drg - Who Is he? Read On, Little MacDuffitt, And You Will See...
Who is Dr. Richard Gilder III?
Why did he found CAGSE?
If you want to know, read on.
If you don't, plug in a new destination and keep on surfin'.
I am on what is currently a twenty-four year journey to deepen my understanding, knowledge, and flexibility of thinking in several meaningful areas. These areas include, but are not limited to, an on-going investigation into the power and eloquence, the brashness and boldness, the mechanics and intricacies, the beauty and the absurdity, the good sense and the nonsense, of the essence of Latin, Greek, English, language in general, lacrosse, learning, teaching, coaching, advising, and guiding students and teachers on the beginning, middle, or end of the road upon which they find themselves at a particular moment in time.
CAGSE is the expression, the physical manifestation, of that quest.
I have taught and coached students of every age level from 4th grade through graduate school. I know where they began, where they are, where they're going. I understand their motivations, their hopes, their fears, their disappointments (sometimes borne of bitter unexpected failure, sometimes accepted with lukewarm acknowledgement), their successes (garnered with anything from a modest shrug to a wild whoop of exultation). When it comes to students, I have seen the means, the extremes, and everything in between. I am a student of the mind inchoate belonging to that age group undergoing the angst and grind of growing up. Students sense this intuitively. They know when they come to me that I will tell them what they need to hear. Each student is different. One needs compassion, another compulsion, a third someone who will simply lend an ear. One student would do well to stop kidding himself, another to give herself a break. And there's always the student who is desperately seeking the answer to the lonliest of all questions, "Is there anybody out there?" I encourage students, and teachers, to undertake more and greater challenges, to opt for the more difficult path, or the one less obvious. Yet whether in the classroom, in my office, or on the athletic field, I'm ultimately in the business of putting myself out of business. There will come a time when students walk out of my classroom, out of school, and on to the next phase of their lives. I prepare students not against that day, but for it.
As a colleague, I'm open and frank; I speak my mind; I don't break if you speak yours. I work extremely hard, am self-motivated, but not self-absorbed.
If you want to work for me, I expect nothing less from you.
I have a clear vision about the whos, whats, whens, whys, wheres of Latin and language, of lacrosse, of teaching, of coaching, of mentoring. I am direct. I've written two Latin text books, used in the UK in CAGSE's state schools in the London area. And I attend conferences such as that held by the Classical Association of Atlantic States, by the American Classical League, and by JACT.
drg