Delicious news about higher education funding

Yesterday the University of Pennsylvania made history by announcing that it would pay for tuition, room and board for all students from families with incomes of up to $50,000. By topping similar aid commitments from wealthier universities, Penn will hopefully set off competition among top tier colleges to put money where their mouths ought to be: providing higher education for a greater number of qualified students.

Said Gordon Winston, director of the Williams College Project on the Economics of Higher Education, “It is simply delicious. We have these enormously wealthy schools competing energetically for high ability, low-income students. They are out there slugging it out with each other to give equality of opportunity to a lot of students who richly deserve it.”

Hopefully other public and private institutions will follow suit.

Nathan Day Wilson

Even secondary education is about value choices

In the most recent The Chronicle of Higher Education ("The Liberal Arts in School and College," March 10, 2006, B46), Stanley Katz argues for greater attention to multidisciplinary courses that challenge students to "understand that the essence of education is the courage and ability to make value judgments."

This integrative approach with its stress on moral decision making is consistent with my reserach on spiritual maturation and the development of moral courage in older adolescents and emerging adults. Many learning theorists, including my primary mentor, have emphasized the importance of multidisciplinary approaches to higher education for years; Katz stresses beginning this approach with high school students. Waiting until college is waiting too long.

Do you agree? How would this work in high school curricula?

Nathan Day Wilson

Together on the Journey

From the Clintonville Christian Church newsletter dated March 15, 2006:

This Lenten Season is off to a meaningful start for our church and I’m thankful to be part of it!

By the time this is printed, we surveyed the wilderness of our lives and started clearing space in that wilderness to better communicate with God and sense God’s presence among us. We did this together in Sunday morning worship, in our Sunday afternoon group reflection times, and through our individual exercises and activities.

Honestly surveying your life is not easy. Just as there were for Jesus in the wilderness (Mark 1:12-13), we have temptations in the wilderness of our lives. We have wild beasts (those parts of our life we are unable to control). Thank God, we also have angels (messengers from God). Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish one from the other – as hard as distinguishing one plant in the wilderness from another.

How do we honestly survey our lives? The best way I know is to sit without external distractions, even for as little as ten to fifteen minutes, and quietly allow your life to come into your mind. Then we begin to discover those temptations, those wild beasts, those angels that make up our lives.

Unfortunately, choosing which part of our lives to clear and the way to clear it is not any easier. We know that we can’t clear the whole wilderness at once; we must decide on a limited part and put our focus there. We also know that we can trust God to shine though the little space now, expanding it into bigger space later.

In what ways did you decide to address the area of your life? Did you select daily prayer; time for daily walks or exercise; keeping a daily journal of God’s movement in your life; someone new with whom you will communicate regularly? Are you going to work on developing a new habit or eliminating one? Did you select something else?

This is your practice, so you have to decide what you will do. It has to fit you. Just make sure it is something you can and will do regularly.

Just as this time of clearing space for God started strong, so the remaining weeks hold great promise. Together on our journey with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem we will discover when our best times for clearing space are. We will experience how we notice and appreciate the new growth in our lives that results from clearing space. We will consider how we handle any setbacks to our space clearing. And who knows what else God may have in store for us.

If it is just not possible for you to be part of the journey by attending Sunday morning worship or the group reflection times, I hope you will let me know other ways to include you. Some of our homebound members, for instance, have asked for cassette copies of our Sunday morning worship services. If those would be useful for you, please call the church office and let us know. If there are other ways I or others can include you on the journey, please let me know. I would like for you to be part of the journey in any and every way possible.

See you at the place where we journey together – Nathan

Education is about value choices

In his new new piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education ("The Liberal Arts in School and College," March 10, 2006, B46) Stanley Katz argues for greater attention to multidisciplinary courses that challenge students to "understand that the essence of education is the courage and ability to make value judgments." This integrative approach is consistent with my understanding of the value of education.

The larger point Katz stresses is beginning this approach with high school students. Waiting until college is waiting too long. Do you agree? How would this work in high school curricula?

Nathan Wilson

Clearing Space for God

Clearing Space for God
The Reverend Nathan Day Wilson

The Season of Lent is nearly upon us. Lent runs forty weekdays beginning Ash Wednesday and concluding Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday.

The observance of Lent began in the fourth century as a time of preparation for those who were to be baptized. This idea soon expanded to include time for the whole church to prepare to receive these new members and for those who were separated from the church to prepare to rejoin it.

We observe Lent as a time for self-examination, repentance and preparation for the amazing gift of God’s love in the Easter Resurrection. In other words, Lent is a time to clear space for God.

In fact, that is our theme this year: Clearing Space for God. Along with our Sunday morning worship services, each of us has the opportunity to grow through individual exercises and group study and reflection. By coordinating the worship services with suggested individual activities and group reflection, this Lent holds the promise of being a significant time of growth for our church. The more you participate, the better.

For starters, you and all you can bring with you are invited to our Ash Wednesday Service on Wednesday, March 1 at 7:30 PM. There will be a dinner provided by the Worship Ministry Team at 6:30. The dinner and the service are for all ages.

What in your life needs to be cleared to see God better? How should you clear it? When should you clear it? What do you do when other things move in the way? How much of this space clearing is your job and how much is someone else’s, even God’s, job?

See you at the place where we clear space for God --

Nathan

Professors on Student Spirituality

Over 40,000 faculty members from more than 420 colleges responded to a survey from the Higher Education Reserach Institute about their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors regarding student spirituality. More than half of the faculty members indicated that it is important to enhance undergraduates' self-understanding and to develop their moral character and values, but only 30 percent think colleges should concern themselves with students' spiritual development. The study can be found here.

I will write more about the study's findings soon.

Nathan D Wilson