This time of year brings about plenty of controversy over celebrating Halloween or not. To each his own on what you do but I am glad to see more speaking out on keeping the fellowship and fun of this time of year whatever you choose to call it. I personally like Halloween because it is the shortened version of All Hallow's Eve. Hallow means holy and/or saint. So it's simply the evening before All Saints Day.
I heard of one mom's position that she wanted her kids to have fun on Halloween and know that we aren't scared of death or even the devil. I agree! He is not bigger than God. He isn't equal to God. He has been defeated. He'll still try to have a victory over individual souls but it is a desperate attempt to take as many as possible down with him. Cause he has lost the war. His fate is sealed. And he knows it.
I was thinking of my best memories of Halloween.
I remember going to my great-grandparents house. They had caramels, raisin creme pies and sometimes popcorn balls. Much better than the store bought candy!
I remember my great uncle dressed up in a dog costume and sitting perfectly still in a chair. We thought it was a decoration. He jumped out of his chair when we got to the door. Scared us good!
I remember a cousin standing up on his roof with a rake for a pitchfork. He looked very spooky.
I remember trick or treating with my cousin and brother.
I don't remember candy or any fall festivals before having children.
Dressing up as the Scooby Gang and decorating our van as the mystery machine will always be one of our greatest memories. Another year, the children dressed up as Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Peter Pan. Individual costumes aren't nearly as memorable. The themes turn the holiday into something spectacularly fun! I dropped the ball this year and we have a mishmash of characters but we have a few fun activities planned. We even carved a Jack-o-lantern. I can't remember if we have ever done that before.
It isn't the candy or the fall festivals that provide the best memories. It's the things we do with our family and friends. Have fun!
Happy Halloween!
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
There is no perfect diet!
Wouldn't it be nice if we could get scientifically-based information on the best diet to eat that would be suitable for everyone everywhere? It doesn't exist. I wish there was a magic cure-all that would help everyone with everyone's health. It sure would make life easier.
We are all unique. We have different ancestry and genetic makeup. We've been exposed to different environmental toxins. We've eaten different things. We are susceptible to different diseases. We have different economic and social factors on our lives. We need a unique diet.
I imagine many health-conscious people follow a diet that substitutes healthy food for junk food. Sounds universally helpful. And I'm sure to some extent it is. We use brown rice instead of white. We use coconut oil and olive oil instead of vegetable and canola oil. We make sure that we are buying wild-caught alaskan salmon. We use greek yogurt with twice the protein of regular yogurt. Wouldn't these simple substitutions work for everyone?
Not necessarily. The food that causes me the most pain is cauliflower. It's a healthy food but just doesn't work for me. We have to know what our bodies tolerate or assist our body through enzymes and such and that's where the GAPS diet has intrigued me. It strips down to a gut-healing diet. It adds back foods slowly to see what is tolerated and what isn't. There's no one-size-fits-all approach in regards to diet. One family may not be able to have dairy while another person can't have eggs. Totally customizable.
I've read lots of books, blogs and studies on nutrition. It is easy to arrive at the conclusion that nothing is safe to eat. Health fads change regularly and even professional opinions can change on appropriate treatments within just a few years. Where can we get reliable information? I think it's our bodies. I think we were made by God with bodies with an incredible ability to heal themselves. If we are adding food back one at a time, we'll know exactly what makes our stomach hurt or skin break out.
I think most if not all solutions lie in a balance. If we are eating way too much or way too little of anything, we're probably on the wrong track. Our diet is very heavy on the starches (although I have added more protein in the past few years) and very low on fats and fermented foods. I am starting to feel a difference in how I feel after eating a bone broth soup and water or a starch-heavy meal. I'm not sure if the additions are sufficient or if a more-intensive healing period is needed. We'll see how things are going at the end of the year.
Lastly, I think following a diet has become somewhat of a religious activity. We think we must follow it with as much attention to detail as the Pharisees followed the Jewish law. I decided a long time ago that if it wasn't sustainable, it wasn't worth doing. I study the good and the bad, the availability and the cost before adding something to our diet. I've carried over many sustainable nutritional habits and I've left a lot that didn't work for our family for whatever reason. GAPS is not a religion or a diet to replace everything I've tried. It's a continuation on our journey.
We are all unique. We have different ancestry and genetic makeup. We've been exposed to different environmental toxins. We've eaten different things. We are susceptible to different diseases. We have different economic and social factors on our lives. We need a unique diet.
I imagine many health-conscious people follow a diet that substitutes healthy food for junk food. Sounds universally helpful. And I'm sure to some extent it is. We use brown rice instead of white. We use coconut oil and olive oil instead of vegetable and canola oil. We make sure that we are buying wild-caught alaskan salmon. We use greek yogurt with twice the protein of regular yogurt. Wouldn't these simple substitutions work for everyone?
Not necessarily. The food that causes me the most pain is cauliflower. It's a healthy food but just doesn't work for me. We have to know what our bodies tolerate or assist our body through enzymes and such and that's where the GAPS diet has intrigued me. It strips down to a gut-healing diet. It adds back foods slowly to see what is tolerated and what isn't. There's no one-size-fits-all approach in regards to diet. One family may not be able to have dairy while another person can't have eggs. Totally customizable.
I've read lots of books, blogs and studies on nutrition. It is easy to arrive at the conclusion that nothing is safe to eat. Health fads change regularly and even professional opinions can change on appropriate treatments within just a few years. Where can we get reliable information? I think it's our bodies. I think we were made by God with bodies with an incredible ability to heal themselves. If we are adding food back one at a time, we'll know exactly what makes our stomach hurt or skin break out.
I think most if not all solutions lie in a balance. If we are eating way too much or way too little of anything, we're probably on the wrong track. Our diet is very heavy on the starches (although I have added more protein in the past few years) and very low on fats and fermented foods. I am starting to feel a difference in how I feel after eating a bone broth soup and water or a starch-heavy meal. I'm not sure if the additions are sufficient or if a more-intensive healing period is needed. We'll see how things are going at the end of the year.
Lastly, I think following a diet has become somewhat of a religious activity. We think we must follow it with as much attention to detail as the Pharisees followed the Jewish law. I decided a long time ago that if it wasn't sustainable, it wasn't worth doing. I study the good and the bad, the availability and the cost before adding something to our diet. I've carried over many sustainable nutritional habits and I've left a lot that didn't work for our family for whatever reason. GAPS is not a religion or a diet to replace everything I've tried. It's a continuation on our journey.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Babystepping to GAPS diet - progress report
Babystep #1 Add kefir daily or at least several times a week. Success! The children love it and my husband tried it as well.
Babystep #2 One batch of broth and subsequently soup a week. Fail! I made the mistake of getting my bones at Walmart. They didn't smell good to begin with. They never put off any scum that I could skim off the top. This helps remove impurities and strange flavors. I let it cook for about 30 hours in the hope that it would eventually smell and taste good but no such luck. If I could barely stomach it, the kids weren't gonna have any of it. I couldn't start with a bad experience so I tossed it.
Take 2 - I got bones from Publix. The broth had a much better smell. I cooked some mixed veggies and lima beans. I added the broth, salt and pepper. I added some kale from my potted garden on the front step. It turned out really well. I put of spoonful of sauerkraut on top. Very tasty! Total Success!
Babystep #3 Introduce fermented veggies. Success! I went to Whole Foods and got Bubbles relish and sauerkraut. I love relish and this brand was one of the best. I tried the sauerkraut and it's pretty good. I think I will enjoy it more as I get more accustomed to the taste. Not saying I would eat any sauerkraut but this brand is pretty delicious. Everyone had a spoonful in their soup except for the baby.
I also learned that sauerkraut is just one of many options. Here are some more ideas! 85 ways to add fermented foods. You could add a different fermented food once a week for nearly the entire GAPS diet. I'm going to add the sauerkraut (just a teaspoon) to the children's plates to eat with their veggies. Proclaim it as extra flavoring.
Babystep #4 Streamline kitchen - There is going to be a lot of food prep with this diet. I need to remove almost everything from my counters so that I am sure to have the room to prep food when needed.
Babystep #5 Add detox baths - Now this is not a new thing for us. We have done epsom salt baths for David since he was very small. The frequency has varied and become much less frequent now that he takes showers. Gonna start with shooting for once a week for all of us. May assign each of us a day of the week. When we start the diet officially in January, we may have to do it more frequently but having a baseline habit will help.
Babystep #6 Add omega 3 supplements - We have done this in the past. So this is a simple addition to get the supplement and add it to their medicine dispenser. We use a seven day am/pm medicine dispenser for each of us. Most of us take our vitamins and allergy meds at night but some have other allergy meds and whatnot needed for mornings. Having them all arranged for the week helps so much to keep us on track.
Babystep #7 Purchase some more local raw honey. Thankfully the bee farmer is just down the road. I've read a lot about honey and sweeteners. There are conflicting views. Some say only honey because it is so natural and has all the anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties. Others say that honey has a similar affect on the blood sugar so avoid it as well. I gained a bit more understanding this week. Sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup and such allow the sugar to enter the intestines and feed the pathogenic bacteria and yeast. Honey is easily absorbed so that yes, it will affect your blood sugar and still needs to be limited to avoid adding to your waistline. But it won't feed the yuckies that have found their way into your gut and cause them to become overwhelming for the good guys.
Gonna try to eliminate the sugar as much as possible when we have run out. Sweet tea and coffee will need to be replaced with more water, ginger tea and other herbal teas. I find honey much more palatable in hot tea than coffee. Need to research more about the roles of stevia and xylitol. Will need some alternative sweeteners for cakes for the children's birthdays. And while hot tea is good and well for the winter months, some cold tea will be needed for next summer.
Babystep #2 One batch of broth and subsequently soup a week. Fail! I made the mistake of getting my bones at Walmart. They didn't smell good to begin with. They never put off any scum that I could skim off the top. This helps remove impurities and strange flavors. I let it cook for about 30 hours in the hope that it would eventually smell and taste good but no such luck. If I could barely stomach it, the kids weren't gonna have any of it. I couldn't start with a bad experience so I tossed it.
Take 2 - I got bones from Publix. The broth had a much better smell. I cooked some mixed veggies and lima beans. I added the broth, salt and pepper. I added some kale from my potted garden on the front step. It turned out really well. I put of spoonful of sauerkraut on top. Very tasty! Total Success!
Babystep #3 Introduce fermented veggies. Success! I went to Whole Foods and got Bubbles relish and sauerkraut. I love relish and this brand was one of the best. I tried the sauerkraut and it's pretty good. I think I will enjoy it more as I get more accustomed to the taste. Not saying I would eat any sauerkraut but this brand is pretty delicious. Everyone had a spoonful in their soup except for the baby.
I also learned that sauerkraut is just one of many options. Here are some more ideas! 85 ways to add fermented foods. You could add a different fermented food once a week for nearly the entire GAPS diet. I'm going to add the sauerkraut (just a teaspoon) to the children's plates to eat with their veggies. Proclaim it as extra flavoring.
Babystep #4 Streamline kitchen - There is going to be a lot of food prep with this diet. I need to remove almost everything from my counters so that I am sure to have the room to prep food when needed.
Babystep #5 Add detox baths - Now this is not a new thing for us. We have done epsom salt baths for David since he was very small. The frequency has varied and become much less frequent now that he takes showers. Gonna start with shooting for once a week for all of us. May assign each of us a day of the week. When we start the diet officially in January, we may have to do it more frequently but having a baseline habit will help.
Babystep #6 Add omega 3 supplements - We have done this in the past. So this is a simple addition to get the supplement and add it to their medicine dispenser. We use a seven day am/pm medicine dispenser for each of us. Most of us take our vitamins and allergy meds at night but some have other allergy meds and whatnot needed for mornings. Having them all arranged for the week helps so much to keep us on track.
Babystep #7 Purchase some more local raw honey. Thankfully the bee farmer is just down the road. I've read a lot about honey and sweeteners. There are conflicting views. Some say only honey because it is so natural and has all the anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties. Others say that honey has a similar affect on the blood sugar so avoid it as well. I gained a bit more understanding this week. Sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup and such allow the sugar to enter the intestines and feed the pathogenic bacteria and yeast. Honey is easily absorbed so that yes, it will affect your blood sugar and still needs to be limited to avoid adding to your waistline. But it won't feed the yuckies that have found their way into your gut and cause them to become overwhelming for the good guys.
Gonna try to eliminate the sugar as much as possible when we have run out. Sweet tea and coffee will need to be replaced with more water, ginger tea and other herbal teas. I find honey much more palatable in hot tea than coffee. Need to research more about the roles of stevia and xylitol. Will need some alternative sweeteners for cakes for the children's birthdays. And while hot tea is good and well for the winter months, some cold tea will be needed for next summer.
Monday, October 27, 2014
But the Lord directs our steps
I think Proverbs 16:9 is my life verse.
The human mind plans the way, but The Lord directs the steps.
I have often felt like I have stumbled upon things that have worked well for our family in various ways. I know that God has brought about the therapies, schools and interventions that David has needed among other things. When deciding these paths, I have learned to pay attention to where I am feeling peace and where there is a distinctive lack of peace.
Saturday was a day that seemed completely supernaturally orchestrated. I woke up and put on an autism awareness t-shirt. I didn't have any major plans for the day except for taekwondo and kids club at Michael's. I checked Facebook and noticed the information for the autism parent support meeting and respite care for children and siblings. I RSVPed and called my husband at work to ask if he would like to go on a date with me tonight. We were both looking forward to it. Autism support meetings are enjoyable but we were primarily looking forward to some time to ourselves.
I prepared the children by asking if they wanted to go to a pizza party. They were excited. I was worried about the two little boys since they are momma's boys and will rarely stay in the nursery at church. But I figured the child care providers had dealt with difficult cases. Two workers helped the children get right to playing and there were zero tears. Truly thrilling! When we picked them up, the baby had fallen asleep and they said that he was a complete joy. They bragged over how helpful the older boys were. They had done art projects and the children were all smiles and exclaiming about what a good time they had.
During the autism support meeting, I was expecting a typical everyone-share-their-story deal. Instead they had an autism mom speak about nutrition. Her son had been diagnosed about the same time as our son. She and her husband were both in the medical profession and yet they missed the first signs just as probably most first time parents do. They spoke of freaking out, blaming themselves and realizing significant things in hindsight. God bless people who can be real and encourage others who have been through the same events and emotions.
She began the nutrition discussion with the gut. I looked at my husband. Could this discussion be any more pertinent with discussing GAPS diet? She explained about how the gut was having trouble getting what we need from our food and some of the common supplementation like magnesium, zinc and fatty acids. I learned that excessive earwax is a sign of nutritional deficiency. Makes me wonder why all the doctors who have cleaned out my son's ears never thought to mention that. We have done zinc supplementation when that test came back low and we have given vitamins regularly and various other supplements as we could so the children aren't having the kind of deficiencies that affect their hair texture and such.
When it was opened to questions, I asked her opinion on the GAPS diet. She explained how hard the diet was and how it required everything to be prepared at home. As I have felt, she never felt up to the challenge. But she said that if you could follow it, it was one of the best and most effective diets especially if you have chronic intestinal issues or yeast. We are the product of four generations of intestinal issues. I said that I was thinking of waiting til after the holidays to start and she said it would be a great New Year's resolution. She also gave me some resources including another support group that could help us with the particulars of implementing the diet
I couldn't have planned this. I had no idea what the topic of discussion would be. I couldn't have predicted that not only an experienced autism mom but a doctor would confirm we are on the right track. We went out for coffee and dessert afterwards. My husband told me that it was one of the things he loved about me that I could find information and learn about the things we faced. We had just listened to a mom with more education and access to healthcare information who had tried many things exactly as I had with the gluten-free diet, enzymes when we couldn't be perfect and supplementation. Our path isn't so far-fetched after all!
Thank you Lord!
The human mind plans the way, but The Lord directs the steps.
I have often felt like I have stumbled upon things that have worked well for our family in various ways. I know that God has brought about the therapies, schools and interventions that David has needed among other things. When deciding these paths, I have learned to pay attention to where I am feeling peace and where there is a distinctive lack of peace.
Saturday was a day that seemed completely supernaturally orchestrated. I woke up and put on an autism awareness t-shirt. I didn't have any major plans for the day except for taekwondo and kids club at Michael's. I checked Facebook and noticed the information for the autism parent support meeting and respite care for children and siblings. I RSVPed and called my husband at work to ask if he would like to go on a date with me tonight. We were both looking forward to it. Autism support meetings are enjoyable but we were primarily looking forward to some time to ourselves.
I prepared the children by asking if they wanted to go to a pizza party. They were excited. I was worried about the two little boys since they are momma's boys and will rarely stay in the nursery at church. But I figured the child care providers had dealt with difficult cases. Two workers helped the children get right to playing and there were zero tears. Truly thrilling! When we picked them up, the baby had fallen asleep and they said that he was a complete joy. They bragged over how helpful the older boys were. They had done art projects and the children were all smiles and exclaiming about what a good time they had.
During the autism support meeting, I was expecting a typical everyone-share-their-story deal. Instead they had an autism mom speak about nutrition. Her son had been diagnosed about the same time as our son. She and her husband were both in the medical profession and yet they missed the first signs just as probably most first time parents do. They spoke of freaking out, blaming themselves and realizing significant things in hindsight. God bless people who can be real and encourage others who have been through the same events and emotions.
She began the nutrition discussion with the gut. I looked at my husband. Could this discussion be any more pertinent with discussing GAPS diet? She explained about how the gut was having trouble getting what we need from our food and some of the common supplementation like magnesium, zinc and fatty acids. I learned that excessive earwax is a sign of nutritional deficiency. Makes me wonder why all the doctors who have cleaned out my son's ears never thought to mention that. We have done zinc supplementation when that test came back low and we have given vitamins regularly and various other supplements as we could so the children aren't having the kind of deficiencies that affect their hair texture and such.
When it was opened to questions, I asked her opinion on the GAPS diet. She explained how hard the diet was and how it required everything to be prepared at home. As I have felt, she never felt up to the challenge. But she said that if you could follow it, it was one of the best and most effective diets especially if you have chronic intestinal issues or yeast. We are the product of four generations of intestinal issues. I said that I was thinking of waiting til after the holidays to start and she said it would be a great New Year's resolution. She also gave me some resources including another support group that could help us with the particulars of implementing the diet
I couldn't have planned this. I had no idea what the topic of discussion would be. I couldn't have predicted that not only an experienced autism mom but a doctor would confirm we are on the right track. We went out for coffee and dessert afterwards. My husband told me that it was one of the things he loved about me that I could find information and learn about the things we faced. We had just listened to a mom with more education and access to healthcare information who had tried many things exactly as I had with the gluten-free diet, enzymes when we couldn't be perfect and supplementation. Our path isn't so far-fetched after all!
Thank you Lord!
Friday, October 24, 2014
What we are reading- The Book with No Pictures
I saw this book on Facebook and it just so happened that they had it at our local library branch. When we got home, I got it out to read. My 9-yr-old read the title and kinda groaned. I read it and the boys were just rolling in laughter.
The older boys fought over who would read it next. One read it. Then the other read it. Then they read it together. It was at least an hour of giggling.
We asked my husband to read it. He was hesitant but I said, "Play along. It's fun." We all laughed some more.
This is our new favorite book. It is so much fun. It underscores the belief that while illustrations can be beautiful, the fun and the adventures are found in the words.
Two thumbs up!
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Babystepping to GAPS diet
I read about the GAPS diet years ago. I really didn't consider it very much because it completely eliminated so many things including bread and potatoes that my husband and I would be happy to eat three times a day. It just seemed too hard.
Still seems very hard.
But I'm tired. Tired of battling one virus after another. Tired of digestive issues. Tired of focus problems associated with ADHD. Just tired.
And I know part of it is having young children that won't keep their hands off things and out of their mouths. I've told myself it was normal. The average person gets 6-12 colds a year. Multiply that by 7 people. NOT FUN! I don't want to be normal.
GAPS has many applications for autism, ADHD, allergies and more. All those things that we battle as well as the fact that 70% of our immune system is in our gut. I think this may be very beneficial to the whole family.
But it's SO difficult. Maybe not difficult but definitely different from the eating habits we have become accustomed to. Maybe that's the point. Our current eating habits aren't serving us very well. And maybe we should switch to a focus of nourishing and healing our bodies as opposed to eating for pleasure.
One thing that I do like is that the strict portion of the diet only lasts for 1 1/2-2 years. Then starches can be added back to the diet. Hopefully tastes will have changed and we never desire to go back to the Standard American Diet. Temporary might be doable.
Starting the GAPS diet right before the holidays seems a recipe for failure. So I think I will slowly work through adding more GAPS-approved foods and as we run out of regular food replacing it with better options. Then evaluate things in January to see if this is something we can do as a family.
I've been doing more smoothies with water rather than juice or milk. Gonna try to add more probiotics to those. Also look at a few bottles of kefir a week to add more cultures to our guts to begin their healing.
I'm going to look at getting some beef bones but if nothing else, use chicken to make broth. I enjoy drinking broth by itself but we'll make soup at least once a week. Get ourselves in the habit of having broth and soup often since that is one of the backbones of the Introduction diet.
I also need to introduce fermented veggies like sauerkraut to the kids. And reintroduce it to myself. I hated sauerkraut as a kid. My grandparents made it with cut up hotdogs in it. I made the mistake once of thinking I could get away with eating just the hotdogs. Then I had to eat all the sauerkraut by itself. But a lot of things I thought I hated as a kid, I have come to enjoy. Here's hoping!
Babystep #1 Add kefir daily or at least several times a week.
Babystep #2 One batch of broth and subsequently soup a week.
Babystep #3 Introduce fermented veggies.
Hopefully that can begin the path to healing our gut and hopefully reduce the number of bugs we succumb to this fall/winter.
Still seems very hard.
But I'm tired. Tired of battling one virus after another. Tired of digestive issues. Tired of focus problems associated with ADHD. Just tired.
And I know part of it is having young children that won't keep their hands off things and out of their mouths. I've told myself it was normal. The average person gets 6-12 colds a year. Multiply that by 7 people. NOT FUN! I don't want to be normal.
GAPS has many applications for autism, ADHD, allergies and more. All those things that we battle as well as the fact that 70% of our immune system is in our gut. I think this may be very beneficial to the whole family.
But it's SO difficult. Maybe not difficult but definitely different from the eating habits we have become accustomed to. Maybe that's the point. Our current eating habits aren't serving us very well. And maybe we should switch to a focus of nourishing and healing our bodies as opposed to eating for pleasure.
One thing that I do like is that the strict portion of the diet only lasts for 1 1/2-2 years. Then starches can be added back to the diet. Hopefully tastes will have changed and we never desire to go back to the Standard American Diet. Temporary might be doable.
Starting the GAPS diet right before the holidays seems a recipe for failure. So I think I will slowly work through adding more GAPS-approved foods and as we run out of regular food replacing it with better options. Then evaluate things in January to see if this is something we can do as a family.
I've been doing more smoothies with water rather than juice or milk. Gonna try to add more probiotics to those. Also look at a few bottles of kefir a week to add more cultures to our guts to begin their healing.
I'm going to look at getting some beef bones but if nothing else, use chicken to make broth. I enjoy drinking broth by itself but we'll make soup at least once a week. Get ourselves in the habit of having broth and soup often since that is one of the backbones of the Introduction diet.
I also need to introduce fermented veggies like sauerkraut to the kids. And reintroduce it to myself. I hated sauerkraut as a kid. My grandparents made it with cut up hotdogs in it. I made the mistake once of thinking I could get away with eating just the hotdogs. Then I had to eat all the sauerkraut by itself. But a lot of things I thought I hated as a kid, I have come to enjoy. Here's hoping!
Babystep #1 Add kefir daily or at least several times a week.
Babystep #2 One batch of broth and subsequently soup a week.
Babystep #3 Introduce fermented veggies.
Hopefully that can begin the path to healing our gut and hopefully reduce the number of bugs we succumb to this fall/winter.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Variables
As translated in The Philosophy of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1966) by Richard Henry Popkin, p. 65.
We've been stuck inside the house for two weeks with hand foot and mouth disease. We've done a lot of things on Khan Academy even learning Javascript which is pretty fun and a gateway for the older boys to learn other kinds of coding. I've had more time to study math and think about some things.
I wanted to see how far I could get in math. Could I get into Calculus with my background of a C in College Algebra? So I started from the beginning and I am about 2/3rds of the way through eighth grade math and over halfway through Algebra I. I'm having to watch a lot more videos past 7th grade level but there hasn't been anything that I couldn't do. I'm actually surprised at how many equations I get right when my history tells me that I probably got it wrong.
This quote by Galileo was in a video about the beauty of algebra. I've had descriptive words for algebra but beautiful was never one of them. I assumed that people just loved it because they were good at it. Just as I love reading because I'm pretty good at comprehension and language in general. But is that the case? Do I love reading because I am good at it? Or am I good at it because I have spent huge chunks of my life reading? What Galileo says here is very deep. Is mathematics a universal language that unites the universe in a way that words never can? Could I appreciate mathematics in this way? Is it something that is fixed in a person? Or does it come from where we spend our time?
My describing word for math is "tricky". Some of the problems still make me feel this way. One question about the significance of the interval was not the answers about speed or increasing or decreasing. The correct answer was that "it was moving." The least elegant answer was the correct one. Now someone who understood math better than I could probably explain why it was the best answer because of the mathematical properties. But I couldn't get past the words. My response was influenced by my experiences. A variable in me had been unaccounted for. Maybe I am getting this math thing after all.
I've also gone through the entire Crash Course History course on Khan Academy. Entertaining and informative but again not for young children because the humor is above their understanding and would probably bring up some unwanted questions. But the interesting part was seeing how where and when you lived and who you were affected your view of the world. There are variables that make it difficult to have questions with "right" answers. Because one's view of right might be different than another from a different time or place.
Science isn't a place to rest in "right" answers because new discoveries and theories replace the old all the time. Our answers can only cover what we know or understand up to this point. And just a simple study of DNA will show you how much we still just don't know.
This also happens in religion. Whether you are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or Jew affects how you answer question even about things that seem pretty historically concrete. Our viewpoints are shaped by more than facts. It's all those variables of political, social, generational origins and more.
My son had a reading piece and quiz last year in third grade. The story portrayed a Fourth of July celebration. It was assumed in the piece that a person would know that laying out blankets and waiting for the fireworks would occur in a public park. Seems logical! Unless you are a kid with an auditory sensitivity who would have never enjoyed a long fireworks display. Unless you were from a rural area where instead of fireworks displays we opt for smaller firework fun with family and friends. And so grandma's house or the farm would be a better answer. I actually brought this to the teacher because I was so aggravated that he was expected to come up with answers that weren't clearly spelled out in the text and so reliant upon experience. Even at 8 yrs old, our experiences and knowledge shape how we answer questions.
So this brings me to a question that I have been mulling over for a while. Why do we learn? With Khan Academy and free courses to audit at university websites, there is truly no limit to what a person could learn. Well dependent on only a person's desire to learn.
So why do we learn? Is it just to get good grades so we get into a good college and therefore get a good job? If so, there are a lot of college grads on the unemployment rolls that deserve an explanation. There are trade jobs that pay a lot better starting out than many entry level jobs for college grads.
Is it just to not have to deal with "stupid" people? Education doesn't necessarily fix stupid. A person can have all the facts but still come up with the wrong conclusion. Or at least, wrong according to you.
Is it to understand the universe? And therefore the character of the Creator of it? I am starting to see that in the grand scheme of things, mathematics has the most concrete information. Unless you are dealing with word problems. There are more questions that arrive at the same answers without regard to time and place of the student.
Will we have all the right answers if we get all the right information? No, I am seeing that more information and viewpoints only seems to multiply the possible answers. But maybe this is what we need. The more history, science, scripture, math and more that we have studied provides us with more variables to plug into the equations of life so that maybe we have a better chance at coming up with the right answers.
But I think the reason for learning is to satisfy curiosity. We desire to understand things for whatever reason. There is something deeper that needs to be filled and while knowledge is a worthwhile pursuit, it can only be truly filled with a relationship with the One that does have all the correct answers to the questions, even the ones we haven't even thought to ask yet.
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