Since 2006, the eighty-year-old Wim Langendijk has been teaching physics seminars at Radboud University. The two one-and-a-half hour lectures are the highlights of Langendijk’s week. ‘My peers think I’m crazy for doing this, but there is nothing I enjoy more than teaching people something.’

There are books everywhere in Wim Langendijk’s study. A biography on Nikola Tesla and a study book with a title in Cyrillic adorn the cabinet. Langendijk and his wife take a Russian course in the evenings. It looks somewhat chaotic, but each book looks like it could be picked up at any moment. The 80-year-old Langendijk from Oss is not done learning yet.

Langendijk has been teaching physics at Radboud University since 2006. After almost 40 years of teaching chemistry and general science at a secondary school in Oss, he started studying physics and astronomy in Nijmegen in 2003. ‘My very first lecture was on special relativity theory’, he says in his study. ‘Well, that was all Greek to me. I didn’t understand a thing.’

Good grades

Still, he really enjoyed studying. Physics and astronomy were already hobbies of his while working as a chemistry teacher. Whenever he saw a chance to use the subject matter during his lessons, he took it. ‘Each week we tried to link something from current affairs to physics. For example: how does a mother run into the water when her child is drowning in the ocean? She would crash into the waves head-on, but a dog would intuitively run into the ocean diagonally. That is a principle of physics.’

‘Each week they loyally attend the seminars, all of them’

Langendijk earned good grades. Since he had worked as a teacher his whole life, people at the university asked him if he maybe wanted to teach seminars. He said yes, which his peers find unusual. ‘They pretty much think I’m crazy for what I’m doing. Why not go play golf. But there is nothing I enjoy more than teaching people something.’

The two one-and-a-half hour lectures he teaches are the highlights of his week. He teaches seminars on quantum mechanics and chemical bonding. As soon as he starts talking about his group of pre-master students, his face lights up: ‘I am constantly having fun with those people.’

Harpsichord

The pre-master students have all followed a different path before studying at the university. Some, for example, started out in vocational education, and climbed up to university through college. Or they started out at a different study programme and switched to physics and astronomy. ‘Pre-master students have not been taught a lot of the subject matter yet. So I have a lot to teach them’, the lecturer says enthusiastically. ‘I love that. I learn from that as well.’

His students are true go-getters, he says. ‘They aim for the stars and do not think that they know everything. Each week they loyally attend the seminars, all of them.’

That makes it a special group, Langendijk says. For example, during a seminar a student admitted that he had continuously been bullied in secondary school. ‘That defines what the group is about: they do not bully, they encourage each other. As a result, they dare to be very open and vulnerable. They just say: “sir, we know nothing, so let’s get started”.’

When asked if he ever goes out with them, Langendijk replies no. He is too busy for that. ‘I have so many other things to do. I make music: I play the piano, harpsichord, and bassoon. And I play in an ensemble that I rehearse with every week. I also have these Russian lessons.’

No Powerpoint

And the lecturer cooks daily, he emphasises. When his wife got a busy job, he was the first one home every evening, so he had to cook. ‘Now I won’t be giving that task back, I like it far too much. Applied chemistry, right?’

At the university, he attends the relevant lectures on quantum mechanics and chemical bonding each week. ‘Quantum mechanics is a really, really difficult subject. By attending the lectures, I know exactly which things my students did or did not understand. I start my seminars by explaining exactly those difficult things.’

‘I always teach interactively and practically’

He doesn’t just want to impart knowledge with his seminars, his aim is to make others enthusiastic. ‘For a student to start liking the subject matter that I also like, that is the best thing there is. That is why I always teach interactively and practically. You don’t have to stand in front of the group with a PowerPoint.’ Langendijk sticks his fingers in the air and says: ‘You have in your hand a piece of chalk, in front of you a chalkboard and then you start telling a story. And that story is created together. Together you embark on an adventure.’

Instruments of terror

Since walking around the university again, he has seen much change. Although the lion’s share of his students are men, more and more women are joining. ‘I have to tell you honestly that I find those girls more ambitious than the boys.’

He is shocked at how much students need to know compared to before. They are much more serious about their studies, also because studying costs a lot more money these days. ‘And then also keep track of those phones. I also call them ‘instruments of terror’. I do understand that those kids experience stress.’

‘It doesn’t have to make me money’

In addition to university seminars, he teaches at a secondary school four hours a week. He provides tutoring for students who have fallen behind during covid lockdowns. On a voluntary basis, though the school pays him in book vouchers.

Langendijk also teaches the seminars in Nijmegen pro bono: ‘It doesn’t have to make me money. I have a decent pension and I like it. In any case, I hope to be able to keep paying the energy bill.’

Translated by Jan Scholten.