veritas: one woman’s journey

With Easter just around the corner, we are bombarded with Easter advertisements shouting for our attention and financial commitment. However, amidst all the Easter bunnies and brightly colored eggs, one has to wonder how much religion, and in turn “spirituality,” is actually at the center of this holiday or how much of it is simply an excuse to get together with friends and family and eat a box of chocolates.

America’s spiritual temperature, if based upon how many people claim to pray, is running “high,” but how many of those who profess a prayer life actually understand the Easter holiday they are celebrating, and the main crux of the holiday – the resurrection? Or how many people can give an answer for whether or not their prayers are effective or heard by a god-figure, whether the Judeo-Christian God of Easter or some other deity?

How many people understand how futile prayer is without there being a god who is listening? How many people understand that if the god to whom they pray to isn’t real, their prayers are fruitless? How many people can, with confidence, point to a specific event as evidence that when they pray, God not only is listening but actually cares?

Christians can point to one event in history as compelling evidence for all these questions. But the question is, for so many Americans celebrating Easter, how many actually understand the message and implications of Easter Sunday – the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

The reality is that Easter celebrations have eclipsed for many Americans the cornerstone of Easter Sunday – the resurrection, and they celebrate something which to them has mythical value.

For Christians, however, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is what makes or breaks their faith, and in turn, the power of their prayers. The Christian faith claims that if Jesus is who he said he was, then he proved his divinity by rising from the dead, and thus he conquered death and has restored all those who believe in him to having a right relationship with God.

In other words, we now have a hotline to heaven.

However, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then all our Easter celebrations are empty festivities. Either God hears us or he doesn’t; either he is who he says he is or he isn’t. Either Jesus rose from the dead or he didn’t.

The beauty for Christians who pray is that they can rest assured that God hears their prayers for they have a God who left behind an empty grave in history.

And isn’t that what is Easter is all about, anyway?

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[Comments: this post got spammed, so I saved the non-spam comments and am posting them here.]

1. dan Says:
   April 21st, 2006 at 8:45 pm ewell put.
2. Moriah Joy Says:
   April 26th, 2006 at 8:51 am eThanks.
3. Moriah Joy Says:
   April 26th, 2006 at 8:54 am eReading it over, I have to laugh a little bit. This was written in fifteen minutes (that’s being generous in estimating the time I spent on it) for a journalism professor who wanted something on Easter and prayer. Rereading it a couple weeks later, removed from it, it’s clear I did a poor job of tying prayer into the overall thrust of the piece.

“My parents cursed me with a love for learning.”

So said Bethany Patterson with a smile. Patterson, a homeschool graduate with a 4.0 GPA at Wayne State University, furthermore said of her homeschool experience: “I owe my success in college directly to my parents’ decision to homeschool me, and I attribute my wide range of interests and self-motivation/work ethic to homeschooling.”

Patterson is not alone. There are more than one million homeschooled students in the United States, with estimates as high as two million. Homeschooling, which is gaining popularity across the nation, has become not only a viable alternative to the public education system but has also become a springboard for many homeschool graduates for a successful, fulfilling life.

Homeschooling is a force to be reckoned with. So just what is homeschooling and what does it look like?

Imagine doing your algebra lesson in your pajamas. Or imagine learning history through exploring a museum or visiting historic sites. Imagine your kitchen table was your school desk and your classmates totaled the number of siblings you have.

That’s the case for many of the more than 1.1 million homeschoolers in the United States (2005), and the numbers are growing at a rate of 10-15% per year, according to Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).

Homeschooling, once a fledgling enterprise taken on by a few courageous parents, has become an academic force to be acknowledged with by both the public and private school systems. The movement has come into its own, answering critics’ questions about academic excellence and socialization concerns.

The choice to homeschool is often a response to dissatisfaction with the public and/or private educational system. While it’s actually been around for ages and public education is really the “new kid on the block,” it wasn’t until the late 1960’s and early 1970’s that home education made a resurgence as a viable option for education and has gained momentum and national attention ever since.

Homeschooling parents choose to homeschool for a variety of reasons including both philosophical and/or religious reasons; others choose to homeschool their children simply because they seek the highest quality education possible for their child.

My family is an interesting case study since there are seven children who were and are being homeschooled. Three are currently homeschool graduates, one is in highschool, one is in middle school and two are in elementary school. Of the three oldest children, who homeschooled through highschool, all three were granted full-ride, academic scholarships to the universities of their choice and carry almost 4.0 GPA’s. The next sibling in line, a freshman in public highschool, is a straight-A student and has adjusted well to public highschool, having been previously homeschooled his entire life.

You might be thinking, “So what? That’s your family.” So what about the educational quality and achievements of other homeschooled students? The statistics are in: homeschoolers score on average 30-37 percentile points above their public-schooled counterparts in all subjects. The academic achievement of homeschoolers, which used to be a concern until the stats came in, has proven to quiet critics.

In fact, many universities are actively recruiting homeschooled students because they have seen homeschooled students excel academically, and they recognize their self-discipline, drive and tendency to be leaders. These are traits that many universities are looking for in potential students. Jeff Lantis, as quoted on HSLDA’s website, said of Hillsdale College’s 75-90 homeschoolers, “Homeschoolers have to work harder thereby increasing student productivity. [They] are consistently among our top students; in fact homeschoolers have won our distinct Honors Program the last three years in a row. We tend to look very favorably upon homeschoolers applying to our college.”

Kathleen Wider, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, said of her experience with two homeschooled students that they were “so well prepared for college and seemed far better educated than most college students.”

Homeschooling works academically. However, what about socialization?

Fighting against the stereotype of a painfully shy, maladjusted child who cannot play with other kids or handle conflicts well, homeschoolers have had to face the question of socialization. Homeshcooling actually provides a better framework for learning socialization than its public or private school counterpart simply by its very nature.

Yes, you have your awkward homeschoolers, just like you have your awkward public or privately educated students. But overall, homeschooling prepares students for life better than its public or private school counterparts because it better reflects reality. For example, in public or private schools, you’re in a classroom with thirty of your peers, day in and day out; and they become your social “reality.”

Most of the kids are probably from your socioeconomic and cultural background as well. But “real” life is not like that. When you get out there in the workplace, you have to interact with people of all ages, socioeconomic, cultural and belief backgrounds. Homeschooling provides this learning ground because its very nature dictates a different framework for socializing. Your 85 year old next-door neighbor, your librarian, and family friends who have kids of all ages become your friends and social network. Thus, you learn to socialize with adults as well as kids who are younger and older than you, and you become comfortable in interacting with people of all ages and backgrounds.

Why does this form of socialization and learning work well? Because you learn how to interact with adults in a day to day basis that you don’t have the opportunity to experience when you go to public school for six or more hours a day. If one’s philosophy is that everything in life is a learning opportunity, all of a sudden, your “classroom” has no limits. You learn how to do math at the grocery store (while interacting respectfully with the cashier), you learn how to change the oil in a car when your parent takes the car in to be worked on, you learn how to serve the community when you volunteer your time, etc. These kind of life experiences add a depth and breadth to your academic education that is too often missing from your average public-schooled child.

So what about extra-curricular activities? What about sports and prom? Homeschoolers can enjoy the same benefits their public school counterparts do; because homeschoolers pay school taxes, legally they have the right to the same programs that public school students have. Some school districts are more open to allowing homeschoolers equal opportunity access, but in most cases, homeschoolers have no problem taking advantage of various arts, sports, or music programs within their school system.

In addition or alternatively, many homeschoolers join homeschool co-op groups, which are, in essence, large support groups of homeschool parents and their children. Parents come together once or twice a week to teach their strengths (fathers with a PhD in science teach physics; mothers with English and history degrees teach those subjects) while all the students get the benefit of other parents’ knowledge, simultaneously enjoying the vast network of other homeschooled students. Co-ops, arguably, offer the best of both worlds: parental freedom to direct the studies of their child while offering the child a classroom type setting and a great social network. Co-ops affords parents support while providing a social structure for their children.

Thus, with utilizing the school system’s programs and also local co-op groups, there are many opportunities for homeschoolers to participate in any extra-curricular activity they desire.

What are the state regulations for parents homeschooling? Each state has its own regulations for homeschoolers; some states require parents to register with the state and have their curriculum approved; other states have less stringent requirements. Michigan is one of the less stringent states. According to HSLDA’s website, there are “no requirements to notify, seek approval, test, file forms, or have any certain teacher qualifications” in Michigan.

Public opinion of homeschooling has grown in favor as students who started homeschooling in the 1970’s and 1980’s have graduated. Phil Jessmon, a graduate student at Wayne State pursuing a PhD in anatomy and cell biology, said of his experience with previously homeschooled students (he was not homeschooled but went to a private college preparatory high school), “Every homeschooled individual that I have interacted with has been intellectually ‘smarter’ than almost all of the private and public school students I have known.”

He added, “They are, in general, better-trained in how to think about life, and this is perhaps due to their precedence in thinking more critically and making learning a more personal part of their life (at home).”

While society’s opinion about homeschooling has changed over the course of the years as the evidence supporting homeschooling mounts, why should you consider homeschooling your child?

Because as the parents of the next generation, we have a grave responsibility to them. The health of our country, society, and families rests upon the health and success of our children. As parents, we have the ability to impact the world for generations to come based upon how we choose to raise our children and educate them. We have the ability to shape the next generation’s leaders.

Homeschooling offers us one of the best tools to do so.

I was having dinner with Katie and Jamie last week (good times!) and Jamie made a statement that non-Christians don’t hate Christians because they are hypocrites; rather they hate Christians because they pretend that they aren’t.

Isn’t that the unfortunate truth too often?

There’s no denying that a woman has rights, but since when did we grant a right-to-choose over a right-to-life?

With the recent Supreme Court appointments of Justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts, it looks like the right-to-life of an unborn child will trump the right-to-convenience of a mother and be protected at the federal level, and rightly so.

We can only hope as a nation that the genocide that 1973’s Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision sanctioned will be undermined.

Yes, a woman has rights. And a woman’s rights are important. No one is denying that. But amidst all the clamor and arguments surrounding the national abortion debate, rarely do you hear about the unborn child’s right-to-life trumping a mother’s right-to-convenience. The issue isn’t whether a woman has a right to choose; the issue is whose rights trump another.

Life always trumps convenience and preference. Abortion-on-demand has to go. We have no authority to protest against the war in Iraq taking innocent lives when we turn a blind eye to the mass genocide happening in our country. Over 43 million abortions have occurred since the practice was legalized.

If we don’t speak out against abortion, we have, in effect, just as much moral responsibility as those in Nazi Germany who refused to speak out against Hitler. Are we willing to bear 43 more million Americans’ blood on our hands?

Gritty; hardened; a diamond in the rough — Alan Fisk, towering at 6’3”, is a self-professed “dinosaur” of the journalism world. Bushy eyebrows; hints of a goatee; graying, tousled hair; and an unassuming manner of dress (he wears jeans and a dress shirt, opened at the neck most days) – marks of a seasoned journalist. His extensive resume (the list covers over thirty different publications) is impressive, including positions at the New York Times and the Detroit News. Burned out by the fast-paced demands of the journalism world, Fisk decided to retire four years ago and turned to teaching, freelancing on the side. I first met Fisk in a feature writing class at UM-Dearborn.

After the first initial classes, I was determined not to like Fisk; his distaste for tardiness, brusque mannerisms, and his pervading no-nonsense attitude rubbed me the wrong way. Even sitting informally atop a desk, legs swinging, Fisk’s presence was a force to be reckoned with: in short, he intimidated me. I was further convinced his almost lackadaisical manner of teaching had nothing to offer me.

He proved me wrong.

Fisk expects from his students their very best and is not afraid to tell it like it is. He pushes his students to better their writing and critical thinking abilities, and he does so in an unconventional way. His wisdom and vast experience in the journalism field offer what other professors cannot: real-world know-how. That expertise, however, comes with a price. Fisk’s voice is marked with weariness and suggests a cynical worldview that is revealed through classroom discussion of world events. But he’s not as grumpy as he sometimes projects, and his honesty and humility are endearing. He’s a father with an estranged, adult daughter; a man with disappointments and hopes, successes and failures; a liberal-leaning, old-school journalist — in other words, an average-Joe who possesses an above-average ability to write and teach.

Fisk’s teaching ability is amazing; perhaps it stems from the fact that he wasn’t shaped to be a “teacher.” Perhaps it’s just innate, but one isn’t aware that Fisk is teaching. In fact, it almost seems too easy, his classes. But you find yourself walking away from his classroom with your writing skills vastly improved, and you don’t know quite how he did it.

Fisk’s editing is one of his best tools; his real-life work experience and knowledge-base offers what other journalism professors cannot offer, and time flies in his classroom. You find yourself continually wishing class lasted longer.

By the middle of that first semester, Fisk’s ability to teach and his expertise demanded my respect; by the end of that semester, he had won my affection. However crusty Fisk may appear upon first meeting, one discovers that not only does he reign supreme as one of the best teachers of the written word, but he also is really a giant teddy-bear with a heart of gold.