Tag: School

I Don’t Wanna!

I hate writing book reports. I don’t do book reviews on my blog, and I don’t read the blogs others who do. Yet for my class this semester on the theology of the Pentateuch (which in itself has been pretty good), fully ten percent of my grade comes, not from merely reading the material, but from *writing book reports* on what I’ve read.

I’ve really enjoyed my time at seminary. I really have. It’s been a challenge, and I say that in a positive light. But one thing that rankles me, and other students who have come from other academic backgrounds, is the emphasis on fulfilling the reading requirements. I understand that the reading is an integral part of the education experience. As I’ve sort of hinted at before, I’d rather do the reading than show up for class. But making the reading part of your grade? This doesn’t even resemble what I came here for.

I have a complete outline I’m supposed to follow: 1) Summarize the book. 2) Discuss the high points of the book. Insights, strong arguments. 3) Discuss the weaknesses of the book. On points 2 and 3, I’m supposed to cite page numbers. Which is to say, while I was busy, you know, reading the text, I was supposed to have been keeping a little notebook by my side in which I kept a diary of my experience in the reading. You may recognize this as a bad idea. When I write essays, I don’t take notes, and only look up my quotes after the fact.

But this assignment falls to a new nadir in removing all my former joys in higher education: My reading is on a time schedule. This is a problem. I hold to reading schedules like a BMX bike holds to railroad tracks. But my professor has given me a list of which book reports are due – half of them on the date of our mid-term. Which is to say, Monday.

And as I said, I don’t wanna!

(This has been service reminder from the whining broadcast system. We now return to your regularly scheduled blogging.)

Peer Reviewed

As I was saying, I’m required by my class to read 1500 pages in addition to the assigned text, so I’ve been browsing the academic archives for articles relevant to pastoral counseling.

Be forewarned: Stay away from the Journal of Pastoral Counseling. It gives a whole new meaning to the concept of Peer Review. Apparently, the question to consider is ever “who are the peers?”

Just a few salient quotes:

> Secularization is based on fact and therefore it will inevitably dismiss beliefs that cannot be proven.
*From: “Psycholgy Versus Religion” (2001)*

Continue reading “Peer Reviewed”

I am not dead, honest.

Well, I’ve officially started hearing grumbling from family members that Kyle is saying too many high thinky things on the website and that there is not enough content in the way of what’s going on lifewise for us. I just want you to know up front that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth and that I had planned to do more writing and haven’t had the chance to clean the apartment properly let alone post real life stuff on the website or write real letters. It has been an extremely busy semester for both me and for Kyle, but hopefully I can take a short break and send a note to you all.
Continue reading “I am not dead, honest.”

Barth

Reading about Karl Barth is something of an inspiration for me. But it’s difficult to describe in print in a modern setting without sounding a little bit silly. Barth’s enthusiasm, even zeal, for theology is a little disconcerting, almost off-putting. He’s totally overboard. You want to walk alongside him and put your arm around him in an elderly brother sort of way, and say “Karl. I appreciate your passion for talking about God. I really do. I’m with you on this one. But Karl, can you calm down a bit? Surely, at least, you could say that the actual practice of Christianity is more important than *talking* about it.” But Karl won’t calm down. Continue reading “Barth”

Nasty little secrets come to light.

I’m doing homework….yeah I know that’s not a big deal or unusual, but something I read needs to be shared with a larger audience.

I’m reading for my HS755 course on Organization and Delivery of Acute, Long-term, and Community-based Care.  I’m sure it sounds boring, but I actually have found the readings and classes quite insightful.  Recently we’ve been focusing on hospitals: accreditation, report cards, standards of care, and today’s illumination, routine accidents.

Here’s some figures that I thought were rather disturbing:

Accidental Deaths in the US

  • Commercial aviation deaths – 329 
  • Drowning deaths – 3,959 
  • Deaths from falls – 14,986 
  • Motor vehicle deaths – 43,649 
  • Deaths from medical errors – 120,000 

A Harvard University School of Public Health professor named Lucian Leape first discovered that 1,000,000 people are injured by medical errors during hospital treatment and 120,000 die as a result.  He likened it to having a jumbo jet plane crashing every day.  Leape and his collegues examined medical records for a 1991 report and found that “one of every 200 patients admitted to a hospital died as a result of hospital error.”  Not only are these numbers not reported to the public (had you heard anyting before now…I hadn’t), but only between 5 and 10 percent are actually reported to the hospital itself because medical professionals are so afraid about letting down their patients by admitting they aren’t perfect and risk losing their liscences because of errors that might or might not have been avoided. Continue reading “Nasty little secrets come to light.”

How I Know I’m Getting the Right Degree

This time around, I keep running across these great books that I simply MUST add to my library. Halelujah, they’re not even textbooks.

I’m working on my history biography paper (I settled on Karl Barth), and so yesterday I checked out a 2-foot stack of books by and about him, and started reading. I figured I’d start light, so I began with a small little book called [My Father-In-Law](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0915138840) by Max Zellweger-Barth who, by some strange coincidence, happens to be Karl Barth’s son-in-law. Apparently Max occasionally told stories about his father-in-law, the great theologian, at dinner parties and other get-togethers, until his friends all convinced him that he should add his bit to the legend. So, with his wife’s help, he did.

It’s a delightful book, barely 50 pages long, filled with all sorts of delightful vignettes you aren’t likely to get out of an intellectual 3-volume tome. Two favorites: Continue reading “How I Know I’m Getting the Right Degree”

Pass/Failing a class

Due, I think, to the nature of the MDiv degree at Gordon-Conwell, where nearly every class you take is mandatory, we are allowed to take 4 classes as “pass/fail” courses. Basically this means that you would fulfill your requirement by passing the class, but it would be taken out of the equation when determining your GPA.

Now, I’ve never been one to worry myself about my GPA. Either I liked a class or I didn’t, and my grade reflected that accordingly, and that was that. But lately… how you say – there has been no direct correlation between my interest in the class and my grade in the class. I love all my classes, more or less. I’m finally getting the education I’ve been wanting for 10 years! But these classes, they’re hard. Suddenly the best grade correlation is how much time and effort I dedicate to the class. Eww. Continue reading “Pass/Failing a class”