October 20 – “Math un-genius”

I had a chance to relive some early days in education yesterday.  Not my own education – cave drawing just isn’t in vogue so much anymore.  I meant the joys of home schooling.  Jachin and Micah and Josiah came over for the day.  Christina and Baby Roscoe had a doctor’s appointment in Houston.  She did get some ultrasound pictures, but the sexual identity was too close to call at this time.  We’ll check back on that mystery in six weeks or so.  After her appointment they went over to check on Christina’s Mom.  During the ultrasaound they got a text that her Mom had been taken to surgery, so since they were just across the street they went over to get some details.  Her Mom donated a kidney not too long ago, so any infection or pain is cause for alarm.  As it turned out she had some cysts removed and will be fine in a few days.  Kel then had a marriage counseling appointment followed by an unrelated wedding, so we had the boys until Christina’s brother could make it up to the hospital.

And that meant we got to help Jachin and Micah with schoolwork.  It wasn’t that much, actually.  Micah had to practice some handwriting, and answer some math problems that looked suspiciously like pre-algebra stuff.  For a six-year-old?  Unbelievable.  He was done in a jiffy.  Jachin is older, so his was a bit more extensive.  It was also math.  Long division.  And long division to an eight-year-old is similar to a high schooler dealing with algebra 2 or even Calculus.  You either get it or you struggle with it.  Period.  At first it seemed that Jachin was in the “struggle with it” category, and I was excited to be able to relate to him as a fellow math un-genius.  But after working with him for a while, the truth began to emerge.  He knew the stuff.  He was just easily distracted.  At least I could still relate to him in the distracted realm.  The problem was the mixture of distraction and creativity he displayed.  It was fascinating … and kind of fun.  Very hard to keep someone else on track when you want to do what he’s doing, too. 

Like our son Nathan when he was doing math, Jachin was not particularly bound by the rigid structure of lines or by showing his work in an orderly fashion.  How the two of them ever kept the answer intact was beyond me.  Jachin proved to be quite the artist.  He started with that little half-rectangle you draw to separate the two numbers (I can never remember what they are called.  That math language was way worse than Greek to me.  “Dividend.”  Sounds like something at a bank.  “Divisor.”  Sounds like someone who comes up with schemes to get into trouble.  “Quotient.”  Sounds like … nothing in my experience).  Anyway, that half-rectangle became a house, and from there his internal architect took control.  His houses added stairs of numbers and direct TV radar disks.   It was dizzying at best to keep up with where he was.  I eventually did something that helped with Nathan.  I got some graph paper to make it easier to line up the rows of numbers and thus see his work.  Of course giving graph paper to a budding architect is like tossing a juicy steak to a hungry lion.  Suddenly he had houses with crown roofs and stairs and basements and sub-basements with swimming pools.  Quite impressive, actually.  As far as I could tell, he did get all the work done, and I’m pretty sure he got them all right.  But that was math.  Better that you not accept the word of an avowed un-genius.  Check it for yourself, Christina.

Daniel 2:28 says, “but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries …”

Father, keep on revealing those math mysteries to the boys.  Amen.