and non-smokers in the same dwelling and mixing sexes in the same dwelling. The community tolerates smoking but not mingling sexes. There were just not enough teacherages for everyone after the way they were allocated and re-allocated. They now have two vacancies to fill and they may as well put “must be smoking female” to make candidates compatible with available housing. Mistakes were made during the summer allocating housing. Now, it has come home to roost. The problem would have been nothing at all if the employer dictated that teachers must not smoke in the teacherages because there was a smoking male teacher willing to share. As it is the only teacherage available to me in mid-December was with an incompatible room-mate. These things happen. Sometimes it just takes too long to fix problems created by previous decisions. Status quo for any bureaucracy, just weird compared to more open communities.
6 oldman Jan 6th, 2011 at 11:24 am

And yet, they did not value what you were doing enough to make it work.

Their loss.
7 Robert Pogson Jan 6th, 2011 at 11:38 am

I don’t see any teaching positions advertised that I like. I have scraped some contact information for schools and will advertise myself as a consultant of IT. I have installed SugarCRM and will work on a logo. I have no clue how many ads/resumes to send out. I don’t want to get swamped. If that does not pan out at least it will give me something to keep me busy until I can find a suitable position.
8 troy mcclure Jan 9th, 2011 at 10:18 pm

>Somehow I think this change will bring more hardship >on your ex-employer than it will on you.

Not to sound like Rev. Lovejoy’s wife but the hardship wont be on the employer, its the kids who will suffer.
9 Dann Jan 10th, 2011 at 5:25 pm

This may turn out to be in your benefit.
Perhaps you are needed elsewhere…

Best of luck to you, as you already have the genius.