As an Upper School math teacher, I love math homework. I’ve found it to be an effective practice for instilling logical thinking, determination, and appreciation for the order which underpins Creation. An added benefit is that a thorough approach to math homework usually brings good grades. My enthusiasm for math homework means I am puzzled when my students don’t complete their home assignments. Their lives, of course, are full of friends, family, church, and extracurricular activities, not to mention the hundreds of pages per week they read for other classes. But surely they could find an hour? 

However, when I attend an athletics or theater event by The Saint Constantine School, I find my perspective shifting. The student who was behind in assignments is a leader on the volleyball or basketball team, having perfected his or her moves through hours of practice. Another stars in the school play, having memorized and perfected dozens (or hundreds) of lines of Shakespeare. Attending a performance where most actors are my students, I am entranced to suspend my disbelief that a Pre-Calculus student is sixty years old, or a villain, or royalty. 

What’s more, our school is small enough that a student in the play is likely also to be on a sports team and in the choir, and perhaps playing in a band on the side. Our students are dedicated and successful in various aspects of life, and they are courageous in their willingness to take on multiple challenges at once. It is an honor to know them. And it is humbling for this teacher to realize that math homework, while being valuable and critical for academic success, is not the only important thing in life.