developed when Jobs reached his
third grade, that is when the tricks
became more dangerous. He once
put an explosive substance under
the seat of his teacher Mrs. Thurman.
Consequently, she suffered nervous
spasms, and he was banned from
school for two or three years before
finishing his third grade.
Steve’s father deeply believed and
had a great conviction that Steve
was a distinguished child to the ex-
tent that when he knew about the
school’s decision to expel him, he
went there and said that it was not
his son’s fault, and that it was their
fault if they couldn’t captivate his at-
tention. He did not punish him for his
deed.
A Brave Woman
During his fourth grade, his class
teacher was a brave woman called
Imogene Hill, known as Teddy. She
had decided to monitor Steve Jobs’
behavior for several consecutive
weeks, and learnt that the best way
to deal with him is to bribe him. She
used to give him a book with all the
mathematical equations to answer,
promising him a big lollipop and five
dollars if he managed to hand in the
homework in two days. He always
did, and in a few months, Jobs was in
no need for bribery, instead he only
used to think of how to learn from
Imogene and make her happy by his
success. Jobs used to say about her
“I have learnt from her more than I
have from any other teacher, and if
not for her, I would have definitely
gone to jail as I used to be the only
one in class she cared for, and in
which she saw something special.”
In the fourth grade’s finals, Jobs got
scores equal to those of an eleventh
grader. So the school offered his par-
ents to allow him to skip two years
and go straight to grade seven. How-
ever, his parents thought that it was
enough to skip only one year and
Jobs moved to the sixth grade.
During this period, Paul Jobs used
to work at Spectra Physics in Santa
Clara Valley, which used to manufac-
ture laser for electronic devices and
medical equipment. By virtue of his
work as a mechanic, he used to cre-
ate the prototypes for the products
innovated by the engineers. Despite
Steve’s fascination by his father’s
job, he never even once went to the
machine workshop because he was
more passionate about electronics to
the extent that he was using them in
his old tricks. One Sunday, he plant-
ed sound amplifiers all around his
house, and since they may also be-
come microphones, he established a
control room in his closet, from which
he could hear everything happening
in all the rooms in the house. One
day, while eavesdropping on his par-
ents’ bedroom through headphones,
his father discovered the matter and
asked him to disassemble the sys-
tem and never do it again.
Larry King
Jobs often used to visit the garage
of Larry King, the engineer who lived
near Job’s old house. King gave him
the carbon microphone which fas-
cinated him, and suggested that he
should buy the toolbox that would
enable him to assemble wireless and
other electronic devices, preferred
by other device collectors. Jobs said
about this toolbox: ‘The “Heathkits”
toolbox included all types of boards
and encrypted painted pieces with a
manual that explains its mechanism.
This game made you realize that you
were capable of understanding and
constructing anything. So by simply
assembling a few wireless devices,
you see the television manual and
think “I can assemble this too, even if
in reality you cannot. I was very for-
tunate that when I was young, both
my father and the “Heathkits” toolbox
gave me the confidence in my ability
to assemble anything.’
During this period, Larry decided to
affiliate Jobs to the Hewlett-Pack-
ard (HP) Club, a group of students
around the age of fifteen who used
to meet in the company’s cafeteria
every Tuesday. Jobs remembered
saying: “They used to bring an engi-
neer from one of the labs to talk to us
about one of the projects they were
working on. My father used to drive
me there, and I was very happy since
HP was a pioneer at developing the
LED technology, thus we discussed
its use.”
Jobs met one of the engineers who
took him in a tour in the 3D imaging
lab. However, what captivated him
the most was seeing the desktop
computer in this company for the first
time in his life. They called it 9100A,
and it was a huge calculator as well
as the first desktop computer. Al-
though it was huge weighing about
40 Lbs., it was a beautiful device with
which he fell in love at first sight.
In Part III:
• Steve Jobs gets addicted to Mari-
juana at the age of fifteen.
23
November
2013
