Mezzamorphis

After my last post (a book review of The Unlikely Disciple) I had a chat conversation with a friend from my hometown about my take on rules imposed on some college students. First, I’ll quote myself (the only time I’ll ever get quoted) from my previous article.

I understand from first hand experience that the rules can sometimes be bothersome. My response to that is tough. People who attend Christian colleges that have these rules in place can either live with it, or move on. You choose to attend, you choose to follow the rules. Don’t get upset when you get caught breaking those rules intentionally, and don’t get angry that you get punished for it.

I want to expand on that a bit. The rules that are typically in place are about things that we should be doing anyway. No, there is nothing in the Bible about having a curfew, but if we’re honest with each other, not much good comes from being out that late. As for the rules about drinking, smoking, etc., it’s their university. If those are the rules that they choose to institute, that is their decision.

Maybe I’m too hardline about it, but students who attend Liberty, SAGU, or any other university know the rules going in and sign a statement saying they will follow them. If you don’t agree with them, attend a different school. I’ve had someone say to me before “what if that is where their parents are forcing them to go, and if they leave then their parents won’t pay for it anymore?” My answer to that is suck it up. If doing the things that are verboten in the rules are more important to you than your parents paying for your education, attend a different school and pay for it yourself.

My friend who I was chatting with said that he felt that the rules contributed to legalism. I disagree, if only for the reason that I never looked at those rules as a big deal. Yes, I had to wear collared shirts and long pants to class every day. I had to attend chapel every day (which, by the way, Liberty students have it easy, having convocation three days a week), had to attend church somewhere, and had to go to dorm devotionals on Thursday. How are these things bad for me?

I couldn’t let my hair grow out long, grow facial hair during the semester, or dye it pink. I couldn’t drink, smoke, have sex, swear, or show lots of affection to someone I wasn’t married to. Tell me again why, as a Christian, I need to do these things?

I would love to discuss this more. Those of you who have attended colleges like Liberty or SAGU, what do you think? Those of you who haven’t, I want your opinion too. Are the rules unnecessary, outdated, and wrong?

I read two stories today that, as a parent, really made me crazy.

First, from Ottawa, Canada. A judge overturned the grounding (yes, read the article) of a 12-year-old girl. The girl was grounded by her father because she was told to stay off the Internet and she refused. Therefore, she was not allowed to go on a school trip and was grounded as punishment. Now, I’m no expert on Canadian law, but this seems to be a gross imposition on the rights of the parent. If I choose to not allow my child to play video games (and it’s happened), they don’t get to play video games. When they are on their own they can make up their own rules, but until then, I’ll do it for them. If I were a parent in Canada, I’d be concerned that this might become a ruling that other courts may use against them.

Secondly, we have this story from Gloucester, Massachusetts. The high school in Gloucester has experienced a baby boom, having 17 girls become pregnant. Out of a 1,200 student population, they typically average four. While there are larger issues with the pregnancies that I’ll let you get from the article, I wanted to focus on one particular aspect of it.

But by May, after nurse practitioner Kim Daly had administered some 150 pregnancy tests at Gloucester High’s student clinic, she and the clinic’s medical director, Dr. Brian Orr, a local pediatrician, began to advocate prescribing contraceptives regardless of parental consent, a practice at about 15 public high schools in Massachusetts.

…

The pair resigned in protest on May 30.

I’m sure that the district has some type of privacy policy for the children, so that they can expect to come in and take a pregnancy test without their parents finding out about it. However, if you start noticing some frequent fliers in there, don’t you think it’s time to let the parents know that their children are obviously engaging in some risky behavior? It’s not time to start handing out the pill to them without parental consent, it’s time to bring them in, tell their parents, and let the parents decide what they want the child to do. My children will have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they are older, but they will know that whatever they do is subject to my supervision at any time.

I’m sure that the underlying reason for most of these girls to become pregnant is because they don’t get enough love at home. That falls directly on the parents, and they will have to one day answer for that. The girls need to know that there are consequences to getting pregnant. As the older girl in the article says, “…it’s hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m.” Believe me, we know around here.

I know, you're thinking it's my dancing ability. But really it isn't. No, really. Have you seen him dance?

Amateur.

…….

OK, fine. I dance like Kevin James in Hitch. You happy?

Anyway, the one thing that I have in common with Will Smith. This quote from MSNBC (skip to the bottom and ignore everything about Paris Hilton):

Will Smith says he and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith homeschool their children because the most valuable things he learned
he didn’t get from school. “The date of the Boston Tea Party does not
matter,” Smith told Reader’s Digest. “I know how to learn anything I
want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the
space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it
in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in
front of the class.”

BRILLIANT! Someone gets it. I can learn better from reading about something than by watching someone do it. Just like Will Smith.

I shall now be getin' jiggy wit it.

I'm taking a programming class in grad school and up until this week, my average in the class has been a perfect 100. An assignment I turned in last week didn't come back perfect though. What's my average now?

99.8.

There goes my GPA.

(Tongue deeply embedded in cheek here. I thought I would do FAR worse than a 97 on the assignment. Didn't even work right.)