High School Math Goals
In part 1, we briefly touched upon how to determine your child's math journey in high school by examining your child's goals.
In part 2, I will share the goals of the teachers in teaching higher level mathematics.
Truly, I use the term, "higher level" mathematics very loosely as the higher level mathematics are actually in the quadrivium or at the college level.
High school math courses build a bridge between basic mathematical concepts and the higher level mathematics studied in college. Today I will share three main foci of secondary mathematics.
- The mastery of abstract concepts. As we develop, we move from being very concrete beings to being able to grasp more abstract thoughts. We see this in all of our children. As a toddler, "love" meant giving mom a hug, while as a teenager "love" means perseverance. In math, addition meant adding apples and bananas in 1st grade, but subtraction meant spending money sometimes to the point of the negative numbers. These negative numbers are an abstract concept. They don't exist. You can't hold a -2 in your hand. You can understand what it means to owe someone $2, but that demotes the number -2 to a concrete example again. For that matter, you can't hold a +2 either. These numbers represent something that doesn't exist in the physical world. Young students don't understand that and many older students struggle with it. High school algebra particularly focuses on helping students take what they thought was concrete and move it into the abstract realm of thought and theory. As adults we continually deal with abstract thought. Is God spirit? What does that mean? He is orderly, even dependable, but we can't see Him. How does our understanding of a God that we can't see develop? Through the growth that we experience in working through higher level mathematics. Which brings us to focus #2:
- The comprehension of creation. Mathematics wasn't created by man. It was discovered. Ancient Greeks, Babylonians,and other civilizations studied the world around them and found order. They discovered that all circles contained a hidden number, that certain plants always had an odd number of petals, that the dependability of the sun and shapes gave you a way to determine the size of the earth. By studying mathematics we are actually studying the creation of God. Mathematics is the language of creation. It is the language that we use to explain something that already exists. More specifically, it is the language that we use to explain science. Physics is explained by math. Astronomy is explained by math. Every topic that examines the creation of God can be explained using the language of mathematics. Which brings us to focus #3:
- The grammar of higher mathematics. Secondary mathematics isn't actually higher level math, but it is a stepping stone. Essentially, secondary mathematics is the grammar of higher level math. It is the foundation on which all higher level mathematics is based. If your student wants to be a physicist, then he must understand calculus. In order to understand calculus, then guess what? He needs to know algebra. It is a beautiful thing when you see the abstract thinking in algebra join with the spatial concepts in geometry to show the order in the universe in chemistry. This is the answer that all high school math teachers will give you for studying math, but notice that it isn't the first focus on our list. Understanding higher level mathematics is only important in so much as it brings us closer to understanding God.
Therefore, study math in high school in order to understand abstract concepts, but truly study math in order to know God. That is the main focus.