Religion in the Math Curriculum

[druvans]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/WhosCounting/story?id=3543453&page=1

Religion in the Math Curriculum

Consider first a Baptist school in Texas whose description of a geometry course begins:

Students will examine the nature of God as they progress in their understanding of mathematics. Students will understand the absolute consistency of mathematical principles and know that God was the inventor of that consistency. They will see God's nature revealed in the order and precision they review foundational concepts while being able to demonstrate geometric thinking and spatial reasoning. The study of the basics of geometry through making and testing conjectures regarding mathematical and real-world patterns will allow the students to understand the absolute consistency of God as seen in the geometric principles he created.

What is your take on this ?

 

[monkfish]

You say this is a parochial school?

They're free to teach whatever they like, subject only to their own accreditation authority. That said, the curriculum as described does not seem to align well with the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) standards. Nor does it seem that it will set their students up well for study of advanced mathematics and non-Euclidean geometries, where the "absolute consistency" and divine "geometric principles" are found to be completely arbitrary.

 

[spazntwitch]

I agree with monkfish. The parents placed their children into a religious school and probably expect religious teaching.

The author of the article was clearly biased against teaching like that. I wish he would have been more objective.

 

[tigger_too_wooh]

John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics at Temple University, is the author of the bestsellers "Innumeracy" and "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper," as well as of the forthcoming (in December) "Irreligion." His "Who's Counting?" column on ABCNews.com appears the first weekend of every month.

:convinced:

I wouldn't consider it an unbiased view...

 

[Ragnarok]

It was a Baptist School....their right to teach from their religious perspective. While I would be concerned for advanced placement, parents no doubt are comfortable with their choice and the freedom to pursue the same. Many of these children follow their religious education right into the choice of college/university. Thus, there will be continuity of thought if they elect to go to a Baptist College.

From a personal perspective, I have always thought that the study of Mathematics was an invention of THE DEVIL!!! LOL LOL LOL LOL DiffiQ got to me, sheesh!!! Seriously, I have nooooooooo regrets sitting through twenty-one credits of College Math, and, no one mentioned God at the time. Yet I saw many a Math Prof. either at Mass, or, coming home from Sunday Service. Perhaps they just found a way to balance out the spiritual and the scientific.

 

[pinkflutterbys]

Actually, a lot of things that show up in nature also show up in mathematics. So, if you believe that God created the world, it's pretty neat to see how math can be used to model and explain God's creation.

Last year I grew an amaryllis in my classroom and as a class we made a graph of it's height each day. It made a really nice logistic function like the one on the right here: http://www.wmueller.com/precalculus/families/1_80.html

Attached are 2 pictures that I took.

 

[cam]

I feel that people are free to include religion in their shoolwork. I homeschool my daughter and her whole cirriculum includes bible study and scriptures for every subject. If you send your child to a christian school surely you would expect some religion to be involved in the cirriculum.

 

[spazntwitch]

Actually, a lot of things that show up in nature also show up in mathematics. So, if you believe that God created the world, it's pretty neat to see how math can be used to model and explain God's creation.

Last year I grew an amaryllis in my classroom and as a class we made a graph of it's height each day. It made a really nice logistic function like the one on the right here: http://www.wmueller.com/precalculus/families/1_80.html

Attached are 2 pictures that I took.

Now that is pretty darn COOL! :bigok: