- Dr. Vargas also spent
30 years, she started off
as an elementary teacher,
but she spent 30 years
at West Virginia University
shaping the young folks
of today to become teachers
and future behavior analysts.
Back when we worked
together, she was my advisor.
They didn't have board certification.
And Julie, you don't
have board certification.
Who thinks she doesn't need it?
Raise your hand.
(laughs)
(audience laughs)
All right, we have a
consensus, you're good.
This last thing I had to
say was that spending time
with her at West Virginia over the years,
with her being my advisor,
I learned so many things
where she took me under her wing.
And we all need mentors.
And I can't tell ya how grateful we are.
Each one of you probably
have a mentor in the field,
personally and professionally.
And Dr. Vargas would tell
me stories about her father
growing up.
We would, on Sundays, we would have tea,
and look through notes that B.F. Skinner
did not publish yet, and see
how we can contribute that
to the future works.
And some of the things
she told me were about
baby tender, and there were
a lot of misconceptions
in the public world of
psychology, and a lot of people
out there that did not understand
applied behavior analysis.
At West Virginia, we were
considered almost a black sheep,
at times, of the psychology world.
Raise your hand if you
sometimes feel that way now.
(audience chuckles)
(laughs)
Okay,
people do not like data
and they don't like
science sometimes.
Many people would rather
talk about the psychology
or the internal states of
individuals because it doesn't
make the teacher responsible
for the learner's progress.
So I learned when she
spoke about baby tender,
that it it's an air-crib.
And unfortunately, people
would take this information
and they would write about it.
One editor from a woman's
magazine titled it Baby in a Box.
Which, right away, has
negative connotations.
I don't know if she gets
that today, but it was
a practical, clean environment
where it's temperature controlled.
Things like that that
were misunderstandings
of applied behavior analysis.
She told me--
One of the cutest things I loved hearing
from Dr. Vargas, that
when she was a child,
the way she would get her
father, B.F. Skinner, to spend
time with her before she went
to sleep was to ask questions
about science.
And (chuckles) that's
what my daughter does too.
But it's more about gymnastics.
(audience laughs)
Yeah, we're on a different level.
Without further ado, I'd
like for you to give her
a warm welcome and
introduce Dr. Julie Vargas.
Thank you.
(applause)
- Thank you very much.
That was a very nice introduction.
And talk about being proud.
Wouldn't you love to
have a student like that?
(audience chuckles)
That's fantastic.
I'm tempted to use a line
that my father had once.
He was giving a talk at Carnegie Tech,
and it was a big audience.
He always got big audiences.
And he was introduced by a
young student who went up
and was obviously kind of nervous.
He said, "I'm here to
tell you about B.F Skinner
"and well, I read Science
and Human Behavior,
"and it's, Science and
Human Behavior's my bible.
"So, here's God."
(audience laughs)
I was sitting in the
audience and I was thinking,
"Oh, what is he going to do?"
He stepped up and he said,
"I'd like to thank Mr. Jones
"for that very modest introduction."
And of course, it broke up the audience.
So it was tempting to use
that line because it was
a very nice introduction.
