Well, after a year and half of being out of school, I find myself hurled back into the swift current of studies. I say it like it's a bad thing, but it's not. It's just a little overwhelming at the moment.
Classes started a week ago today. I'm taking 5 classes this quarter: Life-Span Development, Abnormal Psychology, Medical Terminology, Intro to OT, and Women in American History. All of them have a LOT of reading involved. In 3 different classes, I walked into the classroom on the first day and the teacher expected us to have the first 2-3 chapters read already. Needless to say, I have been playing catch up most of the week. It's frustrating, because one of my goals this year was to stay ahead with the reading- pretty tough when they start you out behind!!
I didn't realize just how different classes would be here compared to Walla Walla. I knew there would be many more students on campus, and that there would be people from lots of different backgrounds. I did not anticipate, however, just how different the teaching would be. When I walked into my first class, the professor said, "Let's start off with...." and I'm used to hearing "a word of prayer," but she said, "taking a look at the syllabus." Okay, I thought. That's okay. I need to get used to this.
It became very difficult for me when in my Abnormal Psych book they blamed Christianity for many extreme treatments for abnormal behavior (such as Jesus casting out demons), and said that Christianity is responsible for the diverting the attention of people in finding "effective treatment" in these disorders. Furthermore, they had Joan of Arch and Christ as examples of individuals who had "disillusions of grandeur." It really bothers me to hear Christ and Christianity talked about in such a condescending way.
Another issue that I am currently dealing with is a book that is required for my Women in American History class. We are required to read a book called, "Talking to the Dead" about the Fox sisters who started a movement in spiritualism. I am very against reading this book, but it accounts for 20% of the overall grade in the class. I am going to speak with my professor and see if she will allow me to read a different book instead. If not, I am faced with the two options of either taking an 80% as the maximum grade I can receive, or withdrawing from the class.
Another challenge I'm facing right now is meeting the core requirements I need in order to apply to the Occupational Therapy program this next spring. I thought I had all the prereqs taken care of, but it turns out that I not only had the required OT classes, I also have the core classes for a bachelor's degree that I need to fulfill. It turns out that 3 classes I took at WWU (computer literacy, A&P, and Western Thought) may help fulfill some of these requirements. I need to meet with the department heads for each of these subjects and plead my case. If they all accept it, then it is possible for me to have everything ready for this spring. It will mean that this coming winter and spring quarter I will need to take 20 credits. If one of the department heads decides that they cannot accept my class credits, then it will mean staying on the main campus one more year, and graduating with my masters in 2012 instead of 2011.
After all these negatives, I must say that there are many positive things to talk about too. God blessed Bob and I greatly when I was awarded two grants that completely covered my tuition for the year. It was a HUGE answer to prayer, and I am very thankful. And even though I am not surrounded by other Adventists in my classes, I am blessed to have an amazing husband, close, loving in-laws, and a wonderful church family to support me here while I go to school. Not to mention all my family and friends who live elsewhere who are always there for me!
I have a couple of suggestions for the school stuff and you can take them or leave them. Having gone to a secular liberal arts college myself (though not public), I have dealt with a couple of these issues and maybe I can shed some light on a couple of these topics.
ReplyDeleteFirst you talk about the critique of religion in general and Christianity in particular. This will come up over and over again so it will take some getting used to. But take it as training for the real world. At WWU you were shielded from a lot of these beliefs but as an OT you won't be shielded so much. So this step toward the trials in the real world is an opportunity for you to grow and strengthen your beliefs respectfully, and cowering in fear will only contribute to making you sick, plus it will make you resent the class. I think if you look at the whole story from a realistic perspective you will see that yes, sometimes science was slowed by religion, but science for the sake of science was not perfect either (Nazi Germany's concentration camps illustrate what happens when you take Darwinian survival of the fittest principles too far, and psychology learned an incredible amount about human behavior from that cruel history.) Taking both sides of the story, you can see the mistakes that both religion and science made, as well as the lessons that can be learned from them.
As for the book - this is another educational opportunity for you. Believe it or not - like it or not - you will most likely encounter some spiritualist factions in your field. Reading a book like this is not going to convince you that they are right or wrong, neither is it going to make you see your "dead grandmother" come back. It will open your eyes to what the people believe and how they thing - and if you can read it from a thoughtful perspective, keeping in mind that Jesus has promised to protect you from the evil spirits then you will be able to approach people who believe in spiritualism, knowing how they think, understanding it, and knowing even more firmly what you believe and why. Reading a book about spiritualism does not make you spiritualism anymore than reading the Bible makes someone a Christian. I'm not going to try to convince you that you should read the book - that is your choice - I'm saying that if you do, there is a very useful way to approach it and it very well could help you grow in your faith rather than cut it down.
It seems to me you have some challenges and some tricky choices to make: how can you best use your education now to help your Christianity, your future, and the people you encounter in the future? Whatever you decide, realize that challenges are exciting opportunities to grow and not trials to be feared. I'm praying for you and Bob. God bless!