Math Matters

One evening, when we were in high school, Sam Reisner and I went to pick up Bruce MacArthur.  I'm sure we had some wholesome activities planned.  We ran down the stairs in his basement and beheld him working on some crazy math problem; y'know the kind that takes like three sheets of paper.  Sam was mad, "Dude, you're not done with your homework?!?!"

"Oh, I'm done.  I was just messing around with a different way to solve this.  Let's go."

Unlike Bruce, I'm not one of those "math people".  But I work at it.  I passed college algebra and calculus; actually I got really good grades in those classes.  I did it by teaching it to the other students in the study group that I formed.  Through that experience I realized that most math teachers shouldn't be.  And the truth is many of them don't really want to be; they want to be mathematicians and teaching the schmucks like me pays the bills (or they want to coach full-time ;-) ).

Now I teach math to my kids and a few of the neighbor kids.  One of the consistent bits of feedback goes something like this:  "Wow Mr. Facer, you're really good at this.  The way you explain it totally makes sense.  You should be a math teacher."  I chuckle and think silently to myself, "I already am."

But seriously, why is it so common for children to have this experience where math is such a difficult discipline?  Certainly my experience growing up was that once we made the jump to algebra, to variables, to complex formulas, I was lost.  There was a small group of my peers, maybe ten or twenty percent that kept up, and the rest of us were left drowning.  I think it's because for non-math people, it needs to be explained in better detail, with more of the "why" and illustrated in multiple different ways; until you reach the example or illustration that clicks with that particular student.

When I teach math, here's what I do:

• We do NO math without scratch paper.
• We show all the steps, every time.
• I explain the concept different ways, and we work it different ways until I can tell it has registered.
• We don't move on at the right answer, we move on when we have the right answer plus comprehension.
• I check comprehension by having the student explain it back to me.

This year, one of the neighbor kids has trigonometry.  I never took trig, but I like it.  Between the text and the internet we're figuring it out.  I really like math.  It's a darn shame that it took more than thirty years for that to happen.

We're Going to Lake Powell!

Years ago, I was reading a little desk calendar that had a wise quote for each day of the year; you know the ones where each day gets its own little page, sometimes with a clever cartoon or inspirational picture?  It was at Chuck Coonradt's office where he ran his business, The Game of Work in Park City.   The quote that I read that day was something like this:

"Take a family vacation every year, even if you don't think you can afford it.  You cannot afford not to."

I've used that excuse for the last fifteen years, and never been sorry.  Here are three big reasons why getting away from it all is essential for families that want to hang together over the long haul.

Uninterrupted, contiguous time:  You develop a deep bond with your spouse and your children when you spend several days together, away from the daily distractions at home.  In many ways, we cannot see each other clearly until we get away from the distractions, and allow a little bit of time for the scales to fall from our eyes.  Think about the scales of noisy traffic, marketing-driven media, work demands, domestic chores, school responsibilities, neighborhood issues, etc.  I know that for me and Kat, many times it's difficult for us to "see" the amazingness of our children without getting away from all the crap.  A family vacation provides the distance from the crap, and time & space for clarity of vision.

Shared experience:  It would be nice if we were advanced enough to where we could simply connect with loved ones based on proximity and desire, but we don't.  We connect with people based on shared experience.  And we reinforce those connections when we recount those experiences:

"Remember that one day in January at Powder Mountain?  The kids were skiing Confidence and Deadhorse, the snow was perfect, and we took run after run down the backside in un-tracked powder.  Your smile wouldn't go away, and you laughed like you were ten.  I remember driving home, you were handing out snacks, and the kids went on and on telling what they did, and what their favorite run was."  

Shared experience - I don't know of any intimate relationship that can survive without it.

Confidence in a big world:  In the Facer family we have a strong bias toward activity-centered recreation and vacations.  This means that we make really great participants, but not such great tourists.  While Kat probably wouldn't mind touring, it would probably drive me a little nutty.  We want our kids to see the wonders of the world in an authentic, empowering way.  So they've seen the beauty of the Rockies while skiing and hiking the mountaintops in all four seasons.  They've explored the crevices and canyons of the west on foot and by boat with a lot of waterskiiing and wakeboarding mixed in.  The thing that our kids talk about from our vacation to Hawaii is not the luau show, but the day we spent adventuring and snorkeling at Honolua Bay.  Common phrases we say to our kids:
"I dunno, what do you think?
Let's go check it out.
I'm certain that you can do that.
Hey!  You totally did it!  I knew you could.
Of course it's difficult; the truly awesome things usually are."
Seeing the big world and experiencing it first-hand (with a minimum of packaging) gives our kids a sense of confident ease walking this great earth; and it shows.  They generally avoid that mistake where we think the familiar world is bigger than it really is, and then assume the rest of the world is smaller that it really is.

So later this week, we'll pack up the kids, the boat, and a bunch of gear, and spend six days in one of the most amazing places on earth.  We're gonna have a lot of fun.  I'll be able to see Kat more clearly and appreciate her all the more.  The level of appreciation and amazement of our kids will only go up.  And we'll experience more of this great world that God made for us.

Fifty Year Plan

When we bought the house we currently live in, there were several things that were very attractive about it:  It's in the neighborhood we love.  The patio is amazing.  And prior owners had not screwed it up.  What I mean by this is that in this neighborhood of sixty year old houses, most have been "updated".  And if you're as picky as I am, they haven't been updated correctly.  This means the quality of the work, and the style of the update doesn't fit the original design of the home.  I know, picky.

So here we had a home that hadn't been screwed up, but needed A LOT of work.  So we got to work.  One of the early repairs was a toilet flange.  That's the part where the three or four inch pipe comes up through the floor and has a flange with holes to secure the toilet to the pipe; you really want a good connection here.

It had broken into a couple of pieces; sixty year old cast iron will do that.  Conventional wisdom says you go down to the local Home Despot and buy the $3.95 repair flange/ring, put the toilet back down with two wax rings, and you're done... for five to ten years.

I'm pretty sure I'll still be working on this house in five years, so I didn't want to go that route.  The standard I set for myself was that any repair or improvement should  last at least fifty years.  So I bought a cast iron compression flange for $20, hammered out the concrete all around the pipe, attached the flange, poured concrete in around it, and presto!  For about five times the effort, I got ten times the longevity.

I know what some are thinking, "Yeah, but you probably won't even be in the house that long."  Perhaps, yet we don't yet plan to be elsewhere.   And that's actually not really the point.  The point is that with a long view, we all do things differently.

Today we were on the lake (big surprise, I know).  Elisabeth and Ava skied, cousins and friends wakeboarded and kneeboarded.  Then the weather changed and it was time to get off the lake; when the weather on Utah Lake turns, you don't press your luck, you get off the lake.  Kat and I hadn't had a turn, and we LOVE to wakeboard and surf behind the boat.  This isn't that uncommon for parents; you facilitate your kids' activities without getting around to your own.  This can be frustrating if your calculus is short term.  But if you're looking at things with a fifty year fix mindset, it's a perfect day.

Kat and I have worked hard at this.  It includes taking our kids skiing to Powder Mountain where the days consists of two ski runs and four hours of snow play, snacks, and hot chocolate.  The long term goal is a family that skis and snowboards together, so a day spent up at the mountain having a good time together with ski equipment in the general vicinity counts!

We're on the fifty year plan.  Of course we make mistakes and get selfish when we think short-term.  But we don't crater on our failures, rather we repent.  Because even with our own progress, the long view is what carries us.