Lesson:Biographies/SteveJobsEarlyLife

Biographies

Steve Jobs

Childhood and Education

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs, was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California. Because of her fundamentalist father, Steve's biological mother, Joanne Carole Schieble, could not marry his biological father and ended up giving him up for adoption.

At first, his biological mother wanted him to be adopted by college graduates and, initially, she didn't want to allow Clara and Paul Jobs to be his adoptive parents. However, after the Jobs promised that Steve would go to college, Schieble signed the papers.

Paul, Steve's adoptive father, worked as a mechanic and a carpenter, and it's from him that Steve learned how to work on electronics and take apart and rebuild things like radios and televisions. That's how his interest in technology started.

Clara, his adoptive mother, was an accountant and taught him how to read even before he went to school.

At school, Jobs was often frustrated and, even though school officials recommended that he skip two grades because of his good test scores, his parents chose that he would only skip one grade.

Jobs graduated high school in 1972 and started going to college in the fall of that same year. Reed College was very expensive though, and his parents could barely afford it. After a while, Jobs decided he did not want to keep spending his parents' money and dropped out. He continued to attend by auditing classes, including a specially important course on calligraphy. In a 2005 commencement speech for Stanford University Jobs said: "If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts."

Expressions

Read the examples below and then make a few sentences with each expression.

end up

• He wanted to be a doctor but ended up a lawyer.
• After backpacking around Europe for a few months, we ended up finding a nice place to live in the south of France.

give up for adoption

• She could not raise her son and had to give him up for adoption.
• He was given up for adoption and never got to meet his biological parents.

take apart

• He took the television apart and then rebuilt it.
• He took the clock apart and didn't know how to put it back together.

drop out

• He dropped out of the photography class because he didn't like the teacher.
• She decided to drop out of college and go work at a restaurant.

drop in

This expression is very uncommon and we're only explaining it here because it's used in the Steve Jobs' quote. So, don't worry about having to use it.

• He drops in the class even though he's not enrolled.

Talk a little about...

Have you ever done something, like in Jobs' case a Calligraphy course, that seemed to have no practical application in your life, but that became important later on and shaped the future of something you were doing? Have you ever looked back and connected the dots and understood things you did in the past under a new light?

True or False

 

True	False
		Steve Jobs moved to California in 1955.
		Clara Jobs, Steve's biological mother, was an accountant.
		Steve was given up for adoption.
		Steve's mother gave him up for adoption so she could go to college.
		Clara and Paul Jobs promised Steve's biological mother they would provide him with a college education.
		Paul's father was a mechanic. He taught Steve about electronics.
		Before he started school, Steve could already read.
		Paul's father was frustrated with his grades in school.
		Jobs skipped only one grade in school even though he could have skipped two.
		Jobs graduated high school in 1972 and started college the next year.
		Reed College was a good and affordable school.
		Jobs' parents had a hard time paying for their son's college education.
		Jobs said that the Calligraphy course he took in college was very important in designing the Mac.

Practice

Read the following sentences. Then change them to the negative and interrogative form.

• He was born in 1955.
• He was born in San Francisco.
• He was born in California.
• He was born in February.
• He was born on the 24th.

• He got married in 1970.
• He wanted to get married in 1970.
• She signed the adoption papers.
• She allowed the Jobs to adopt Steve.
• They promised to provide him with a college education.

• He learned how to take things apart.
• He learned how to rebuild things.
• He started to work at Atari.
• His mother taught him to read.
• He went to Reed College.

• The school officials recommended Jobs skip two years.
• Jobs' parents allowed him to skip only one year.
• He chose to drop out of college.
• He chose to drop in the Calligraphy class as an auditing student.
• He skipped one grade.
• He graduated high school in 1972.

• His parents could afford to pay for his college.
• His father worked as a mechanic.
• His mother worked as an accountant.

Conversation

1. What do you think about parents that give their children up for adoption?
2. If you had been adopted, would you try to meet your biological parents?
3. Would you adopt a child? Why or why not?
4. Do you have a college degree? Do you think it is still important to have a college degree nowadays?
5. Do you think the profession of your parents has influenced you in any way?
6. Do you know anything about electronics?
7. Were you ever frustrated in school? Tell the story.
8. Do you find it hard to focus? Do you have any tips or tricks for that?
9. Do you find it hard to make things simple? Do you have any tips or tricks for that?
10. What class impacted you the most in school (high school, college, etc)?
11. What person impacted you the most?
12. Have you ever had to give anything up in your life?
13. Have you ever taken anything apart?

Lifehacks

Lifehack: What do you think about this lifehack? Will it be useful to you?

Quotes

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” -- Steve Jobs

Exercise

Write a few paragraphs commenting on the Steve Jobs quote above. Do you agree with him? Do you have examples from your life? When can this be a bad advice? What do you need to do in your life in order to be able to focus and simplify things?

Comments

Did you have any difficulties? Learn anything interesting? Comment below so you can share your knowledge with other students.

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