Stephen Vajs:  

Life After 36 years I still am with one wife, Kris, and two daughters. Although the girls (Liz-26 and Katie-23 are better in math, chemistry, and biology than I ever hoped to be, I am pleased to say they are deep in the liberal arts. Liz finished her BA at the University of Virginia majoring in religious studies and took a theology degree at divinity school. Katie studied art history at Stanford University after transferring from Duke where she completed her freshman year. In my lengthy academic period, I earned an MA (Economics) and an MS (Statistics) from the Univ. of Minnesota. Prior to that I received a BA (Economics) from Michigan State. Among my jobs I taught economics at Minnesota, worked at the Census Bureau in statistical methods, Coast Guard R&D in operations research, and Postal Service in economics. Prior to my current job, I was the Director, Risk Mgmt, Financial Management Service, U.S. Treasury. Among the other duties of the job, I was called upon to assist east European govts, especially Romania, in treasury mgmt. My particular work was in cash forecasting. I also taught cash mgmt in Moscow and Beijing. I worked on portfolio management for the Treasury's cash balances ... such as they are as the Asst Director for Forecasting in the Treasury's Office of the Fiscal Assistant Secretary. I was responsible for forecasting the daily cash position of the government with sufficient clarity that we borrow adequately and NEVER finish any day with a negative cash balance. From there, it was a natural move to Deputy Director of the Debt Office where I manage the government's borrowing...all $11 trillion (I am serious.) My hobbies as an adult are still photography, violin, languages, and I used to fence. I read on the subway to and from work...which means I read 20-30 books a year..when I don't fall asleep on the train. Childhood hobbies, like coin collecting, became impossible after I gave up my paper route at the beginning of high school. Besides, with the demise of silver coins, collecting is not much fun. Who wants a collection of fancy slugs? Truth in Advertising: I have NOT succeeded where Ponce de Leon failed. The photo is at least a dozen years old. It's the last good official portrait I have. School It must be age! Maybe it is the safety of distance. Over thirty years have past since I left WM schools and I look at them much more gently than I did in the old days. I am just as politically driven as I ever was, but the demons of that age seem so much more benign compared to the monsters of today. I also think that in those rigidly conformist times, it took a lot less to be a rebel than today. When I think back to WM I confront conflicting images: When only 6 kids signed up for AP US history with Mr. Dodaro, the school held the class anyway. (It was like being in a seminar at college. You always had to have your work ready since it was likely you would be called on in a class of 6. But that forced me to really read and think ... and I learned a lot.) I can't imagine any school district today, even the very prosperous Fairfax Co. where I live, carrying through with a class of six. It wouldn't be justifiable in terms of cost. That WM didn't take that choice shows how much education could be valued. Then there is the school administration. Not Mr. Benyak, who seemd decent, but Messrs Mervis and Patterson who could not have been more inept choices as principal and asst. My view of Patterson is best summed up in an incident from physics class. We were studying waves using ripple tanks. If you get the frequency just right, the new waves will meet the reflected waves off the far wall exactly and create permanent ripples that seem to stand still in the water against all normal experience. Patterson came up to me and asked what we were doing. I explained - ok, I us...Expand for more