The first 30 years (– the flags, by the way, are there for purely decorative purposes ...):
While I was born and raised in (West-)Germany, I moved to the UK when I came to Atlantic College as a student for two years, and I have lived in this country since then (– the UK, that is: for me, Wales is not a country ...)
I then spent 11 very academic, very enjoyable years at two universities, studying first Mathematics for five years and then Philosophy for six.
During those years I went to the United States for a few months every summer to work at a 4H-camp on Long Island, not far from New York, which provided a good contrast to my academic life the rest of the year.
Although I had never planned to become a teacher, when a friend mentioned that he had seen a job advertisement for the College, I decided to go for it – and I have not regretted it. So here I am, teaching Mathematics and beginners' Japanese; and for a number of years I was also teaching Theory of Knowledge.
This is how to write Hello. (Konnichi wa.) in what was at some time called "the devil's language."
An important point, I have found, in teaching mathematics is to explain to students that (and why) certain forms of arguments are not valid. Examples:
- (a + b)2 is not the same as a2 + b2, (except in special cases.) Thinking that they are identical is an instance of what I have heard being called 'Mickey Mouse mistakes'.
- If I know of a family that they have two children, and that at least one of them is a boy, (assuming the birth of a boy and a girl to be equally likely,) the probability of both the children being boys is not 1/2.
- It is not a valid proof of a proposition, such as a trigonometric identity, to start with that proposition and derive from it something that is obviously true, such as an identity of the form a = a.
- Even though it is correct that
ò 1/x dx = ln x + c ,
it is not therefore also correct that
ò 1/x2 dx = ln x2 + c .
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This is a general point: part of the purpose, it seems to me, of the Theory of Knowledge course too is to make people more critical of things that they might otherwise just assume, even simple things like that "science proves things," or that "whether or not something is a work of art is just a question of liking it or not liking it."
This critical thinking can then apply (if one is that kind of person ...) to a wide range of issues, some quite mundane, such as rumours: their very nature not only means that they are usually false or exaggerated, but also that they will spread more easily than any evidence against them.
(Note that moral issues are never far away ...)
Many people in their daily jobs have to spend much of their time doing things to which their personal ideas are quite irrelevant, or even to take decisions contrary to their personal values. One of the advantages of teaching, I think, and especially teaching at Atlantic College, is that one's own outlook, and to some extent even one's personal relationships, are not separated from one's work: that makes the work both more demanding and more rewarding.
Another advantage of teaching, and again especially of teaching here, is of course that one has long holidays; I like to spend mine travelling, mostly to visit friends, some of whom live far away. Each year I spend about a month in Europe (= continental Europe) and another in the US, but the places I have found most intriguing and have kept returning to are Japan and Africa (= sub-Saharan Africa).
Like everyone else at the College I am involved in a variety of other acitvities: in my case, the main one has for many years been the Coastguard Service, which has become CAVRA, which I have enjoyed a lot, even though I am personally not very keen on climbing and hiking and such things; First Aid, which I teach; webpage design and maintenance and programming, which is now a College Service, w3S; and the Choir, in which I sing and with which I go on tour.
That is a bit of Swaziland in the background (– at WK: thanks, Donovan and Ramila.)
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