Group sees glimpses of divinity in math

While vactioning in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, last week we picked up the Boston Globe each morning. Saturday's paper included this "Spiritual Life" column by Rich Barlow on Barbara Reynolds, a nun who teaches at Cardinal Stritch University near Milwaukee. Sister was at Boston College to explain

how math can be a tool for advancing social justice.

One objection to this approach is that

Teaching values inevitably bites into the time available for teaching math.

In her talk, Reynolds gave her response, forged years ago when she volunteered with the Peace Corps in Africa. Teaching students there, she had to use 1940s-era textbooks that posed math problems involving the calculation of fighter planes' bombing trajectories.

"I had a hard time with some of the examples that were there," Reynolds said.

For reasons that someone assumes must be obvious.

It was an important lesson to her. "No matter who teaches, personal values do come through. . . . What I've done is to be explicit about the values that I teach."

It's still biting into instructional time even if she then chews on the left.