We all have those teachers we remember from our days in school.
Today I saw one of my favorites, his name is Jerry Porter. He and his
buddy Sam Parton own a top fuel dragster and use it as a teaching tool.
Back in the 80s they raced it and did pretty well. Today they take it
to schools all over the country and use it to teach and preach about
science, engineering, and math.
Sam called it "the longest and loudest teaching tool in Oklahoma."
This dragster ran at nearly 300 mph and produced 5,000 horse power.
When they fire it up, you can hear it for blocks. It is an amazing
attention getter.
They were in Sand Springs at the high school doing a program for about
300 kids. It's more than just old drag racing stories. They have the
kids make model rockets, airplanes, and little race cars. All the time
explaining things like; lift, drag, acceleration, g-forces, and physics.
This program was brought here by the Josh Heupel Foundation to
help kids.
http://www.the14foundation.com/ Back to Jerry, as an impressionable teen he made English class
fun. He read us poems and exposed us to literature that I am sure
I would have never read on my own. I'm sure he was right out of
college, not much older than us, and had a cool car. To this day
I remember him playing Simon & Garfunkel records and reading
us the lyrics as poetry. Pretty groovy stuff in the late 70s.
Jerry had a sweet big block Chevelle with a cool gold paint job.
I almost thought about being a teacher because of him. But I would
have never been as good, or as hip, as that drag racing English
teacher from Weleetka.
If you want to find out more about Jerry Porter and his partner
Sam Parton you can go to thier "Team Thunder" site at:
http://www.team-thunder.org/I wonder what ever happend to that Chevelle?
Take care,
Dan