At a certain
point you say
to the woods, to the sea,
to the mountains,
the world,
Now I am ready.
Now I will stop and be wholly attentive.
You empty yourself and wait,
listening...
Annie Dillard
My wife, Lynda and I joined Baradene College in Auckland this year and we have been impacted by
the expression of faith in the school community.
In contribution to the goal "A Deep Respect For Intellectual Values", I thought about developing a space where girls from the worldwide network of sister schools could "talk mathematics" to each other. So each month I write six mathematical puzzles and post them on Baradene College's website. The address is
http://www.baradene.school.nz/community_maths_quiz.htm
The girls reply on-line. A team of girls at Baradene mark the entries and send back results with maybe a word or two of encouragement. Any students scoring full marks will have their name, and the name of their school, posted on an "Honours Board" on the website.
At the end of each month, one of the "Honours" students for that month will be chosen for a prize. The prize is a t-shirt showing a map of the world with dots indicating the schools in our Sacred Heart Network.
David Merriman
Head of Mathematics
Baradene College