February 28 – “Teachers of the world … it worked”

Ha Ha Ha.  TeeHee.  Chuckle.  Giggle giggle. 

Sorry for my becoming overwhelmed with glee at the start of this blog.  But I had one of “those” moments the other day.  You know, those moments when you feel like your entire career as parents has somehow been worth it just a little bit.  And these particular moments are intensified because they also relate to the fact that we homeschooled our boys.  Was all that sweat and tears worth it?  (I don’t remember any blood being involved in our teaching process).  In cases like this one … oh, yes.

So … Nathan called the other day to ask a quick question.  Are you ready for this one?  He was working on building a planter box for his house.  And the dilemma he was facing involved … well, he needed to know how to find the length of the third side of a right triangle if you already knew the equal lengths of the two sides next to the right angle (4 feet).  I remember him mentioning as well, “Now, I’m pretty sure the other two angles are 45 degrees, but wasn’t there some way to find out the length of that third side?”  OK, all you math teachers out there.  On three, let’s all jump in the air and scream “Hypotenuse.”  Yes, there is, indeed, such a formula.  The infamous a squared plus b squared equals c squared.  As soon as I said it, he remembered.  “That’s it.  That’s the one.”  Of course his next problem was figuring out the square root of 32 to get the actual number he needed.  I helped him out with that one as well.  But no, I have to confess, I didn’t do the whole figure it out on paper thing.  I was, after all, sitting at my computer at the time.  I just typed it in and voila … 5.65685424949238.  I want to see the tape measure that has that number on it.  I think he’ll be able to get it close enough, though.

So there you go, all you moms and dads and schoolteachers out there.  Sometimes it works.  And from the kids’ perspective … don’t you just hate it when you actually DO use some of that stupid math you had in school?  Thank you, Pythagoras.  You and your theorem are welcome at our house any time.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 says, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

Father, thank you for theorems that can be counted on and for aha moments in the real world.  Amen.