Necessary Roughness Rotating Header Image

instruction

Published in HT Magazine

Mar 20th, 2011
by Dan.
4 comments

I had the privilege of being asked last fall to write an article for the Higher Things quarterly magazine. The article, “Vocation 101,” is now part of the Spring 2011 edition.

If you have a Higher Things premium content subscription, you can read it right now. You can subscribe for $25/year and get back issues, audio, past conference information, and a lot of great teaching materials. If you just want the dead tree edition, you can order over the phone.

Higher Things is one of those organizations I wish existed for me 20 years ago. I would like to see the girls attend some HT events when they are old enough. This fine group of pastors and laypeople supplement the faith of post-confirmation young adults by providing regional and national conferences, additional catechetical instruction, a free podcast, information about service in the church, and connections with faithful Lutheran congregations at colleges.  It has been my privilege to meet personally with the likes of Pr. Borghardt, Pr. Cwirla, Sandra Ostapowich, Stan Lemon, and others, and they are a class act.

Special thanks to the HT magazine staff, who edited my article and provided great artwork to accompany it.

InstapaperShare

Engineering Conference

Nov 16th, 2009
by Dan.
2 comments

I spent two days at an engineering conference presented last week by the Engineers Foundation of Ohio to earn required continuing education hours for my PE license. While none of the topics themselves left me completely disinterested, some of the classes were better executed than others.

A partner and an associate of a law firm that handles labor and employment law gave four presentations during the first day. Three of the presentations had little content that I had not been exposed to: Federal Labor Standards Act, Workers Compensation, and Litigation Avoidance. The third out of the four, Social Networking for Engineering Business, gave some of the legal issues about using Facebook and other social networking sites to prescreen interviewers. All four presentations served to open a window into the aggressiveness of the partner, which I suppose can be a good advertisement.

(more…)

InstapaperShare

TDP Spawns Opportunity to Teach

Jul 10th, 2009
by Dan.
1 comment

I do not use the Treasury of Daily Prayer as thoroughly and as much as some people. I think I use two, maybe three of the six ribbons, tops.

Prior to Compline I read the a part of the NT reading for today, Acts 14:19-28. That brought up a conversation on stoning. Big Sister figured Paul was playing dead, “just like in Over the Hedge.” I also got asked who the Jews and Gentiles were and, “which side we are on.” I answered the first question and changed the second to whether people believed that Jesus Christ died for their sins and was raised from the dead.

The kids’ learning styles are a hoot. The younger one prefers rote while the older one considers that boring and prefers to think through everything. Neither is the right way; each girl needs to use a bit of the other. :)

InstapaperShare

Rolla Professor on Discovery Channel

Jan 22nd, 2009
by Dan.
Comments are off for this post

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Discovery Channel is recording a 13-episode series on explosives, starring two professors from my alma mater.

Worsey is the resident explosives expert at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. (It changed its name from the University of Missouri-Rolla on Jan. 1, 2008.) Lusk is a former Rolla student who studied under Worsey and now teaches at the University of Kentucky.

And now they are the co-hosts of a new 13-part Discovery Channel series called “The Detonators.” The show will give audiences a behind-the-scenes look at major demolition projects around the world. In recent months, one or both of the duo have been on hand for the blowing up of a sports arena in Miami, a bottling plant in England, and an old Club Med resort in Bermuda, to name a few.

Then they often return to this rock quarry to tape segments in which they explain the science behind those blasts.

This should be fun. They’ll be demonstrating the proper and improper way to demolish things. I never met either of these guys, but if they are of the Rolla way, there will be plenty of St. Louis-brewed adult beverages consumed. I’ll have to keep my DVR peeled.

InstapaperShare

Speaking in the Minority

Jul 27th, 2008
by Dan.
2 comments

I was in a not-too-unfamiliar position, representing the minority opinion in a discussion. I had no expectations of winning, and there’s always a danger of being labeled an obstructionist.

So why speak?

tx representative chambers
photo credit: patrick dentler

Sometimes one risks more by not speaking than by speaking.  Suppose the objection is saved for another day, and it’s a good objection. People will then ask, “Why didn’t you raise this objection previously?” The person is then shifty and opportunistic.

Principles still matter. If one is solid in their beliefs, others can count on that person when they want to advance something that is aligned with those beliefs.

Some things should be obstructed. I will vote against nearly every tax increase until kingdom come. Is that obstructionist?  Heck, yeah! Is that good? You’d better believe it!

One does have to be careful. Having lost, the minority should not take the results personally. The initiative, once passed, should only be defeated again at the ballot box: not by sabotage. One doesn’t win any points saying something isn’t going to work, then take steps to ensure something doesn’t work.

In the meantime we educate, advocate, and pray things go better the next time.

InstapaperShare

Teaching Religion in Public High Schools

Jul 21st, 2008
by Dan.
1 comment

The Washington Times reports that the Texas State Board of Education has given approval to establishing Bible classes in public high schools, as long as they meet “federal and state guidelines in maintaining religious neutrality.”

This is bound to be quite the task — faith comes by hearing, after all.

The study found most of the courses were explicitly devotional with almost exclusively Christian, usually Protestant, perspectives.

It also found that most were taught by teachers with no academic training in biblical, religious or theological studies and who were not familiar with the issues of separation of church and state.

“Some classes promote creation science. Some classes denigrate Judaism. Some classes explicitly encourage students to convert to Christianity or to adopt Christian devotional practices,” Mr. Chancey said. “This is all well-documented, and the board knows it.”

There is enough diversity within Christian thought that I’m not sure I could trust that just any “Christian” could represent Christianity properly. I would rather not have to undo fun things like millenialism or Christian Zionism.

I would be curious as to how a literature teacher would treat the Bible, without getting into truth claims.

This fall, my girls will be enrolled in a Lutheran private preschool where Bible verses are part of the curriculum. If this were to happen in a public school, families of other religions could request memorization of other religious books. Many religions would demand their fair share, paid for with your tax dollars, and they would have different standards of what offended them. Our religious teaching is best left to our homes, our churches, and church-sponsored private schools.

InstapaperShare
← Earlier Posts