• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Geoff's Miscellany

Miscellaneous Musings

Geoff

2020 Has Been a Big Year or I Finally Quit

August 21, 2020 by Geoff 3 Comments

I finally quit school. I won’t say I left teaching.

Callings stick with us forever. Every dad is a teacher.

I taught for a long time, even became an administrator.

I taught Biblical studies, Latin, Greek, Geometry, Statistics, Algebra 2, Pre-Algebra, Logic, Public Speaking, Introduction to Computer Programming, and Strength and Conditioning. In college I taught introduction to systematic theology and the history of Christianity in the United States.

I had fun.

In my initial plan, I was going to take Lambda school courses at night and apply for a new job in the Spring and make next year my last. I mentioned this to a friend who’s the VP of a software company. He called me the next day and said I should just quit teaching now and to expect an offer. Anyway, I did. Because my attention and focus is less diffuse, I actually have more time to be a classicist and a lot of folks at the company are pretty entrepreneurial outside of work, but they also like what we do because it’s an unexpectedly important contribution. So over all, it’s been a great place to work. By a strange coincidence (providence? always) one of my colleagues worked on the same project as my dad in Singapore in the 80s, though they never met.

Anyway, one of these days I’ll post a list of things that need optimization in the classical Christian high school education domain. I’ve observed many dozens of these over the years and used to spend many hours every week puzzling over how to do it. I still do as the homeschooling of my children occupies my mind constantly.

I will say this one thing: my main preference in my current job over my previous on is this: I get to solve real problems as they come up. Here’s what I mean. I solve problems that really matter for peoples’ emotional well-being in jobs that use our software. This means that we even provide for their physical safety. The problems are real problems.

In education, you really want to solve real problems. Here’s the most-real problem of education: how to you pass down a tradition of habits that includes a body of skills and knowledge to a group of people with diverse family structures and backgrounds while still teaching individuals think logically and independently from the masses, particularly when mass media culture occupies so much of the time of the young? It’s a serious problem and it matters.

You often end up solving made-up problems instead: a new seminar invents a new method, a new paper-work, or a new “thing” and your whole workflow has to conform to it so you suss . In other words, the chief problem of education: “how can we create a curriculum that delivers the most important skills, knowledge, and experiences of the past in a way that meets the needs of individual students and their families” is often interrupted by, accreditation guidelines, dress-code minutiae, or a small-rudder on a big ship mindset where no agility is allowed.

2020 has been a big year for me. I got the strongest I’ve ever been, got the sickest I’ve ever been (lost 17 pounds in 14 days and all my gainz), switched careers, bought a house, probably had Covid-19 in January, and probably some other items I’ve left out.

Anyway, even though I work more hours now, I’ll probably have more time to contribute to my own blog. Or maybe not. But I hope to.

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Autobiography Tagged With: education

Steps to Open a Bible College

June 19, 2020 by Geoff 1 Comment

One of my dreams used to be to open a small seminary that helped ministers (Sunday school teachers, preachers, parents, etc) learn more fully the skills of the calling. I got my idea from this list in like 2006. It takes something of a vocational school approach. I’ve put the most interesting ones in bold.

I found them in “Charles Spurgeon: His Faith and Works” pp 154-155.

  1. Found a College into which men with an ordinary English education can be admitted without being degraded by comparison with graduates of secular universities. 
  2. Set before the men no ambition after scholarship for its own sake, but keep them to the one aim of being soul-winners and edifiers of the saints—therefore do not aim at degrees, etc. 
  3. Provide for poor men all necessaries—board, lodging, clothes, books, in fact, all they want. 
  4. Keep all this at the cheapest rate, that men may not form habits they cannot afterward live up to. 
  5. Affiliate the College to a large working church. Expect the men to be members, and during the first six months workers in the schools, etc. 
  6. Keep the period of study short, say two to three years. Never exceed this. Men who cannot do in that time, are no great good for rough work. 
  7. Give every man the first three or six months as probation, and constantly weed out the idle, vain, inefficient, or devoid of zeal. 
  8. Keep up the devotional spirit by giving half a day in the week for nothing but prayer. Begin each class with prayer.
  9. Make them live in Christian families, and send round a Christian man constantly to inquire as to habits, domestic, moral, etc.
  10. Make it known by your magazines and papers that men can be received and are wanted. See my yearly Almanac.
  11. Do not embarrass the President with committees, etc.
  12. Sort the men and do not make the studies in each case the same. Some never will learn classics; some will readily.
  13. Have frequent sermonizings, discussions, etc., and encourage extempore speech.
  14. Let a man who is really a good fellow stay till a place is ready for him; and let him come back, if, in his first church, he does not succeed. Keep him with you another term and let him try again. 
  15. With poor men keep up a system of traveling libraries to keep them in books and help them to go on educating themselves.
  16. Let tutors be brethren to the men, not lords. The more familiar the intercourse the deeper the love and the truer the respect.
  17. Call in pastors, missionaries, and successful workers to talk to the men and tell them their experiences. 
  18. Keep the men to outdoor preaching and encourage them to be winning souls while students. 
  19. Make the physical sciences a great point; they furnish illustrations, relieve the severity of study, and enlarge the mind. Change of work is recreation. 
  20. Keep the church praying for them. Interest the church by meetings in which the men speak. Let beginners speak, and then in after months the people will remark their progress, and see the reality of their preparation.
  21. Believe in Dr. Francis Wayland’s ” Principles of the Baptists,” and practically carry them out. 
  22. The Lord, the Holy Spirit direct you, and bless you with his guidance ; follow that guidance, and not my recommendations wherein they fail. 

 

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Christianity Tagged With: christian education

You Have No Power Here, This is a Library

June 12, 2020 by Geoff Leave a Comment

This is funny.

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Culture

What is true wealth?

June 11, 2020 by Geoff Leave a Comment

NN Taleb delineates some features of true wealth. What do you think, is anything missing?

TRUE WEALTH

Worriless sleeping
Clear conscience
Reciprocal gratitude
Absence of envy
Muscle strength
Frequent laughs
No meals alone
No gym classes
Good digestive functions
No meeting rooms
Periodic surprises
Foamy coffee
Crusty bread
Ability to nap
Access to a hammock

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) June 11, 2020

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Culture, Philosophy

What’s Wrong with Conservatives?

June 10, 2020 by Geoff 2 Comments

Warning, the quote below has bad language, the misspellings are the authors.

If you focus on them, you’re missing his point. @Aja_Cortes, a fitness bro on Twitter explained what he thinks the problem with conservatives is:

Conservatives lose because they have no sexual or creative energy
None.
Its an impotent movement
Nothing sexy, no Art because conservative “values” are whitebread LARPing & there is nothing to create artistry with
Even the name is peak Loserdom, no adventure, no badassery
The Left gets protests
they get LAID and fuck afterwards
They get hot and attractive people making statements
They actually CANCEL things and ruin people, they make things happen for what they believe in
Whats the “right” do?
“But we have principles!”
Fuckingg NOTHING.
The right had DECADES when they actually had cultural power
What did you do?
Build beautiful buildings?
Subsidize arts?
Do ANYTHING that could be considered cool?
Nope. Its a bunch of squares sucking the ghost dick of Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan
SQUARES
You seen the dudes that are Conservative “Youth” leaders?
Do any of them incline bench and look like they FUCK?
Hell no
Its a bunch of pencil necked dweebs

I know militant lesbians with more masculine energy and balls

Maybe they might finally lose badly enough that they decide to get HOT and AESTHETIC and develop a vision of the world that isnt a fantasy roleplay and worshipping pussified evanlegical Jesus and saying “patriot” 10,000 times

Until then, you get defeated. You deserve it.

I could have ripped on them for the unabashed racism that got completely ignored until literally that last 4 years , but that would be shooting a dead horse
Watch the ConservaBros cry in my mentions
Same dudes that wear cargo sho rts with 26% bodyfat and sunglasses in their profile Pic and comment “beautiful” under some political Thotianas selfies

DORKS

A list of “Conservative Values”
-Defending the military industrial prison complex
-Writing articles that only old white men read
-Evangelical grifting
-thinking anyone gives a fuck about dead economists
-Pretending racism has never existed ever
-Losing

I want to post my own comments, but the thread is simply a work of art as far as twitter threads go.

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Philosophy, Politics Tagged With: gainz, conservatism, losing

Spartan by Five Iron Frenzy

June 9, 2020 by Geoff Leave a Comment

There are some songs that stick in your head forever. This is one for me. I don’t even know how I came across this album in high school, but I did. Anyway, I think Reese Roper really got articulated something profound in this brief and fairly unpoetic song. Here’s my favorite bit (it starts at 00:59):

Limping through the world
There’s a knowing look or two
Is it just the cripples here
Who understand the truth?
Why is love so painful
Why do we always lose
Paving pathways for the lost
The bitter, and recluse?
He said “Love endures all things”
And it hurt to think it’s true
did it nail Him on a cross
did it crucify Him too?

Lyrics

Billie Holiday on the radio
My sluggish heart is beating seven beats too slow
Another sad song and another shot of blue
Cold and unconcerned are anything but new
He said “Love endures all things”
And it hurts to think He’s right
If I mark the span of failure
Is his burden just as light?

I am, Spartan
Close my heart so tight
Jesus
Save me
From myself tonight

Limping through the world
There’s a knowing look or two
Is it just the cripples here
Who understand the truth?
Why is love so painful
Why do we always lose
Paving pathways for the lost
The bitter, and recluse?
He said “Love endures all things”
And it hurt to think it’s true
did it nail Him on a cross
did it crucify Him too?

(Bridge)
The angels are singing over the plains
The shepherds are quaking, echoing refrains (Echoing refrains)
And all of our slogans designed to take away the pain
Meant nothing to the Son of God that night in Bethlehem

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Music, Christianity Tagged With: Five Iron Frenzy

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 118
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • 2020 Has Been a Big Year or I Finally Quit
  • Steps to Open a Bible College
  • You Have No Power Here, This is a Library
  • What is true wealth?
  • What’s Wrong with Conservatives?

Recent Comments

  • Sharon on Whether we live or die, Aslan will be our good lord.
  • Alishba lodhi on Effort Habit: Keep the Faculty of Effort Alive in You
  • Geoff on Why is Covetousness Idolatry?
  • Geoff on 2020 Has Been a Big Year or I Finally Quit
  • Kelly Jensen on Why is Covetousness Idolatry?

Archives

  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013

Cateories

WordPress · Log in