Bill Fuller:  

Updated May 2023 Life I'm retired from Federal Civil Service as an Education Services Officer and a Transition Services Manager for the Army and now live in rural Weston County, Wyoming where I remain a hopelessly neophyte astronomer, a full time model railroader, an author of articles in a few hobby periodicals, and an avid devourer of books, mainly nonfiction histories. I married Dr. Dorothy Pollard of Pampa, TX, now retired from her professorship in the Graduate College of Education at Black Hills State University. Periodically moving for either her employment or mine*, we've lived and worked in New Mexico, Colorado, Germany, Utah, Virginia, Alaska, South Dakota, and now Wyoming. Should anyone want even more boring details or just to chat, you're welcome to email me at wfuller44 (at) gmail (dot) com. (*No, we weren't job-hoppers. In Federal Civil Service, positions are graded according to complexity and level of responsibility, and pay grades are attached to a position, not a person. Advancement depends on qualifying, applying, and being competitively selected for higher-graded positions, so advancement depends of one's mobility. Being willing to move to higher-graded positions enabled me to begin as a GS-7 at Pueblo Army Depot and to retire as a GM-13 at Fort Richardson, Alaska.) School My teaching philosophy is that schooling should be for intellectual growth and development of critical thinking skills, not for memorization or sports. Cooperative/group rather than competitive/individual teaching should be the focus, and standardized tests should be phased out entirely. College Although I managed to receive my B.A. degree with high honors (and eventually eked out an M.A. as well), I oppose both the individualistic, competitive nature of most teachers' methodologies and the grading system in general use. Courses should all be open-ended, and complete subject mastery should be required, whether that requires a few days or several years (and I'd probably STILL be in organic chemistry!). Formal education essentially taught me how to play the academic game and jump through its hoops; the best learning comes from lifelong reading and study long after grades, credits, and diplomas are things of the past. Workplace For a year, I taught, admittedly without much success, high school English and French in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and then entered Civil Service as an Employee Development Specialist at Pueblo Army Depot in Pueblo, Colorado. From there, I became an Education Program Manager for the Army in Germany, Utah, Virginia, and Alaska. At the end of 1996, I retired as a Transition Services Manager for the Army. Afterwards, I taught a few courses in freshman English at Black Hills State University in South Dakota and wrote a few freelance model railroading articles now and then.. Military My affiliation with the military was as a Civil Service employee in various training, education, career assistance, and retirement services positions. Usually, commanders viewed these soldier-support programs with disdain because supporting them was not career-enhancing for the commander himself. Working effectively in the face of such self-serving, short-sighted ignorance was always a challenge. Never would I advise anyone with a shred of intelligence or self respect to actually enlist in a military force. Remember, the bosses are called "commanders" for a reason--most lack the intelligence to be real managers. Hobbies and Leisure Time Ever since my father brought home a cardboard box filled with newspaper-wrapped, second-hand electric trains when I was about five years old, I've enjoyed model railroading. While I have some models in both smaller and larger scales, my interest centers around O scale (1:48) operating models. Thanks to my wife's influence, I became an avid square dancer on Friday nights (an enjoyable pastime that the Covid-19 pandemic and the dissolution of our local club sadly ended). Between those activities, trying to fill in the many gaps in my formal education by reading more or less voraciously, I can scarcely claim to have much "leisure time." The newest hobby to come along is amateur astronomy. We have a Celestron 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a tripod-mounted astronomical binocular. Both of...Expand for more