Your Education

[VictorBravo]

Belgrade High School in Montana. There I learned welding, auto mechanics, machine shop, trigonometry, calculus, English, History, Chemistry, and football.

I still use all of that except football.

Montana Tech (aka Montana Institute of Mining Science and Technology)- geophysical engineering student for a year.

University of Montana, music (organ performance and composition) and physics major- 3 years. I still write music and play the organ--but never in church.

There was a summer trade school program I attended to become a certified dive instructor and professional diver. I had a great time doing that for a while, but I got tired of Southern California and moved back to Montana.

Montana State University--finally received my BS in Soil Science with emphasis in Soil Chemistry and Plant Physiology. I also fit in a French minor. I was a farmer, rancher, and also an agricultural researcher working on saline seep issues in Northern Montana. The credentials also allowed me to work in Iraq in the 80s as an agricultural advisor to the Iraqi ministry of Agriculture and a farm supervisor over a very large state-owned dairy farm near Tikrit. The people I met there and the memories I still have were worth the price of the degree.

Years went by, then off to the University of Montana School of Law--JD. I've been a lawyer for 20 years

Took a few classes at Western Reformed Seminary in Tacoma WA, which caused me to dig in and learn Greek and Hebrew on my own (I did not have time to take classes during the day).

Just a few years ago I went back to law school, this time the University of Washington School of Law, and received an LL.M. in Taxation. I use this a fair amount these days because part of my law practice involves tax law.

I can't say any of it was a waste of time, except for the occasional dud class. Looking back, I pretty much was very enthusiastic about every diversion and course of study I took. I was sort of a contrarian who refused to be pegged. I figured I was paying my money and I'd study what I wanted. I mostly worked while going to school, and in those days it was easy to pay as you go.

Best lesson I ever learned: It doesn't particularly matter what field you pick to study. The most important thing is to obtain a level of mastery over it. That sense of mastery transfers to other endeavors and gives you an insight into the essentials that you should focus on.

 

[Organgrinder]

I earned a Master's degree in Library Science from the University of North Texas in 2004. It was a mid-life upgrade for me at age 46. I got my first librarian position in 2006

My BA came from Dallas Baptist College in 1981. I went to that school looking for a wife and because I wanted a school that was like some kind of big happy Baptist Student Union. I found my dear wife there but my degree in art did little for me as a source for income.

Earlier I attended a junior college and public schools.

It astounds me that I'm now Reformed. I was unbelievably Arminian back at DBC. I would have never considered the OPC back then.

 

[Wayne]

B.A. in Psychology from the University of Oklahoma, though I started out in chemistry and changed when I became a Christian in the middle of my sophomore year.

After two years as a medic in the army (1-AO), went to Westminster (Phila.) with the intent of going into counseling, but opted for the two-year M.A.R. degree,
which I didn't quite finish until 20 years later.

Moved back to OK and tried to make a living as a cabinetmaker, then fell into a career in the sign business and had my own business for about ten years.

Finally got serious about finishing the degree from WTS and exploring a call to ministry. Cheaper to go to Covenant and WTS allowed me to transfer the remaining 12 hours.

Then CTS wouldn't let me build on the WTS hours (those hours were too old), so I did the M.Div. nearly from scratch. The final year was thin, so I doubled up with Th.M. classes,
graduating with the M.Div. and 4 -5 months later was appointed as director of the PCA Historical Center.

Loved the archival work so much I couldn't bring myself to set aside the time to finish the Th.M. thesis ["Linguistic & Literary Structures in Psalm 104"] until about 9 years later, but wound up graduating at the same time that my daughter graduated there.

Almost 200 hours of seminary and I still ain't smarts.

Most recently, I obtained standing as a Certified Archivist.

I keep toying with the idea of a doctorate, but would have to have just the right topic and would have to do it on the European model.

 

[Rich Koster]

I have an AAS in Electrical/Electronic Technology from the CUNY system. It was my career for about 15 years, but with computer control and disposable consumer electronics, there is not much demand for a repair technician. I have not worked in my career field for the past 15 years. The last projects I worked on were RF testing on the AEGIS weapons system for the Navy and GPS satellite replacement constellation for the Air Force. My skills are useful for auto electrical system diagnostics, some appliance repair, stereo systems and rigging a lot of stuff, with parts laying around, people would normally toss out. I've used my test equipment to fix a furnace, water heater, answering machines and the like. With the new micro surface mount components being used, I don't even try to fix that kind of circuit board. It's just too small and tedious to do, on a kitchen table.

 

[a mere housewife]

I hope it's okay to reply with the few other undegreed respondents -- I can't help throwing in another plug for my own profession. I was majoring in English and History when my health broke down definitively (it had been threatening to for some time). I have since learned that while one ought to master the rules of English, no one who's ever graced the language has allowed the rules to master them -- and that I am no candidate for a historian. Current events leave me in tears, and time does little to change that. So I haven't been further educated. I have often wondered about trying to finish a degree; but my health hasn't changed enough for that to be practicable and (perhaps in part because of that providence) I have learned to value, more than anything else I could do, what I am doing now (housewife). I believe that the world doesn't need anything from me so much as it simply needs another peaceful home, loving wife, daughter, sister, faithful friend. So I am trying to learn to do those things, and they are far more challenging and demanding of every faculty I have (and many I don't) than anything else I have studied. I think everything I have studied is in some way useful.

 

[Mushroom]

I hope it's okay to reply with the few other undegreed respondents -- I can't help throwing in another plug for my own profession. I was majoring in English and History when my health broke down definitively (it had been threatening to for some time). I have since learned that while one ought to master the rules of English, no one who's ever graced the language has allowed the rules to master them -- and that I am no candidate for a historian. Current events leave me in tears, and time does little to change that. So I haven't been further educated. I have often wondered about trying to finish a degree; but my health hasn't changed enough for that to be practicable and (perhaps in part because of that providence) I have learned to value, more than anything else I could do, what I am doing now (housewife). I believe that the world doesn't need anything from me so much as it simply needs another peaceful home, loving wife, daughter, sister, faithful friend. So I am trying to learn to do those things, and they are far more challenging and demanding of every faculty I have (and many I don't) than anything else I have studied. I think everything I have studied is in some way useful.

And I for one, dear sister, can attest to the fact that you have mastered those arts you mention that apply to me and my family and everyone here on PB, by the grace of God, abundantly well. Our lives would be sorely lacking had you not been so diligent in your studies.

 

[Tim]

But a Christian school--a legit one--makes forming Christian relationships easier.

Interesting point. Thanks for this, Jessi. We often speak of the curriculum, but forget the relationships.

 

[jogri17]

BA in French as a Second Language
BA Multidisciplinary: In Political Science and Theology

Both from Université Laval.

Graduated..... YESTERDAY!!!!

My best piece of advice I got from an older gentleman, study what you're passionate about, if you're considering the ministry wait, do a secular BA (or Bsc) first than seminary, and do it at a secular school. You need to learn how to share the Gospel and interact with people with all sorts of beliefs and backgrounds. College is the time of academic thinking and reflection and not to be treated as a tool to merely get a degree. Enjoy the life and experiences and get involved in a good church

 

[Curt]

In college I majored in History (with an Eastern European focus) and while I learned a lot of neat stuff it did not really prepare for Seminary directly. I actually tell guys who have asked to major in English if they plan on going to Seminary.

My first Master's degree was in Eastern European History. At that time (many years ago) I had no idea I would end up ministering in the region and living in the Czech Republic. God doesn't waste anything!

 

[Alan D. Strange]

Originally Posted by he beholds
But a Christian school--a legit one--makes forming Christian relationships easier.

Interesting point. Thanks for this, Jessi. We often speak of the curriculum, but forget the relationships. Tim Lindsay

Exactly, Jessi and Tim. I grow weary of those who choose secular education at the undergraduate level (I would agree that professional school--other than seminary--or graduate school, is different) and then seek to justify it by indicating why it is superior to Christian institutions. As a principled supporter of Christian education, as many Reformed and Presbyterian have been, particularly with the secularization of the educational enterprise, I think that many of those justifications are rather off the mark--epistemologically and otherwise. I think that it is a false dichotomy to say "I've a good church, I don't need a Christian school." And I say that realizing that Christian colleges have many problems and are by no means perfect and that many state institutions have better offerings than others. It's sort of like remaining sin means that believers are not as good in practice as in principle and common grace means that unbelievers aren't as bad in practice as in principle. I recognize this. Yet, there is still, I would argue, a premium to be placed on sound Christian education.

Having said all that, let me just now focus on Jessi's and Tim's point: relationships. My children, reared in the Christian church and given Christian educations, have wanted to go to Christian colleges (they also did some community college in HS for double credit so they are familiar with that setting): at such schools they have formed friendships with their own sex and the opposite sex, with Christians who have encouraged them and with whom they can become dear friends. I am not saying that they don't have their problems or their friends don't and I'm not saying that Christian friendships cannot be formed at state schools, especially through on-campus Christian organizations. I am also not naive as to the goings-on at Christian schools. But it is much worse at secular schools. I realize that a Christian can, and I know many who do, keep themselves unspotted by the world at non-Christian institutions, but it is that much harder. It's a harsh (and vulgar, frankly) read, but Tom Wolfe's I am Charlotte Simmons is a shocking look at what indeed is going on at many of our finest secular institutions.

My bottom line here is that I am unwilling that a witness that goes to support non-Christian secondary institutions over Christian ones should not go unchallenged here. The classroom is not the church and I don't expect it to be, but there is no place in our society where there is a more regular and generally unchallenged systemic intellectual expression of unbelief as there is in many secular classrooms. If someone wants to respond by saying "Don't kid yourself about Christian colleges," I am not. I would say don't kid yourselves about the influence that the secular college classroom can have on our young people, many of whom, let's not kid ourselves, are not as inured to such influence as we may tell ourselves.

Peace,
Alan

 

[VictorBravo]

My bottom line here is that I am unwilling that a witness that goes to support non-Christian secondary institutions over Christian ones should not go unchallenged here.

All fair points, Alan, but I haven't seen anyone actually advocate for secular over Christian secondary institutions. I might have not read as carefully as I ought, but it looks like people are responding to the initial question by stated personal facts.

I suppose I should have clarified in my long-winded post that I was not a Christian at all until my last round of professional schooling. I suspect several others who have posted were in a similar situation.

 

[Alan D. Strange]

Raymond:

I did not take what you said to be anything other than what your experience was. One person, however, was not only, as I took it, descriptive of his educational experience, but prescriptive, in a way that I took to be favoring, at the undergraduate level, a secular over a Christian institution. My point is not that secondary secular education is wrong as in sin and not permitted. I think that it is unwise in a number of cases. And I particularly weary of those, in more recent times, who have privileged it over Christian education.

I do submit to your judgment as moderator, however, and will gladly yield to whatever ruling you make with respect to this.

Peace,
Alan

 

[VictorBravo]

Alan, no ruling and no real issue. I just was not seeing what you were responding to. And I'm not acting as a moderator here, just a participant.

The only suggestion I have is if someone raises a point you want to challenge, it is helpful to quote at least the portion of it so we can see what the issue is.

 

[Alan D. Strange]

Raymond:

I did quote Tim quoting Jessi with respect to relationships and how Christian colleges might aid such. That is the point that I started to make. But someone else said something that prompted the broader reflection on Christian and secular education. I did not wish to cite that person in this case (as to be less confrontational and personal) but rather make the broader point. Perhaps it was unhelpful.

Peace,
Alan

 

[VictorBravo]

And probably my haste in reading and missing things contributed to this diversion.

Carry on. . . .