To Begin With
I want to begin the course by addressing the chaos and uncertainty around events in the world. Even though things in the Netherlands appear to be alright, many of us may have witnessed some devastating circumstances during the ongoing pandemic, wars, the energy crises or other things. If you are dealing with difficult things, you are not alone. If you decide to share your troubles with me, I am not going to judge you or pass on your private information to anybody else. But I can promise you that I will be there to listen and find help and support for you. I hope you can excuse any shortcomings with the course and help me improve it.
How to be okay?
My goal is to support you with your learning, keeping your health and well-being intacts, such that you can complete this course despite the challenges you may face. I would like to lay out some ground rules:
- You do not owe me “productivity” or “efficiency”. I just want your attention, so we can all learn something new.
- You do not owe me any information concerning your personal situation or mental or physical health condition.
- If you want to, you are welcome to talk to me about anything you are going through. Just drop me an email, and we will figure it out.
- If you need extra help, you have to miss class, or your need more time for something, just ask me. I will work with you. So will the TAs.