Michael Mustard is the founder and principal of the Elenchus Institute. With over 25 years experience as a tutor and education consultant Michael has helped over 2000 students with their education needs in secondary, undergraduate, and graduate school. Some of Michael’s students have gone on to study engineering at Harvard or math and computer science at Brown; he has also worked with student athletes who have gone on to college and professional athletic careers.
Michael graduated from West Vancouver Secondary at the top of his class and then went on to study at UBC earning a BsC Combined Honours Math & Physics; presenting his thesis on a topic in quantum field theory. He then worked as a high school physics teacher, software developer, commercial realtor, and in mining exploration before committing full time to his love for teaching.
Michael’s philosophy is to help students develop their strengths and overcome weaknesses through dialogue, by listening, discovering and addressing their deep questions and thirst for understanding, and by framing material in a way that suits their learning style and makes things relevance to their life and experience. Michael was diagnosed with relatively severe attention deficit disorder as an adult in his early thirties, and so he takes particular enjoyment from working with students with learning challenges and using his experiences to help students come to grip with learning challenges and their consequences.
History is the study of everything that’s ever happened ever.
It’s not just the history of geopolitics, or economics, or religion. It’s the history of fashion, the history of food, the history of physics and astronomy and engineering. A student of chemistry is a student of the Curies, William Ramsay & Glenn Seaborg. A student of mathematics is a student of Maxwell, Newton, Leibniz. A student of history is – to a certain point at least – a student of every other field of study as well, which is energizing, but can also sound rather daunting too. With me, no student will ever be bogged down with unnecessary overly specific detail that leaves them missing the big picture, and no assumed jargon or prior knowledge required, while also unlocking the unlimited potential of students with a passion for the field!
To those whose brains may work a little differently, discovering I was autistic at 19 made so much sense as it explained how neurodivergence can give you a learning superpower. Whilst I can empathize that going through the general education system might not always make it seem like it, the problem is never you, and with the right approach, you can turn what seemed like an obstacle into a gift you never knew you already had!
I fell in love with history in my teens & whether my students are fellow, passionate scholars of the past or just want to crack that pre-requisite, I’ll make it my mission to impart my knowledge in the way that best suits each individual student, no matter how they learn or how their brains work.
