TOM STRAND
PERSONAL SKETCH
I have been teaching at Foothill College since the fall quarter of 1969. I taught in the Electronics Department from 1969 to 1988, and I have taught in the Mathematics Department since then. My degrees are in Electrical Engineering (Communications Theory emphasis) and I minored in mathematics. While I thoroughly enjoy theoretical mathematics, I have a special love for applied mathematics and the beautiful insights it bestows on its diligent practitioners. My foremost teaching tenant is to treat all of my students as responsible adults. I firmly believe that my students have the right to set their own priorities and act on them as they see fit. I'm fully cognizant that frenetic examinations and letter grades are poor gauges of deep comprehension and even poorer predictors of future attainment. So, I always attempt to relate to my students as colleagues who have chosen to do what they are doing for their own good and proper reasons. I thoroughly enjoy talking with my students about anything related to mathematics after class or in my office. I have been married since 1970. My wife Lois and I have had the great pleasure of raising two sons, Tyler and Matthew, who both now live in the Bay Area. My family, now including my daughter-in-law Nathalie, is the joy of my life; it has been my great and undeserved fortune to know and love these remarkable people. I enjoy reading both serious books (biographies and histories) and brain candy (especially from the mystery or espionage genres -- although good spy novels are in short supply since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989); I love the game of golf but as a player, I suck (winning the occasional dollar or two off my budies keeps me motivated); and I bike, mostly road, but some mountain, to let my body know who's the boss. |
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