“Why do I need this? When will I ever use it?”
Is there a home schooling parent who hasn’t heard those words—generally connected to math?
I recently overheard a conversation at the grocery between a child and her mom on this very subject. Mom’s answer, “I don’t know. Maybe it will help you win on Jeopardy some day.”
There’s a better answer. Most good educators can offer the practical reasons for learning math. But, we home schoolers have a few insights even beyond these.
Math teaches perseverance. Our child struggles to make it through the steps of a complex division problem or to come up with the right strategy for a geometry proof and wonders, loudly, “Why do I have to do this?!! I’m going to be an artist! (writer, missionary, car mechanic).” We can try to come up with some real life situation where knowing the various ways to prove triangles congruent will save her life. We will likely fail. Even if we can imagine the scenario, it won’t assuage our child.
Instead, focus on the fact God wants us to have character that perseveres. Perseverance takes practice. Getting through the geometry proof offers that practice. You might say to your child, “As you stick to getting each step right until you get to the end, you learn how to get to the end of a long, hard project–like getting the details right for your art portraits (rewriting your book for the seventh time, translating a gospel, or tracing the electrical shortage in your client’s car.) You may not use the math for any of this—you will use the character you’ve built while doing math.”
Math teaches self-control. The whole perseverance thing—it requires a LOT of self-control. Child must remain in his seat. Child must refrain from complaining in order to concentrate on doing. Child must be able to find a mistake and start again. Child must keep all this going for 30 problems.
To follow God we must have self-control. Self-control enables our children to resist the impulses of selfishness and instead do what’s right even when hard. Only with self-control can our child obey others’ authority, show grace to someone who wronged him, or deny himself to show love. God so wants us to have self-control He gives self-control to us as a means of following His lead. But, we must practice using it. Math offers great practice.
Math shows the complexity of God’s mind. My children love math puzzles. You know—ones like “take any three-digit number whose digits decrease in order, write the same number backward, subtract, and the middle number is always nine.” These fun puzzles show the convoluted ways numbers combine to reveal underlying patterns and connections. Creation reveals the Creator. As we work math puzzles and math problems, they offer insight to the underlying patterns and connections of God’s mind. In a world that often presents God as a mindless dispenser of blessing—math offers a glimmer of the depth, complexity, and perfection of God’s mind.
“Why do I have to learn this?” Home schooling yet again offers some of the best answers. We don’t learn math just to get better at using numbers—though that’s a great goal. We learn math, and everything else, to know God better and to grow to be more like Him. The very complexity of math lets us do this. And who knows—maybe, our child will someday win Jeopardy because they can prove two triangles congruent.
Tess Worrell is married to Mike Worrell and together they enjoy discipling their eight children. They are in their 14th year of home schooling. Tess also writes and speaks to various groups on issues of marriage, parenting, and living as a Godly woman. Tess would love to hear your input. You can contact her at tess@yourfamilymatterstous.com or visit her website: YourFamilyMatterstous.com.