Filipino Counting Method

While working with my daughter, Molly Dru, on her counting, I remembered something I heard a while back.  There is a theory of teaching math known as the Filipino math method that differs from how most western students learn math.  Western students learn the “names” of the numbers and then memorize them in sequential order.  The Filipino method has a different approach. From the very beginning it assigns value to each individual digit. This means that a child from the start will see the number “4” and assign it mentally with the idea of four beans, coins or whatever object used in teaching.  The western students will normally learn to recognize their numbers and to count before students in the Filipino method, but when the degree of math rises the Filipino method gives the students a massive advantage.  When students reach the stage of multiplication and division, they are not forced to go solely off memory, but because of how they see the numbers can use those values to come to the solution.  When they see [ 3 x 4 ] they immediately know that is asking for “the value of three, four times,” instead of spouting off the memorized answer of 12.  Once again, when these students reach even higher levels such as algebra and calculus, they have a much stronger foundation. 

            This is so comparable to many Christians.  As children, teens and/or baby Christians we memorize the correct things to say or do.  We have automated responses to certain questions or circumstances that may arise.  For example, for many of you that grew up in church I am sure you have been apart of the following experience:  A minister, normally the youth minister gives a talk on how evil and wicked listening to secular music is.  He points out that Satan himself was a musician and because of that, music by certain bands, on certain stations and for the most part anything not played on K-Love (or whatever the local Christian station may be) will send you straight to Hell.  At that point the minister implores each person in the crowd to go to their car and bring in all of their CD’s (sad that this is dating me). All of the “secular” CDs would be smashed, burned, or destroyed in some creative way, making the point of how evil it was [if you didn’t grow up in church, yes, this actually happened and I know its sad].

            In those services, scriptures such as Philippians 4:8 and Colossian 3:2 would be used to make the case.  I absolutely agree that these versus are true and we should be careful what we put into our head.  “If there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things,” is a wonderful gauge of what we fill our minds with, but we need to begin to understand the value of what the text is saying, not simply learn rules of what we should or should not listen to.  As we continue to study the word, and as we teach it to our children and others, we must set the foundation of getting to the heart of what the Word is showing us.  The Word is absolutely true, and it is absolutely for today, but if we are not careful we can reduce it to memorizing a multiplication table so that we may spout off the correct answer when asked.

Parable of a Lifesaving Station

I recently heard this parable on a podcast I was listening to. I originally planned on expounding on it with a blog, but think its better left as is.  It should speak for itself.

The Lifesaving Station Parable

by Theodore Wedel

On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little lifesaving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station, so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little lifesaving station grew.

Some of the members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in this club’s decoration, and there was a liturgical lifesaving lifeboat in the room where the club initiations were held. About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So they immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. However, some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kind of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast. They did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself; and if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.