Andrew Diener, Ph.D.

My name is Andrew Diener. I was born to an Amish family on a small farm in central Illinois as one of seven siblings. My parents were avid readers, and I followed in their footsteps, becoming a voracious reader myself. Being Amish, my parents pulled me out of school after the eighth grade, at which point I went to work on my parents’ farm. As the oldest of seven children, I soon moved on to work at other places once my siblings became old enough to leave school and work on the farm.

Over the next 10 years, I worked as a farmhand, a fine woodworker, a construction worker, a cobbler, and a shoe salesman. Eventually, I left Illinois to move to San Antonio, Texas, where I worked with horses and gave guided tours. Eventually, I took a placement exam at a local community college and decided that I would do well in higher education. Thus, at the age of twenty-seven, I became a freshman in college, initially intending to major in Education. After spending two years at the community college and falling in love with Mathematics, I studied at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, where I obtained a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.

As mentioned, I initially intended to teach elementary or high school math classes. However, when I was informed that graduate schools would pay me to go to school to obtain a Ph.D. in Mathematics, I decided that teaching at the university level would be a fantastic experience. I obtained my doctorate from Texas A&M in December 2000, following which I moved to Memphis and began teaching Mathematics at the university level. For the past 20+ years, I have taught Mathematics at all levels, ranging from basic algebra to the entire calculus sequence and beyond, at both Rhodes College and Christian Brothers University.

Over the past decade or so, I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the state of public education in these United States. This discomfort came to a head during the COVID-19 pandemic, which made me think about what I could do to improve the state of education. I do not have the money or resources to found a new university or even a high-quality private elementary or high school. However, I can help parents who wish to homeschool their children. I believe very strongly that parental involvement in their children's education is one of the most important indicators of students’ success. Thus, I want to encourage parents to educate their children themselves rather than depend on public education. I am aware that math skills will atrophy if not used, and so it follows that parents may struggle to teach concepts in Mathematics that they have not utilized in some years. I believe that my experience teaching Mathematics at the university level will allow me to be a great help to such parents and their children.

I teach classes in Foreign Languages (German), Mathematics, and Science.