Teaching Math in 1950:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is the profit?
Teaching Math in 1960:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
Teaching Math in 1970:
A logger exchanges a set “L” of lumber for a set “M” of money. The
cardinality of set “M” is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. The
set “C”, the cost of production, contains 20 fewer points than set “M”.
What is the cardinality of the set “P” of profits?
Teaching Math in 1980:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100.
His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20.
Your assignment: Underline the numbers.
Teaching Math in 1990:
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do
you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation
after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels
feel as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.
Teaching Math in 1996:
By laying off 402 of its loggers, a company improves its stock price from
$80 to $100. How much capital gain per share does the CEO make by
exercising his stock options at $80? Assume capital gains are no longer
taxed, because this encourages investment.
Teaching Math in 1997:
A company outsources all of its loggers. They save on benefits and when
demand for their product is down the logging work force can easily be cut
back. The average logger employed by the company earned $50,000, had 3
weeks vacation, received a nice retirement plan and medical insurance.
The contracted logger charges $50 an hour. Was outsourcing a good move?
Teaching Math in 1998:
A logging company exports its wood-finishing jobs to its Indonesian
subsidiary and lays off the corresponding half of its US workers (the
higher-paid half). It clear-cuts 95% of the forest, leaving the rest for
the spotted owl, and lays off all its remaining US workers. It tells the
workers that the spotted owl is responsible for the absence of fellable
trees and lobbies Congress for exemption from the Endangered Species Act.
Congress instead exempts the company from all federal regulations. What
is the return on the investment of lobbying?
The basics of math will never change (two plus two has equaled four since the beginning of time), but the way math is taught changes frequently.
Such could also be said of the gospel. The gospel never changes, but the way the gospel is taught changes over the years (anyone used a Jule Miller filmstrip with the LP record lately?). The important thing is not how we present it, but that we do so.
“And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak…..For the love of Christ constrains us.” (2 Corinthians 4:13; 5:14a).
Have a great day!
Alan Smith