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Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night

We’ve more or less been snowed in for the past week here—on the beach, strangely enough. We had enough snow to make a six foot tall snowman for the first time since I moved here at four years old. Because of the snow, the entire county decided to go Christmas shopping during today’s break in the weather. After enduring the zoo at the store while picking up some presents for my family’s Secret Santa gift exchange, the cashier happened to say to my dad and me: “Happy Holidays!” Seeing as I celebrate Christmas, I replied, “Merry Christmas!” I actually barely thought about it at that moment…

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Dec 15

Musings of a College Freshman

Go to college. That’s what the world tells young people these days; at least those who live in countries where college is readily available. So, that’s what we plan to do. We make it through twelve to fourteen years of school*—or at least, some of us do, for many drop out of that system, and I don’t blame them. We earn our credits, we do senior projects and portfolios and whatever else is required of high school students these days, we make the grade, we write papers, we do extracurricular activities so that we look like a well rounded person, we take the SAT, we try to pick out what we want to do with our lives, we write scholarship essays and fill out applications, we fill out the FAFSA, we pull our hair when we learn how much aid we’re actually getting vs. the cost of going to school, we cry at graduation, and we show up on campus sometimes unsure if we’re going there because we truly want to or because we have been told that we must. How many students drag themselves to school and pay to take classes that they hate in order to get a little piece of paper so that they may get a job? Why are we here? What on earth are we learning anyway, and what for?

College is not about becoming a smart, educated person. In this day and age, college graduates are not always the brightest crayons in the box. College is a ten-week** marathon which you must run three or four times a year for two to four years (at least). College is not about completing the reading, getting a thorough understanding of the subject you are studying, or being able to discuss the subject with wisdom and understanding. College is about identifying objectives which you must complete (the essay, the group project, the midterm, the term paper, and the final exam) and completing them on time in the manner specified by your teacher. College is about learning to cope with the annoying characters in your class (History-Channel-Girl, Irrelevant-Comment-Boy, Obnoxious-Interruption Girl, Chitter-In-The-Back-Of-The-Class-Girl & friends, I-Still-Act-Like-A-High-School-Student-Boy and I-Never-Do-The-Assignment-Boy), learning to deal with unpleasant teachers, and learning to stay awake during the dullest class of your day. College is about making lists of deadlines and calibrating your day planner accordingly. College is about calculating how many points you need on assignment A + paper B to earn the final grade C. College is about multiplying all of these objectives by X amount of classes and learning to balance the workload. The workload? Oh. College is about work.

It seems to me that what I am really learning in college is this: How do I take these objectives given to me and complete them in the amount of time given to me and in a manner which will satisfy my boss?  Now, I know that this view is extremely cynical. I have learned a lot in my first term of college, and I have no doubt that my teachers are excellent teachers who truly do want to impart knowledge and a love of learning to their students. However, college is not the only place where you can become educated. Going to school is not the only method of becoming educated—and few would take that college-only position. But what has happened? Why do we have to go to college to be deemed educated? To be deemed qualified?

I take issue with the institutionalization of education. I will concede that it is important for everyone to be educated, and I will also concede that there is basic knowledge which everyone should learn. Yes, I know: this comes from the home school girl, and what else would you expect me to say? I concede that home schooling is not possible for every family, nor is it ideal for every student, and nor is it an easily feasible concept for higher education. I am not advocating anything. I am simply being critical of “the system”. I loathe the idea of taking something as broad as education and saying: this is what it looks like. Complete A, B, and C, and you will earn D, where D equals diploma, or a degree. Answer these twenty-five questions correctly on your midterm, and you have successfully learned the first half of this course. This does not seem the way things should be.

What can you learn outside of the system, and how much? What can you learn without a certified teacher? What can you learn with no teacher but yourself? What can you learn with a good book, a blank journal filled with paper that is a pleasure to write upon and a pen that is a delight to write with? What can you learn by keeping a blog? What can you learn by picking up a copy of Plato’s works and reading them entirely on your own? Or by watching a Shakespeare play—which, indeed, was meant to be watched, and not read? What can you learn through trial and error, or by mere people watching? What can you learn? What subjects can you study? Not everything, but many things. Not every subject, but many subjects. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, I concede, are skills that require some manner of teacher, at least initially. But of the plethora of other subjects listed in the college catalog, how many of those could you learn on your own? A great many, I say. Unfortunately, you would get no credit whatsoever. And that is my problem with institutionalized education. That is my problem with college.

That, and term papers.

See you when I’m done completing 35% of my grade.

* Preschool + Kindergarten + Twelve grades = Fourteen years of school
** If the school uses a quarter system, which mine does

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Dec 13

The Best Quotes Ever: #12

From Reflections on the Psalms, we have C.S. Lewis (again), on praise:

“But the most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or any thing—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game—praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least…

I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmist in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.” ~ C.S. Lewis

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Dec 12

The Best Quotes Ever: #11

Susanna Wesley, in a letter to her son, John Wesley:

“Whatever weakens your reason, whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience, whatever obscures your sense of God, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, whatever takes away from your relish for spiritual things, that to you is sin, no matter how innocent it is in itself.” ~ Susanna Wesley

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Dec 11

The Best Quotes Ever: #10

Though I’m on a self-imposed hiatus from politics until January 20th, today’s topic is government.

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government strong enough to take away everything you have.” ~ Gerald Ford

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” ~ Ronald Reagan

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Dec 10

The Best Quotes Ever: #9

Timothy Keller, in The Reason for God, speaks of the christian gospel:

The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me. This leads to a deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and snivelling. I cannot feel superior to anyone and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself, nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.” ~ Timothy Keller

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Dec 09

The Best Quotes Ever: #8

Elisabeth Elliot on the subject of abortion:

Is it barbaric, then, to mete out judgment in this form to a murderer, but somehow civilized to send a lethal poison into the heart of an as yet sinless child?”

“It is in the name of humanity, humaneness, compassion and freedom that these things occur, but never is it acknowledged that the real reasons are comfort and convenience, that is, simple selfishness.”

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Dec 08

The Best Quotes Ever: #7

I have no idea where I got this quote—it’s simply scrawled in one of my journals in which I like to copy good quotes.

“Measure your life by loss and not by gain, not by the wine drunk, but by the wind poured forth, for love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice, and he who suffereth most hath most to give.” ~ Ugo Bassi

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Dec 07

The Best Quotes Ever: #6

Two very wise men on the ideal of open-mindedness:

“Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” ~ G.K. Chesterton

“An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy.” ~ C.S. Lewis

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Dec 06

The Best Quotes Ever: #5

The authors of these two quotes on loss are unknown, but they are poignant, nevertheless.

“No time on earth is long enough to share with those we love or to prepare our hearts for goodbye”

“The pain of loss is the price we pay for the joy of knowing love.”

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Dec 05

The Best Quotes Ever: #4

Some wisdom from Peyton C. Marsh—although I might dispute the use of the word ‘always’.

“There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life - happiness, freedom, and peace of mind - are always attained by giving them to someone else.” ~ Peyton C. March

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Eruantale

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    Hello! My name is Shawna. Or Eruantale, if you prefer. That's the Quenya (also known as Tolkien's elvish) equivalent of my name, which means God is Gracious. To learn more about me, click on the Author link at the top of this page.
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