Mathematics: Always Important, Never Enough: A Christian Perspective on Mathematics and Mathematics Education
Mathematics: Always Important, Never Enough: A Christian Perspective on Mathematics and Mathematics Education
Calvin Jongsma 0 1
Dordt College 0 1
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0 A Christian Perspective on Mathematics and Mathematics Education , " Pro
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Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege Part of the Christianity Commons, Higher Education Commons, and the Mathematics Commons Recommended Citation Jongsma, Calvin (2007) "Mathematics: Always Important, Never Enough: Rege: Vol. 35: No. 4, 21 - 38. Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege/vol35/iss4/3
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Editor’s Note: This article is an edited version of the keynote address delivered by Dr. Jongsma at the B.J. Haan Education
Conference on Teaching Math in the Christian School, held at Dordt College on March 9, 2006, for elementary and
secondary school mathematics teachers, primarily in Christian schools. The article was earlier published online in the 2006
Journal of the ACMS (http://www.acmsonline.org/Jongsma.htm).
A Christian Perspective on
Mathematics and Mathematics Education
by Calvin Jongsma
ear Anneke,1
We will soon be coming to your house for the
holidays. I know you and Claire are counting the
days until Christmas: how many are left? I can hardly
wait, either. I think grandma told you that school is
out for me now but that I have to spend some of my
vacation making a speech for mathematics teachers.
We will be talking about what things are important
for kids to learn about mathematics.
Dr. Calvin Jongsma is Professor of Mathematics at Dordt
College.
As you know, I think mathematics is one of the
most fun things anybody can do. You probably like
art better than math, but I know you enjoy
working with numbers and shapes, too. That’s what
mathematics is all about: finding different
numbers and shapes in the world all around us, learning
how they are related to each other, and figuring out
good ways to use them. It’s valuable to learn how
to do this because numbers and shapes help us do
things that would be difficult or impossible
otherwise. I know when you draw pictures you
sometimes use circles and ellipses and straight lines to
make people and animals and background look
real. You use numbers a lot, too, whenever you
count things or keep track of time or bake
cookies. Which reminds me, are you making enough
Christmas goodies for everyone that’s coming?
Numbers and shapes are very important parts
of the world God created. You can see them
everywhere if you know how to look for them.
People who know a lot of complicated
mathematics helped to figure out how to make computers
and connect them together using the internet, how
to use numbers to record sounds and pictures on
a DVD, and how to fly many big planes in and out
of airports without having them crash into each
other. We’ll soon be driving out to your house, like
usual. Isn’t it amazing that while we live hundreds
of miles away, we can use a map so we don’t get
lost? Mathematics is important for almost
everything we do these days, so everybody should learn
a lot of mathematics even if it isn’t their favorite
subject.
Teachers can help you learn about numbers
and shapes by asking you to do things with them
that you enjoy. Mathematics can be learned using
games and other interesting activities. Do you do
any of these things in your class? To help you learn
things well, teachers may sometimes give you
worksheets to do, too, but I hope that’s not the only way
you learn about numbers and shapes. Eeuww,
boringg!! OK; it can be fun to do things over and over
again when you like to do them and when they can
help you learn something really well, but you do
need to know why they’re important to learn.
God wants us to love Him more than anything
else and to care for the people around us just as we
do ourselves. Learning more about the world helps
us to take good care of what God made – people,
animals, plants, and things. Mathematics is part
of this care, but of course many times other things
are more important. When you or Claire play with
little Maddy to entertain her or keep her out of
mischief, you’re mostly showing how much you
love her, even if you’re playing with shape blocks
or reading a counting book to her.
The world is so full of interesting things to
learn about mathematics that you could spend
your whole life doing it and still not learn
nearly everything. Isn’t that amazing?! I always like
finding out something brand new about numbers
or shapes or other kinds of things – like algebra,
but that’s too complicated to explain until you get
older. I get to teach a new course next semester
– it’s called Number Theory – and I’m looking
forward to discovering many (...truncated)