Math vs The Creative Writer

Math vs The Creative Writer October 15, 2012

Math is so round/As I lay on the ground/Trees call me

Baffled? I was, too, the first time I heard thoselines. We were in pre-calculus, sitting in the back row, struggling with somenew mathematical concept, when my friend leaned his head back on the chalkboardand spontaneously expressed his bewilderment with that three-line, originalpoem.

Crazy as it is, this little bit of poetry demonstratessomething important. By bursting forth into verse, my buddy showed me somethingabout himself at that moment: that math wasn’t his natural territory; languagewas. He was a pretty decent logical-mathematical thinker, but his “primaryintelligence” was linguistic.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’sa little background. About 30 years ago Howard Gardner, an education professorat Harvard, recognized that different people seem to show intelligence indifferent areas. Some people are really good with words, others are good withnumbers, while others are musical or relational or visual. His theory ofmultiple intelligences laid out eight different types of intelligence, eightdifferent ways people receive and process information.

The result? Well-trained teachers don’t restrictthemselves to the “I-talk-and-you-listen” method of instruction anymore. Thanksto Gardner, now we’ve got hands-on projects, art activities, role play, music,group cooperation, multimedia, inner reflection, and all kinds of otherteaching techniques being used in the classroom for just about every subject.If you’re a visual learner who likes pictures more than words, that’s OK: we’llteach you your way. If you’re more musical than logical, no worries. We won’tpress you into our mold.

Gardner’s influence doesn’t stop with schools these days. He’salso shaped how some do church, most noticeably in how they deliver God’struth. A song inserted into the sermon helps drive home the point for musicallearners. A video clip or a drama sets things up nicely for those who arevisually oriented. Giving each worshipper a little trinket to represent thetopic of the sermon offers those bodily-kinesthetic learners something to touchand manipulate.

What should we think? Any biblical cause for cautionhere? Or is this simply a benign shift in ministry strategy? Better yet, isthis a valuable ministry insight—a helpful way to shape our approach to theneeds of the culture, becoming, as Paul said, “all things to all people, thatby all means I might save some” (1 Cor 9:22)? My thoughts next week.