Variables

Philosophy is written in this grand book — I mean the universe — which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth.

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.