A Defense of 'School'

It is very limiting to consider 'school' to be only that which you learn in the classroom or through homework. In school, you have to learn to relate to people, manage your time, manage your finances, lead others, follow others, learn what you believe and why you believe it, articulate your thoughts, work hard, get out of bed when you feel like sleeping in, prioritize, be disciplined, be friendly, be tactful, be strong in the face of ungodly influences, etc, etc...

Sounds pretty much like life to me!

To be successful in school, you need to treat it like a job (like the real world). Maybe some people don't like the work that you must do in school, and that's fine. But school is a wonderful opportunity for a Christian, that's for sure. It's an environment that allows you to develop relationships with a wide variety of people. It's up to you as to whether you impact any of those people for Christ.

I found an attack on school buried deep in a Comment, and I decided that just replying to the comment might not get this message out!

*smile*

I was anti-Midas yesterday, it seemed. Between getting out of my car in the morning and climbing back into it to leave for Bible Study, most of what I did turned out in such a way as to frustrate me.

But Larry said, when he has those kind of days (WHAT??? OTHER PEOPLE HAVE BAD DAYS TOO?!?!), it helps him to sit down and think of the Apostle Paul.

In that light, yesterday was a silky down comforter.

Are there silky down comforters?

Now they're comparing their scientific calculators.

I'm in the library trying to work, but I don't have very good focus.

These two guys are sitting at the next table trying to study for a Business class. They study some, but talk about everything from the girl who broke up with the one guy to Biology presentations to how they are C students to what they're going to do on Spring Break.

I feel bad in a way, but very relieved.

See, this Visual Programming project is way over my head. However, the teacher has given us probably 80% of the solution, and I'm just copying it over at this point. I don't understand it all--and I certainly couldn't've come up with probably 90% of it--but I don't know what else to do except keep going and try to understand it as well as I can.

By the way, copying is ok in this case. He gave this stuff to us for whatever reason, and it was a wonderful blessing. It lifted my spirits.

But after this is over, I don't think you want to hire me to to develop your ATM software application. Not quite ready to do that. But if you put me as an assistant working with a veteran, I might be able to fill that role. I understand conceptually what's going on, but the practical implementation of the code's a bit much. Actually a lot much.

You wanna know how the proverbial Bill Gates-who-dropped-out-of-school-yet-became-a-millionaire thing happens? I'll tell you.

I work with a computer science major. He's good, he knows his stuff, but we've been stumped a few times in the program we're developing for our research project.

One time we were stumped, but he saw a friend of his and asked him if he had any ideas. This friend thought a little bit, went to the web, and soon pulled up a piece of code that demonstrated the concept of what we needed to do. He explained it, Brent implemented it, and away we went. This guy was a whiz! He knows so much about programming. We were telling him a little bit about our project and program and he was telling us about this other language that would've made it way easier... He was one of the proverbial computer geeks that seems to know everything.

Later, I asked Brent about him, and Brent said he didn't even make it into pro-school in computer science, so he had to switch over to Mathematics. And that was even though he knows way more than Brent.

Now, it's not that hard to get into pro-school (which qualifies you for junior and senior level classes in the College of Engineering) if you're a responsible, Math-oriented person. But the reason this guy didn't make it was because he'd take assignments and make them way harder than they had to be, do all this wild stuff, and then wouldn't get them in on time.

Brent--and I'm the same way--would just make sure he knew what exactly the teacher wanted and do it.

Here's the thing. This guy could drop out of college because of grades, but still get a job somewhere coding, channel his creativity, and all of the sudden be a star codepounder. He's a dictionary programming-wise. If he can channel it to doing something strategic and productive.

And another thing about emotions, they're like a roller coaster. Down one minute, up four minutes later. From an awful feeling in the gut, to almost confidence that it'll turn out all right.

Money, money, money.

I'm off to figure out where the money is.

My discipline seems to be waning. I can't concentrate on the program for more than 10 minutes at a time.

I'm still clueless as to how far we are from getting this program functional. Probably pretty far, further than I think, if the past is any indicator.

Right now, I love studying. At this very moment, school feels very good.

I love Microsoft Equation 3.0.

You can tell it's getting late in the day, I'm losing some focus.

I got an e-mail to attend an informational meeting about Rhodes and Marshall scholarships for graduate school. We're talking Britain here, like Oxford! Can you imagine?

Only 32 Rhodes scholars every year and 40ish Marshall scholars--in the whole United States. They put you through a real rigorous interview process, they want only the best.

I think I'm going to go, though, sounds intriguing, and it'd be fun to go for it, though the odds aren't particularly in my favor.

I just sent a virus to myself, I think! I don't know how that happened.

I'm taking a break from discipline. I'm supposed to have met someone here at 9 and it's 9:26. Oh well, I can work by myself, I think. In fact, I almost feel better about working by myself.

My PR (Personal Record): arrived at school at 6:30 give or take a few minutes. That's a.m., for any Strubhars reading this!

Then at 7 I played another church league basketball game, I didn't foul out, scored 12, we won, much better all around.

God's on my mind, but not as much as I'd like.

It’s strange. I’m speaking tonight at church on the topic of God’s Pursuing Love. What’s strange is how, as a speaker, I feel obligated to at least be “respectable” in how long I talk. Like, if I went up there for less than 15 minutes, I would feel almost like I was letting the audience down or something. But of course, the minute I switch from speaker-thinking to listener-thinking, I’m all for a speaker getting up, being concise and to the point, and getting down.

Perspective.

I can’t imagine a more beautiful day here. Spring is here, green is here, birds, flowers, perfect temperatures, trees, creeks, stillness. So, so beautiful.

That’s for all you in the Midwest.