Category Archives: Science & Math

Here’s to your health

Working in a school/university/seminary puts you in contact with lots of people. Often, lots of sick people (for the sake of this post, let’s limit the definition of “sick” to a physical illness).

Everyone has their own secret (or not so secret) strategy for keeping healthy. Here’s the simplest: wash your hands. Often.

But getting people to actually wash their hands frequently and for the most beneficial period of time is not always easy. Let’s face it, it just isn’t fun. So, here’s a suggestion that worked with the kids (and even adults) that frequent our house. Install this.

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Milne’s Mental Arithmetic

It is not very often that people are without a calculator of some sort close at hand. I’ve seen people whip out various cell phones to calculate tip percentages when at a group dinner. We hardly have a need anymore for true mental arithmetic. But have we lost something in the process of gaining speedy, error-free calculations? In his 1897 book, Milne’s Mental Arithmetic, William J. Milne claimed:

There are many who believe that Mental Arithmetic is one of the most valuable studies in a school curriculum. There can be no doubt that if the subject is properly taught it develops a habit of concentration of mind, which is one of the most desirable ends to be attained by any scheme of education.

Milne’s small book published in 1897 demonstrates his method. The book is not a collection of easy problems designed to give the student practice in the simple processes of arithmetic, but rather 172 pages of exercises of gradually increasing difficulty which enable the student with effort to solve problems whose solution might seem to be almost impossible without resorting to ciphering.

Here’s one of the first problems: Continue reading →

Keep Reading (Hebrew, that is)

One of the greatest challenges after a few semesters of Biblical Hebrew is to maintain your skills. Even more critical is to improve your skills! The single most efficient way to maintain and increase your BH is to read! But too many folks never find a way to make that happen. While there are many suggestions I could make (and will in the future!), today I want to encourage you to use one tool that should be in your BH toolbox. What? You have misplaced your toolbox? Get another one started!
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