Purpose of Education

Posted on October 13, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

What’s the purpose of education? If there is a purpose – or identifiable set of purposes – is it (or are they) something we can agree on?

First, a classic math joke that illustrates shifting purposes in math education. It’s illustrative because we often take math as the paradigm of an objective field of study with little room for opinion (at least on the pre-college level).

Teaching Math in 1950: – (traditional math)
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1960:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1970: – (new math)
A logger exchanges a set “L” of lumber for a set “M” of money. The cardinality of set “M” is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set “M.” The set “C”, the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set “M.” Represent the set “C” as a subset of set “M” and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set “P” of profits?

Teaching Math in 1980:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math in 1990: – (Outcome-Based education)
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.

Teaching Math in 1996:
By laying off 40% of its loggers, a company improves its stock price from $80 to $100. How much capital gain per share does the CEO make by exercising his stock options at $80. Assume capital gains are no longer taxed, because this encourages investment.

Teaching Math in 1997:
A company outsources all of its loggers. They save on benefits and when demand for their product is down the logging work force can easily be cut back. The average logger employed by the company earned $50,000, had 3 weeks vacation, received a nice retirement plan and medical insurance. The contracted logger charges $50 an hour. Was outsourcing a good move?

Teaching Math in 1998:
A logging company exports its wood-finishing jobs to its Indonesian subsidiary and lays off the corresponding half of its US workers (the higher-paid half). It clear-cuts 95% of the forest, leaving the rest for the spotted owl, and lays off all its remaining US workers. It tells the workers that the spotted owl is responsible for the absence of fellable trees and lobbies Congress for exemption from the Endangered Species Act. Congress instead exempts the company from all federal regulation. What is the return on investment of the lobbying costs?

Teaching Math in 2000:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit margin is $60?

Teaching Math in 2010:
El hachero vende un camion de carga por $100. El costo de production es……..

This joke is funny because we’ve seen enough of these ideas in our own experience.

Here’s a story from England. One might think that the purpose of a study group, A, is to study subject, X. So A is successful to the extent that A masters X. See how that figures in this story from The Brussels Journal:

In al-Britannia, you end up in jail if you complain that immigrants do not speak English, but if you are saying that those who insult Islam should be killed, it’s OK.

A quote from The Manchester Evening News, 12 October 2006:

A teenage girl was questioned by police after allegedly making a racist remark to Asian students in the classroom. The 14-year-old pupil had refused to take part in a science tutorial with five other students at Harrop Fold High School, Salford, after claiming they didn’t speak English. After questioning by police she was released without charge but the school say they are investigating the matter.

[…] Head Dr Antony Edkins said: “An allegation of a serious nature was made concerning a racially motivated remark by one student towards a group of Asian students new to the school and this country.”

A quote from the Daily Mail, 13 October 2006:

A teenage schoolgirl was arrested by police for racism after refusing to sit with a group of Asian students because some of them did not speak English. Codie Stott’s family claim she was forced to spend three-and-a-half hours in a police cell after she was reported by her teachers. According to Codie, the five – four boys and a girl – then began talking in a language she didn’t understand, thought to be Urdu, so she went to speak to the teacher.

“I said ‘I’m not being funny, but can I change groups because I can’t understand them?’ But she started shouting and screaming, saying ‘It’s racist, you’re going to get done by the police’.” Codie said she went outside to calm down where another teacher found her and, after speaking to her class teacher, put her in isolation for the rest of the day.

A complaint was made to a police officer based full-time at the school, and more than a week after the incident on September 26 she was taken to Swinton police station and placed under arrest. “They told me to take my laces out of my shoes and remove my jewellery, and I had my fingerprints and photograph taken,” said Codie. “It was awful.”

[…] Robert Whelan, deputy director of the Civitas think-tank, said: […] “A lot of these
arrests don’t result in prosecutions – the aim is to frighten us into self-censorship until we watch everything we say.”

A quote from The Daily Telegraph, 29 September 2006:

The Metropolitan Police has also decided not to take action against the controversial Muslim figure, Anjem Choudary, who allegedly said in a television interview about the row over the Pope that anyone who insulted the Muslim faith would be “subject to capital punishment”.

Some people, apparently, do not have to watch everything they say. The less control the authorities have with Muslims, the more control they want to exercise over non-Muslims. This strange mix of powerful censorship of public debate, yet little control over public law and order, has by some been labeled anarcho-tyranny. The reason why European authorities are becoming increasingly totalitarian in their censorship efforts is to conceal the fact that they are no longer willing or able to uphold even the most basic security of their citizenry.

Urdu is the major language in Pakistan. Speakers of Urdu, by my reckoning, are likely to be either Muslim or Christian in culture, with the former the most likely possibility. We’re not told what subject was being studied. Codie finds herself part of Study Group A, studying subject X. The other members of Study Group A are also studing subject X. Problem: regardless of their cultural origin, they find they can only access subject X by means of language. All but Codie share a common language, Urdu. Codie – and I’m guessing here – supposes that she doesn’t have time to learn Urdu so she can access subject X with her classmates so she asks for transfer to hypothetical Study Group B where they speak Mandarin, one of the languages she does speak.

Codie is surprised to learn, however, that the subject of study is not really X, but Y. I’m not sure what Y is, though it is likely one of the following:

  • You ought to do whatever you teacher tells you to do, however nonsensical.
  • You ought to pursue common study with people even if you can’t understand a word they say.
  • Not rocking the boat is more important than learning an actual academic subject.
  • Not letting on that not speaking the language of the majority of the people in your group is a virtue.
  • In any given large group, the majority language group should always submit to the linguistic preferences of minority language groups.

Or maybe I’m missing the whole story. Perhaps the real story is that the crime rate in Manchester has gotten so low that the police have so much time on their hands that they see a need to involve themselves in policing study group assignments.

We still have crazy people here in America. Check out this story at the Education Wonks. It’s about a fellow with a doctorate in classics from Harvard who dedicated himself to teaching in a public school.  His Latin students were very successful. The parents loved him. But he’s not qualified to teach in the public schools. Are we understanding education properly when we judge one’s qualification to be based on jumping through particular hoops rather than in creating learning in students? Just another outcome of ECDD (Every Child Dumbed Down) NCLB.

Posted in Current events, Education, Politics | 1 Comment

Appreciating Pastors

Posted on October 11, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

Debra Young of the Pastor’s Retreat Network asked me to post this. I’m adding my comments along the way.

12 Ways to Appreciate Your Pastor

 

When we look at our pastor or minister what do we see?  A spiritual giant?  Someone who can go it alone?  Someone who works a day and a half a week?  A servant of the congregation? Someone who does it all? 

 

The truth is that clergy are real people with real families, dreams, needs, desires and gifts.  And like all of us, they shine best in situations where they are appreciated and supported.  Here are a dozen ways you can bring out the best in your pastor:

 

  1. Write a note of appreciation.
    [I get notes every now and then. More frequently, I get positive verbal comments.
  2. Pray for your pastor regularly. [I really need this. Pray lots and lots for me. Pray for me to be able to connect with God for the sake of my people. Pray for my wisdom as I preach, teach, lead & relate to people. Pray that I might live a life that attracts people to Jesus. Pray for my wife & kids.]
  3. Stop the rumor mill. [I hear every now and then that people are saying something. The best thing to do is to come to me. I confess that I won’t always think that the issues you think are of burning importance are of burning importance. There’s an awful lot I don’t have a strong opinion about. But as fellow Christians it’s good for us to talk about stuff anyway.]
  4. Invite him or her out to lunch, golfing, or some other shared interest, without an agenda. [This sounds fun. I haven’t golfed in over 20 years & have no clubs. But other stuff is worth a try.]
  5. Offer to babysit the kids so pastor and spouse can have an evening together, even better, offer them a gift certificate to a restaurant they enjoy. [Even, do both. With the combination of my schedule and my wife’s schedule and the kids’ schedules, we don’t get out of an evening more than a few times a year. Our relatives all live far away, so there’s no help there. We’ve been blessed by several in the church who’ve helped in this way.]
  6. Honor his or her day off – allow time for rest, personal renewal and family time. [My folks are usually pretty good about this.]
  7. In times of loss, offer sympathy, care and practical help. [My folks are good at this.]
  8. Consider holidays and other family days – if the pastor is far from their family of origin, invite them to your celebration – no strings attached. [I sure wish we had more secular holidays!]
  9. Ask him or her how you can help and then follow through. [Yeah!]
  10. Tell him or her what you’ve learned from their sermon. [This is much better than the ubiquitous “good sermon.”]
  11. Go to http://parsonage.org/cam/index.cfm for ideas on how to celebrate your minister during Pastor Appreciation Month.
  12. Consider a sabbatical time for your pastor and find a way to provide one as needed. [I hear this and think, “Dream on.”]

Pastors Retreat Network provides pastors and their spouses with a five-day, self-directed retreat experience that is free of charge.  It is a time to rest, spiritually renew, and reconnect with God and spouse.  Consider how an experience like this might benefit your minister.  For more information, please visit our Web site — www.pastorsretreatnetwork.com

Posted in Local church | 1 Comment

Curious Happenings in the C of E?

Posted on October 9, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

From the Daily Telegraph, “Drive for multi-faith Britain deepens rifts, says Church.”

How does one take this? Is the supposedly liberal Church of England turning away from the multicultural creed (often equivalent to, “Everyone is right but us.”)? Are they speaking out in fear? Although over 70% of Britons identify themselves as Christian, the ratio of claimants to practitioners seems much higher for British Muslims than for British Christians. Or have they begun to think the nation’s Christian heritage worth defending? Perhaps once the “secret document” quoted in this report become unsecret, we might know some more.

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United Methodism: Liberal? Conservative? What?

Posted on October 6, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

Donald W. Haynes is doing a series in the United Methodist Reporter responding to questions described as responding to concerns of “conservative readers.” The first piece is “Is Methodism ‘Too Liberal’ for Conservatives?” the second, “Is Bible Literally the Word of God?” [sic]. I know these issues are frequently handled in blogs and other informal conversations. It’s nice to see a discussion closer to the bowels of the institution.

He recounts a correspondent, new to both Christianity and Methodism, who asks has doubts whether her Christian experience can fit in the UMC.

For one thing, she thinks I am Pollyanna-ish about human nature, believing it to be inherently good rather than inherently evil. Fair enough. I am sure millions of former Methodists and uncomfortable Methodists would agree with her.

Weak on sin?

The question is whether we United Methodists are weak on sin, and therefore failing people who need to experience God’s forgiving, saving, justifying grace. Part of Methodism’s failure to bring people to Christ is because in the late 19th century our denominational leadership and Sunday school literature began to reflect the social sciences, none of which took sin seriously.

Believing “As a twig is bent, so grows the tree,” we abandoned evangelism for education. The weakness of that shift was unnoticed until the 1960s, by which time parents themselves had little sense of saving grace. We taught loyalty to the church more than being discipled by Jesus. The keystone was the Christian home. When it fractured, our Sunday school, youth ministry and finally membership began their long — and so far unchanged — decline.

My reader instinctively knew the truth of her need to “let go and let God have God’s grace-saving way.” If we do not take sin seriously, we are looking at human nature through rose-colored glasses, and deserve to lose members to fundamentalists!

But sin is secondary; the result of what Christian doctrine has called “the Fall,” as reflected in the biblical story of Eden itself. Let’s take a look at what Wesley said.

The No. 1 point in most “plan of salvation” tracts is that we are to admit, “I am a sinner.” We have become focused on sin by evangelical Protestantism — a long period of which featured revivals and “hellfire and damnation” sermons — and the Catholic church’s Augustinian theology. Wesley focused on grace.

Haynes sure compresses a lot here. It is certainly true that grace was central to John Wesley’s message. But it’s also true that he regularly urged hearers to “flee the wrath that was to come.” This idea was so central to early Methodism that it was one of the key defining points of a Methodist. You didn’t have to know much of anything, you didn’t have to believe – or even be acquainted with the doctrines of the church, you didn’t have to get your life in order. But did have to have – and then exhibit – a desire to flee coming wrath. It is certainly true – at least in my experience – that UM preachers rarely mention any coming wrath these days, let alone that we ourselves might need to be prepared. But if we think our practice is true of Wesley, we’re projecting our own views on to him.

For Wesley, the essence of God’s image was human will, and inherent to will is freedom of choice, or liberty. “Abusing the liberty wherewith he had been endowed, he rebelled against his Creator, and willfully exchanged the image of the incorruptible God into sin, misery and corruption. Yet God would not forsake the work of his own hands . . . and offered him a means of being ‘renewed after the image of him that created him'” (Col. 3:10).

This, dear reader, is an important departure in Methodist doctrine from the stock-in-trade doctrine of total depravity. We have a higher view of humanity. Like blackened brass in an antique shop, no sin can destroy the innate “imago Dei” in which we were created. Wesley spoke of restoration as one might speak of restoring a neglected and abused piece of furniture whose original design was exquisite and whose workmanship was perfect.

The reality of the image of God in humans is surely a part of Christian doctrine. Even those who explicitly hold to Total Depravity usually admit its continuance, though perhaps in a different formulation than those eschewing Total Depravity. But I’m afraid Haynes is again compressing – or over simplifying. Wesley preached the reality of Prevenient Grace. We can describe this as the grace that comes before salvation. For Wesley it is precisely Prevenient Grace that restores us – overcoming the damage of our Original Sin and its result in Total Depravity – to a place where we can respond to God. Short of Prevenient Grace, we simply don’t have the capacity to respond to Justifying Grace – to God’s love.

That’s the first article. The second, dealing with the bible, seems more accurate in its account. In this Haynes recounts his early commitment to the doctrine of inerrancy. He was converted away from it by the preaching of E. Stanley Jones and the teaching of William Brownlee at Duke. Though Hayne’s take on “Higher Criticism” isn’t very nuanced, it isn’t the center of his article. He goes on to quote not only John Wesley, but also Huston Smith, N.T. Wright, and Rob Bell, on various ways of interacting with the living word of God in Scripture. So while Haynes appears to have repudiated the doctrine of inerrancy, as far as I can tell he still believes the Bible to be the word of God. (Yes, I know there are multiple ways to understand the phrase “word of God,” but there are even more ways of denying it. I’m content with Haynes’ words for the moment.)

If we can combine the two for a moment…

In my own encounter with inerrancy, Methodism & “higher criticism” I’d suggest that we need to watch the role of Total Depravity in handling the bible. Many adherents of “higher criticism” seem to think there is such a thing as Reason unfettered by sin. Nope. No such thing. Even if we go with the lazy inerrantists and take the bible as a book of infallible, inerrant propositions, we still have to deal with the depth of sin as we interpret & apply those propositions.

One of the sins to which we moderns are especially  prone is excessive individualism. We easily think the text of scripture as it comes to us (in whatever translation we’ve claimed as our own) is perfectly clear on its own. “Higher criticism” – or better and more generally, “scholarship” – can help us contextualize scripture. The bible is old literature. It gives us God’s words and actions from long ago. The more we can understand that long ago context, the better off we are.

At the same time, Haynes’ concluding point is essential. Whatever tools we claim – whether “liberal” or “conservative” scholarship – or whatever God’s relation to the creation of the text, we need the current activity of God in our lives to access it properly.

Posted in Bible, Current events, United Methodism | Leave a comment

Depth of Sin

Posted on October 4, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

Big sin has been making the headlines lately.

Sinners have been hunting the girls lately. First it was the fellow in Colorado last week. Now it’s Mr. Roberts in Pennsylvania. The thought seems to be, “Let’s go torture some girls, kill as many as we can and then kill ourselves.”

Supposedly Mr. Roberts blames his activity on his sin of 20 years ago. His thought, “I abused some little girls twenty years ago, so now I need to go do it some more and then kill then to put them out of my misery.”

Mark Foley – a congressman – doesn’t hunt the girls. He hunts for boys. Using his exalted position in the House of Representatives he preys on teenagers. Today we learn that a “clergyman” made him do it. Well, at least he claims a clergyman did something to him when he was young, so now he does it to the people around him.

Jesus said, “The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy. But I am come that they might have life, and that more abundant.”

I haven’t seen any BIG sin here in our church lately. Oh sure, it might be there but between my feeble powers of observation and our innate ability to crawl under rocks for some of our sin, I haven’t seen it.

But we have plenty of little stuff.

Have you ever seen what Paul said? “The wages of BIG sin is death.” Not quite. Plain old, everyday sin leads to death. Whether it’s the down and dirty brutality that makes the headlines, or the little, whiny, piddling things we do day in and day out, they all lead to death.

Sin bothers me. Fortunately, it’s not just other folk’s sin that bothers me. I want to live a life that attracts people to Jesus – not a life that gives someone another excuse to stay away. I know I still have a ways to go.

Posted in Bible, Blog post, Current events, Spirituality, Theology | Leave a comment

Assurance & Security

Posted on September 28, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

In response to John L. Drury’s review of Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities I was inspired to explore the difference between Assurance and Security.

As a United Methodist pastor I pastor churches in which theology has, for generations, usually been whittled down to something like “God loves you,” “Be nice,” “Don’t judge.” With this “foundation,” my folks have no means to deal with the baptists (usually the biggest herd here in E. Texas) have to say about “once saved always saved,” and how THEY believe it and Methodists don’t.

When I teach on the subject I observe that from a phenomenalistic point of view, we all have the experience of people who at one time in their lives appear to be self-avowed, practicing Christians, clearly people of faith, who later in life would claim no such thing. Baptists (who are at least 3 point Calvinists around here) would say that person was never really saved but was just “fooling himself,” or “playing games with God.” The Methodist – if he or she said anything – would stereotypically describe the person as “falling from grace,” or “backsliding.” Same phenomenon, two explanations.

A quick glance at the bible doesn’t help much here – both sets of ideas can be found fairly easily.

In this context, however, the common baptist approach to “eternal security” seems to undermine “assurance.” Eternal security is something I can have – in theory – but I cannot have assurance that I have it, because it is always possible that I am “fooling myself” or “playing games with God.”

Wesleyan theology (moving beyond the bare folk theology of many contemporary Methodists) puts its pivit foot on assurance rather than “eternal security.” Through the work and witness of the Spirit, the believer can have assurance of salvation. Can this assuance ever be clouded? Yes, plainly. Can one lose the acceptance of God? I think the Wesleyan tradition (at its best) is fuzzy here.

How can it possibly be good to be fuzzy on such an important subject? My take is that such fuzziness is a proper stance to take in light of the biblical teaching and its contrast with the modern expectation of certainty. Descartes and his successors (he has many children in theology) tell us he need certainty – even absolute certainty. From what I see of the way this modern epistemological yearning has worked itself out, it has been reduced to absurdity. Sure you can have certainty – if you go no further than solipsism.

So – to sum up all this verbiage, I see a bi-polar doctrine of Assurance/Security, with one tradition putting its foot down on one pole, and the other tradition on the other pole.

Posted in Bible, Books, Spirituality, Theology, United Methodism | Leave a comment

No God Left Behind?

Posted on September 21, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

William G. Durden, President of Dickinson College, thinks quantitative accountability to the government by the colleges – to justify their continued existence – is as silly as the government holding churches quantitatively accountable for their freedom from taxation.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Connecting Methodist Bloggers

Posted on September 14, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

John the Methodist makes a request.

Posted in United Methodism | 1 Comment

Religion

Posted on September 14, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

Back when I was in college John Cobb came for a lecture series. One of his lectures was titled, “Can a Christian Be a Buddhist Too?” I don’t remember the content of his lecture, but my recollection was that he was quite a bit more optimistic about the possibility than I was. It boils down to what you mean by “Christian” and what you mean by “Buddhist.”

Now we hear of an Anglican priest who has converted to Hinduism. He has his little idol that he carries around with him, does his little ceremonies with the snake god… AND wants to continue to do what he did as an Anglican priest when he returns to England.

Mr Hart … is a strong advocate of pluralism. He says in his book that Hinduism accepts the divinity of Jesus and is an especially tolerant and open faith.

Hinduism IS especially tolerant and open. I’ve seen evidence to suggest it can syncretize almost anything else out there. But Christianity is not so tolerant and open – unless it has first been “hinduized.”

Mr Hart believes that his change to Hinduism would be “read in the spirit of open exploration and dialogue, which is an essential feature of our shared modern spirituality”.

Mr. Hart sounds like a priest in the Church of Shared Modern Spirituality more than of the Church of England. Christianity isn’t about openness, exploration and dialog. It’s about Jesus. Abstracted, rationalized, idealized religion – or to use the currently popular term, spirituality – is not the same thing as Christianity. Doubtless Mr. Hart and others will disagree. “We’ve been practicing a Christianity of Openness for years,” they might say.

I’m a United Methodist. For the past generation we’ve been urged to use the Outlerian (oops – that’s supposed to be Wesleyan) Quadrilateral. I’m not a big fan of it, but let’s try it. I can’t find a Hinduized version of Christianity in Scripture. Not in the Christian Tradition either. If Reason is equated with the deliverances of modern philosophy, I might have more luck there. Finally, if Experience refers to nothing more than my private feelings interpreted by myself in isolation from Scripture and the Tradition of the church, I might well find something akin to Hinduism. Or Thuggery. Or Fascism. Or Communism. Or baseball. Or gluttony. I can get just about anything out of my experience.

Can you be a Hindu and a Christian too? Apparently from the point of view of the Hindu, you can, since from that point of view there is no real difference between the Hinduism and Christianity, between Jesus and Ganesha (personally I’ve never seen a picture of Jesus with that long a nose).

From the point of view of biblical or traditional Christianity? I don’t think so.

Posted in Current events, Theology | 2 Comments

We Forget too Quickly

Posted on September 11, 2006 by Richard Heyduck

We forget too quickly that the Taliban was raised up more in the madrassas of Pakistan than in Afghanistan. The “War on Terror” will never be won until those fighting it are willing to take note of the irrelevance of the national borders. Here are some observations from Ahmed Rashid, here some from the Asian Tribune.

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