I was called into my professors office so he could explain to me why he didn't want to recommend me to Grad School. I am attempting to obtain a M.Ed so that I can teach earth science in local public schools.
In the course of our interview I was told that while I was an exceptional student and person and a good candidate for the program, the fact that I am Christian and hold to theistic worldviews makes him nervous. He likened it to me being a wolf in sheep's clothing going among the students and undermining science.
This came about because he discovered that while I have exceptional recall (his words) and know the subject well, I don't believe what they say about origins and beginnings. He found out through my use of language, "Modern science believes... It appears that...etc." He said that even though I could teach the class exactly what they want me to teach, the way I preface things undermines the truth of them.
The conversation was not confrontational or aggressive, rather a friendly discussion on how I am a good person but bad scientist. It is interesting on that note how some people can say the cruelest things with a smile on their face. "I would not want my kids taking earth science from you." I took my recommendation from him (recommends with reservations) after class and went home mystified.
I have some thoughts on the matter:
At first I did not know how to respond to the accusations. I thought that I had really made a mistake in choosing to get my M.Ed in Earth science and how hard it would be to get a different endorsement now. (As after this semester I will have finished the 32 credit requirement. 4.0gpa) I am still not sure what the solution here is. I am realizing that no matter how good of a student, teacher, or person I am my life will be rather challenging in this subject area. I know that I can get an add-on Algebra 1 endorsement, but that requires remaining in a science field that is rather antagonistic to Christians.
Secondly I am rather frustrated at the personal slight that was his inference. You are not a good scientist if you start with the conclusion then seek the data. This is the second time I have heard this from a secular professor. The truth seems to elude them though, being a Christian does not make you a bad scientist, rather a different one. For what they are saying is that if you don't start with our assumptions and beliefs about the universe (there is no God, or the possibility of one) then you are stupid. They preclude the possibility of the supernatural, for if the supernatural is possible and true than a whole new realm of potential opens up.
They are also saying that my science and scientific conclusions exist to prove the existence of God. This is not the case, I am starting with the existence of God and looking at the data in a different frame of mind. I do not even attempt to prove the existence of God, I take it for granted. I can still follow the scientific method and come to legitimate conclusions, for my conclusions are not based on assumptions but data. (Really they are doing the same thing I am without realizing it. By insisting there is no God they look at the available data and come to a completely different conclusion.)
Finally my last thought on me being a wolf in sheep's clothing. I grew up a Christian, my parents are Christians and believe in a literal creation. I got my religion and faith from them. However, I did not attend private Christians schools. My father was in the military and we moved around quite a bit. I have seen the inside of many science classrooms with science teachers attempting to explain and prove their conclusions. I am not a robot, rather a 29 year old man. I had to make a choice about what to believe and who to follow. I looked at what I was being taught at home and at school, and my decision to remain a Christian was my own based on my own studies and research.
My professor is scared that students will be lead astray and I will do great harm to science by being a Christian teacher. He is afraid of my potential influence on young minds. Yet one of my ultimate goals as a teacher is greater than just teaching content. I want my students to learn responsibility, character, respect, and most importantly the ability to think critically. Science is about finding the truth, the scientific method is the way to find it. (hypothesize, test, test, test, find conclusion, reform hypothesis)
Showing students that science is an ever changing mass of theories and evidence seems to be the wiser course. Instead of solely telling them what truth is, make them discover and find the truth through scientific inquiry. If the only possible truth is what my professor says it is, then the students will eventually come to that conclusion as well.
My professor made the statement that if the world were filled with people like me, then there would be a lot less problems and issues to solve. This was the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me. Yet he is afraid that kids might harmed or mislead by my leadership and being a role model. The solution for me currently is to get another professor to recommend me to the grad school, but these problems there will never end.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Craziness
I was working tonight at my Rec Center Pool. It had fallen upon me to train a new hire in the ways of Ellis and Associates (Lifeguard Company). The training is really a pre-skills class. If we have a guard hired that is certified with another company aka Red Cross, we want to make sure that the said lifeguard can work with us in the 30 days before he/ she takes the official Ellis Class. Blah Blah I am rambling anyway...
Right as we were getting started some of our normal guards came up to me saying that we had a girl in the first aid room that couldn't breathe. That made for an interesting next 20 min. I got oxygen on the girl (Teenager) and waited for the paramedics to arrive. While waiting my bosses boss shows up and joins me in treating this young lady. This was a wonderful thing because he is a full EMT.
This boss has in the past been rather critical with me, not in a harsh way but a constructive way. But tonight was different, nothing critical was said to me and I was not corrected for anything I did. It felt so good to be trusted so much by the guards that they came to me, and also that my uber-visor didn't seem to think I did anything incorrectly.
When the EMS personnel arrived and took over I was able to leave the situation in their very capable hands and get back to training our new hire. The next hour and a half or so was filled with some good training, actually my first real teaching experience as an instructor with the agency (as opposed to in-service training sessions).
I left, called my best friend and had a good conversation with him for 15 to 20 min, then ate dinner. I proceeded to get some homework done for class, and see what I have left to do in my application for George Mason University. After that, I was able to clean my room up and remove some general clutter. I am now just about ready for bed and emptying my mind so that I can fall asleep.
OH yeah I also bought a few songs on iTunes, Taylor Swift and Chris Tomlin! Makes for good background music as I get work done!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Right as we were getting started some of our normal guards came up to me saying that we had a girl in the first aid room that couldn't breathe. That made for an interesting next 20 min. I got oxygen on the girl (Teenager) and waited for the paramedics to arrive. While waiting my bosses boss shows up and joins me in treating this young lady. This was a wonderful thing because he is a full EMT.
This boss has in the past been rather critical with me, not in a harsh way but a constructive way. But tonight was different, nothing critical was said to me and I was not corrected for anything I did. It felt so good to be trusted so much by the guards that they came to me, and also that my uber-visor didn't seem to think I did anything incorrectly.
When the EMS personnel arrived and took over I was able to leave the situation in their very capable hands and get back to training our new hire. The next hour and a half or so was filled with some good training, actually my first real teaching experience as an instructor with the agency (as opposed to in-service training sessions).
I left, called my best friend and had a good conversation with him for 15 to 20 min, then ate dinner. I proceeded to get some homework done for class, and see what I have left to do in my application for George Mason University. After that, I was able to clean my room up and remove some general clutter. I am now just about ready for bed and emptying my mind so that I can fall asleep.
OH yeah I also bought a few songs on iTunes, Taylor Swift and Chris Tomlin! Makes for good background music as I get work done!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Class again
I am once again taking classes working toward my goal of being a high school teacher. Honestly every time I write, discuss, or think about becoming a teacher, I kick myself for not doing it sooner. I am in my last semester at NOVA working on my application to Mason.
I am studying to be a earth science teacher, and am currently working on my earth science endorsement. I have enrolled for two major classes, and one field studies class to complete the academic requirements for said endorsement.
I do wonder at one thing though, why in the world am I trying to be a science teacher? I am a die hard Christian, I strongly (and with good science) believe that God created the world, and all science points to Him. This is not what I am learning in my science classes. In fact, all my science classes are trying as hard as they can to shut me down. This is so severe that I am learning what modern (often incorrect) science thinks about origins and dates just so I can pass the class.
I am learning a great deal about geosystems and am truly fascinated by the subject. There is so much that we know now that we never have known before. I am just trying to fight my way upstream intellectually. A good analogy would be the lemming that realized the cliff was deadly, and then tried to go back in the face of all the other lemmings.
So here's to another semester working to obtain my theme, "Bearded Phantom - Perpetual Student working to get another degree so he can be perpetually in the field of education."
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Yearning
Right now my heart is yearning for the fellowship and company of people who really understand me. I understand that I am having a rough day with my silly foot injury, but always my mind lingers on the joy that is being with my only real friends. I must be patient and see where God wants to take me after my current educational goals. However at times I Wonder how long I can stay here. It has nothing to do with my family or living conditions. Really my heart is just breaking and crying out to be around my second family.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Future Thoughts
I often wonder what I am going to do with my life, or where I will do it. I have an undergraduate and graduate degree that pointed me toward vocational ministry, or full time church work. The Lord Christ pointed me in another direction after being given the chance to do that work for a year.
I found that what I really want is a job that I can do that has good routine and what I enjoy doing. What do I enjoy doing? Teaching, training, instructing, guiding, etc. I decided that if I was going to have a career I needed to set to and get another degree to enable that career to happen. So now I am pursuing a M.Ed with the goal of being a high school science teacher. Science is something that I have always enjoyed and would love the chance to teach others.
I have two years at least until I can become certified to teach "Earth Science" here in Virginia. Then I have another four classes (two semesters) until the M.Ed is completed. Hopefully the last four classes will be completed part-time while I teach at a local high school.
This is my short term goal, to get another degree that leads to a career. Long term I have been wishy washy on, as it comes to the where. The what is pretty clear to me, teach until I retire. I want to be completely debt free, including cars and houses. I am within a few months of being credit card debt free, what I hope to be the start of a new way of doing finances.
The where is the hard part. I have considered going back to Omaha and living around family. This is for sure what my sister would have me do, however I am torn. My sister is like and unlike me.
We are both military brats, we both deal with friendships in different ways. For many years we had to make friends and leave friends. The local youth pastor in Germany was always coming back to how to be and make good friends, as well as how to let go. When my sis and I grew up our response to that lifestyle became apparent.
She has trouble keeping friends when she moves. She will make new friends wherever she goes (something I struggle with) and forget about friends that she had in the place she left (something I don't struggle with).
I am just the opposite, I have developed three close friendships (three married couples) across the country. Everywhere I move, I tend to develop many heartwarming acquaintances, but rarely friends. I unconsciously prevent myself from forming any close friends, because I have already got good friends across the country. We suffer from the same problem, with different coping strategies. Its kind of funny really.
Where is all this talk about friendship leading? Well I just got back from a visit to a few of my close friends in the Mid-West, and all I want to do at the moment is finish my education and career so I can transfer to be with them again. I have never been more happy with where I lived than when I lived next door to my best friend. I love to visit and play with his kids, then talk the night away with him and his wife. His was the first family where I truly felt like an Uncle.
He an I were discussing a dream that I had, far off and near impossible, of moving back to Cedarville. If I could get a job teaching science at a local school, and simultaneously get a job as a RD at Cedarville, then my goals and desires would be mixed and complete.
That is but one of many scenarios that pop into my head. They range from moving back to Cedarville, to staying here in NOVA for years with my parents to pay my own home someday with cash. I am not sure where the Lord is going to lead me, I just know that he has me here working on my next degree. I am looking forward to where he will lead in the future, and who my best friends pick to be my next wife. (I gave them permission to arrange a marriage for me, God knows they would pick better than I would.)
I found that what I really want is a job that I can do that has good routine and what I enjoy doing. What do I enjoy doing? Teaching, training, instructing, guiding, etc. I decided that if I was going to have a career I needed to set to and get another degree to enable that career to happen. So now I am pursuing a M.Ed with the goal of being a high school science teacher. Science is something that I have always enjoyed and would love the chance to teach others.
I have two years at least until I can become certified to teach "Earth Science" here in Virginia. Then I have another four classes (two semesters) until the M.Ed is completed. Hopefully the last four classes will be completed part-time while I teach at a local high school.
This is my short term goal, to get another degree that leads to a career. Long term I have been wishy washy on, as it comes to the where. The what is pretty clear to me, teach until I retire. I want to be completely debt free, including cars and houses. I am within a few months of being credit card debt free, what I hope to be the start of a new way of doing finances.
The where is the hard part. I have considered going back to Omaha and living around family. This is for sure what my sister would have me do, however I am torn. My sister is like and unlike me.
We are both military brats, we both deal with friendships in different ways. For many years we had to make friends and leave friends. The local youth pastor in Germany was always coming back to how to be and make good friends, as well as how to let go. When my sis and I grew up our response to that lifestyle became apparent.
She has trouble keeping friends when she moves. She will make new friends wherever she goes (something I struggle with) and forget about friends that she had in the place she left (something I don't struggle with).
I am just the opposite, I have developed three close friendships (three married couples) across the country. Everywhere I move, I tend to develop many heartwarming acquaintances, but rarely friends. I unconsciously prevent myself from forming any close friends, because I have already got good friends across the country. We suffer from the same problem, with different coping strategies. Its kind of funny really.
Where is all this talk about friendship leading? Well I just got back from a visit to a few of my close friends in the Mid-West, and all I want to do at the moment is finish my education and career so I can transfer to be with them again. I have never been more happy with where I lived than when I lived next door to my best friend. I love to visit and play with his kids, then talk the night away with him and his wife. His was the first family where I truly felt like an Uncle.
He an I were discussing a dream that I had, far off and near impossible, of moving back to Cedarville. If I could get a job teaching science at a local school, and simultaneously get a job as a RD at Cedarville, then my goals and desires would be mixed and complete.
That is but one of many scenarios that pop into my head. They range from moving back to Cedarville, to staying here in NOVA for years with my parents to pay my own home someday with cash. I am not sure where the Lord is going to lead me, I just know that he has me here working on my next degree. I am looking forward to where he will lead in the future, and who my best friends pick to be my next wife. (I gave them permission to arrange a marriage for me, God knows they would pick better than I would.)
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Good times with Good friends
I just got home from my whirlwind adventure in the Mid-West. I feel nothing but contented and pleased at the moment now that I have returned home and am at peace. (Except for the caffeine and sugar jitters from excessive Mt. Dew.)
I have had many road trips in my life, and many that stand out as enjoyable or wretched. This trip is not an exception. I was able to see many friends, but the really good things was the quality of time that I was able to spend with said friends. My only regret is that one of my closest friends was not close enough to visit as he now lives in the south.
I must say a warm thank you to my best friends in Colfax and Xenia. I have been needing a break for a couple months or more and this was precisely what I needed. The whole trip being less than a week shows how much just a little time spent in your presence does to enlighten my soul.
You know who you are and thank you! I could not have a better set of friends to call my own. You are all many miles away (1400+ mile round trip) and I have very few friends and acquaintances here in NOVA. It is actually the case that I don't seek many new friendships as I already have some that are golden.
I also praise the Lord for you and your willingness to take me in this last week. Praise Him as well for giving me safe travel to and fro, especially on the way home. You should try surfing snow storms!
I have had many road trips in my life, and many that stand out as enjoyable or wretched. This trip is not an exception. I was able to see many friends, but the really good things was the quality of time that I was able to spend with said friends. My only regret is that one of my closest friends was not close enough to visit as he now lives in the south.
I must say a warm thank you to my best friends in Colfax and Xenia. I have been needing a break for a couple months or more and this was precisely what I needed. The whole trip being less than a week shows how much just a little time spent in your presence does to enlighten my soul.
You know who you are and thank you! I could not have a better set of friends to call my own. You are all many miles away (1400+ mile round trip) and I have very few friends and acquaintances here in NOVA. It is actually the case that I don't seek many new friendships as I already have some that are golden.
I also praise the Lord for you and your willingness to take me in this last week. Praise Him as well for giving me safe travel to and fro, especially on the way home. You should try surfing snow storms!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Vacation
This has been the first real vacation that I have had in a long time. I have been looking forward to this since November. So far I have visited friends in both Kentucky and Indiana, and it has been wonderful. I have been more laid back about this trip than I have over any other trip. In the future I might be more planned and organized, but this trip needed to be more nonchalant.
This trip has included wonderful games and fellowship among friends. It is wonderful to relax and enjoy the company of those who desire your friendship. I am currently at Stillhaven farms in Indiana surrounded by cats, dogs, horses, and Jesse. The temperature to quote my friend Jim, "Is a balmy 10 degrees." That may mean no horseback riding, but the card games are out and the Wii is being played.
I have one more stop on this tour of the Midwest states, but so far this trip has been one of pleasure and contentment. Thanks God for the good driving weather so far!
This trip has included wonderful games and fellowship among friends. It is wonderful to relax and enjoy the company of those who desire your friendship. I am currently at Stillhaven farms in Indiana surrounded by cats, dogs, horses, and Jesse. The temperature to quote my friend Jim, "Is a balmy 10 degrees." That may mean no horseback riding, but the card games are out and the Wii is being played.
I have one more stop on this tour of the Midwest states, but so far this trip has been one of pleasure and contentment. Thanks God for the good driving weather so far!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
