28/06/09: My mathematic teacher

My first ever post will be on one of my most respected mathematics teacher, Mr. Tony Finch. The reason why i choose to write about him is because he did make a major impact in my life. Frankly speaking, i never liked maths before i came to KTJ (neither that i hate) but Mr Finch clearly has given me the insight as to what mathematic really is. Contrary to what people were telling me that mathematic was all about hardwork, "practice makes perfect", and that "you have to do the maths not stare at it", Mr. Finch however believes otherwise. He, of course, didnt believe in all these because as far as I could remember, he never sets us prep, not even proper notes for us to copy and memorise, instead he believes that mathematics is about exploration and once you get it, thats it. As he puts it perfectly "if you can do it a couple of times, you can do it a hundred millions of times" (i dont know about the hundred millions and first time :D though i doubt anybody would need to do that much)

However, despite me having such fond feelings for him, I can still remember he doesnt exactly have the same for me. There was once when I was in my class that my phone suddenly rang due to some stupid DIGI advertisement =( and he actually confiscated my phone and never gave it back to me but instead handed it back to my housemaster. From his gesture and facial expression, i can tell that he thinks that i am one of those rich man's sons who couldnt care less about studies and blessed with all these fancy phones. =)

But as time goes by, i believe his attitude towards me changed. though I tend to look blur in class for some reason (which has made my new pure maths teacher think that i couldnt understand his teaching most of the time). Not to mention that his cheerful demeanour and quirky sense of humour as Tian Huey puts it, never failed to take off the tension in a room.

The days that follow were interesting. He slowly shapes our thoughts not just on mathematics but also on philosophical aspects and lateral thinking which both of them have now been my favourite reading subject. I think the most enjoyable thing to be learning under his guidance is that he never teaches you to just memorise some formulae and then apply it, instead he will ensure that we not only understands the theory but know of its origin.

Now that he had left the school because the board of governors thinks that he is too old to teach anymore.... which i doubt that the board is sane, there is nothing that students like us could do to change it. He did "retire" last year this time and I believe that KTJ can never find an adequate replacement for him.

I was glad that we finally visited him in Seremban 2 weeks ago, seeing him still as cheerful and perhaps even healthier than before, producing marquetries in his free time while at the same time writing his own biography. To my surprise, we actually stayed for approximately 3 hours in the visit doing nothing but listening to him talking about his past experience (which consists mainly of his travelling experiences) and the best part of the visit was when Mr. Dickman asked him "Why didnt you schedule your flight to Sweden after the Speech Day? Cant you ask before you book your ticket? This will be the first ever Speech Day without Tony Finch". Finch answered "then you might as well cancel it"

Some other facts about him
1. He speaks English, French, German, Russian, Polish, Arabic, Malay, Italian and Spanish!
2. He travelled to more than 100 countries, some of which no longer exist today!
3. He is a descendant of Royal Astronomers and Swedish Aristocrats!
4. He was hired by KTJ before it was even opened!
5. He has 4000 CDs (all instrumental) in his common room and they are insured!

Thanks a lot Sir, and I believe everybody in our class will miss you..