Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Balance and Passion

My older daughter Mallory graduates in December with a BA in Mathematics...she just finished her "Abstract Algebra" course (Modern Algebra) with a 100 average. Yep, 100 average, when most in the class failed or scraped by, and while I didn't fail or scrape by back in the day, I did need a LOT of tutoring and hand-holding to get my brain to think about those things the first time around! I'm really not that smart. She's so much smarter than I was in math. The student has definitely outgrown the teacher.

And yet...when we were talking this week about what *exactly* gave her the edge in math in high school, when I screwed around with her textbooks year after year, and she never used the same curriculum two years in a row, and I don't think we ever finished any book, and she only used Cliff's Notes and about 3 chapters of Jacobs Geometry for Geometry (!), she said, "It was the consistency." ROFL!!!

I honestly believe that mathematics is more real to her because she just did it every day, along with reading and writing, in pretty much the same fashion she did reading and writing. I know I couldn't "dig in" to tough literature every day, and I certainly couldn't write a research paper every week. So, when her reading got heavy, her math got lighter. When the math topic needed "digging" the reading slacked off to lighter works. And when she was in the year of the novel at age 13, when she wrote ridiculously long passages just for the joy of writing...well, I don't think we did much math that year at all.

She's very balanced as a result. You know, as beautifully talented in art as math. Reads voraciously. Writes wonderfully.

But whatever she did...and whatever she does, she does with a passion for it. I have never seen her half-heartedly attempt anything. She lives with her whole heart. She gives with her whole heart. She loves with her whole heart.

Passionately balanced. I think it's a pretty great way to live.