I want to hear from teachers of faith and deep conviction about their experiences teaching from a spiritual perspective. I hope this interview will be the first of a number of such interviews, and I welcome contact from other teachers willing to engage with me on these topics.
Matt Harmless is a Christian teacher and pastor who has taught in both religious and secular schools. I asked him about his views on deep teaching, on matters of faith, and on the challenges of bringing his views into his various classrooms. What inspires a teacher of faith? How does such a teacher bring themselves and their faith fully into the classroom?
Asher Bey: Matt, thank you for engaging with me on this subject. How long have you been teaching?
Matt Harmless: I’ve been teaching since 2000.
AB: And where do you teach?
MH: The majority of my teaching experience has been in private Christian schools. Two of them were fairly large, as far as Christian schools go, and the other was really small. All of my student teaching plus a year was in public schools.
AB: When you teach in public schools, do you feel a tension between your faith and the mandate given you by the school system? Or is this not an issue?
MH: The times that I feel the most tension is when I get “why?” questions. “Why do homework?” “Why should we be respectful?” “Why obey our authorities? Why?” When I answer these questions without an acknowledgment of God and His ways, I always feel like I have given a partial answer. I can still teach the principles in these moments, and I do. But I also hope to find an opportunity to get into the real reasons and share my faith.
AB: When you teach, how do you resolve this tension?
MH: Jesus once told his disciples that they were the “light of the world” and the “salt of the earth”. When I was teaching at a Christian school, being the “light of the world” was easy.
In the public school, geometry for example, faith still constantly intersects my teaching. Things like lines that are infinite, why do parallel lines exist, the existence of things that are true, and of course, why should you work hard at math? In the public schools I want to shed the light as I have always done, but they don’t exactly let you discuss God in Geometry.
Even if I could not be a “light” in these situations, perhaps I could be “salt.” Salt does not reveal things. Instead, it preserves and flavors things. Many of the men who paved the way for scientific thinking were Christians. Louis Pasteur, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir William Herschel, Blaise Pascal, Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon. They all believed that one should strive to learn as much as they could about God’s creation. They were working to make the world better.
This year I will be teaching math at Georgetown-Ridgefarm High School, a public school. My hope is to be a “light” when I can, but to always be “salt” in my student’s lives.
AB: I appreciate the distinction between light and salt. What flavors do you hope to reveal by being “salt”? What deeper teachings do you want to come through?
MH: The first church fathers wrote, “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,” and if I truly believe that, then that belief, that faith, will permeate all that I do.
There is always a bigger picture. In English Class, to learn to communicate effectively. In literature, to learn how to communicate passionately and purposefully. In the sciences, to learn how to observe. In my math classes, I hope to teach my students to think and to be problem-solvers. I hope to build in my students a desire to do well, not only for the grade.
It is only a hop, skip and a jump from geometric proofs to questions of personal worldview… in many ways they’re connected.
AB: Can you recount a time when you felt good about bringing forth principles of your faith without referring specifically to your religion?
MH: One event I felt really pleased about came at the end of a year when a student told me that I had never become impatient with them, that all their other teachers had eventually “lost it” once or twice, but I never had. The simple attitude of patience had made an impact on this child. I didn’t have time to explain why or how this was related to my faith, even though my faith was the source of this patience. It isn’t because I’m a naturally patient person!
AB: Is God present in your answers only when you mention Him explicitly, or at other times as well?
MH: God is always present in my answers. (At least I hope He is.) More so, the older I get and the more aware I am of the world around me. He is most definitely present. Even when I am not speaking, He is present.
St. Francis of Assisi has been attributed this statement: “Preach the gospel always. If necessary use words.”
AB: Do you encourage students to question or challenge you on matters of faith?
MH: Oh, I absolutely encourage the questioning of faith. Everyone has something that they believe. Most students don’t know what their belief system is, yet they spend their lives living it out and functioning under its rules. I have found that a great way to encourage questioning of faith – or my faith – is to question their faith. Or to question what they do.
In my core I believe that you can’t learn without a question. A student needs to learn to question to learn. When you help a student learn to ask good questions, then (my hope is) they will begin to question more things. Teach them to question what they know and what they think they know and why they think they know it, and then you can begin to lead them to the truth. Since math, in many ways, deals with truth, then the questioning of truth bleeds over to other areas.
What sort of faith would it be if it couldn’t stand up to scrutiny?
AB: Indeed. But questioning belief systems can be dangerous. It is one thing to question the assumptions of mathematics – at least in modern times – and another to question the school’s belief system, the government’s, or a student’s religious faith. What sort of dangerous questions do you get? How do you answer?
MH: I have had some good ones so far this year, but not quite at the caliber that I am hoping for. We have done a lot of talking about truth, statements of truth and proofs of truth, and I feel that there are some ideas brewing with my students. They are starting to make some connections between Geometry and real life (and not just with triangles and parallel lines).
If it comes right down to it, I would answer any question based on my beliefs. I may throw in there that it is my opinion, but I would also add that I believe it to be the only logical conclusion.
Things are really going to collide when some of my students learn that I am also a pastor of a church. When my students acquire that little bit of knowledge, either by my telling them or via the grapevine, I am sure there will be questions.
AB: What sort of questions do you anticipate? And what do you hope for?
MH: I am hoping that they will question how these two things fit together. I want them to ask questions when they are going through hard times, to ask about suffering and death in the world. From someone who is constantly promoting logical, sequential thought, I hope that they put me to the test in this arena.
Paul the Apostle spoke about this type of readiness in the book of Colossians. He says, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” I want to be ready for any question they might ask.
I would love to have some questions about how teaching math plays into my preaching on Sundays. They might be surprised at the similarities. People like Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler were mathematicians and theologians. I personally feel like the two topics mesh really well.
AB: So how does math play into your preaching on Sundays?
MH: In both there is the core belief in the concept of truth, and that it can be found. In both there is a seeking of truth by way of reasoning. And just like in Geometry, there is the idea of having as little truth as possible be assumed truth, and everything else building off of those truths.
My logical training and my almost 10 years of teaching help me more than anything else during my sermon preparation.
AB: Many teachers face similar issues. What advice might you have for teachers of various faiths coming into secular schools, dealing with similar tensions and challenges?
MH: I would begin by reminding a teacher of faith that there is a “faith” that is already present in the secular school. It is important to understand that an individual’s or institution’s “faith” is its belief system. There are variations in this system, depending on the board and administration, but there is a system there.
If you walk into a Muslim school and begin teaching Christian principles, you better believe that you will meet opposition. So, it is not surprising that if you walk into a secular school and begin teaching Christian principles, tensions will arise.
My advice is to remain in the common areas as much as possible. There are many principles that are deeply rooted in true Christianity that can be taught without ever mentioning their source.
AB: Truth is clearly very important to you. When you teach, how do you know that you are teaching what is true?
MH: In Geometry there are the basic assumptions (postulates) and all other truth comes from those basic assumptions. Most mathematicians strive to bring those basic assumptions down to the bare minimum. This is where we get the great debate over Euclid’s fifth postulate. Is that fifth postulate necessary, or can it be derived from the first four?
Those postulates in Geometry are never so far-fetched or strange that one would question their truth. They are usually arrived at through a form of inductive reasoning. They aren’t testable, but they fit perfectly with the pattern of reality.
My basic “life postulates” would include things like God Exists and He has revealed Himself in the Bible. I would not at all consider my belief in these things as blind faith… in fact, I would consider the idea of blind faith to be an oxymoron. Faith (in the Bible) is always tied directly to knowledge and is always enhanced by knowledge. So, as I have evaluated the world and all that is in it, I have adopted these basic assumptions.
From these two assumptions I have derived all other truth.
AB: And so, if a student were to question your basic life postulates, how might you respond?
MH: When this has happened in the past, I usually start by asking them why they believe their basic “life postulates”. What evidence do they have to support their basic assumptions? I do this, not to try to detour off of the question, but to try to bring to the surface the shakiness of their own belief systems. Most people, especially students, won’t have any reasons whey they believe what they believe.
Recently there was a discussion in one of my classes about proofs. It came up, only partially by my manipulation of the conversation, that the reason why most students don’t like proofs (at least in this modern world we live in) is because nobody likes to answer to anyone else. In other words, most students like to just do whatever they want, and they don’t want to be bothered by accountability or hard questions. This is right where I want to go. If I can get them to think about what they actually believe, I will feel like I had accomplished something.
For myself, there is a load of evidence for the reliability of the Bible. It is so vastly different than any other piece of literature that exists, especially compared to any other ancient literature. It stands firm under textual, historical, and scientific scrutiny. I am prepared for questions about the Bible though, and hope that they come.
AB: In your teaching, do you explore other views such Islam, Judaism, or even atheism in order to help your students think about what they believe? How do you address these other religions or non-religions in your teaching?
MH: I haven’t had much opportunity to address other religions in the classroom. Mostly because I genuinely don’t want to offend any of my students. Besides, if I really want them to listen to me, ought I not be willing to hear their beliefs with the same respect that I want them to listen to me? I can be adamant without being rude.
AB: Can you teach those who do not believe in the Bible as the profound truth, or does this lack of belief represent a barrier to how deeply you can teach them?
MH: Can I teach them? Yes. Truth is truth, and there are elements of that truth that can be seen outside of the actual written word.
As I teach about the order, the precision, and the design manifested in the created world and displayed in the theoretical science of mathematics, that truth is being taught.
But does it represent a barrier to how deeply I can teach? Absolutely. The truth of a god can be seen in the created world, but who this god is cannot be seen until you read His word. That is where He really reveals Himself.
AB: Are there any questions you might be afraid to answer?
MH: I guess it depends on what I might be afraid of. Am I afraid of losing my job? Possibly. Afraid of having my beliefs probed? No, but that stems from my belief about truth itself. If truth is truth, then it doesn’t really have anything to do with me. It doesn’t depend on me.
But I want everything to do with it. I want the real truth, not just what I believe is true! The harder the question, the more it can clarify truth in one’s mind.
Some Christians behave as if they believe they have the answer before they even ask the questions. I don’t want to be like that. Bring on the hard questions. I want to really think, because I believe that there IS this thing called Truth.
AB: I appreciate how you depersonalize your search for truth. It reminds me of something one of my teachers once said: “if it’s true, you don’t need to defend it. If it’s not true, you don’t need to defend it.”
One last question: What motivates you to teach? What are your more and less profound motivations?
MH: I need a job! That is not profound, but very, very true. If I didn’t need a job would I still teach? Possibly. But most likely it would not be the same. I would only teach those who are interested in learning. That might be why I enjoy being a pastor.
There is an enlightening aspect about all teaching, as long as it is true (big truths or small truths). I truly enjoy experiencing those eye-opening events, whether in myself or in others.
In my own little corner of the education universe, I want my students to ask “why?” If they can ask “why?” there is hope for real change.

