I received excellent math instruction growing up in Fredonia. After three years of middle school math with Roger Burlett, my classmates and I were very well prepared for high school. Most FMS House II students idolized Burlett.

We thought he was the coolest teacher on the planet. And to this day, Rog is still a pretty cool cat. I had the caring, animated and inspiring Len Vento for 9th grade Algebra and 11th grade Trig, the persuasive Robin Woodbury for 10th grade Geometry and the iconic Dennis Cecala for 12th grade Precalculus. I owe much of my mathematical success to these fine educators.

The math classrooms in Fredonia High School at the time were not fashionably decorated. I remember the walls of the rooms to be rather bare. But I do recollect a Ten Commandments of Math poster displayed prominently on the cork bulletin board at the front of one of the classrooms. I looked up The Ten Commandments of Math using AI for the purpose of writing this article. There were different versions cited but most included statements such as: Thou shalt not divide by zero, Thou shalt not take even roots of negative integers, Thou shalt honor the Order of Operations, Thou shalt know thy Truth Tables and Thou shalt not do thy homework in pen. Every set of the math decalogues that I viewed contained the statements, Thou shalt show all thy work, Thou shalt check thy work and Thou shalt not copy thy neighbor’s work.

See Ludwig, Page D2

As the use of online textbooks, multiple choice computer based standardized testing and multiple choice computer based diagnostic assessments have become commonplace in mathematics instruction, I have observed that more and more students violate the show your work and check your work commandments. Students want to do and show as little work as possible and simply click on their answer of choice. All good math teachers tell their students that learning the process is just as important, if not more important than getting the correct answer. And showing your work is how you earn partial credit, even if your answer is wrong and/or doesn’t check. But this is hard to get through to kids when all the computer cares about is that you clicked on the correct answer.

Just a few years ago I taught at a nearby community college that utilized an online textbook. The online text included multiple choice homework assignments. The computer based program made it easy to record homework completion and a grade for an assignment. All that work was done for the teacher. And even though I instructed students to labor through each problem, showing their work and checking their answers before even looking at the four choices on their laptop screens, only the most motivated students actually heeded my instructions. This became problematic on quizzes and tests. Students that violated the Ten Commandments of Math on their computer based homework had a difficult time following them on their hand written assessments.

The mandated posting of the Biblical Ten Commandments in public school classrooms has become a contentious issue in the states of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. I recently watched a YouTube clip of Texas State Representative James Talarico arguing on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives against the posting of the Biblical Decalogues. What made Talarico’s arguments particularly interesting is the fact that Talarico is a devout Christian and a Presbyterian seminarian student studying to become a pastor.

During the debate, Talarico, who is also a former middle school English teacher, argued that the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms could alienate students of other faiths or students of no particular faith at all. Doesn’t God love all children? And wouldn’t Jesus welcome students of every faith into His classroom? Talarico also pointed out that many of the elected officials arguing for the mandatory posting of the Ten Commandments are routinely guilty of violating the Third, Fourth, Seventh and Ninth Commandments. James Talarico, devout Christian and grandson of a Baptist preacher, made a very strong argument against the law mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. The Texas law passed anyway.

I can’t imagine that anyone could form a coherent objection to the posting of the Ten Commandments of Math in any classroom. But maybe we should take it a step farther and post the Ten Commandments of Math in courthouses, government office buildings, village and town halls, State Houses, the Halls of Congress and the White House. All elected officials should know their Truth Tables. No elected officials should claim others’ work as their own. And for the sake of transparency and accountability, all elected officials should show their work to their constituents and fact check their statements with independent sources.

Andrew Ludwig is a retired math teacher and a retired public school and Catholic school administrator. He currently works as a substitute teacher in Chautauqua County.