Another big theme in my educational learning over the past several years has been studying the Charlotte Mason method and subsequently the Classical method of Christian education. Some key components of these philosophies that I resonate with are the following ideas:
- Children are born human beings with the capability to make sense of the universe and make connections between ideas and truths discovered.
- The world, as God designed it, makes sense and ought to be studied for the sake of knowing Him better. Education is largely the cultivation of wonder.
- The aim of education ought not only be to create knowledgeable human beings, but human beings with virtue—human beings who care. If we merely educate students to understand the world but not to care about using this knowledge to glorify God, then we have failed.
- In order to grow in knowledge, wisdom, and virtue, we must study not only the world and humanity as it exists today, but we must study the world and humanity of ages past—this is best done by studying the significant works produced by the deep thinkers of ages past.
Today I have been wondering about whether the things I’ve learned about math education fit within the classical model of education. I haven’t come across a lot of information on how classical education is fleshed out in elementary mathematics other than the general idea that that math reflects the order of the universe which shows us God’s character and ought to make us wonder at His design. I think, though, that the things I have learned about elementary math education actually do fall right in line with the principals behind classical education—the principals stated above. I think these two streams of educational thought that I’ve been mulling over for the past several years actually support each other well.
How so?
Well, if we truly believe that children are born with the ability to make sense of the universe and make connections between ideas, then we ought to encourage this, and in the area of mathematics this means giving them support and opportunities to make connections while refraining from attempting to always make those connections for them. This requires a lot of patience on the part of teachers, because it is so tempting to give our students the algorithm to figure something out, but when we do this we’ve cheated them of the opportunity to discover how the numbers work together on their own. We must have faith in the principal that children will discover and make connections, and use our class time and creativity as teachers to provide engaging and stimulating activities in which the children can discover.
When children are given the time and encouragement to work with numbers in a variety of activities, they will not only come to enjoy the logic to the way God created the universe, but also grow in confidence regarding their ability to discover and think deeply about things. In my masters course I saw many examples of children doing large sums in their heads quite quickly and joyfully because this mental math had been encouraged from early in their education and it had never occurred to them that it wasn’t fun. I think often when a child has come to the conclusion that they are bad at math or that they dislike math, it is a result of having been pushed to do problems using algorithms that they didn’t understand. When math is pushed on someone like this, rather than discovered, it becomes a chore… and not just any chore, but a chore that feels pointless.
When we push young children to do rote sums that they're are not ready for, this encourages a disdain for “learning,” because they in fact are not learning, but merely performing. If we want to grow human beings who are purposeful and who care about the things they do, then we must not inhibit their innate sense of mathematics by giving them algorithms that they do not understand. On the contrary, we must provide them with age appropriate real-life problems that they can figure out on their own either by developing their own algorithm, or by drawing their own diagram, or counting on their fingers, or whatever means they arrive at on their own.
As for the fourth point above, I think that, as in every subject, there is great value in introducing our students to living books—true stories in which people use the discipline at hand (in this case, math). Children should regularly be exposed to real life situations in which math is used—both in their own lives and classroom activities, and also in books (both modern and ancient). These living math encounters will add to their understanding and wonder regarding the way math applies to all of life and points us to an orderly Creator.
- Laura
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