7 Takes: Questions about Higher Education – From a College Student

My awesome niece & goddaughter just started college, and the other day she phoned me.  “Do you have an hour or two? I need to get your opinions on higher education for this paper I’m writing.”

I’m pleased to tell you I kept my comments to 59 minutes, a record for me.  She e-mailed me some follow-up and some get-the-quote-right questions, and that’s on my to-do list for today.

If you’d like to answer some or all of them at your place, I know she’d be interested in your answers.  Leave the link in my combox and I’ll direct her to take a look.  Or just answer in the combox here, if you aren’t a blogger yourself.

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1.      What is your opinion of the value of college in today’s society?

 

2.      Do you believe in the theory that everyone should have a college education?

 

3.      According to Louis Menand, author of “Live and Learn”, there are three theories of why people attend college. The first theory is that college is an intelligent test meaning people go to college to prove they are smart. The second theory people go to college is for the social benefits since college should theoretically be getting people ready to enter society. The third theory is that college is job training. How does this align with you own theory of the purpose of college? Do you believe in these some values?

 

4.      Growing up was your value of a college education influenced in any way? If so was it family? Teachers? Or some other form?

 

5.      In recent years the availability of a college education has changed and become more accessible to more people. For example there are online Universities, certain states offer scholarships to many high school graduates, and there is government funding to minorities. Do you agree or disagree with this?

 

6.      What will you teach your own kids about the value of a college education? What influences this?

 

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Since she had 6 questions and our theme is 7 takes, how about you add a 7th: What else would you like to say?  FYI for those who haven’t heard, Erin at Bearing Blog has a whole series on this topic.

Thanks to our hostess, the always-inquisitive Jen Fulwiler.  Pray for Allie Hathaway, then visit Jen’s site, Scorpions Are Us ConversionDiary.com to see more quick takes.

 

More Dark Side – Another Place to Read the Same Review

Look at me! I’m in the Borg!  Just barely.  Is it a coincidence that the same day I have reason to remember my review of The Rite, Julie D. invites me to her little den of bookishness at Patheos?  She said reprints were good, so I cleaned up my Rite review and stuck it there. Now Larry D.’s going to have create a portal called PathMagistra.  It’s the only choice.

Dear Larry D.,

I promise I have not gone over the dark side for mere money.  (Which I won’t be getting.  HCB is a non-paying gig.)  I did it to annoy you.

Okay, actually I did it because Julie asked me, and she’s super nice and she even fed me dinner, twice. My independent investigation confirms her cooking blog is not merely a front for some shady side-enterprise.  And it turns out I write a lot of book reviews, so I figured I’d have material for it without too much work.  And because it was either that or clean my desk.

Like all good underlings, I promise to sway with the winds and follow which ever dark lord is nearest.

Sincerely,

Jennifer.

[Note to readers, is it just a coincidence that Larry “D.” and Julie “D.” have the same last initial?  Hmmn.  Presumably their writing all just flows from the same “D.” source.  The apparent contradictions in their work are no doubt proof of their mythological origins in the oral traditions of the platform so-called “W”, the scholar’s abbreviation for “WordPress”.  Give that parts of the “D.” tradition can also be found on the platform referred to in some texts as “Blogspot”, scholars debate whether those works should be labeled platform “B”, or whether “B” is just a linguistic variation on “W”, or perhaps a separate platform “G.”  Research is underway with select people-groups to determine whether “Julie” and “Larry” are different names at all, or merely regional appellations for the same person, variably represented in the Texan and Northern-Midwestern cultures.]

Book Giveaway at SnoringScholar.com: The Rite by Matt Baglio

Sarah Reinhard’s giving away a copy of The Rite by Matt Baglio.  I recommend this book, and review it here.  Go over to her blog, put your name in the combox for a chance to win. I don’t think her contests are huge, so your odds are decent, in light of the 30 seconds it’ll take you enter.

 

3.5 Time Outs: The Distracted Life

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who has exceeded himself once again.  Go look!

Click and be amazed.

1.

On Tuesday mornings we’ve been watching Fr. Barron’s Catholicism DVD’s at the nearby parish (not ours) that has the most convenient times.  Excellent.  BUT, episode three is a little a lot abstract for the kids.  I’m hoping it goes back to more concrete story-telling type episodes in the weeks ahead.  

2.

I could tell my 3rd-grader was not fully paying attention, because her feet were in the air.  You know how you raise your hand to ask a question in class?  Or you raise two hands in air to communicate secret messages from referee to fans, or from evangelical praise-and-worshiper to God?  It was just like that, only with feet.

3.

I’d told the group leader we’d be slipping out right after the DVD, and not staying for the group discussion, so that we could get home and get started on school work.  Kids and I discussed the Problem of Evil (subject of episode 3) on the way, and curiously, the boy proposed “God testing us” as one of the possible explanations for evil things in the world.

I challenged that notion, but I’ll tell you I do think it’s one of the explanations for good things in the world.  Because as we pulled in, our shy-but-friendly bachelor neighbor, who never comes over, was poking around our entry way, looking for us.  Because he’d found this:

New Kitten

3.5

The contention, then, that the civil government should at its option intrude into and exercise intimate control over the family and the household is a great and pernicious error.

True, if a family finds itself in exceeding distress, utterly deprived of the counsel of friends, and without any prospect of extricating itself, it is right that extreme necessity be met by public aid, since each family is a part of the commonwealth.

In like manner, if within the precincts of the household there occur grave disturbance of mutual rights, public authority should intervene to force each party to yield to the other its proper due; for this is not to deprive citizens of their rights, but justly and properly to safeguard and strengthen them.

But the rulers of the commonwealth must go no further; here, nature bids them stop.

(Paragraph breaks added for legibility in blog format. See the source here.)

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I see that I’ve hit my deadline for sidebar updating, so I guess I’ll officially slide that onto my to-do list.  But I’m open to suggestions as long as the work in is progress.  And of course, Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself.  Entirely optional.

Book Giveaway – Catholic Mother’s Companion to Pregnancy

 

Look what just came in the mail for me:

Two copies.  Free from Ave Maria, as a tie-in to Sarah’s virtual book tour, which will be stopping at this blog on Monday October 8th.  So how do you win a free copy?

Well, it doesn’t involve me mailing you things, that’s for sure.  I got a call last week from the Office of Family Life at the Diocese of Charleston, saying, “Would you please help serve cookies after the Mass for Expectant Parents on October 14th in Columbia, SC?”

And I said, “Yes, I’ll be happy to do that, but only if you agree to give these books away, because it is much easier for me to turn up for mass someplace than for me to go to the post office.”

We think there might be pregnant people coming to that mass.  Because the bishop will be giving the exceedingly cool Blessing for the Child in the Womb.  But you can come put your name in the hat for the drawing, even if your plan is to win it for some other person who is pregnant, or who hopes to be, or who just likes to read fantabulous devotionals for Catholic pregnant ladies.

Also there’ll be an NFP table.  And cookies.  Did I mention cookies?

Up at AC: We’ve Got a Sexual Abuse Prevention Policy, Now What?

http://amazingcatechists.com/2012/09/weve-got-a-sexual-abuse-prevention-policy-now-what/

More belaboring of points.  Or perhaps my accountant-training beginning to show.  Between a love of procedures, and hammered-into-head lessons about keeping lawyers at bay, yes, these are the things I have learned to think about.  It’s not good enough to have the policy.  You have to teach people what it says, and make sure they know how to apply it.  And then actually follow the steps.

Otherwise you get this.  Which nobody wants.

Up at AC: Just Tell the Police

In which I belabor what ought to be an obvious point.  Sheesh people.  Okay, listen, I get the nervousness.  You don’t want to do more harm than good.  But seriously. It’s not. complicated.  It’s not.  Can you really look a kid in the face and say, “I’d hate to bother someone about this if it turns out you’re wrong?”  You’d do that to your kid?  No.   Don’t do that to your kid. Call the police.

3.5 Time Outs: New Things

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who’s also doing a time-travel edition today.

Click and be amazed.

1.

Blogging Popes.  That’s my topic for today.  Not the kind you’re thinking of, though.

2.

See, here’s what happened:  Saturday night I was bored, tired, and itching for something to read.  Something fun and relaxing and novel.  Meaning, new-to-me.  I usually grab one of my daughter’s library books for this purpose — just enough entertainment to get me through a non-digital Sunday, but not so much that I’ll be out of service, glued to a book, for 10,000 hours waiting for Br. Cadfael to tell me who did it.  But I needed novelty.

So I went to Papal Encyclicals Online.  I’m sure that’s what you do, too.  But before you get too impressed, keep in mind that the three reasons this was a possible source of reading material were:

  • I’d never read most of them before.  Strike one against my Catholic-nerd credentials.
  • They’re usually very short.  This is why I’ve read the minor prophets, but *still* never gotten through all of Isaiah.
  • There was no chance I’d let the cat starve, or grouse at my children for interrupting me during an especially gripping scene.

And the thing is, they tend to cover that same juicy ground as your average Catholic blogger, only you get bonus credit for not being stuck to the computer all day while you work up your angry frenzy at the injustice in the world.  Of course, no Star Trek screen shots for illustrations, but look, I was desperate for entertainment.

3.

And the one I picked was Rerum Novarum.  Which is basically a series of blog posts on economics.  Perfect.

(Let me just say right now, JPII’s follow-up work is not blog-genre.  Waaay more wordy.  Waaay more.  I haven’t finished it yet.  But I’m half thinking, “What more is there to say?  Leo.Encyclicalpress.com already covered the whole territory.  But you know how it is, people need to explain the obvious.  Or maybe people needed the obvious re-explained.)

Here’s a sample snippet of the Leonine goodness:

Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition.

And this:

The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men.

Followed by this:

To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.

 

See? I spent my weekend reading 64 Cath-Econ-blog posts, 19th century edition.

3.5

And although I could pretty much shut my eyes and point my finger anywhere in the document to find a good quotable quote, one of my underlined favorites is

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Well that’s all for today.  Still accepting suggestions for additions to the sidebar, so tell me who to add.  But do just one link per comment, because otherwise the robotic spam-dragon will consume the whole lot of them.  Thanks!

7 Takes: Late to the Game

1.

Nancy Ward at JoyAlive.net is running part 1 of my reversion story today.  You of course have already read it, because you’re a NewEvangelizers.com junkie.

But what you don’t know is . . . Dorian Speed e-mailed me to tell me my author photo looks “classy”.  Heehee.  Every time I see it, it reminds me of Joe Wetterling.  Scroll down to the bottom of his column to see his profile pic. See the resemblance?

So I guess it is classy.  I’d be pretty happy if people accidentally confused me and Joe Mr. Wetterling.  He’s so top notch I can’t decide if he belongs in the “first name” group because he’s such a nice guy and I e-mailed him once, or last-name group, because, you know, he’s Mr. Wetterling.

2.

If you’ve written a good Catholic book, I’d like you to submit it for the Catholic Writers Guild’s Seal of Approval.  I am asking you to do this because I’m one of the SOA readers, and I like getting free books in the mail.

But you could also do it because Catholic bookstores use it as their signal that the book is genuinely Catholic, and that they shouldn’t be afraid to put it on their shelves.

[If your book has an imprimatur, you’re set.  But you can still give me a free copy, I don’t mind.]

FYI the standard for the SOA is just plain-old-Catholic, which I love.  You don’t have to be dripping with piety, or campaigning for a return of the Three Hour Fast, or anything uber-Catholic (though you can be — any legitimate Catholic opinion is fair game).  I’m pretty sure that Not Specifically Catholic books are acceptable as well, but e-mail the committee person at soa[at] catholicwritersguild.com to double-check on the criteria.  I’m not the Queen of the SOA, I just read my pile and fill out my little survey.

3.

My refrigerator is 70% less disgusting than it was just this morning.  I do not say it is clean.  But less scary.  Yes.  70% less.

4.

You are wondering right now, “How can she clean her refrigerator and homeschool at the same time?”  Well I can’t.  The big kids did their course plans (so they tell me), but the littles had Home Ec today.  And while I know that Finding Out That Refrigerators Need To Be Cleaned is not on any state-mandated curricula, 99.5% of college and workplace janitorial staff surveyed agreed that it should be.

–> If one day you live or work with my offspring, and the refrigerator is 70% less disgusting than the average shared appliance, you can thank me.  If it’s not, put them in time-out.

5.

My 3rd-grader who has special handwriting-needs likes the LetterSchool app. She also likes it when I make her pink stuffed bunny do a little dance, or when I give household items nicknames — “cute” is her genre.  [Yes, the app is for much younger children.  But she likes it.  Which means I like it.]  For remedial handwriting I like the BFHandwriting products — their handwriting app is a little slow-going for an older kid, but it’s good, I just wish they made an iPod version.

6.

Pinatas are expensive.  Tinkerbell Birthday Parties in general are expensive, but pinatas? Sheesh.

But as my six-year-old observed in the car yesterday, “I don’t want one of those homemade pinatas, because you think you’re making a pinata, but it just turns out looking like a pile of paper.”

After pricing the store-bought version, and determining that today was not my day to suddenly grow a new craft skill, I stalled. Then I negotiated a compromise. Our Tinker sifted through her vast collection of previously-colored, large-format Tinkerbell coloring sheets, and picked two that were less-than-perfect.

We taped one poster to each side of a paper bag, and filled it with candy.  I have a feeling once all the Halloween candy drops on the ground, no one will really mind the minor imperfections in the artwork.

7.

Yes, her birthday was in July.

 

 

Thanks to our hostess, the very real Jen Fulwiler.  Pray for Allie Hathaway, then visit Jen’s site, Scorpions Are Us ConversionDiary.com Camp Patton to see more quick takes.