Mr. Wilson’s Crazy Dog Show

Jeff Wilson worked hard his whole life.He worked hard in school, and he worked hard after he graduated high school.Jeff got his first job at The American Ship Building Company.

The shipyard was not far from his school. Every day after school, Jeff would ride his bicycle to the shipyard and watch the workers build the ships. He always dreamed he would build ships someday. He knew that after he graduated high school, he would want to work there.

After graduating high school, Jeff wanted to go to college, but his mom and dad didn’t have enough money. Jeff’s dad suggested he apply for a job at the shipyard. Jeff always wanted to work there anyway. Besides, the shipyard would pay for some or all of his college. If you kept an “A” average in school, they would pay 100% of the tuition.

Jeff went down to the American Shipbuilding Company the next day and applied for a job. He used his dad as a reference because he had worked there 35 years. Jeff’s dad was a mechanic for the part of the company that built railroad trains.

A few days later, Jeff was home and received a phone call!

“Hi Mr. Wilson, this is Adriana with the American Shipbuilding Company. I would like to see if you could come to the office tomorrow for an interview.”

“Yes!” Jeff answered, very excited. He hung the phone and yelled for his mother.

“Mom! I have an interview at dad’s company at 11 tomorrow. Can you help me iron my clothes? Should I wear a tie?”

His mom replied, “calm down, Jeff. Yes you should wear a tie. You are going to be fine”

Jeff’s mom got his clothes ready and hung them on the door of his room for him.

That night, Jeff was so excited he couldn’t even eat his dinner. He asked his dad, “what should I say?”

Jeff’s dad just laughed. “Just be yourself, you will be fine.”

The next morning, Jeff woke up at 8:00. He got dressed and left the house at 10:00 so he could make to his interview by 11:00. He arrived at the shipyard office and waited for his name to be called.

Adriana called Jeff’s name and led him into her office. They talked about why he wanted to work there. Jeff said he wanted to build ships ever since he was a little boy. They talked some more about different things. Adriana then told him he was hired; however, she let him know he wouldn’t be able to build ships immediately. He would have to start in the mailroom sorting mail and delivering it to all the offices. She told him the good news that, as an employee, he could go to welding class after work. There were classes taught by the workers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If he worked hard, he could be a certified welder in 1 year.

The interview was great!

Jeff was so happy; he couldn’t wait to get started! He went home and told his parents the exciting news. He was going to start work bright and early Monday morning.

Jeff had a whole week before he started his new job. He went to the library and picked up two books to read during the week he had off. One book was about building ships, and the other was about welding. He was determined to finish both books before he started work Monday morning

Jeff arrived at work Monday morning and met his new boss. She showed him what to do, how to sort mail, and a map of all the buildings. It was a big company and had a lot of offices in several different buildings. There was a lot of work to do, so Jeff was busy all day. Even though he was tired after work, he was still excited about welding class. He only took a ½ hour lunch break on Tuesday so he would be sure to be on time for class.

Jeff showed up for class for class on Tuesday afternoon and introduced himself to the instructor, who was also a supervisor in the shipyard. He welcomed Jeff and told him the first half of the class was in the calssroom and the second half was in the shipyard.

To go to class in the shipyard, Jeff needed safety glasses and a hardhat. The company would not provide them; he had to buy them on his own. “no problem,” he said. “I’ll buy everything with my first paycheck.”

Jeff arrived to class early on Thursday wearing his safety gear. Everybody in the class laughed at him-he forgot the first hour was in the classroom. One of his classmates yelled, “Look out! Flying eraser!” Everybody was cracking up. Jeff got over it fast. He made sure he never made that mistake again.

Jeff worked hard in class. He was an employee now and registered in the welding class, so this allowed him to enter the shipyard any time he wanted. He would go to the shipyard every day after work and even stay after class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The workers got to know him. With all the practice after work, Jeff was the best student in the class. After 2 years of helping and going to class, he was a certified welder and could read blueprints as well.

Jeff went ahead and applied for a job as a shipbuilder apprentice. Sure enough, he got a call from Adriana in Human Resources. She wanted to set an appointment for an interview. They remembered each other from the first interview when she hired him. The interview was short. Jeff got the job and would start in the shipyard in a few days.

Jeff was both working and going to college full time. He made sure to keep an “A” average so the company would pay 100% of his tuition and books. After 5 years with the company, he graduated from college with a degree in computer science and business management.

After graduating, Jeff was promoted to an office job. His new job was to find mistakes in the blueprints. He used his experience from working in the shipyard. Manual drafting was slow and inefficient. There was a lot of drafting to do for every area of the ship.

The new department Jeff worked in had over 100 draftsmen working on all three shifts.

Jeff went to his supervisor and told him about a better way to make all these blueprints. He told him about what he had learned in college. He also told him about CAD (computer-aided-design), a computer program that can do the work of 50 designers. He convinced his supervisor to do a presentation for all the executives.

The presentation went perfectly. The executives all agreed that this was the direction in which the company should go. They bought the necessary CAD programs and promoted Jeff to the position of director of design and training. The job was a lot of responsibility and a lot of work, and Jeff loved every minute of it.

The vice president of the company came to congratulate Jeff personally. Jeff was excited. The vice president also said Jeff would be getting his old office back. Jeff was a little confused; he never had an office before. The VP was sort of joking: The old office he was referring to was the old mailroom.

Shortly after Jeff went to work in the shipyard as a shipbuilder apprentice, the mailroom was closed. Over time, new technologies took over, such as email and instant messaging. There was no need for a mailroom and all the expenses that came with it.

Many years passed, and Jeff received many promotions.

He became the vice president of the shipbuilding division. This was a job he loved. On his 50th birthday, his secretary told him the president of the company, Mr. Johnson, wanted to meet with him. Because Mr. Johnson was 70 years old, Jeff thought for sure Mr. Johnson would announce in the meeting that he was planning to retire and ask if he wanted to take over his position. Being the company president was Jeff’s dream job.

During Jeff’s drive to the main office, he thought about how cool it would be as the president of the company. He would have his office in the beautiful all-glass headquarters building with landscaped gardens. The office in the shipyard was just a metal warehouse with offices.

Jeff arrived early to the meeting, so he sat in his car. His mind was racing; he was thinking about how he would run the company and make it more profitable. He also was thinking about how he was going to miss his old office, which had a great view of the shipyard. He was already planning his first meeting with the shareholders and how he would present his plans for the company’s future. But first he had to figure out what to say when Mr. Johnson offered him the job.

Jeff entered the office. Mr. Johnson greeted him with a big smile. “Jeff, I have not seen you in a long time. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing great. How are you, Mr. Johnson?”

“I have great news, Jeff. The company is offering you a buyout of $2,000,000 plus the stock you own. You can retire now and have nearly $6,000,000 in your pocket when you leave the company.”

Jeff replied, “I’m not planning on retiring this year. I’m only 50 years old. I still plan on working for several more years.”

“Jeff, we are planning to move our shipbuilding business to China. Labor is much cheaper there. You know all about cutting costs; you saved us hundreds of millions of dollars over the years after you presented CAD. We were able to lay off 153 draftsmen. Your nickname has become the “the Hatchet Man.’ Everybody knows when you call them to your office they are getting laid off.”

Jeff cut the meeting short. He told Mr. Johnson “good to see you” and left the office feeling sad and empty. He could not believe he was the one getting laid off. Everything he worked for his whole life was over.

Jeff was 50 years old and unemployed. He had money, but nothing to do all day.

Sitting at home all day, Jeff had lots of time to think and look back at his 32 years he spent in the shipbuilding company. He thought about all the cutbacks he made and all the people he had to lay off. He had stories of all the people losing their homes and cars, even falling into deep depression and winding up divorced.

Some of the people who lost their jobs at the shipbuilding company were never able to find a job that paid as much as they had been making. Some of the people were not able to find a job at all.

It was time to get off the couch and do something to help people. Sitting at home all day doing nothing was making Jeff depressed. He decided to host a dog show and donate the profits to charity. He loved dogs and had five of his own: Scooby, Rover, Minnie, Daisy, and Sky. In the past, when he had time off from work, he would take Minnie to the nursing home near his house and let the residents play with her. The old people loved it when she came over.

Jeff decided the best place to do the dog show would be the church auditorium. He woke up early Sunday morning and asked Father Ben for permission. All the money he raised would go to the church to help the food pantry. The tickets would be $5; everybody would be welcome to come. Father Ben loved the idea. Jeff had a lot of work to do; he h ad to get the word out.

There was no time to waste. Jeff started putting flyers out that advertised the show. He asked people to email videos of their dogs and the tricks the dogs would do at the show. Father Ben talked about the show at his church service. People started calling the next day. Jeff was receiving videos in the emails and setting up times for people to bring their dogs to his house to show him what they could do. His house was perfect for auditions because he had a big patio and a big fenced-in backyard.

Mrs. Jones brought her dog Buster, a Great Dane. He sat in front of a big stuffed toy. Mrs. Roberts told him to pick it up, bring it to her, and drop it, which he did. “Pretty cool,” Jeff said. “You and buster are in the show. See you there.”

Two boys from the church called to ask if they could be in the show. Jeff asked, “What kind of dogs do you have?”

“We don’t have dogs,” they replied. “We have ducks, Scrubb and Dubb. They’re really cool; they can walk down the aisle together to the stage and open the show.”

Jeff thought it sounded a little crazy, but he agreed. The boys came by his house and showed him the ducks. He loved them so much that he decided they should walk down the red carpet at the dog show.

Showtime! The dog show had so many contestants and spectators that Jeff had to find a bigger hall than what the church had; therefore, he moved the show to the community center down the road. The show began with the ducks walking down the red carpet, which excited Buster the Great Dane. He started barking and lunged at them. The ducks flew up and around in the auditorium and pooped on one of the men in the audience. Everybody was laughing. The next day, the newspaper did a story about the show they called “The Scrubb-a-Dubb Dog show.” The show was a big hit. Even though things didn’t go perfectly, they went better than expected. It wasn’t long before everyone started calling the event “Mr. Wilson’s Crazy Dog Show.”

Jeff found his new passion in life: helping people. He dcided to do another dog show at the public schools so he could raise money for school supplies. He went to the school and asked the principal, who said he had heard about the dog show and that he loved the idea. So, Jeff planned to go to city hall to see if he needed any permits or special insurance coverage. However something bothered him as he left the school: it was old and run down. The classrooms were packed with kids. The air conditioner was not working, and a bunch of trailers-called “portable classrooms”-were in the schoolyard.

It was simply not fair. Why was the school so old and run down while city hall was a brand new beautiful building? Jeff made it his mission to see that the school system received the attention and money it needed. He was going to run for public office and make sure the government committed to spending spending trillions of dollars on the school system. He called his campaign “The Trillion-Dollar promise.”

The Trillion-Dollar Promise was based on a simple philosophy. Many times during our country’s recent history when America was in trouble, our leaders came together and forged an agreement to spend trillions of dollars to fix the problem. For example, during the 1980s our military was run down and outdated, and our military personel had terribly low morale. President Reagan came up with a plan to spend trillions of dollars on our military, investing in research and development. He planned to build the strongest and most advanced military in the world.

President Bush Sr spent over $124 billion bailing out and liquidating over 747 savings and loan banks. Prsident Bush Jr passed the Medicare Modernization Act, which paid for elderly people’s prescription medicine, with an estimated cost of 1.2 trillion during the first 10 years.

In 2008, our country faced one of the greatest economic threats since the great depression. Congress and the president came up with an agreement to invest trillions of dollars into our economy and save our country’s way of life from complete collapse.

These are just some examples of how our government is able to find the money when they want to spend it. Long story short: its time we spend trillions of dollars on our K-12 public education system, thereby bringing it up to at least the same satndards as in our private education system.

Well, Jeff ran for public but quickly dropped out of the race. The only way to raise enough money would be to make promises to special-interest groups and wealthy individuals. It just was not his style. So forget big-money politics; Let’s fix it together. I wrote this short, simple story to reach out to young people, teachers, and public education administrators. Let’s demand our lawmakers allocate the money to build public schools like the private school Sasha and Malia Obama go to. Sidwell Friends has a semi-underground athletic center with indoor and outdoor tracks, including two with all-weather turf surfaces and five tennis courts. Vice President Joe Biden’s grandchildren attend the school. President Theodore Roosevelt’s son, Archibald; Richard Nixons daughter, Tricia; Bill Clinton’s daghter, Chelsea; and Vice President Al Gore’s son, Albert Gore III, graduated from Sidwell Friends. We should have that level of education for every child, not just the privileged few.

Jeff Wilson believes a great education is not just about academics and athletics; he believes it should also include many lessons about how to live a successful life after high school. He wants schools to offer extra curriculum classes during the summer, such as financial planning and extra healthy living. The courses would have incentives. For instance, if you pass with a “B” or better, you would earn things like i-pads and mall gift certificates. To enroll in these classes, you would have to have a “B” average or better during the school year.

One of the most important lessons Jeff learned in grade school was about computers. When he was a child many years ago, the teachers announced they had a surprise. The class all walked down to a freshly remodeled classroom with 20 computers on the desk. The teachers explained that computers would be in every home and buisness, and the time to learn about computers was now. That’s how Jeff excelled in college; he understood computers and learned quickly.

Today things are changing rapidly. The economy has changed: It’s now globalized, and companies are sending work overseas to be more cost effective. People are losing good paying jobs and never returning to the same higher wages they use to earn. Employers are no longer paying retirement benefits, and our government is going broke. So, young people need to learn how to succed in this new economically challenging environment. That is why Jeff Wilson believes we need to reinvent our entire school system, including successful living courses and much more.

Teachers I would like to make this a school project. Have your students click on my web page and read Mr. Wilson’s Crazy dog show, and then they can tell me what they think and how they would like their new school to look. Click on my Trillion-Dollar promise petition, have your whole class sign it, and mail it back to Mr. Wilson. My goal is to have a million or more signatures. I will take them to Washington myself and drop them off at the White House so lawmakers can see we want this to happen.