About Me
Even though my mother was a grade school teacher and my dad was a college professor, I stumbled on education as a career because of my interest in Asia. Let's start from the beginning. I grew up on a 500 acre farm in the middle of the Appalachia Mountain in Bluemont, Virginia (about 60 miles outside of DC). I really wanted to stay on the farm, but Dad and Mom said I had to go to college. Off I went. But, it was 1967, and the world was on fire. I quickly got caught up in the protests and the 60s and I protested. I detested the War in Vietnam, and I would do anything to stop it. I dropped out of college and I protested hard.
After the war ended in 1972, I found my way back to college. I focused on learning about Asia, particularly China and Vietnam. In several years I got a Master's Degree in Southeast Asian studies. So, what do I do with that? I had literally spent the last 8 years reading, studing, analyzing, exploring Asia, studying Asian languages, but I had never step foot in Asia. I decided to go. But the only way to really support myself in Asia, I determined, was to become an English teacher. So, i got my TOEFL certification and started looking for jobs. Long story short, i got a job as a Lecturer at the University of Technology in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was a teacher.
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Now, I will go faster. I taught English, became Directors of language schools in America, Indonesia and in Malaysia. I wrote English books and design curriculum for the World Bank Development Project in Jakarta, and I returned to Malaysia and started my own language school, The Language House in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. I ran this school for 25 years before selling in in 2014.
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In 2005 I also became a part owner and Director in O'BON, an international environmentally friendly stationary company. We made great newspaper pencils, biodegradable pens and sugar can notebooks. We manufactured our products in China, but sold them worldwide. During this time, as both the Academic Director of The Language House and a Director of O'BON, I often travelled and worked in China.
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After selling The Language House, I was invited to help China develop a nature curriculum for young students. Having spent most of my adult life developing educational curriculm of all sorts, this was a great new challenge I readily accepted. I spend the next 3 years working in China and Malaysia developing the material that is on this website. First, there is an nature ebook that introduces students to water, air, plants, soil (Earth) and animals. Second, there are the nature challenges that offer a 3 hour discover, exploring, thinking, collaborating program on each of our 5 main topics.
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I am planning to continually work on and improve this as I know it is just a start with much more to come.
As I am now retired, a small donation will help me continue this work. Thank you.
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Mission
Young people get it. They understand intuitively that the world is on fire, and nature is really under attack. This attack is so serious, and cannot be reversed without huge efforts that to date are weak at best.
NBL is attempting to highlight the awesomeness of nature, and give students a better appreciation of nature as well as point out the threats and dangers that lurk.
Vision
There is more of us (nature protectors and enthusiasts) than oil companies. But, the oil companies, environment degraders, loggers, polluters are heavily funded. They are willing and able to put up a lot of money to continue abusing and degrading our fragile environment and climate. We will beat them, and it is important to create the conditions for students to learn and appreciate our climate and world. We will succeed, but it will take real effort and time. Let's get to work....
