Chi Tschang

I. My Stepmom's Question

After my fourth year of teaching, I returned home to California and my stepmom took me out to Yoshino Japanese restaurant for lunch. The pleasantries soon subsided and then the obligatory question came up: "So when are you going to start a *real* profession like law or medicine?" I immediately recoiled and went on the defensive. "But teaching *is* a real profession." I bumbled through a few more explanations: "I wear a tie everyday and come to work on time and besides, what we do is important!" In t...

Consider this simple multiple-choice question: of the five individuals listed below, who had the greatest positive influence over the most lives in the past 25 years? a.) Bill Clinton b.) Nelson Mandela c.) Oprah Winfrey d.) Robert Plath e.) Sam Walton

My contrarian answer would be (d) Robert Plath. I know. You’re thinking, "Robert who?"

Back in 1971, a serial inventor named Bernard Sadow was struggling to carry his suitcase through an airport in Puerto Rico, when a man rolled heavy machinery by on a dolly. Sadow immediate...