A Philosophy for Math

My best friend and I were recently talking about the importance of articulating an educational philosophy within the homeschool. She started sharing her philosophy about math, and I shared with her how my philosophy has evolved over time. Now, especially with my oldest son, I am showing him how God uses math to teach us the principle of obedience and accuracy.

How does Math Teach You Obedience and Accuracy?
What I love about math, even though I'm not a "math-person", is that there is a definite right or wrong.  2+2 will always equal 4; there is no room for debate or discussion. Recently my son has been forgetting to write dollar signs and decimals where they are needed. So instead of writing $2.55 he will write 2.55 or 255...guess what it's wrong!!! And because of these errors of inaccuracy, his math grade has been hovering about 69%  the last few weeks:-(  Now I could do to him what my teachers did do me, which was take off 1/2 a point for forgetting the dollar sign, but I decided not to do that. There is a difference between 2.55 and $2.55, neglecting the dollar sign changes the answer and that answer is wrong! Simple as that. I'm not going to give 1/2 credit for a problem that's 100% wrong. There is no "A" for effort here. When I teach my children to obey, I teach them that partial obedience is total disobedience. I didn't invent this principle, God did.

Remember Uzzah??  He is an example of the seriousness of carelessness and disobedience even in the midst of good intentions. I want to teach my children what God himself teaches us. Despite our self-perceived good intentions and  "good heart", He is a Just God who expects complete obedience to his laws and commands. We live in a land where people "love" God but feel as though they are exempt from obeying his commands as they are outlined in the Bible. Most people look at their personal lack of obedience,brush it off as they quote "we all fall short"; and fully expect that God will give them an "A" for effort because "God knows my heart". I don't want this brand of Christianity, Heresy, in my children or in my church.

This principle applies even in the realm of mathematical equations. I'm not going to water down the standard so you can get a better grade, who cares about grades, I care that my children learn to obey. I care that they learn that partial obedience is not obedience at all because they will need to understand this principle to live a set-apart life. Oh, how Satan loves for us to be "kind of obedient" as if there's such a thing. I don't know about you, but I don't want my kids to be partially obedient teenagers, I don't want my daughter do marry a man whose "kind of faithful", I don't want Kaden to become a doctor who read 1/2 his books, passed 1/2 his exams, and listened to 1/2 his teachers.

For the first time in weeks, Kyle got 100% on his math lesson. I hope you've guessed that is not the real victory! The real victory is that he is training his character to be obedient and accurate. He is paying attention to detail and not just in math. He see's the value in obedience and moral absolutes. I got to teach him that we serve a Just God who says that to love him is to obey him...and we called it MATH!