Fun Facts

I was once bitten on the head by a wild Balinese macaque (yup, the monkey standing on the other monkey in my profile photo). After finishing the banana he stole from my shorts pocket, he must have thought that my blonde hair was just some annoyingly fuzzy peel separating him from the behemoth banana beneath!

Despite years of rigorous studies in logic, I've never been able to determine whether or the sentence, "This sentence is false" is true or false.

I can play the minute waltz in just under 59 meters and still run the 100 meter dash in 3/4 time!

About Me

I earned my B.A. Magna Cum Laude in Philosophy, with a minor in French, at the University of Texas at Austin. I had originally intended use my degree to segue into a law career, but thought better of that naïve notion once further research rendered the rose-colored reality of actually being a lawyer as monochrome as the law’s black letters. Not being disposed to dejection, I trained my thoughts to other possibilities for the practical use of my educational credentials in philosophy: folding clothes for a department store or teaching. Some sincere soul searching settled me on teaching as the ideal fit.

Shortly after that decision, I accepted a private position as the full-time educator of two siblings in grades eight and nine respectively. The position required sole responsibility for planning, administering and evaluating their educations’ in Mathematics, English, Science, and Music Theory for their respective grade years. At the year’s end, both students took the ERB proctored test required for admission into a highly competitive local high school and scored above the 90th percentile nationwide (with one student scoring in the 99th percentile). These scores are contrasted with the 72nd and 74th percentile results they earned at the culmination of the previous year’s iteration of the very same test. The gratification I’ve derived from playing a role in these student’s lives by not simply disseminating, but animating knowledge (and its acquisition), as an end unto itself is hitherto unmatched in my experience.

My teaching philosophy is as follows: to teach philosophically. Concretely, that manifests itself in a pedagogical approach that emphasizes an actual understanding of the subject at hand by considering the nature and scope of the discipline in question, be it Mathematics or Creative Writing. Asking the questions, “What does this discipline attempt to do?” as well as, “What resources does it use toward that end?” facilitate the formulating of answers that, through guided discussion, enables an individual to make sense out why things are done in such-and-such a way. This approach safeguards against the conceptual gaps that accompany the mere memorization of unmotivated definitions and/or mechanical operations that unfortunately characterize the majority of teaching styles and curricula.