Dr Peter Gardner, Economics Teacher

"...I witnessed the magic of the UWC blended with IB excellence to educate and lend focus to a new generation of students..."

Of all the careers I have pursued in the past 40 years, the United World Colleges have offered the most rewarding experience. My first career was as a stock market analyst and broker in the late 1960s working for a prestigious company in an overly-stimulating atmosphere. Three years in that career caused me to reflect on my values and to make a stand against compromising them in any future career choice. Today, when I head home after a predictably over-stimulating day at Pearson College working with young people who have an insatiable appetite to question everything and quest after knowledge, I know I am in the right place.

At a UWC we work with an enormous diversity of students with so many different world views and experiences. Some will become important decision makers in their own countries and in the international community. Some take Economics at their parents’ urging. A surprising number take it because they are curious about money and the economy. A few take advanced degrees and gain satisfying employment in international bodies such as the World Bank, large corporate consulting companies or highly-respected NGOs. What I teach them really matters.

In 1980 I completed a PhD in Natural Resource Economics and became a full time university professor. I slowly began to realize that despite countless hours spent researching and publishing or presenting papers at international conferences, the practical application of research was largely missing. One overly-candid Economics Nobel prize winner stated that 97% of what was published in learned journals was not worth reading. I often felt like a highly-trained pianist playing a carefully-prepared piece with nobody listening.

During my professorial years, I was aware of the establishment of Pearson College; indeed a family friend was one of the first Board members, helping to shepherd the College into reality. However, I took a different path, this time with the government. The work I was assigned was exciting and meaningful but far too often I saw really important economic initiatives eclipsed by political considerations. This time it was like playing an electronic piano that wasn’t plugged in.

In due course I was invited to take up an Economics position at Pearson College. I was in my late 40s and my mind was ready for the challenge I knew this transition would bring – a younger student body than I was used to teaching, a far more international mindset, and a time commitment of epic proportions which both my wife and I knew would be part of the job description. Still, I couldn’t help wondering how my piano compositions would be received, played in the key of E(conomics), of course!
From the start, there was something about teaching at Pearson which really impressed me: with rare exceptions, the students were thirsty to learn and ready to be challenged academically. As a significant part of the curriculum, I was also responsible for my share of activity and service programs, and I was struck by the importance of these life components balancing the demanding educational requirements. I journeyed to Europe to take an IB Economics course, and was impressed by the whole IB atmosphere, so different from the university world.

During the summer of 1994, Pearson College in partnership with the Canadian government asked me and my wife to take 12 students, ages 18 to 22, to Costa Rica for eight weeks to work on my choice of international development projects. It was a huge effort to plan, and each project was very demanding, but the students rose to every occasion as ambassadors, imbued as they were with the UWC spirit.

In 2006, a call went out for veteran UWC teachers to commit two years to help start the 12th UWC based in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a unique College specialising in students from conflict and post-conflict countries of the world. This proved to be an incredible effort with many challenges and an equally incredible adventure for me and my wife. Once again, I witnessed the magic of the UWC blended with IB excellence to educate and lend focus to a new generation of students, many of whom suffered war trauma and severely-disrupted educations.

During more than 15 years engaged in the intense environment demanded of any UWC teacher, I have received uncountable numbers of letters, cards and emails of affectionate testimony from former students. These are always surprising to me, speaking as they do of influences I was totally unaware of having had upon those I taught in the classroom and supervised in a host of college activities and community services. I shall carry those messages with me as the ultimate reward of a life well spent in the UWC family.