Last modified 2003/06/01 by Carl LaCombe
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Mathematics Teacher
The Cambridge School of Weston
Georgian Road
Weston, MA 02493
Phone: (781) 398-8322
Electronic mail: <clacombe@csw.org>
I am very grateful to Boris Hasselblatt, from whom I initially learned the basics of HTML. I stole shamelessly from his web page when I was starting out.
I was born on 13 August 1964, in Missoula, Montana. My parents being adventurous souls, we were soon off to Sitka, Alaska, where my brother, Alan, was born about a year and a half later. Unfortunately, we left before I was old enough to remember anything of it. We moved next to Proctor, Vermont where my first memories occur. Proctor is a marble town, or at least used to be until recently.
When I was four, my parents moved to Chester, Vermont, about 45 miles from Proctor. It was here that I lived until I graduated from high school. My parents are both involved in teaching. My father is an elementary school music teacher, teaching both instrumental and general music. My mother is the librarian at a middle school. Having teachers for parents and being surrounded by books helped shape my curiousity and gave me a love of learning and reading that has defined much of my life.
I attended Chester-Andover Elementary School and Green Mountain Union High School. These were both quite small schools, and when people talk of going to school with thousands of other students, I am still amazed. While I was in high school, Green Mountain had about 400-450 students in the 6 grades (junior and senior high), and this was a union school district serving about a half dozen towns! Chester had a total population of less than 2000.
Someone I once knew said of Vermont that "It is a wonderful place to bring up children, although they will hate you for it." I am not sure that that is totally true, but I do know that after 12 years of school in a very small town, I was ready for a more urban setting for college, so I headed off to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. My four years at MIT were wonderful. I found myself surrounded by people and ideas from all over. I enjoyed myself immensely. Perhaps too much. I did well, but was certainly not a stellar student. I spent a great deal of time working for The Tech, the largest and oldest student newspaper at MIT. I also got involved in student government (MIT Undergraduate Association), something I have never been able to leave well-enough alone.
As graduation approached, I realized that I had no idea what I was going to do once it was over. I had not applied to any graduate schools, nor for any jobs. Since I was a mathematics major, I applied for jobs in the stereotypical math field, actuarial work. I finally found a job as an actuarial assistant with the Wyatt Company (now Watson Wyatt), an international employee benefits consulting firm. I worked in defined benefits pension consulting in the Boston office (Wellesley Hills, actually). It was a wonderful company, and I worked with some really nice people, but I soon found myself uninspired by the work and longing for school again, so I applied to graduate schools.
I ended up at Tufts University in Medford, MA. While I was there I was working toward a Ph.D., but eventually decided it had negative value and that mathematical research was not what I really wanted to do with my life, so I left with my masters. While I was at Tufts I helped keep the math department computers in line, and although I enjoyed it, it took up a lot of time. I set up and maintained the math department home page. I was also one of the founding members of the Graduate Student Council, a new organization to represent graduate students at Tufts. (I said I couldn't leave well-enough alone.) I served as the treasurer for the 1994-95 year. During my final year at Tufts, I served as the first Faculty-in-Residence in Tilton Hall, an experimental freshman dormitory. Not bad for a graduate student!
After deciding to leave Tufts I started searching for a job teaching mathematics in an independent school. I am a strong believer in public education, but after six years as a graduate student, I couldn't stand the thought of spending another year in school to get my teaching certificate.
My job search landed me at the Cambridge School of Weston, a small, progressive, independent school in Weston, MA. In addition to my teaching duties, I serve as one of two faculty members on the Board of Trustees, help students in the math lab once a week during lunch, serve as a co-advisor to the Gay/Straight Alliance, serve on the Library Committee, work as the staff person in the library one night a week, and participate in the informal Teacher/Researcher group.
In September, 1998, I rode in and successfully completed the Boston-New York AIDS Ride 4 as one of the faculty members on the second CSW AIDS Ride team. To the best of my knowledge, we have had the only high school team in the ride. In the past, I have also served as the faculty representative to the Administrative Team, putting my mathematical abilities to use on budget planning, worked on the new mission statement for CSW, served as a co-chair of the Mission and Culture Task Force in the development of the new five-year strategic plan, served on the A-Board (Advisory Board), worked as a dorm associate two evenings a week, served on the Visions of Boarding Committee, served on the Diversity Committee, served on the Employees' Council, driven a van to community service activities two afternoons a week, monitored the computer lab two afternoons a week, and been active in the Coalition on Progressivism. During my first two years I served first as Assistant Advisor, then as Head Advisor to the yearbook.
My cat, Bucky, who I had had since his kittenhood, died around Thanksgiving, 1999. The next April, I started volunteering with the Pawsafe Animal Rescue. As a volunteer, I fell into the trap of falling in love with some of the cats. I took my first cat, Henrietta (Hetty), home in May, 2000. Then in October, 2000, I took Miles in for foster care during the Halloween season and he never left. Yet another volunteer who failed foster care.
I have listed below some of my pet interests (in alphabetical order) with links to some good sources of information.
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoureau
Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success or failure: which is more destructive?
If you look to others for fulfillment,
you will never be truly fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money,
you will never be happy with yourself.
Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize that nothing is lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.
Lao-Tzu (translated by Stephen Mitchell)
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.
Robert Louis Stevenson
To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another world is just as base as to use force.
Hypatia
Harold, everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves. You can't let the world judge you too much.
Maude (Ruth Gordon) in Harold and Maude
Last modified 2003/06/01 by Carl LaCombe
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