If your sibling goes to Stanford, make sure that s/he takes a class or two with David Johnson Several years ago, over many evening meals at a certain dorm in Boston, David -- who was then a PhD student and who is now an economics professor at Stanford -- changed and challenged my thinking about economics and policy-making, and about also taught me what matters in life in general. He's also a really nice guy, and loves to argue and debate with such passions that one can't help but greatly admire him. oohi ashu ******* Teacher Talk: Reflections of a middle-aged Midwesterner By Prof. David Johnson Dept. of Economics Monday, April 19, 2004 http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=13824&repository=0001_article# I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio in the only U.S. county never carried by FDR in any of his four victorious presidential campaigns. My first commercial plane ride took me east to visit colleges at the age of 17, and before my 18th birthday dinner, my mother took me to the post office to register for the draft. If any of you know Cincinnati, you probably think Pete Rose shouldn?t be in the Hall of Fame but you fail to recognize that most of your personal hygiene routine owes its origin to Proctor & Gamble?s world headquarters on 5th Street downtown. Try to make ?Proctor & Gamble? a vanity plate and you have the name of their best-selling potato chip. I arrived on the Princeton campus as a freshman in the fall of 1981 and made my way to Alexander Hall to hear the president?s welcome address. He began by informing us that he had just returned from Flushing Meadow where a classmate of ours had reached the women?s quarterfinals of the U.S. Open tennis tournament. I raised my hand, proudly, when he asked how many of us were valedictorians of our high school class . . . so did about 600 others. I felt gratified I hadn?t peaked too early! Four years later, I had to choose among seven economics doctoral programs, opted for Harvard over Stanford (in a weak moment) but deferred it a year so I could attend the London School of Economics and experience a different culture from the Midwestern ethos I had known and loved. I even heard a foreign language when I traveled to Scotland (ever seen the monument to Adam Smith in Edinburgh?). Early in my doctoral program I began to teach the principles course (at Harvard it?s taught mostly in section by graduate students) and, using The Boston Globe?s editorial page as my guide, came to realize just how economically illiterate the public was. Thus was born my passion for introducing students to the wonderful world of economics. This role has taken me from the Harvard Westlake School in Los Angeles, to Saint Ann?s School in Brooklyn, where I taught both principles and intermediate economics to juniors and seniors for three years. (It was also there that I met my wife!) From Brooklyn, I went on to Duke for six years where my wife completed her doctoral degree in botany and genetics and where our daughter Zoe was born. Finally, I made it to Stanford, where Penelope came eight days late so she could provide me an excuse to miss the Econ 1 final last spring. In many ways, I have led a charmed life, but I thought I?d leave you with two rather important pieces of advice. First, as all of you chose Stanford over East Boise State or Pepperdine or UC-Davis or Cal, please take full advantage of the choices afforded you with this degree. For the two years following your graduation, be bold; do something radical; namely, service that passion you?ve held ever since junior high ? to join the Peace Corps, to teach middle school, to work for the Republican National Committee (radical, indeed!), to go undercover as a dancer in Vegas . . . believe me, law school or Wall Street can wait. The pressure for the killer job or the killer graduate school experience often obscures one of the main reasons you opted to come here ? choices. Pity so many students feel the need to pursue immediately that one career that will please Uncle Henry or Dad or Grandma over those options that meet only furrowed brows at Thanksgiving your senior fall. I?ve never known anyone with a Stanford-caliber degree who?s serviced a true passion and NOT been successful. How many of you who?ve just scoffed at this fortune cookie logic are busy puckering up for your Merrill Lynch interview? Second, don?t forget to have children. Don?t find yourself at Le Cirque celebrating that partnership wondering, divorced at 42, what?s next. The births of my two daughters trump even the ?75 World Series. You will find no more difficult or more frustrating or more gratifying or more joyous role than that of parent. And certainly none more important in your life. As you channel surf and reject ?My Big Fat Fianc?e,? you?re wistful for Sesame Street with recent special guests Kofi Annan and ?N Sync. You laugh at your daughter who refuses to accept the letter ?N? ? it?s just a Z that?s confused! You rejoice when your younger child takes her first steps knowing this milestone opens yet another Pandora?s box of potential dangers. You spend most of your adult life securing for them the choices you had ? among which will be the one that fuels their passion and makes you proud of the freedom you gave them, a freedom some loved one is currently giving all of you. David Johnson is a professor of Economics.