Monday, March 14

Arithmetic and The Bible

I found How To Teach Arithmetic by J. C. Brown (published in 1914) the other week. It has been an interesting read with lots to think about in how I teach and how I can better prepare people wanting to teach high school mathematics.

One quote that Brown used was from Herbert Spencer ...
While rules lying isolated in the mind—not joined to its other contents as outgrowths from them—are continually forgotten, the principles which these rules express piecemeal become, when once reached by the understanding, enduring possessions. While the rule-taught youth is at sea when beyond his rules, the youth instructed in principles solves a new case as readily as an old one. Between a mind of rules and a mind of principles, there exists a difference such as that between a confused heap of materials and the same materials organized into a complete whole with all its parts bound together.
That quote was used in conjunction with a discussion about teaching arithmetic as memorized rules versus understanding the principles. But, as I thought about it, it brought to mind the difference between the Law and Christ.

The Law is a list of rules. Those things we should do or not do. I can always try to just memorize them for later ... but they "are continually forgotten" after a short while. The Law, standing alone, sits there isolated in my mind as a confusing checklist of wrongs and rights. And I can feel as if I am lost at sea when life dumps problems outside of any the rules and laws I happen to remember.

But Christ made it all simpler, and harder, at the same time. The principles are: Love the LORD and Love others. With this all the rules are no longer a "confused heap of materials". They are a "complete whole with all its parts bound together". And I no longer have to feel as if my insides are a confused heap. Unsure and never knowing what to do. I just need to do and act on these principles and I can become a complete whole capable of dealing with new the problems in life.

There are lots of problems out there I will never comprehend or solve. But, I can love the LORD and act up and act out in showing others kindness and love.

Yeah ... I can do that.