got me a college girl

Moving On (Mollie)

2007-03-30T05:50:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus due to the business of living, we've resumed blogging at our new home powered by wordpress. Please change your bookmarks and come over to the new and improved blog, renamed True Womanhood in the New Millennium at http://www.truewomanhood.wordpress.com.

Our purpose continues to be the celebration of the thinking Christian woman, but we've also broadened our statement to include issues other than the importance of all women being given the freedom to choose to formally educate herself.

The true woman of the new millennium seeks to honor the Lord Jesus Christ with her heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love her neighbor as herself. She is gifted by God with amazing and unique gifts and she is empowered by the Holy Spirit to use those gifts for His glory alone. As this true woman commits herself to the Word of God, she eschews the man-made stereotypes given to her in the past and delights in God’s distinctive calling on her life in her home, in the church, and in the world.

We're eagerly anticipating your participation at True Womanhood! Welcome.

Gender Issues at Covenant Article (Allison)

2006-07-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

A quote from a recent ByFaith Online article titled "Responding to Gender Issues at Covenant College" (sorry, the exact link isn't working for some reason. You may find it under the "In the Church" section.):

Within the order ordained by God, both women and men are called to serve with all the talents given them, and it is right that they should develop those talents as fully as God allows. Problems arise not when women are educated; problems arise either when women are encouraged to use their education contrary to the order God prescribes, or when people wrongly use or abuse that order to prohibit productive and biblical avenues of service. In both cases, the problems stem from a lack of attention to the Scriptures as primary.

This fairly recent article touches on some of the issues that arose following the Gender conference at Covenant College. The authors, while affirming the complimentarian view, manage to strike a balance between both sides on the issues of women in education which I hope posters and readers of this blog find admirable.

In particular, they mention the issue of the education of women:

Consider, for example, the passionate debates these days concerning the inadequate ways in which the church makes place for theologically educated or even simply educated women. This is an important subject of discussion; surely we all have much to learn in this area – both the ones critiquing the church and the ones being critiqued. We can make progress here, but not if the discussion takes place apart from an explicit and shared biblical foundation. We regularly see separate camps of thinkers develop around these topics. There are the ones who want to encourage women to develop and use their gifts as fully as possible – in deep study of the Word of God, potentially in graduate school or seminary, and then ultimately for the good of the church. Then there are those who want to encourage women to pursue involvement at home, with discipleship and nurturing of children and other women. Deep rifts loom, with women’s important work in the home, in the church, and in the world potentially misunderstood and demeaned.
We believe these camps can and should come together, standing on the firm ground of the Scriptures’ teachings concerning the order of home and church. If we don’t make that ground clear, then we are in danger of trying either to negate or to misshape God’s order according to our own likings. We too often desire to encourage women – and men – these days without giving them the great gift of the Scriptures’ beautiful, comprehensive teachings on the subject of who they have been created to be, in Christ and in the church and in their families.

It seems that part of the purpose of this blog has been to highlight the importance of educated women within the home, the church, and in the world. I think our discussions here strive to find that "coming together" of all sides.

Things have been quiet around here for a while, but I was wondering what others in blogland think of this article. The author specifically mentions Carolyn James, and we've discussed her books and talks around here, as well as opposing points of view from those who think higher education for women is unnecessary. Is it possible to have a "coming together" while maintaining a Biblical view? One might describe it as "Christian women fully developing their gifts for the good of the church AND the home AND the workplace." What do you think?

"... a good education emancipates the mind and makes us citizens of the world." (Mollie)

2006-06-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

I recently came across this inspiring speech by Alice Freeman Palmer entitled, "Why Go to College?" Though first delivered in the late 1800's, many of her reasons for the education of women are relevant today. Here are a few delicious quotes that should send you off to refill your coffee cup before you cruise the above link to be inspired by her speech in its entirety. Enjoy!

I found it really interesting that her focus on educating women had to do with better equipping them for serving society. While education certainly personally betters the individual who is educated, we at got me a college girl truly believe that the educated woman has improved herself so that she can better serve her fellow man.

Our American girls themselves are becoming aware that they need the stimulus, the discipline, the knowledge, the interests of the college, in addition to the school, if they are to prepare themselves for the most serviceable of lives.

I will not reply that college training is a life insurance for a girl, a pledge that she possesses the disciplined ability to earn a living for herself and others in case of need, for I prefer to insist on the importance of giving every girl, no matter what her present circumstances, a special training in some one thing by which she can render society service, not amateur but of an expert sort, and service too for which it will be willing to pay a price.

If you read the following and don't have a ping of wishing for the days on end of intellectual stimuli, then I'm just sorry!

In the college time new powers are sprouting, and intelligence, merriment, truthfulness and generosity are more natural than the opposite qualities often become in later years. An exhilarating atmosphere pervades the place. We who are in it all the time feel that we live at the fountain of perpetual youth, and those who take but a four years' bath in it become more cheerful, strong, and full of promise than they are ever likely to find themselves again; for a college is a kind of compendium of the things most men long for.

One of my biggest complaints of the anti-college sentiment, is the belief that anyone can educate themselves on any subject by themselves. Somehow pseudo-intellectual discussions of a matter is educating those involved, not in a similar way that the college classroom educates, but in a superior way. When I was in college I went to a gathering of self-proclaimed intellectuals. They talked about this and that with great superiority and gusto. It was clear after an hour in their company, that many of them new nothing about what they were talking about, that they just liked to hear themselves talking about a broad range of intellectual subjects when their time would have been better served actually studying the matter from someone who knew what they were talking about. In the same way, I believe, the ideal that insists that a person can be well educated by a mere accumulation of facts that can be regurgitated at will is missing something vital to education: the inspiraton and excitement that comes from studying with an expert in the field of study.

. . . it is wholly wrong in assuming that this precious influence comes from frequent meetings or talks on miscellaneous subjects.

The greatest thing any friend or teacher, either in school or college, can do for a student is to furnish him with a personal ideal . . . an ideal of character, of conduct, of the scholar, the leader . . . for many years I have known that my study with them . . . enlarged my notions of life, uplifted my standards of culture, and so inspired me with new possibilites of usefulness and happiness. Not the facts and theories that I learned so much as the men who taught me, gave this inspiration.

Please, do, read the entire speech and let us know what you think!

Poaching (Monica)

2006-06-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

With a grateful look towards a friend's blog, I have poached this article by Holly Stratton as an excellent example of writing from a college girl.

Holly has a refreshing take on modesty and some noteworthy insights on the danger of digging deeper into our respective preferential trenches. My favorite is

"...Most of us will find ourselves in venues where the defining of lines and the drawing of specific applications are vital components of instruction. During this process, we can unwittingly carve a path to the goal that becomes deeply entrenched in our own opinions and biases. The deeper we dig, the easier it is to lose sight of the fact that our personalities, environments, and upbringings—and not the Word of God alone—have contributed to our specific courses of choice. This can prompt us to make not only unbiblical judgments against those who run paths that veer to our left or right but also dogmatic, authoritative statements about subjective matters."

The ensuing discussion is not overly edifying, but the original article, I thought, was exceptional.

Just A Thought (Rachelle)

2006-05-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

As the movie version of The Da Vinci Code prepares to open, the controversy surrounding it has people talking. I've read articles on blogs and in magazines about why Christians should and should not read the book/see the movie. Until today, I was confident in my decision to skip the book (and probably the movie). I had read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, which is similar in the riveting, page-turning action and the convoluted picture of Christianity portrayed. I could see why those not grounded in faith, doctrine, and church history could be easily confused. I didn't see the need to read another Dan Brown novel.

However, today I had the opportunity to comment for the local newspaper on the book and its theology. And I couldn't. I wasn't prepared. I hadn't read the material and had nothing authoritative to say.

Of course there is a line to what we take into our mind (Do we watch porn so we can speak about it authoritatively? No.) . But I found myself reminded of one the best reasons we should encourage the higher education of Christians: If you want to fight on the front lines of the culture war (or even be in the battle), you have to know what you are fighting. We have to be ready to give an answer "in season or out of season." Sometimes you can just share the Gospel, but often your conversations start on the world around you, a book, a movie, a play. If you haven't read Nietsche, or Marx, or Darwin or Dan Brown, you can't discuss them intelligently with a seeker. You never know when your chance may come.

purpose of secular education for Christians (Karen)

2006-04-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

As a follow-up to a comment on the previous thread, I thought this might be good to discuss.

In referring to the article by Pieter Friedrich, Pastor Mike Spreng said:

"The article is a little obnoxious but it is not all together “arrogant.” I think what he is trying to say is that his mind was not forming like he wanted it to. That is what college is supposed to be about! College should form the mind and give the student a grid, a hermeneutic, a general philosophy, to study whole life. It sounds like he wasn’t getting that. His mind was becoming a convoluted mess of “information.” That’s not learning; not proper learning, anyhow. Again, proper learning gives a person a worldview, an outlook, a pair of spectacles. Liberal study cannot and will not do this. And as far as the argument of “learning about what others are believing,” well…that is a very immature way to learn also. Haven’t you ever heard of the way the FBI trains when learning the crime of counterfeiting? They study the real bill so much that when a counterfeit runs past them, they spot it immediately. If they were to study the counterfeit bills instead, they would have an endless schooling that would teach them a lot of nothing. And that is what much of academia is doing: teaching a lot of nothing. It’s Marketing 101! Those publishers and teachers get paid ya know."

So I had these thoughts:

Mike,

Perhaps herein lies the problem....what is the purpose of a college education?

I would offer that going to college and attending college classes don't necessarily have the same purpose.

The experience of college teaches you all sorts of things we have addressed on this blog, ie, leadership skills, interpersonal relationship skills, independence, self-motivation, critical thinking skills, etc.

The classes, however, ought to be part of a whole learning process, preparing you to be accomplished enough to have a job, whether it be in a work environment or raising a family or in ministry. Class time will expose you to the ideas and worldviews of any number of people and it will also allow you the opportunity to evaluate the things you have learned up until that point. And it will give you a body of information you can and hopefully will use.

Pieter says that he was only attending college to get a degree. He didn't claim to go into it with the goal of having his mind shaped. In fact, it sounds like he really didn't go into it with the goal of learning anything at all, only to get a piece of paper for future employment.

I had another thought as I read through your comments and, looking at your profile, I think you might be Peiter's pastor. What do you think about Christian education vs secular education for Christians and how does that determine how you approach your classroom time? Are the minds of Christians supposed to be shaped by those with a secular worldview?

What do you all think?

anti-college arrogance at its finest (Karen)

2006-04-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

I recently came across this article by a homeschooled young man, Peter Friedrich, and I think it is a perfect example of the arrogance that is coming out of some circles regarding formal higher education. I would also note that his mother is Carmen Friedrich, whose blog has received many accolades, notably because of her anti-college-for-women writings.

After I had read it, I kept thinking about the fact that I learn something new every single day, something I didn’t know before. I read, I study, I interact with others and am always gaining a new perspective on subjects and ideas. I love it when this happens. How this guy can arrogantly state that he learned “nothing” from a slew of classes he took is incredible to me. If I had a child who behaved in that manner, I would certainly feel like I had failed to instruct him or instill in him the basic principle that God imparts wisdom to many people, not just yours truly! That and basic respect and manners.....

Oh bother…..

A Happy Housewife? (Monica)

2006-04-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

I happened across this story in today's local paper. Sad that the female author is once again pitting women against women. Beyond that though, it sounds like the same kind of schizophrenia that shows up in Where the Girls Are, the desire to be at home nesting, enjoying all the things traditionally "feminine," and yet not finding that the only place that God-given talents could/should be developed and used, needing a bigger horizon than the four walls of the house. The author, Flanagan, describes her book as "trying to say...It's a kind of life, a way of life that's wrought with divergent conflicting impulses."

Has anyone read her book? It's brand new, and I'm hoping to get it from the library in the next couple days.

Disclaimer: I'm not suggesting that there's anything Christian about Flanagan's book. I've not read it yet, and I don't know anything about her other than the reviews I've seen. I would expect her to mention education for women, and I'm curious to see what she has to say there.

A Woman for President? (Shanna)

2006-04-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

Recently, I ran into a fellow believer. We got to talking about politics and elections, and, in the course of the conversation, she told me she could never endorse a woman being president--or senator, representative, or mayor, in most cases. "I just don't think women should have that kind of leadership," she told me. She also said that she wouldn't know what to do without her husband--"How would I make decisions?" she explained. "Women and their hormones ... can you imagine?"

I asked her where we should draw the line--if a woman can't be in governmental leadership, can she be a company manager? a college professor? She told me that she'd really have to pray about that (or maybe ask her husband).

I think it's a very real question Christians have asked themselves: Could a woman be an effective president? According to a September article at ABC News, Americans may be ready; but are Christians also willing to ignore stereotypes and really search for the best candidate?

Alcott's Old-Fashioned Girls (Allison)

2006-04-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

Over spring break I re-read a book I haven't picked up since high school-- a lesser-known work by Louisa May Alcott (of Little Women fame) titled An Old-Fashioned Girl. Alcott chronicles the teen years of Polly, a young country girl "come to the city," and delves into autobiographical territory as she recounts the life of this independent young working woman (a music teacher) in mid-nineteenth century Boston. I would recommend this book to anyone with young daughters-- it is quite a fun read that encourages strong family ties and has an Austen-esque ending.

As pertains to this blog, I found a suprising and heartening passage from the viewpoint of Miss Mills, Polly's boarder, an older unmarried woman who is a shining example of one who provides for orphans, widows, and the poor in a way that many would do well to imitate. Her words of encouragement to young Polly reminded me of the ladies on this blog. I believe all of us "college girls" might find her words compelling.

Sadly, like many young women today, Polly's friends have failed to see value in anything other than themselves. Alcott holds Polly in a higher sphere, though, since, like herself, she chose to make her own way in the world rather than fill her time with frivolous parties and social occasions as the other unmarried girls do. In this conversation, Polly complains about being ridiculed by the society girls for her simple ways. Here, it is Polly's high moral character-- her empathy and concern for others-- that is being snubbed. Polly gripes:

I want to be strong-minded in the real sense of the word, but I don't like to be called so by people who don't understand my meaning, and I shall be if I try to make the girls think about anything sensible or philanthropic. They call me old-fashioned now, and I'd rather be thought that, though it isn't pleasant, than to be set down as a rampant woman's rights reformer. (174)

Miss Mills responds with sound advice, which I believe this blog has exemplified:

This love and thought and care for those weaker, poorer, or worse than ourselves, which we call Christian charity, is a very old fashion, my dear. It began eighteen hundred years ago, and only those who honestly follow the beautiful example set us then, learn how to get some happiness out of life. I'm not a 'rampant woman's rights reformer,' but I think that women can do a great deal for each other, if they will only stop fearing what 'people will think,' and take a hearty interest in whatever is going to fit their sisters and themselves to deserve and enjoy the rights God gave them. There are so many ways that this can be done, that I wonder they don't see and improve them. I don't ask you to go and make speeches, only a few have the gift for that, but I do want every girl and woman to feel this duty, and make any little sacrifice of time or feeling that may be asked of them, because there is so much to do, and no one can do it as well as ourselves, if we only think so. (175, emphasis mine)

women and education by Susan Wise Bauer (Karen)

2006-04-10T03:47:00.000-07:00

Susan Wise Bauer has some interesting thoughts on women, education, patriarchy, and culture this morning on her blog. It is a short article but in a couple paragraphs she makes some interesting points.

Is anyone here familiar with the Stackhouse book she references?

future college girls? (Karen)

2006-04-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

Now here are some future college girls for you!

It seems to me that there are at least two scary aspects to this video clip, which some people think are funny and some are horrified by!

The first is that these girls are in an elite school, a school that has been pronounced by the powers that be as outstanding. 19 out of 20 had no clue what suffrage is! What does this tell us?

Secondly, why were they so willing to sign something without knowing what it meant?

Any thoughts on what this has to do with educating women?

Also, I would like to remind people, again, that this is not a far-fetched view. As I mentioned in a earlier post, places like Vision Forum are supporting the notion that universal suffrage should be abolished.

objectionable or not? (Shanna)

2006-04-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

One of the most common arguments I've heard against formal education--for men or women--is that it exposes Christian students to objectionable elements.

The following quotation, which I just read in Christian Education: Its Mandate and Mission, gives an excellent response to those concerns:

"Our spiritual affinities are with these who hold the exclusivist position [the position described above], and our sympathies must be also. They are the ones with the sensitive consciences, the zeal for what is pleasing to God, the vigilance toward the moral erosion of society. But they should consider the implications of their position. To reject a work of literature or subject of study because of the presence of any amount of these elements within it is, first to apply a standard that precludes the possibility of a liberal arts education. We forego the major works of Shakespeare, Spenser, Pope, Swift, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning, Hawthorne, Melville, Clemens, Frost, and almost every other standard writer. We do not teach the Declaration of Independence, for its arguments are based on the secularist idea of natural rights. Even Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is suspect, for the key to the outer gate (the iron gate) of Doubting Castle, Bunyan tells us, turned "damnable hard." (Bunyan, of course, meant "able to damn," but he must also have been punning.)

Now if eschewing evil requires foregoing a liberal arts education even in a Christian educational environment, then so be it. No human educational values should be allowed to compete with spiritual. However, we recall that "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22). Paul, we know, had the learning of the Greeks, for quotations and echoes of pagan writers appear here and there in his epistles. He knew Greek poetry well enough to quote from emory the minor poets Aratus and Epimenides of Crete on Mars Hill. Furthermore, of Daniel and his three friends we are told that "God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and widom" (Dan. 1:17). Evidently, in these cases, the divine preparation for leadership included familiarization with the writings not only of the inspired authors of the Scriptures but also of the poets, scientists, and philosphers of pagan intellectual and literary traditions. The exclusivist view, if consistently held, condemns the manner in which God conducted the preparation of these great men of Scripture or implies that God did not approve of it."

Just Who Are These Women? (Monica)

2006-04-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

I'm Monica, a recent college grad and newly married enough to still be, well...newly married. :-) I married my best friend last August, and we're currently in NC while he wraps up his law degree at Duke University. He has one more year of school before we swap working and schooling; as God allows, he'll grab himself a "real job" and I'll be back in school working on a master's of social work. My undergraduate degree was in Rhetoric and Public Address after I realized (under Camille's excellent guidance) that my world could and should be far bigger than a practice studio and a piano, and I wouldn't trade my college years for anything.

I can hardly begin to list the things that God taught me in college. Through my roommates, He taught me patience and tolerance and even some modicum of neatness. :-) Through my friends, He gave me fellowship and a husband and challenges to examine, defend, and live out what I believed. Through my teachers (most notably, thgough Camille), He exposed me to the processes of critical thinking and a radically different theology and much wisdom in the interpersonal arena. Those years and those lessons made me who I am now, and they contribute to who I am continuing to become.

I'm thrilled to be a part of this board, to add another color to the picture, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you much better than I do now.

ETA: My hubby and I do not as yet have any children, but we are the very proud parents of a small bird named DeWitt. He's just too cute, and you can find lots of pictures of him on my blog.

even Florence had to hear this! (Karen)

2006-03-31T11:58:00.000-08:00

“It seems a commonly received idea among men and even among women themselves that it requires nothing but a disappointment in love, the want of an object, a general disgust, or incapacity for other things, to turn a woman into a good nurse.”

Comment from is an 1898 edition of Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not.

Delivering The Oppressed (Rachelle)

2006-03-31T10:56:00.000-08:00

For those who are contemplating whether women belong in the professional world, consider this:

I have been reading Terrify No More by Gary Haugen and Gregg Hunter. The book focuses on the work of International Justice Mission(IJM), an organization that takes seriously the words of Isaiah 1:17: Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows (NLT). IJM has dived into the underworld of sex trafficking, forced child prostitution and bonded slavery to bring justice to the oppressed.

As I was reading the account of a particularly large rescue operation, Gary Haugen talks about the aftercare of these girls sold into sexual slavery. After all that has been done for them, it becomes necessary for women (trained, educated women) to take over most of the aftercare. These young girls have been victimized by nearly every male they have ever encountered and it is up to women to attempt the initial processes of rehabilitation. The woman in charge of these operations is a Harvard Law grad named Sharon Cohn. Sharon is a wonderful Christian woman who puts herself in harm's way to obey the call of God in a way that only a woman really can. I can think of no higher calling for a daughter of mine than to stand in harm's way and live the Gospel for a group of girls whose own parents have often sold them into sexual slavery.

Along those lines, here is a thought-provoking post by Jeannine Kellogg on the growing problem of sexual trafficking and the work of IJM.

plan A vs plan B (Karen)

2006-03-30T15:49:00.000-08:00

One of my biggest concerns regarding those who do not believe a woman ought to go to college is that there is the assumption that all women will marry, or should marry, or should marry young, or that their greatest goal should be to prepare for all of the above.

I do not disparage marriage. In fact, I have enjoyed the fruits of said institution for over 31 years. I am a huge fan of marriage. However, I do not believe that all women are called to marriage or to raising children. If it were an absolute truth that all are to marry and raise children, then there would be an entire people group made up of past and present saints who have lived out God’s second best for them. They have embraced plan B and are either waiting for plan A to kick in or they have settled for plan B.

If we believe in a God who is sovereign, this cannot be. God only operates with a plan A that he fully intends to see to its completion. Here is a wonderful quote I read just this week from When Life and Beliefs Collide by Carolyn Custis James:

“The questions about God that seem to surface most often in conversations I have with women center on God’s sovereignty and character. Is God really in control, or does sovereignty change hands from moment to moment, shifting between God, the devil, and pure chance? Does God care only about the major events and choices of my life, or does he also rule over the details? What kind of God would allow such painful things to happen to us? Do I really matter to God, or am I less important than others who seem more entitled to his attentions? These questions about God (which weighed heavily on my own heart) send us back to read the Scriptures again this time with theological eyes, searching for God….When God is big, everything begins to look different…..

Those who believe that God has a plan for them sometimes encounter another problem…the conviction that they have lost God’s best plan for them. They believe that they have missed God’s best plan for them….

But if God is sovereign, then plan B is a myth. No matter how dark things look to us, or how big the mess we’re in, we’re in plan A. God’s plan for us is intact, proceeding exactly as he intended, neither behind nor ahead but right on schedule. Nothing, not our sins, failures, disappointments, bad decision, nor the sins of others against us, can deter a sovereign God from accomplishing his purposes.”

biographies of Christian women (Karen)

2006-03-30T05:23:00.000-08:00

Knowing how much I love to read biographies, a friend of mine suggested a book called Alabaster Doves, by Linda Holland. An easy read (I read it in a few hours), the book tells the story of 8 women "whose lives were characterized by strength and gentleness" as the book cover says.

It was a fun read because I had never heard of some of these ladies and yet they had a profound impact on the culture in which they lived. What really jumped off the page to me, however, was the fact that God had planned lives for them that they never imagined as they were growing up and that each of them had been so perfectly, providentially prepared for His calling, though they were not aware of it beforehand. And it is apparent that education was a part of those callings.

My favorite story was of a woman who had been trained as a nurse, specializing in herbal remedies, prior to the Civil War. That training allowed her to be qualified as a botanical physician so she was able to support her family when her husband died. It also allowed her to have a special ministry within the small community where she lived in the Midwest.

Years later she was asked to volunteer as a nurse to over 500 Union troops from her own hometown who were dying in southern Illinois. Eventually her training took her to the front lines of battle, ministering as a nurse and comforting as a mother to the young men. When the war was over, she was given a soldier's pension for her volunteer work, something nearly unheard of at that time!

We do not know what the Lord has in store for us. We do know that His ways are perfect and are not our ways. We do know that God intends to prepare us for His callings on our lives and that He uses education to do just that in many instances!

Have any of you read other biographies of Christian women where education has played a major role in their callings? All book suggestions welcome!

comment moderation (mollie)

2006-03-28T07:08:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the inconvenience of comment moderation. We've had some issues with profane and vulgar language being posted in archived posts. As a Christian blog, we will not tolerate name-calling or gratuitous sexual language in either posts or comments. We welcome challenging comments from readers who disagree with our viewpoint, but will not allow explicit language or verbal abuse to be posted to the public blog itself.

Thanks to all of our readers who oppose college for women but have the ability to express themselves without resorting to vituperation!

Some quotes on women, their intellect, and their education (Karen)

2006-03-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

”Men should not sit and listen to a woman. Even if she says admirable things, or even saintly things, that is of little consequence, since they came from the mouth of a woman.”

Origen, early church father.

“Woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex, while production of woman comes from defect in the active force.”

Thomas Aquinas

”It is an ascertained physiological fact that the actual capacity of the average male brain is considerably greater than that of the female.”

M. Burrows, in an 1869 article that argued against allowing women to attend college in England

“What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother; it is still Eve the temptress that we must be aware of in any woman…I fail to see what use women can be to man, if one excludes the function of bearing children.”

St. Augustine of Hippo

“The female is more imperfect than the male. The first reasons is that she is colder. If, among animals, the warmer ones are more active, it follows that the colder ones are imperfect.”

Galen, a “medical expert” in the 3^rd century (He, obviously, had never experienced post-menopausal women, btw.)

“God maintained the order of each sex by dividing the business of life into twoparts, and assigned the more necessary and beneficial aspects to the man and the less important, inferior matters to the woman.”

Early church father, John Chrysostom

“A womans intellect is normally more feeble and her curiosity greater than those of a man…women should not govern the state or make war or enter the sacred ministry. Thus they can dispencse with some of the more difficult brances of knowledge which deal with politics, the military arts, jurisprudence, philosophy and theology…Their bodies as well as th3eir minds are less storng and robust than those of men.”

Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fenelon, in The Education of Females, published in late 17^th century.

I would also like to point out that some of those who are leading the movement for young ladies to not attend college are also advocating a return to the day when we didn't have the right to vote. As far fetched as this may sound, check out this link to read about a film these two guys are making for the 2006 Vision Forum film festival. (Here is a link to the film on Doug Phillip's blog, where they list "universal sufferage" along with abortion as those things supported by "monstrous" women.")

coming to a homeschooling convention near you (Karen)

2006-03-21T08:16:00.000-08:00

This is a excerpt from an article by John Thompson. He is often a speaker in home-integrated church conferences and homeschooling events and this article is linked to and referenced often by homeschooling leaders who bring this same teaching to conferences all around the country.

Any thoughts?

It was in the other two disciplines—the life skills and spiritual development—that we found substantial, gender-related differences which would affect the content of our daughters' education. Since the role of ninety-nine percent of young women is to be a devoted wife and mother (i.e., not remain single, Gen. 1:28), her training in life skills must prepare her to be a capable helper to her husband, trainer of her children and caretaker of her home (Gen. 2:18; Prov. 1:8; Tit. 2:5). Such skills would certainly include all that is involved in the spheres of cooking, sewing, home care, child care, health care, animal care, gardening, and domestic finances.

Further, if a young woman's spiritual role is to be a servant-contributor, the content of her training must equip her to be a submissive helper in the home as well as in the assembly, freeing up the men to exercise their God-appointed leadership (1 Tim. 2:8-15). Training of this sort might include a major ministry to mothers in the church (on Sundays and weekdays too) as well as helping with the church nursery, fellowship meals, home Bible study hostess, music ministry, hospitality, family evangelism, missions helper, visitation of shut-ins, etc.—all under parental supervision, of course.

In summary, a young woman's training should be modeled after the examples of Sarah, Mary and the virtuous wife of Proverbs 31, whose lives centered around their husband, children and homeworking (cf. 1 Tim. 2:15). A Christian woman's God-ordained "career" is not just in her home—it is her home (i.e., her husband and her children)!

Where is this training to occur? At some distant school, camp or other educational setting? Decidedly not! The fundamental tenet that distinguishes Christian home education from Christian school education is our belief that the parents are a child's God-appointed teachers (Ps. 78:1-8; Prov. 6:20) and that the family home (and its environs) is the God-ordained classroom—"when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way" (Deut. 6:7; 1 Cor. 15:33).

Then when do older children finally leave the family home? For young women, it seems, the Scriptural time for departure is at marriage, and not before (1 Cor. 7:36-38). Because God created the woman to be the "weaker vessel" (more vulnerable, 1 Pet. 3:7; 1 Tim. 2:14), He intends for her never to be out from under the protective covering of either a father or a husband (1 Sam. 30:18). She is to abide in the protective shadow of her father (Ps. 36:7) until she moves into the shadow of her husband (S.of S. 2:3). This is the clear implication of Numbers 30 which sets forth only three Scriptural marital states for women: a single woman in her father's house (normally in her youth), a married woman in her husband's house, and a divorced or widowed woman who is under the direct protection of God (Ps. 68:5) and the care of church elders (1 Tim. 5:3ff). There is no biblical marital status (and no normative Scriptural example) of a single woman who leaves her father's home for reasons other than marriage. Obviously, such a conclusion from Scripture had a significant impact on where we would train our daughters and where they would reside before marriage.

Just Who Are These Women? (Rachelle)

2006-03-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

This is post no. 12 in a series.

I'm Rachelle, a 30-something wife and mother. I was born and raised in Oregon in a Christian family and homeschooled for most of my education. My extended family was very pro-education and I started requesting college brochures at 15 and after graduation attended Biola University in southern California for a year before my money ran out. I took three years off to work, save, and pray and then finished my education at Concordia University in Portland, earning a degree in Humanities and a minor in International Business. The highlight of my college career was attending Oak Hill College in London for a semester.

I have worked in higher education (admissions) for 6 years at three different colleges. While working in Virginia, I met and married my husband, Mike, and we have a 2-yr. old son Ben. I left the full-time work force when Ben was 4 1/2 months to be home with him and we subsequently moved to western Washington state. We are active in Christ the Victor Church, where I help with the church calendar.

I'm excited about the voice that got me a college girl brings to the table for many reasons. One is the lack of support I received from my family when I knew that a college education was the right thing for me to pursue. Secondly, my most recent job in higher education brought me into contact with a lot of people that believed that a college education should not a viable option for women and others who thought the value of college for a girl was an expensive debutante ball where their daughters would be introduced to "a higher calibre" of male prospects for a husband. Third, I encountered opposition from some who presumed that because I was an educated woman in the workplace, I would not be willing to submit to my husband and stay home and raise children. I find this view so biased, as if the modern workforce is such a wonderful place for a woman that once she has experienced it, she'll never want to leave. I've never heard this vocalized by women who have been there, but only those who haven't worked outside the home, and men. Lastly, I was single until I was 32 and knew that to some I had less value as a single woman than I would have had I been married and having children. The students I worked with often felt this acutely too, and I spent some time with young women in my office who were confused about their place as Christian women in the 21st century. This blog speaks to their inate value as daughters of God in a culture that pulls them between being defined by their economic/educational value or by their relational value (whom they are married to/mother to).

I relish the opportunity to be home full-time with my son and to help my husband manage his life more effectively. I fully recognize that this is a gift that not everyone has the opportunity for, and am thankful that God has let me be home for this season of my life.

critical thinking skills (Karen)

2006-03-13T08:59:00.000-08:00

Another reason that college is a good thing…..

I have been trying to put my finger on the phrase that best describes something I often see missing in those who have not had a college experience of some sort. It finally came to me a while back….it is the lack of critical thinking skills.

In a college situation, your work is constantly being scrutinized and held up to public scrutiny. You are forced to not only evaluate the work of others but to thoughtfully consider what they have produced as well, whether it be a project, a written paper, an artistic work, a performance, etc. You develop these skills not only by what you hear others say in their evaluations, but by formulating your own thoughts, presenting them, and then sometimes failing, and sometimes succeeding.

If one goes straight from a high school or homeschooling environment into their own home, this is not developed. Independent study and self-teaching will not give one those skills. Your world seems much too small and it certainly does prohibit the types of ministry you are able to have with others as well as an ability to process and evaluate the world around you. A formal college education, studying with others who have developed these skills and are able to train you to do likewise, can address this.

I am convinced that these are skills that are much needed just to be able to present one’s self to others, whether we are having a discussion with a friend or spouse or if we are debating an issue, hoping to gain credibility for our position. If these skills aren’t developed and polished, I believe you will reach a physical maturity level but will lack an emotional maturity that allows you to listen and hear others and then respond accordingly.

I will give a practical example of this. I have been involved in a Toastmaster’s club for about 5 years. Half of what we do is to present speeches and the other half is to evaluate other’s speeches. My pet peeve is when an evaluator bases his evaluation of someone’s speech solely on his own experience as he listened to the speech. This happens too frequently, sometimes with seasoned club members. I have come to realize that many of the people who do this have had little formal education and have not been forced to think outside of their own boxes. Thus, they only bring their own experiences and own feelings to the table.

Does anyone else see this?

what is their generation thinking? (Karen)

2006-03-13T07:21:00.000-08:00

I came across this “rant” on a young high school or college girl’s blog recently and thought it brought up an interesting perspective worthy of College Girl discussion.

“I believe the influences of Christian mothers and romantically-themed movies (cite Ever After, every single Disney movie ever shoved at us, My Fair Lady) lead young Christian women to believe that they aren't 'complete' or that they haven't fully become a woman until they've fallen in love and gotten married. Or at least, Hollywood usually stops at marriage. The Christian mothers press for lawful procreation. Though I'm not sure how widespread this view has become, my mother told me she expected me to marry and have as many children as I could and she expected all other Christian women to take the same course. She explained her view as 'populating the world with Christians.' I realize I know nothing of the subject. I beg forgiveness for ignorant remarks. Yet I firmly believe that both these influences- Hollywood's happily-ever-after with a white knight and the Christian mother's view of a women's dominant role as a mother, making the most of her youth- are harmful and lead to premature marriage and an unstable home environment when mothers become disenchanted with the myth.

My solution, like my argument is imperfect. I believe women and Christian women especially should consider their choices before they marry, choose a career or children and stick with your choice. If you intend to marry and start a family right out of college, why even go to college in the first place? Our fight to break free of our culture's 'ridiculous obsession with love!' will be difficult and perhaps impossible but better to go down fighting rather than search for an idealized love that will leave us empty in the end.”

So this made me wonder if there are quite a few moms who are pressuring their daughters into not choosing college. I also want to add the Jane Austin books/moves to the list of romantic media that paints the same view for women, i.e., that you must have a man to be complete.

I thought this writer was asking valid questions.

Any thoughts?

four things meme, cont. (joy)

2006-03-10T13:42:00.000-08:00

wish I had something more substantial to contribute. maybe soon. ~ joy

Four Jobs I've Worked
translator's assistant in a french manufacturing firm
wrote/produced videos for a high school french curriculum
language tutor (greek, tesl)
executive editor (right now)

Four Places I've Lived
greenville, south carolina (birth, college)
warsaw/indianapolis/lapel/pendleton, indiana
kremmling, colorado (camp counselor)
rockford, illinois (to date)

Four Vacations I've Taken
winter garden/orlando, florida (epcot and mgm, '90)
mission, texas/reynosa, mexico (another friend's wedding, '96)
sarasota/bradenton, florida (best college friend's wedding '98)
fort collins/kremmling/denver, colorado (friends' wedding, camp visit '04)

Four Vehicles I've ~~Owned~~ Driven
phineas. my '89 beige honda accord (first love)
my brother's safari yellow volvo wagon (in a blizzard)
my pastor's minivan (nerve-wracking! for an airport run)
luther. my '93 black chevy cavalier wagon (currently totalled)

On Pygmalion (Shanna)

2006-03-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

For a class, I recently read an article* discussing the literacy narrative, a genre of autobiography that relates one’s process of acquiring language/education. In this particular study, the authors looked at George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (or more familiarly, My Fair Lady).

Their topic: “Pygmalion raises … questions about the nature of literacy education, about whether literacy can be acquired without institutional training, about the relationship between literacy and socialization, employment, and mobility, about the continuities and tensions between speech and writing, about the influence of popular and literary genres on literacy formation, and about the role of gender in the acquisition of schooled language.”

Their thesis: This is the great literacy myth: “Training in reading and writing [are] the skills necessary for the survival of modern culture as we know it.”

In other words, Literacy (or the education to gain literacy)=Success is a false idea.

In Shaw’s play, Eliza is reformed by Henry Higgins; he trains her to speak and behave like an educated woman. Those who purport education would say this training is helpful, necessary even, for Eliza’s developing of her talents and mind. But the authors of this article (and Shaw, possibly) disagree: “[Eliza’s] journey involves, as we have noted, a failure of memory, an erasure of origin … Henry leaves Eliza with no place in which to use literacy she has been compelled to acquire at Wimpole Street.”

So, the questions they raise for me are thus: Do the benefits of education (particularly for women) outweigh the negatives? Or even, are there negatives? Do uneducated people, as this article suggests, lose something in gaining literacy?

*Article: Eldred, Janet Carey and Peter Mortensen. “Reading Literacy Narratives.” College English, Volume 14, Number 5, September 1992. Pp. 512-39.

Just Who Are These Women? (Shanna)

2006-02-28T15:06:00.000-08:00

This is post number eleven in the series.

I’m Shanna, a twenty-something college girl in love with her God, his Word, and his remarkable sovereignty. Along my sanctification journey, this Savior’s shown me his ways are not my ways, and he’s impassioned me towards learning.

Here’s my story:

God graciously gave me a Christian heritage, providing parents who reared me with Biblical principles in our home and sent me to a Christian school, K-12. At age nine, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, after watching the rapture-based film A Thief in the Night; by that age, I could have told you about salvation with my eyes closed, but not until the specific night in December did I recognize the truths to be for me.

Since then, the most important thing about me has been my relationship with God, and I have joyfully desired and grown in him for almost fifteen years.

I attended Clearwater Christian College in Florida during my freshman year and then transferred to Northland Baptist Bible College in Wisconsin, from where I now hold a B.S. in secondary education. After graduating, I moved back home to weigh options and plan for the future. Now, I am attending DePaul University, pursuing an M.A. in writing. Plans for the future are many and changing, but most likely they will involve more school. :)

What I love about College Girl and what’s made me a faithful reader for the past six months is that it celebrates something often overlooked by the Christian circles in which I travel: women’s education.

I grew up wishing for nothing more than a husband and family, and these things are not wrong. But God has graciously denied that desire for now, showing me how different his plans can be for each of his children.

“The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9, NAS)

What I want--I mean what I really, really want--most for my life is for it to please the Lord; through my pastor, parents, friends, and acquaintances, God has confirmed my path—right now, in school—to be doing exactly that. Through my experiences in secular school, I’ve met other Believers, had opportunities to share Truth, and my perspective has broadened to accept how big our God and his plans are.

To those who revere family making, let me say that I do, too! I read an article by John MacArthur (which I unfortunately cannot seem to find again) where he said that if a woman becomes a lawyer and then becomes a stay-at-home mom, well then her family gets a wife/mother who thinks and plans like a lawyer. Amen, I now say.

I love, love, love school. I hope to be learning indefinitely.

“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you” (Karen)

2006-02-24T14:51:00.000-08:00

Well, once again, I feel as though this College Girl is battling those who believe a college education is wasted on stay-at-home wives and mothers and this time it is coming from the far left. Alert College Girl reader, Jenni, sent this link our direction and I would encourage you to read it as it does bring up some of things we have talked about on this blog.

ABC’s Good Morning America has hosted a series of Mommy Wars segments where, according to Dr. Al Moehler, attorney Linda Hirshman “has told America's moms that their work is fundamentally unimportant, uninteresting, and fundamentally unworthy of any "complicated" and "educated" person….Women who stay at home with their children, turning their back on promising careers, "are letting down the team," she asserts. They are rejecting the very feminist ideal that the radical ideologues have adopted and they are undermining the cause of all women, in Hirshman's condescending view.”

Did anyone see these programs? What say ye?

avoiding the "big head" of education (Karen)

2006-02-23T07:41:00.000-08:00

Theologian in training, Michele, had some great words of wisdom regarding the importance of life experience to honing our education. Here are a few words from her ongoing Theologian in Training Manifesto:

Yesterday we studied applications in my hermeneutics class. When you study the word you have to experience it in life to grow enough to handle what you have learned. Seminary students learn so much in such a short period of time that there's no way we can experience enough to handle that much knowledge. Professor Poythress said that it would take about twenty years to do so. He said that we were these big, misshapened-head creatures, that we were monsters and we should remember that and not allow our knowledge to puff us up (1 Corinthians 8:1).

I thought about it later that day and decided that it would make a great starting point to my Theologian in Training Manifesto: We know that knowledge should not puff up but lead to the love of God and to the love of our neighbor as ourselves. We should never attempt to win an argument at the expense of our fellow Christian or cause them to stumble on account of us but we are to hold firm to the truth and share it in love and concern for the unity of the body, all the while remembering that "all people" will know that we are Christ's disciples by our love (John 13:35).

(Michele, by the way, is a seminary student at Westminster East.)

more comments on the anti-college for women mindset (Karen)

2006-02-23T05:52:00.000-08:00

Here is an example of first-hand experience with those who believe women ought not to attend college. Rachelle comments in this essay about what she terms "conservative feminism*" and how it relates to the education of women.

For a long while I would not have called myself a feminist and what has really made me rethink the whole issue has been my introduction (more recently) to what I call the anti-feminist. The person who tells me on the phone that he won't send his sons to the college I work for because we educate women and that my being in the workplace is contrary to Scripture and an affront to my husband; the homeschooling speaker who only allows women to work for him if they are working under the supervision of their husband, father, or brother, who also receives their wages; the woman who tells me that she doesn't know anything about the family finances because that would be usurping her husband's authority; the woman who tells me that our country would be much better off if women didn't have the right to vote; the girl I met with at her high school who speaks four languages (several of them self-taught) and whose eyes light up when we she asks me what they teach at my college but whose high school counselor tells me privately later will never be allowed to go to college because her parents are afraid that if she were educated "no man would have her." It is these people who have shown me what I am, a feminist. But I am uncomfortable with the term. Probably because of the name that socialist, radical and liberal feminists have made for the movement. But wait! There's a new label. (Actually several. Cultural and eco-feminism have been added too.) Conservative feminism. And that is the label I feel the most comfortable with, even if there are those in this arena that I am not entirely too sure about.

*Conservative feminism " criticizes the feminism which "adopts a male model of careerism and public achievement as female goals, thereby denying women's need for intimacy, family, and children." They fear that "equality means death to the family." They often reject the popular feminist epigram, "the personal is political."

Earl of Lytton (Camille)

2006-02-20T07:06:00.000-08:00

"It is a wonderful advantage to a man, in every pursuit or avocation, to
secure an adviser in a sensible woman. In woman there is at once a
subtile delicacy of tact & plain soundness of judgment which are rarely
combined to an equal degree in man. A woman, if she be really your
friend, will have a sensitive regard for your character, honor, repute.
She will seldom cousel you to do a shabby thing; for a woman friend
always desires to be proud of you."

The Earl of Lytton (1831-91)

I have had this framed on my office wall for some time, and then the
nail came loose, and it has fallen. Should I return it to my wall? Is it
something a college gal can promote? *think think* Are our proficiencies
best demonstrated as compliments to the masculine? Must we be only
passive advisors?

Christine de Pisan, placed in the Medieval courtly life with a widowed
mother and several young charges, was forced to find a way to support
her family. She wrote. She created manners manuals for her fellow
courtly women telling them, much like Lytton, that their best character
trait was diplomacy and that they can woo the men in their lives to
their better selves. She was an Esther in her time. I'd like to think
that she was a College Gal.

Does it matter that a man is expressing his gratitude for the Esthers
qua Esthers in his life versus a woman advising other women to be
Esther-like? When are we to be like Deborah? Could the Earl be as
thankful for a Deborah?

more good thoughts on women and college (Karen)

2006-02-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

Kim, whose blog Mother-Lode is not only full of wisdom but is one of the most visually lovely blogs I have seen, gave College Girl kudos in December and I didn't discover it until this morning. Her own thoughts on college for women is a must read and the comments from others are thoughtful. Here is a taste:

"....the current Christian reaction leaves us feeling that after high school a godly father should essentially warehouse his daughter until he finds a husband for her. It seems there are two fundamental misconceptions underlying this flawed idea of Christian womanhood. 1) A girl's preparation for life should have more to do with her office as a wife & mother than it does with who she is as a creation of God. 2) Being a "Keeper at Home" involves nothing more than cooking, cleaning and childbearing."

You can read the rest here.

a theological education for women and the application thereof (Karen)

2006-02-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

As we have mentioned several times on this blog and as I have long suspected, one of the real reasons that men do not want to see women educated is that they think we will not be content in our roles as wives and mothers if we are...at least content in what they believe it means to be a wife and mother. The ideas that some women will be widows at a young age or that women may remain single for a longer period of time in this culture (or even remain single their entire lives) are of little concern. One size certainly must fit all, we have observed.

Along these lines, there has been quite the discussion going on over at the BaylyBlog, owned by two brothers who are PCA pastors, regarding women who have attended seminary and their place in the church once their educations are complete. There has actually been little profitable discussion regarding actual application of said degrees. Rather, it has centered around the criticism of the woman who wrote this article for a Presbyterian Church of America publication and comments she made at a conference on gender and the church held recently at Covenant College. A first hand recap of the conference can be found here and here and is quite interesting. It should also be mentioned that no one at the conference or in these discussions is advocating the ordination of women. This is a discussion of women using their education within the church after they have been to seminary that has somehow taken on a life of its own and participants are accusing, by default, those who found something good in her article of not loving God's word. PCAer's beware.

There is also a PCA pastor in Arizona who has taken it upon himself to write a catechism for women which I will share here, as it does relate to the women and college issue. I would agree that, as women, we must seek to live to God's glory. However, what this actually means, I believe, is still a matter worthy of discussion.

Q: "What does it mean for a woman to be theologically trained?"

A: A theologically trained woman is a one, who, in the fear of God, does not disdain her sex for something more sophiticated such as writing books or speaking at conferences or translating Hebrew.

Q: "What would we call such a disdaining woman?"

A: Such a woman is, ironically, a Martha not a Mary.

Q: "How can [a woman] use [theological] instruction for the betterment of the church?

A: The church is bettered and strengthened when her women do not, as we would expect women of the world to do, for the sake of worldly acclaim or domestic ease, cast off their sex and play the man.

Q: "What are gender-specific roles and how and why are they defined?"

A: Christians shouldn't speak of "gender-specific roles" since the calling of womanhood and manhood is not a role in a stage-play; nor is maleness or femaleness some "gender construct" but a chromosomal, creational, existential reality.

Q: "What then should Christians speak about?"

A: Christians should think and speak in terms of how God has called each sex to live to His glory.

Q: "How should each sex live to His glory?"

A: The calling of the sexes is articulated in the Word of God; it is defined by the Holy Spirit; and the reason for these callings can be found in the mind of God Himself.

Q: "Is there nothing more than what Scripture says?"
A: If, in seeking novel applications of God's Word, you avoid applying God's word, you are either a fool or being paid. If you do this and call it wisdom, you are an enemy.

how much housewifery training does a woman need? (mollie)

2006-02-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

One of the arguments against Christian women attending college centers around the notion that wives and mothers don't *need* higher education, that what they *need* is to immerse themselves in homelife. These young women place themselves in an environment with a housewife and small children and lots of housework to do. This household is either the woman's own home and under the direct influence of her mother and father, or it's another home with the proper conditions, under the influence of a suitable family which has been approved, of course, by the woman's father.

My question is, just how much of this kind of preparation does a woman need? Honestly, now. It probably took three loads of dishes in my miniscule kitchen sink before I knew just how to stack glasses and plates in the drainer, just what to wash first, just what to do to discover the most efficient way of doing dishes. It takes say, three minutes to look at the pile of laundry and know that there are six loads of clothes and one of diapers (which takes longer) and that I certainly can catch up today and possibly vacuum the laundry room floor, to boot! It takes thirteen seconds to find a recipe on the internet to make for dinner tonight, another twenty three seconds to email my husband and ask him to pick up some loose leaf lettuce and a tomato on his way home from work. It seems to me that general housework and home management could be learned fairly quickly, if one were nominally interested and not over-zealous with an acre of organic garden and a loom to weave textiles that will clothe the entire family and the worse-off family down the street.

Let's be generous and say that it could be a practical and beneficial situation for a woman to spend one year in such a circumstance. Assuming that she's been sitting on cushions eating strawberries and cream all her life, her education or apprenticeship or whatever they want to call it will start with the basics. During that year she will learn how to clean the house from top to bottom, to cook three meals a day without ever resorting to pop tarts or take-out. She'll learn how to manage multiple children at once, juggling diaper changes and dart guns and american girl doll buttons at the same time without screaming and running for the street. She'll learn how to work within a budget, feeding and clothing a family on one income. She'll even have time for the extras that will truly make her a woman of housewifery accomplishment: sewing, knitting, basic gardening, recycling, the grinding of wheat and baking of bread, and more!

After this one year in which she has learned how to be a housewife, what next? More years of the same? Why? Extra practice? In order to impress a man in search of such a woman who can do it all, and do it while he's watching with her father and a cigar from the next room, a commercial of sorts for the tools of the trade with which she is so readily equipped?

Could the reasoning be rooted in discontentment? These women want to be married and want to have children but have not yet been blessed with a spouse and a household of their own. So instead of embracing the season of life in which they currently live, the season of being a single adult, they've decided, or their fathers have decided for them, to live in another season of life. Rather than doing things that are commonly done while single, such as working for and earning a college education, or pursuing a career, since they do not have their own pile of dishes to scrub and floors to sweep, they live vicarously through another woman's brillo and besom.

Am I missing something here? The most obvious things that one would need to learn in order to fulfil this particular kind of role should not take very long at all. Is it a relationship issue? Observing healthy marriages at work, observing parent/child relationships? How much will the lengthy observation of another woman's marriage and another woman's children assist the apprentice in her own relationships, should she ever have them? Observation only gives so much, and no matter how involved someone is in the lives of another, it's no blueprint for the future. The apprentice will marry another man and have other children, all of whom come with their own unique personalities and quirks. Is it then necessary to live in and observe this way? If so, for how long?

I'm not opposed to homemaking apprenticeship, not at all. In general, it sounds like a good idea. It seems to me, though, that a woman who is 18 and has lived in a bread-baking, child-loving, one-income household her entire life would already know the bulk of what she's supposedly so desperate to learn in her apprenticeship. And if she is deficit in an area, then learning what is needed shouldn't take years and years to remedy. Is college out of the question for these women, then? Why is it an either/or issue?

Or is the "I need to do things that will prepare me for life as a wife and mother" statement a red herring? Is the real issue the need of these parents to control another person or to control women? Does it boil down to the parents wanting to control every decision of the child, even the grown child? If so, at what point does a grown woman have any control over the specifics of her life? Ever? Does the issue center around the patriarchal idea that a daughter is controlled by her father until she is passed on to an approved husband who will also control her? Does submission mean that the woman never makes choices without first having approval from a man, that she cannot educate herself and learn and believe things that may be contrary to the beliefs of her father or her husband? Is not submission something a person decides to do because they want to do it? In the same way that obedience from children cannot be forced (compliance can be forced, and often should be, but obedience is willing, it's something the child does out of love for the parent), submission cannot be forced, can it?

Thoughts?

freidan in agreement with neopatriarchs? (Karen)

2006-02-06T14:01:00.000-08:00

"Housewives are mindless and thing-hungry... ; They are trapped in trivial domestic routine and meaningless busywork within a community that does not challenge their intelligence. Housework is peculiarly suited to the capabilities of feeble-minded girls; it can hardly use the abilities of a woman of average or normal human intelligence."

Betty Freidan, author of The Feminist Mystique and who died on Saturday at the age of 85.

In blogging about her this morning, it occured to me that her view of homemaking is not too far off from the views of those who do not believe that women ought to attend college. Those people would argue that women needn't be educated to work and minister in their homes and it appears that Freidan would agree. Any thoughts?

educating women a Christian innovation (mollie)

2006-02-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

Augustine noted that "Christian women were better educated than the pagan male philosophers." Martin Luther wanted education to be available to all because"because people needed both to understand the Word of Scripture and the nature of the world in which the Word would take root." John Calvin advocated the education of all, including secondary education.

Read more about it here!

Things I Didn't Learn in College (Allison)

2006-02-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

Though we are a blog full of "college girls," I believe we all acknowledge there are skills and abilities we have acquired that we could not have learned just by sitting in on a classroom lecture. We were taught to bake or sew or a myriad of other things that make a house a home by patient mothers, grandmothers, relatives, and friends. However--for whatever reason--you may, like me, have "gaps" in your domestic education.

This article, called "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Clueless" struck a chord with me, and I thought it might with some of you as well.

Though I would consider myself "crafty," and my mother and grandmothers taught me how to cook (including making perfect skillet cornbread), how to sew a button and hem a skirt, how to decorate a table, and how to sketch and paint, there are certain things that I regret not knowing how to do. I was always either too busy or too stubborn to learn. I wish I had taken the time to learn from my grandmothers while they were still alive; activities like crocheting, knitting, and recreating my New Orleans-born grandmother's shrimp creole recipe are difficult without their expertise. Of course, I could still learn those things through various means--scouring libraries and the internet, begging friends to teach me, and (as a last resort, since it's not free) taking classes. My list of three domestic things I intend to learn at some point in the future through whatever means possible by finagling purposeful time in which to learn (whew!) includes: learning how to properly use a sewing machine (so I can make curtains and pillows and dresses and even, possibly, slipcovers), learning how to make my own bread from scratch (sadly, I have a breadmaker I've never used, and if I won't even take the time to do that, well...we'll see), and, finally, though it is straight from the article--I would love to be able to make my own scented candles. I love candles.

I know many of us college gals have skills-- you make your own bread, you sew slings. I'd like to know what your incredible abilities are! Why not post three things you have learned and perhaps three things you would like to learn that you would consider "domestic skills"? C'mon, let's see what kind of talents you have apart from all that book-learnin'. ;)

four things (Allison)

2006-02-02T14:44:00.000-08:00

as tagged by TulipGirl and adapted from a version I blogged previously. They still aren't very interesting, but take them for what they're worth.

Four Jobs You've Had

Golf Course Cashier/Golf Cart-Washer

Girls' Summer Camp Counselor/Ropes Course Director

Office Receptionist for a Baptist Non-Profit Organization

Public High School English Teacher

Four Places You've Lived

Geneva, Alabama (hometown)

Birmingham, Alabama (college)

For 6 weeks: St. John's College, Oxford, England

Atlanta, Georgia

Four Vacations You've Taken

Montreal, Canada

Paris, France/London, England (2-week "Tale of Two Cities" tour--16th b-day in Paris!)

Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela (honeymoon)

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Four Vehicles You've ~~Owned~~ Driven

1988 Maroon Pontiac Grand Prix with "high-tech" dashboard

My mother's 1990-something Ford Explorer that I drove from B'ham, AL, to Austin, TX, and back just to go to a concert in Dec. 1999.

1996 Silver Honda Accord. From 70,000 to 144,000 miles, and I'd still drive her except she was totaled last year. Stupid Atlanta drivers...

2001 Green Honda Civic. She just rolled over 100,000! Woot.

4 things of me (Karen)

2006-02-01T16:09:00.000-08:00

as tagged by Tulip Girl

Four Jobs You've Had

paper shredder at abandoned warehouse (my roommates and I were certain we worked for the mob)
Outside orders girl for David C. Cook publishing
Hardware store clerk specializing in making keys and mixing paint
Switchboard operator at a men’s dormitory (most fun job of all!)

Four Places You've Lived

Bad Toelz, Germany
Augusta, Georgia
Elgin, Illinois
Canton, Illinois

Four Vacations You've Taken

Smokey Mountains, Tennessee (I was not in navy and white)
luxurious and romantic stay at Drake Hotel in Chicago
Washington, D.C.
Salzburg, Austria

Four Vehicles You've ~~Owned~~ Driven

bright orange Chevy Vega
black Chevy Vega (hey, these were great cars; if you needed to repair the muffler, a Contadina tomato paste can worked great)
big blue 10-passenger Titanic-esque station wagon
Fore FreeStar minivan with a DVD player that use to work

four things meme (mollie)

2006-02-01T12:25:00.000-08:00

as tagged by tulip girl.

i thought this would be interesting in light of our discussions here. of course, mine are completely uninspiring and dull, but someone here must have some interesting stats . . .?

Four Jobs You've Had
ice cream scooper and stacker
jr. camp counselor
dog sitter extraordinaire
musician, variety

Four Places You've Lived
germany
illinois, elm street
south carolina, various basements
illinois, avenue d

Four Vacations You've Taken
multitudinous trips to knoxville, tennessee while clad in navy and white
taiwan
reformation history tour, rome to london
chicago

Four Vehicles You've ~~Owned~~ Driven
ford aerostar minivan, red
nissan sentra, blue
chevy celebrity, blue, aka "the creeper"
volkswagon passat, black, aka "the transporter"

20 qualities of the educated person (Karen)

2006-01-20T03:31:00.000-08:00

I just ran across this list and thought it was germaine to our discussion. What do you think?

John Taylor Gatto, former New York City and New York State Teacher of the Year has compiled the following list that he calls “The 20 Qualities of an Educated Person.”

1. A broadly knowledgeable mind
2. Self confidence
3. A life purpose
4. A touch of class
5. Good leadership skills
6. The ability to work with a team
7. Patience
8. Good public speaking skills
9. Good writing skills
10. Resourcefulness
11. A desire for responsibility
12. Honesty
13. A public spirit
14. The ability to work well alone
15. An eye for details
16. The ability to focus at will
17. Perseverance
18. The ability to handle pressure
19. Curiosity
20. An attractive personal style

Just Who Are These Women? (Sallie)

2006-01-14T12:24:00.000-08:00

All of the other college girl contributors posted their installment of “Just Who Are These Women” over the summer. Being the last person to join this wonderful team, I wasn’t around at that time. But now that I have a little free time, I wanted to introduce myself in a similar fashion.

To summarize why I am a part of college girl… God has different plans for different people. For me, it included a very different college experience from most Christian women. But I know that this was HIS plan for ME. That is why I feel so strongly about the presence of this blog. It isn’t about telling all women they have to be college educated. It is about celebrating the experiences of those women who are called by God to pursue higher education. It is a helpful resource for young women who are navigating the world of higher education, where they can find support and encouragement. And it is about standing in awe of the unique women God has created us to be and how He takes such a personal interest in our individual journeys that He carefully prepares for us.

I attended a smaller high school (150 people in my graduating class). After thirteen years in the same school district, I could hardly wait to attend a large university where I could be anonymous! I was fortunate enough to live near Michigan State University. I desired to pursue a degree in Elementary Education and MSU had one of the best programs in the country. My parents graciously agreed to pay for college and let me live at home. They felt strongly about my not going into debt for school, a conviction I did not always share at that time, but am profoundly thankful for now. (In fact, my five years at MSU only cost around $6,500 in total because of living at home and scholarships!)

My first year at MSU was actually a lot like high school - go to campus, go to class, come home. MSU is such a huge school that most of the relational aspects center on dorm life. Since I didn’t live in a dorm, I found it very difficult to make friends. I continued attending the same church and had the same job as when I was in high school. So while college was ok, something was definitely missing.

However, during my sophomore year some radical changes came into my life. I changed churches, changed jobs, and joined a sorority. GASP! Yes, I pledged a sorority and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. The fall of both my freshman and sophomore years, I really wanted to go through fall formal rush, but didn’t have the confidence to do it on my own. (There were nineteen sororities and over a thousand women went through formal rush each fall.) However, when I switched jobs I ended up working with two women who were both in Alpha Xi Delta. They defied every sorority stereotype. Above all, they were really NICE to me, a non-Greek. They encouraged me to go through informal rush in January and suggested four houses I might like. To make a long story short, I received two bids - one from Alpha Xi Delta and the other from Delta Delta Delta (aka Tri Delta). I knew without a doubt the first time I walked into the Tri Delta house that it was home.

Joining Tri Delta changed my life and I know God put me there for several reasons. I had incredible leadership opportunities, met a wide variety of women, had opportunities for social activities, had increased opportunities to be involved on campus, and also had the opportunity to be a witness for Christ. I served twice as President of my chapter. This was unheard of because I did not live in the sorority house. (Because I lived at home, I was not required to live in-house.) In order to be President, our chapter had to receive special permission from the national Executive Board because it just wasn’t done. But with God…

It was always clear to all of my sorority sisters that I was a Christian and my faith mattered to me. Most of the women were fine with it. There were a few who were hostile to it, but because of my intense commitment to the ideals of Tri Delta and the level of my involvement, I think it probably diffused a lot of criticism. I abstained from alcohol and did not attend most of the mixed-sex social functions, something that again bothered a few women but really didn’t matter to most of them because that was just who I was. I attended only two term parties because I did not have a boyfriend and was not interested in being set up on a date with a non-believer. I almost never attended fraternity parties until I became chapter president and decided for liability reasons it would be wise for me to go. But even being “different” in those respects, I had so much fun! Contrary to popular belief, sorority life does not revolve around alcohol and boys. Some of my fondest memories are just silly, fun times I had with my sorority sisters.

I ended up taking five years to go through school, graduating in 1990. I am not overstating it when I say I LOVED COLLEGE!!! It opened up a whole new world to me as a person. I grew in so many ways as I took on many leadership roles both in Tri Delta and on campus.

Academically I had many interesting classes and opportunities. Yes, I was exposed to tons of humanistic garbage. Some of it I was very aware of and some of it I was not because I had not developed sophisticated enough higher level thinking skills. But my experience was that if you are a hard worker and the professor/instructor knows you take your studies seriously, it will cover a multitude of “sins” (such as being a Christian). I worked very hard and honestly do not remember having any problems with instructors being unfair to me because I was a Christian.

I received a good education and college degree. Because I was in the Honor’s College, I had many more options and opportunities available to me. It made the campus seem smaller and also opened doors that might have otherwise been shut to me. I graduated summa cum laude and was also named one of the twenty-five outstanding seniors. I know I could never have achieved these honors without the support of my parents, my church, and my sorority sisters.

Truthfully, when I look back on my college experience, it is not the education that is the foremost in my mind. It really is the friendships and experiences for personal growth that stand out to me. I am thankful for my degree because it has opened doors I could never have walked through otherwise. I will always be thankful that my parents made this opportunity available to me. I was the first woman on either side of my family to graduate from college. At the time, I think I took it for granted because I just always assumed since I was an excellent student I would go to college. In retrospect and with a broader understanding of history, I realize how fortunate I was to have this opportunity.

So, now I am a former teacher and stay-at-home wife. I work at home part-time in Arts & Letters, Inc., the business my husband and I do together. I’m very happily married to my husband of almost nine years who I met online. To this point, the Lord has not blessed us with any children other than one baby in heaven. I enjoy reading, writing, blogging, puttering in the kitchen, cross stitching, scrapbooking, music, decorating my house, avidly following college basketball, and speaking/teaching.

Keepers of the Home (Allison)

2005-12-21T23:41:00.000-08:00

(Now, more than ever, as a teacher instead of a student, I appreciate the school-year calendar with it's built-in Christmas break... which leaves me time for blogging while my holiday cookies are cooling!)

A long while ago, back in September, there was a short-lived discussion of the "Titus 2 woman." Though I can't promise much, I thought I'd finally post my reply to one commenter in hopes of reviving that discussion.

In the comments below, someone asked:

"Speaking of the old housewife vs. college girl controversy (which probably a lot of us think shouldn't be either/or), I have a question for you college girls here:

I just finished reading a Christian book on the Titus 2 woman. An entire chapter was dedicated to the author's opinions on women in the work place (they shouldn't work outside the home in her opinion).

Her main argument lies in Titus 2's admonish that women be "keepers at the home."

I've loved the dialogue and intelligent discussions on this blog; I'm hoping you may address this argument if you haven't already.

Obviously God's Word is always true, so how would you respond to her application?"

Since I am in the present position of working outside the home as a young Christian wife, I'll attempt to answer this question. However, let me say that I only speak for my husband's and my own beliefs here; I cannot presume to speak for anyone else.

First, I believe this is the main section of Titus she is referring to:

"...and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." Titus 2:4-5, ESV

"...so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." Titus 2:4-5, NASB

"That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." Titus 2:4-5, KJV

What does it mean to be "keepers at home"? Obviously, it does not mean that a woman can never leave the house. It does mean, however, that a woman's primary responsiblity should be her family and home. That said, I do not see why this prohibits a woman from working outside the home if her husband believes this is the right course of action for their present situation. I think God gives each family wisdom to decide what is right for themselves in this area, and sometimes, a wife can be obedient to her husband by working away from the home.

I teach high school. At school, I am still subject to my own husband. Everything I do and say reflects on our family and affects him. He knows that I know that he is my first priority. Therfore, if something needs to be taken care of for our home that day, I will either get up early or stay up late to get it done. Sometimes, I am able to make calls after school before businesses close, and I usually have time to run at least one errand before he gets home. Before I began teaching and before I went to graduate school, I was still "working outside the home." For three years my husband and I worked with a ministry called Apartment Life where we planned events and provided community services for the people who live in our apartment complex. For me, it was at least 15 hours of volunteer time every week, and on top of that I had a stint as an office receptionist for a missions organization two days a week. Of course, my apartment has not always been perfectly kept duing the past three years (whose has?), but if anything ever got in the way of me "keeping our home" then we dropped something. First, I dropped the receptionist position to go to graduate school. Currently, we work with Apartment Life only in an unoffical capacity, as mentors to the new team that has replaced us at our apartment complex.

For now, my husband and I feel that in order to be good stewards of what we have been given, I may work as a schoolteacher. Thankfully, I was provided with a debt-free college education through scholarships and my parents' generosity. However, my husband was not. Therefore, we are attempting to pay off our debt in order that we might better provide for our family if God sees fit to bless us with children. If (hopefully, when) He does, then I would refrain from working outside the home while the children are growing up, since my primary responsiblity is caring for my family, and with young children, I believe it would be very difficult to do if I were still teaching. However, some people may have family living nearby that can care for their children while they work and feel that is the best option. We do not; therefore, I plan to be a stay-at-home mom. And, like so many who are either contributers or readers of this blog, I will be proud of it!

A good friend of mine-- my college roommate, in fact-- recently had her first child. While most of her time is spent at home, she continues to add to her husband's income by tutoring and acting as a nanny 2-3 days a week, and in addition, assists her father with his accounting. I admire her as a balanced model of a faithful Titus 2 wife and mother. By getting to know many of you through this and other blogs, I see you all as examples to follow and know that I still have much to learn. Thanks for all of your contributions.

So, would anyone else like to share their insights of what it means to be a "keeper of the home" with a college education?

salon dot com and the college girl (mollie)

2005-12-21T09:51:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Emily Biuso's curious questions regarding the need and nature of our little blog, we've gotten "pretty decent exposure"(as Joy says . . .) in the online periodical salon.com.

you can read the article about us here.

blog proves why Christian women ought to go to college (Karen)

2005-11-30T05:12:00.000-08:00

Check out this blog by a group of thinking, educated Christian women.

on being a nice Christian girl (Karen)

2005-11-29T20:59:00.000-08:00

I ran across this interesting article and thought our college girl readers would enjoy it.

This young woman's observation about stereotyping is interesting.

Any thoughts?

Protecting Daughters (Mollie)

2005-11-15T11:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a series of articles that address the protection of daughters from worldly influences. As this is a popular excuse for the withholding (by parents) of education from women (daughters), I thought it to be quite informative.

Thoughts?

Part 1: Protection of Daughters
Part 2: Behavior Patterns of Fathers Who Withdraw Protection from Daughters
Part 3: When Daughters Lose Hope

tenets of "biblical" patriarchy (Mollie)

2005-11-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

Doug Phillips defines Biblical patriarchy for us.

Additionally, on the same site, Brian Abshire writes (long-windedly) about patriarchy. Of interest to us college girls he has a tidbit about patriarchs educating their daughters (don't, if she's too highly educated she's less likely to marry and bear children. . .) I feel like his article has been referenced here before . . . am I wrong?

Anyone care to discuss these articles?

what's a modern girl to do? (Karen)

2005-11-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

This article by Maureen Dowd prompted this response from Kathleen Parker. Lots of interesting thoughts but the basic premise seems to be that some women think that they will need to skip being wives and mothers if they are educated and successful because men are intimidated by women who are smart. I would love to know what you all think and is there any truth to this concept for Christian young women today?

cult of domesticity (Karen)

2005-11-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

This recent read certainly prompted some interesting thoughts I have had regarding the anti-college teachings for girls that seem to be popping up everywhere of late. I would be interested in hearing what your thoughts are on this, college gals, friends and anyone else with an opinion.

as obnoxious as it is . . . (Mollie)

2005-10-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

i'm turning on the word verification comment screening tool.

a midterm latte, grande (Mollie)

2005-10-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

yesterday we were walking past the windows of barnes and noble and i noticed that the coffee shop was full of kids (note that: kids. i'm officially old now.) studying various subjects, their books in piles, pens in hands, caramel machiattos perched precariously on the edges of the little tables built for solitude or canoodling.

and i briefly wished i were still a student, a buyer of overly priced textbooks, new packages of pencils, V5 pilot precise extra fine point pens and fresh books of lined paper. of course when i was a student i was too dorky to have friends with cars to take me to buy four dollar cups of coffee. my friends and i made too-strong folgers in the dormitory while reading and taking breaks to goof off or call boys on the telephone. only the cool kids studied at the bookstore, the rest of us camped out at the library or the practice studios.

while i'm still a piler of paper and unfinished projects, and a buyer and reader of books, pens and notebooks, it's not the same now because there are other things that have to come first -- i sort of miss those days in which studying was the most important thing to do in a day and, while i'm overjoyed in the stage of life in which i'm in today, i'm honestly glad that i walked by that window knowing what it felt like to have an endless pile of necessary reading, unappealing projects, and a list of more of the same that was due throughout the semester. perhaps, if i hadn't had those experiences i'd have walked by with regret. instead it was more of a fond retrospection and a wistful reminder that life goes fast.

so, here's a word to the wise college girl still in school: enjoy it! life gets busier (believe it or not)!

Interesting Article in the NY Times (Kristen)

2005-09-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood

Making Wise Decisions (Rachel)

2005-09-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Someone mentioned in a comment a while back that maybe we could address the topic of choosing a major. So how does a girl go about deciding what to major in? More generally, how is a girl (or anyone for that matter) to make all of these important decisions that she has to make at this time in her life? She needs to decide whether to go to college, what school to go to, what to major in, etc. When I was 18 or 19 I went to a conference and heard a speaker lecture about how to make wise biblical decisions. I believe he was speaking mostly about vocational decisions, but the principles can be applied to any sort of major decision. It was some of the most helpful information that I received at that time in my life. I will try to sum up what he said for all of you. There are three things to consider when making a life decision.

1. Is it biblical?

Is the major that you are considering biblical? This would also apply to why you want to study that major. Does the Bible have any thing to specifically say about the major that you have chosen? At this point I can’t think of any specific major that would fall in the unbiblical category off hand. There are vocations that would qualify (i.e. hooker, thief, etc), but that isn’t the focus of my discussions. But if you decide not to go to college because you can make more money being a stripper then I think you can safely conclude that you are outside God’s will. This is something that you will have to think through yourself.

2. Do you have the ability?

This seems to be a straightforward question, but when you start talking about the fine arts it can get kind of tricky. If you want to major in art, because it is such a personal matter it might be hard to tell if you actually have the ability in art (people might just be nice). But in order to answer this question you need to be very frank with yourself. You don’t want to spend a whole bunch of money and time on something just to find out that you don’t really have the ability.

3. Do you have the opportunity?

Lets say you really want to go to a certain university, but you aren’t accepted. It would be safe to assume that you don’t have the opportunity. Money can also be a consideration in this question. I don’t think it is necessary to sit and wait for an open door, but if a door is constantly being shut despite all of your efforts then perhaps that is not what God what you to do.

If a decision makes it past these three things then you need to decide if you want to do it. I don’t believe God makes us do things that we don’t want to do just to be mean. I think that if we are conforming our lives to his then we will begin to want what God wants. If you are dealing with two things that you have the ability and opportunity to do, decide which you would rather do. If you really can’t decide toss a coin.

I followed these points in making decisions as to what college to go to and what major to study. During my first year at the community college I applied to a paralegal program and a classical school on the east coast. I was also continuing my study of math. I had ability for all three subjects. I thought all of them were within Biblical guidelines. The opportunity for the classical school fell through as I didn’t have the money and I really wanted to get through college without debt. I had the money for the paralegal program, but I didn’t get the score I needed on one of their entrance exams by 10 points (they later accepted me anyway), but I had already made the decision at that point to continue at the community college. When I was anticipating transferring I was considering two colleges. One was large Illinois State University that I knew I could afford. The other was a small liberal arts university (Bradley University) that was a lot closer to home. (It also had a much better math department, but that wasn’t part of my consideration as much.) I made a point of not getting my hopes up for either university. I applied to both and applied for a full scholarship to Bradley because I knew that was the only way I would have the opportunity to go there. In God’s grace I received the scholarship and was able to go to Bradley. So now I had the opportunity and ability to go to Bradley, so that is what I did and I’m very thankful that I went. I had a great experience and learned so many good things.

I hope this post will be helpful to you, but remember above all . . .

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Titus two open discussion (Karen)

2005-09-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

Please post any of your thoughts about the Titus 2 model for women.

This ought to be a great discussion!

men are smarter than women??? (Karen)

2005-08-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe this article explains something.

"Academics in the UK claim their research shows that men are more intelligent than women. A study to be published later this year in the British Journal of Psychology says that men are on average five points ahead on IQ tests.

Paul Irwing and Professor Richard Lynn claim the difference grows when the highest IQ levels are considered. Their research was based on IQ tests given to 80,000 people and a further study of 20,000 students....At scores of 155, associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman."

Actually, this might be a good reason for sending women to college, since men know so much already it might help to level the playing field. Now if they could just explain why men never stop for directions, we could solve all the problems of the universe!

helicopter parents or independent students? (Karen)

2005-08-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

So, I read an interesting article in our local newspaper yesterday. It seems that there is a new phenomenon that is being labeled as “helicopter parents” and it is starting to be a major problem in college campuses all across the country. Named such for the “hovering” that they do, these parents cannot allow their children to grow up and take responsibility for their own lives.

The main problems, as I understand them, are that these parents are stepping in and interfacing with college advisors and professors on behalf of their children. They also use cell phones to frequently call their children during the day and the students check in with their parents after every exam to let mom and dad know how they did. They micromanage relationships with roommates, etc.

The universities are taking action by offering seminars for parents of freshman, instructing them on the proper amount of contact they ought to have with their children and letting them know that the school will be establishing guidelines for limiting a parent’s access to teachers, etc.

The reason this is such a problem? This behavior handicaps the students in areas of problem-solving, decision-making, and an overall sense of independence. Administrators acknowledge that a large part of the college experience is learning to develop these skills as one leaves home for the first time and prepares to have employment and establish families of their own.

Of course, as I read this article, I was thinking of this blog and its goal of encouraging young Christian women to consider going to college. The article also confirmed to me, in more clear terms, why there are those who would not want a girl to go to college.

Those who are part of a hyper-patriarchal belief system, those who believe women should not make decisions on their own, but rather, have decisions made for them by their fathers and husbands, and those who believe problem-solving ought to be left up to the menfolk are the ones who, for the most part, are pleading for daughters to stay away from college. Of course, these ideals are couched in terms such as “protection of daughters” and “keeping a girl under her father’s authority” etc.

But I believe in reality these anti-college views are really another way of keeping a woman from becoming her own person. You can use all the fancy terminology you want, but this is really what you get when you boil it all down. Who would have thought that independence is a four letter word?

"The art of cleaning the cat box in a pencil skirt and stockings." (Mollie)

2005-08-29T06:23:00.000-07:00

I laughed out loud. And then I thought of you all.

Thoughts?

Challenging the Roles We Were Born to Fill? (Liz)

2005-08-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

Admittedly, I have been watching Mona Lisa Smile.

There is a scene in which Julia Roberts's character is lecturing her class, challenging them to see that women in the fifties could have more options than being a wife and mother. She closes by saying, "I didn't realize that by demanding excellence I was 'challenging the roles you were born to fill.'"

I must start by saying that I honestly believe that mothering and domesticity are very noble, honorable, and difficult careers. Does college challenge that? Does domesticity somehow feel intimidated by college? Will the choice to attend college somehow make one a less apt mother or homemaker? It seems that some believe that if my mind is well-educated, I will not focus on mothering as my primary ministry. If I have devoted part of my life to study and academia, somehow I cannot devote myself fully to being a wife and mother later.

What is it that is intimidating about the demand for excellence? I do not believe that my continued attempt to seek education has harmed my primary focus. I do not believe that by stretching my mind and learning to think in new ways I have somehow deviated from the path that God designed for me. In fact, I believe that by stretching, learning, and educating I am bettering myself for service in His Kingdom. And while I certainly don't believe that a college degree is what makes a good mother, wife, or woman, I do believe that it can be a VERY significant contribution.

College as a Non-Traditional Student: When Mom Goes to College (Liz)

2005-08-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

How can a twenty-two year old feel like a Non-Traditional College student? Honestly, I'm barely older than most of the seniors on campus (the freshmen though.....is it just me, or do they keep getting younger?). Unlike most students on campus, though, I am married and have a child who is pushing two years old.

I had my first class of the semester this morning. Literary Criticism is a class in which one would expect to find great diversity among the students, and the one who expected such would be right. I am (thankfully) not the oldest and frumpiest in the class. One of the teachers in the English department is taking the course for graduate credit, so she beats me in age (though I think I've got the trump in frump).

Being on campus as a Non-Traditional student is a fascinating experience. There are definitely things that make me feel OLD. I no longer think it's funny when someone has put laundry detergent in the lily pool to create piles of bubbles for the hundredth time this semester. I find most of the ways that 19-year-old boys entertain themselves extremely annoying. I'm not trying to find loopholes in the dress code (except for flip-flops.....I can't let them make me change my sandals) nor coming up with creative ways to try to fill my chapel seat so I'm not marked absent (though that could be because I'm no longer required to go to chapel). I'm no longer trying to carve out who I am through self-expression, so I avoid a lot of heartache over deciding which expression would be most "unique".

The flip side to being old, though, is that a lot of things make me feel wise, mature, and experienced. I don't worry about how I'm dressed - I've grown past that. I'm not driving a brand new Mercedes, and I don't care. There are more important things in life, and when we get right down to it the grudge work to pay off our old car built a lot of maturity and character. I find more satisfaction and self-worth in knowing that I can do this on my own. There are plenty of students in my classes that would rather take anything else, but are there because it's a requirement for the major. I have the ability to take the classes I want to take and not grumble about the horrible teacher or boring coursework.

Overall, being a Non-Traditional student is a positive experience. Yes, I'm old. But strangely, these 19 and 20-year-olds respect that. And though I didn't see it coming, so do I.

Even Plato

2005-08-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I'm far from a fan of Plato. He's egoentric, angry, and elitist. He's anti-rhetorical and anti-Christian. No student leaves my class without knowing that despite those who have wed Chrisianity to this pagan for millenia (thanks, Augustine!), he is not our ally.

But even Plato foregrounds an education for women, and that was a radical idea in ancient Greece. Plato agreed with common Greek thought at the time that women were mere breeders (they bore children but did not beget them) and were really no better than other children or slaves. They are a necessary evil, to be specific, to further the human race and have a nice meal in the meantime. Friendships with men were superior to relationships with women because women were of such a lower caliber. That "platonic love" we've heard so much about was Plato's description of male fellowship or eros.

But even still -- Plato commands via Socrates in his Republic that women be educated similarly to men:

"But if it appears that they differ only in just this respect that the female bears and the male begets, we shall say that no proof has yet been produced that the woman differs from the man for our purposes, but we shall continue to think that our guardians and their wives ought to follow the same pursuits."

His point is that when it comes to the good of the Republic, the essential differences between men and women are irrelevant and both should be thoroughly educated.

We're not so persuaded to further the good of the "state" as an Ancient Greek. But the Church is more our focus. Can we pirate Plato's argument for our own Christian pursuits and say that any difference between a man and a woman is irrelevant when it comes to the larger good that can come from an educated Christian (male or female)?

striving for excellence (Karen)

2005-08-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

My son, Ben, has been working on a research paper for college credit for the Summit Worldview Conference he attended last month. His topic is the Christian and the Arts and he and I have had some great discussions on the role that the arts has in the life of the Christian as well as the responsibilities that the Christian artist has within our culture. He has been reading Francis Schaeffer, of course, as well as some others who have expressed, quite well, the various aspects of this topic.

In the midst of this I heard of a church that is starting a fine arts guild for children and another church that plans to begin a school of music. One thing that has always distressed me, probably as far back as the very off-key choir in my church where I grew up, is the idea that “singing a joyful noise unto the Lord” somehow negates any striving for excellence. Christians of all people ought to seek to do things well, to minister “as unto the Lord” in whatever calling they find themselves.

It is my contention that churches would do well to recognize the value of college training for those who are involved in ministry, perhaps even showing their commitment to excellence by contributing to the educations of those who would serve their congregations after graduation. Perhaps there are churches where this is being done. I would like to see the local church show their support for excellence by investing part of their money in the training of young men and women for ministry. I could see a scholarship of, say, $5,000.00 per year being allotted in the form of a grant that would not need to be paid back unless the recipient didn’t come back to serve the local church. For each year they stayed, a portion of the money would be “forgiven.” This could work in the areas of music, counseling, education, or church administration.

I would like to see churches who do not hold to women as ordained elders or pastors, show their commitment to using the spiritual gifts that women have been given by encouraging their young women through these sorts of scholarships. In the end, everyone benefits, everyone can say “I’ve got me a college girl.”

what about college debt? (Karen)

2005-08-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be a great idea to jump right in and discuss one of the points that was suggested in the previous entry's comment section....college debt.

When I graduated from college, a private Christian school, I had several thousand dollars of debt. My husband had no debt but joined the military which, as a side benefit considering the poor military pay, also allowed us to have a waiver so that I wouldn't need to start paying my debt back until his term of enlistment was completed. That is exactly what we did though it was nearly 10 years after my graduation before the loans were paid off.

Thankfully and through God's gracious providence, my oldest three children were able to go through college with no debt at all. Now we are looking at the 4th child to enter college and since he wants to attend a private Christian school where the costs are nearly $20,000.00 per year, we are trying to find the best way to get the most for our money. The plan so far is to have him take his gen eds via distance learning and save about $14,000.00. We are also looking into the scholarship/grant options.

So I have been thinking alot about the costs of a college degree and have bounced around these ideas with others. It seems that the cost of getting an education plays a major role in whether or not people thing girls ought to attend college. I have talked with several people who think that it is not a wise investment to put a daughter through college. I have heard others say that because men are to be the breadwinners, we should spend our college money on the boys first and then the girls if there is anything left over. I have read articles that support this view and hear these ideas being taught at homeschooling conferences. Here is an example of this line of reasoning:

Finally, some criticize the “patriarchs” for not wanting to invest in an expensive college education for their daughters because we “we need more young ladies in law, school, medicine, the arts and so on.” Again, this criticism assumes a modern cultural value and established it as the norm despite the fact that it has no biblical warrant and constitutes social suicide. Even the radical feminists today admit that women cannot adequately function as both a “career” woman and mother. A simple examination of the birth rates for professional women shows that the more highly educated a women becomes, the LESS likely she is to get married and the LESS likely to have children. Thus, this writer is actually encouraging brilliant Christian women to take a course of action that will mean cutting off their genetic inheritance for future generations! We do not need MORE female Christian lawyers, doctors or artists, but MORE godly women raising MORE godly children who will fill the earth and subdue it to the glory of God. And does it really make economic sense to invest tens of thousands of dollars for a woman to get an advanced education (often having to go into debt to finance that education) that she will NOT use if she accepts that her highest calling is to be a wife and mother? Thus, this “reformer” is actually encouraging a sociological system that impoverishes the family and reduces its ability to exercise godly dominion.

Of course, I disagree that educating a young woman is not good use of financial resources. But I have thought about those years when I had all the college debt and it took a bite out of the family budget to pay it off. I believe it was worth it for me to go to college but I wish my parents and I had had a better plan for paying for it. Any thoughts....

"Cudgel thy brains no more about it." (Mollie)

2005-08-10T10:01:00.000-07:00

In response to a previous blog entry College Girl was posed the following question:

I still "wish that I could understand why you think it is so important to emphasize college education as vital to a Christian woman's life." If anyone wants to comment on that, I would appreciate it, as I don't see views on college as being an important debate in the church right now. (Which is why I haven't commented before and probably won't again). But I am trying to understand why y'all find it so important and have chosen to address it in this way, since it IS important to you and you take an oppositional position to mine.

We are a bit confused as to why some still do not understand the purpose of this blog. We believe we have mentioned and explained the purpose in several previous posts and the ensuing comments. However, as there is still some misunderstanding, we'll take another stab at an explanation of purpose.

The purpose is to celebrate education in a Christian woman's life.

The purpose is not to combat or "go to war with" any of the anti-college camps.

The purpose is not to say that college education is *vital.* The purpose is to say that we believe that everyone can benefit from formal education. To choose something otherwise should not be done lightly, and that, to quote the commentor, it is "vital" to make informed decisions about the path you will take after high-school graduation, and that all women should be given that choice, patriarchal upbringings notwithstanding.

The purpose is to provide a pro-college voice in conservative Christian circles where there is a fast-growing trend to view college as either *wrong* for all people or *wrong* for women. These beliefs vary in roots. Some, not all, and this is by no means an exhaustive list, believe that women should not be educated because they will be tempted to disdain their role as homemakers and want "bigger or better" things. Others believe that fathers will lose their authority or ability to control their daughters if they are away at school under other authority systems. There are those who are afraid of the outside influences culturally that could negatively effect their daughters' belief systems. Many abhor college due to the high costs of formal education. Still others believe that a *trade* education is better than a liberal arts education. We believe that some of these are valid complaints, that others are not, but that, overall, the formal education of women can be attained and still be true to the integrity of the initial anti-college concern.

The purpose is to provide support for women who feel pressured from church members, parents, siblings, children, etc., to shun college, for whatever reasons, be they moral, financial or cultural.

The purpose is to create a place for blurbs about how a college education benefits not only the educated, but those in contact with the educated.

Articles and links on this blog will be geared toward supporting women who have made or would like to make the choice to attend college. Nothing on this blog should be of much interest to those who are anti-college unless they are looking for fuel for their own anti-college arguments. We do not promote bashing those who have made the choice to not attend college. We do not promote harassing people to make choices in order to make them compatible to ours.

We *do* promote formal education. We believe that it should be a rare occasion that a woman *not* earn a college education. We do not address the subject as being an issue within the church, but we do acknowledge that there is a growing trend within conservative Christianity that says, "College is not worthwhile. Additionally, those who pursue higher education are fools." We disagree strongly and wish to provide a voice that celebrates Christian women and the education of them.

We cannot control how anyone who has chosen *not* to attend college feels when they read the contents of this blog. We are positive as we promote college education and seek to focus on the benefits of formal education rather than what we believe to be negative about *not* attending college.

I'm not sure how much clearer we can be. ::shrugging::

Just who are these women? (Karen)

2005-08-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been a flurry of activity with family in and out and a major deck building project in our backyard so I am slow at sharing my bio with you. And I didn’t want to enter this blog posting without this great picture that I finally found yesterday afternoon!

This is me with my mom and dad in June of 1974 at my graduation from Judson College. I just realized that I am the same age right now that my parents were in this photo!

So, here is a little about me….

I graduated from Judson College in Elgin, Illinois in 1974 with a Bachelors in Human Relations and a minor in Communications. When I went to Judson, we were on the trimester system so I graduated in 2 2/3 years and then returned the fall after graduation to complete my student teaching requirement, teaching 8th grade Language Arts and High School Child Development and (don’t laugh) Bachelor Living to a couple dozen boys who were barely 2 years younger than I was. If I only knew then what I know now….

I got married the next year and went with my husband to live in Germany for over 3 years where he jumped out of airplanes and I had babies! I look back on that time as earning my second degree while studying abroad!

We now have 6 children and soon-to-be 6 grandbabies and I continue to homeschool my youngest three sons. Besides reveling in the delights of homemaking (well, maybe not laundry), I also love to read, research, and write and have written a post-abortion Bible study that I hope to publish one day. I edited a pregnancy center newsletter for 8 years and spent 5 years doing online crisis pregnancy center counseling and out of that experience I am writing a novel/screenplay that will address the issue of abortion and men. I have been actively involved in my local Toastmaster’s club, taking a humorous speech all the way to win first place in district competition last fall.

Here is the whole family during our recent reunion. This is one of our favorite pizza spots!

My all-time favorite books are Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Main Street. I collect Grant Wood and Marvin Cone prints, their regional subjects reminding me of my grandmother and visits to her home in the country and stories of her youth. I also love to read essays and poetry by unknown, regional writers.

Before I die I have several objectives I hope to accomplish which include earning a Master’s Degree in Biblical Counseling or Women’s Ministries, completing my N.A.N.C. certification, publishing my novel and Bible study, winning first place in the Toastmaster’s International Speech Contest, and inventing the perfect meatloaf recipe!

I first bounced around the idea of beginning this college girl blog with my daughter, Mollie, because I have become increasingly concerned about the many voices among conservative Christian homeschool leaders that are declaring college a poor choice, indeed in some places, not even an option, for Christian young ladies. Their message has spilled over into the evangelical community at large and, for a variety of reasons, including views of women in general and the high cost of education, is gaining a hearing.

This is my sweet granddaughter Penelope. I hope that one day she will be a college girl, too!

It is my hope that through this blog we can present a valid case for educational choice for young Christian women, can plant some seeds for reasonable thought for those who have been listening to only opposing voices, and can be an encouragement for those who find themselves swimming in the sea of men-only-to-college waters.

College Made Me a Better Wife (Kristen)

2005-08-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

My husband loves to talk to me about a wide variety of things. He expects me to articulate my point of view well, and also be able to articulate any other point of view as well, to play the devil's advocate comfortably. I would not have had those skills or the broad knowledge I draw from if I hadn't gone to college. I'm not saying it's impossible to learn those things without college. It's difficult though, outside of an intellectual community like a university. I'm glad that my husband recognizes how helpful my education was in making me the wife he needs me to be.

Emerging Scholars Network (Allison)

2005-08-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

As an undergraduate, I was greatly encouraged by my college's InterVarsity chapter and the godly men and women I encountered through the organization. When I was a sophomore, our local adult leader introduced me to a Christian couple who were both IV alums. The wife became a mentor of sorts-- it was the first time I had an ongoing, discipling relationship with a Christian family with young children where I wasn't just "the babysitter." Through IV, I also helped lead a women's Bible study group, served in diverse urban neighborhoods, and was introduced to several excellent Christian thinkers.

Today I ran across a link to IV's Emerging Scholars Network and thought the readers of this blog might appreciate the resource. I find their mission statement highly encouraging to maintaining a Christian presence in the academy:

The Emerging Scholars Network is called to identify, encourage, and support the next generation of Christian scholars, at all stages of their academic careers, who will be a redeeming influence within higher education as they:

Love God with heart, mind, soul, and strength as they follow God's call in discipleship and spiritual formation

Exhibit excellence in research, teaching, and service

Influence the university, the church, and the world by practicing their disciplines from a profoundly Christian viewpoint

Embody the gender, ethnic, and social diversity of the church within the academy

Just who are these women? (Elizabeth)

2005-07-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

My name is Elizabeth and I'm 28 years old. I'm a Southern gal, "in exile" as I like to say, living in Michigan. Like Kristen, I'm originally from North Carolina, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from North Carolina State University in 1999. I moved to Michigan that same year to pursue a graduate degree in Developmental Psychology at the University of Michigan. I spent four years there. However, with my husband and family's support, I chose to leave the program "ABD" (all but dissertation) when I became pregnant with my now 20-month old daughter, Charlotte. My husband currently works for the university as a computer programmer. We are very fortunate to be part of a wonderful church family here in Michigan, which makes our separation from our families bearable.

It was actually a very difficult decision for me to leave graduate school because I truly value education, and it was a huge step to "give up" on a PhD, though I know I'm not the first to do so. The last couple of years of grad school I had been unsure about whether to continue or not, because the lifestyle of the female professors I met in my field was not appealing to me- the work hours too many and the stress too great. While I enjoyed my classes, reading, teaching, and much of my research experience, I found that I did not enjoy "the nuts & bolts" of preparing papers for publication and endless grant writing that dominated my experience. However, I'm still thankful for what I learned both inside and outside the classroom and research lab in graduate school. I know that whether or not I eventually pursue another graduate degree in a different field in a future season of my life, I'll continue to benefit from my grad school experiences. Above all, God really used that challenging time in my life to draw me close to Him.

I enjoy reading the perspectives on College Girl in part because I had become somewhat negative about my graduate school experiences. It's helped me to gain a better perspective on it- I had found myself thinking positive thoughts about advanced education generally, but negative thoughts about my own experiences. I suppose I was "burned out" by grad school. It may seem strange to say this on a pro-schooling blog, but I believe not ALL schooling experiences are equally beneficial, especially if there is a poor match between the student and program. I went into grad school "on my own steam", without really seeking counsel from others or even praying about it. I was extremely troubled by this at one point about three years into my program, and spoke to a wise lady who works with graduate students about it. She reminded me that God can redeem all things, and encouraged me not to wallow in guilt from making decisions without seeking His will, but to turn the situation over to His control. I am so thankful that I followed her wise counsel.

Unlike many of these lovely ladies, I did not really grow up in a Christian home. I was christened in the Methodist church, but did not attend as a child, and my mother, at least, was agnostic. She passed away when I was six years old, and my father remarried three years later. My stepmother did start taking us to church, and I came to know Christ when I was 10 years old, and was baptized at that time. I am continually amazed at the way God has worked through difficult circumstances in my life! I feel extremely blessed in my life. While I whole-heartedly support the pursuit of advanced education, and truly enjoyed my undergraduate college experience especially, I love where I am today. I spend most of my time caring for or playing with Charlotte, of course, along with writing, reading, decorating my home, digital scrapbooking, reading and posting on my parenting and scrapbooking message boards, gardening (way too many tomatoes this year!), and enjoying my husband's good company.

Just Who Are These Women? (Kristen)

2005-07-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

My name is Kristen. I am one of the younger members of this blog as I'll be 24 in just over a month. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003. I married Michael in August of 2003, moved to Austin, TX and taught third grade for one year. I retired to stay at home with our sweet daughter Kate who was born last July. Our lives were radically altered when we became parents, in the best of ways, and now we're living in Virginia and expecting Kate's first sibling at Christmas time.

I was raised in a Christian home and have been faithfully trying to live for Christ as long as I can remember. I still chose to attend a large, secular university which was the perfect fit for me. I loved my college years. I had time and space to really think in college. I figured out a lot of important things theologically and philosophically, was able to serve the church body in a variety of ways and learned a lot from both my classes and my experiences and learned a great deal about myself. I am, and will forever be, a faithful Tar Heel fan, but going to Carolina was a lot more than that to me.

Tonight I am off to a local reception for admitted students matriculating to Carolina this fall. I can't wait to meet them, to congratulate them, to give them advice and to go home and pray for them by name, that God will use their time at Carolina to draw them to himself in the ways that he used that experience for me.

Just Who Are These Women? (Joy)

2005-07-27T02:08:00.000-07:00

Fifth post in the series (and too long as usual)....

My name is Joy, and (at 29) I'm the eldest of the four McCarnan "supersiblings." I was born on the campus of what was to become my alma mater, and earned a B.A. English/Creative Writing and an M.A. Theology from there. I was not "born again" until shortly before my freshman year of college, and so, as God would have it, a great deal of my post-conversion discipleship took place on that campus and in churches affiliated with that university. Like my dad, who also got an M.A. Theology from there, I opted not to use my degree for a pastoral position (we all thank heaven for that). I wanted it for a better basis for discernment in my writing. Even if I never write a book, I'm grateful for the educational path along which the Lord has brought me. When I sought the counsel of men and women for whom I have great respect, whose own lives and accomplishments I admired immensely, not one of them told me I would regret pursuing higher education. Not one of them told me that I would regret pursuing a seminary degree as a female. Did they have admonitions for me? Did they have advice? Yes, and yes. But the unanimous verdict was that a degree in theology could be of benefit to me in every aspect of my future, no matter what God might have on His agenda for me. They said it couldn't hurt me -- couldn't hurt my "helpmeeting," couldn't hurt my mothering, couldn't hurt my writing, couldn't hurt my teaching, couldn't hurt my housekeeping, couldn't hurt my spiritual life. They said it seemed to them it could only help.

I live in the river district in Rockford, Illinois (about an hour due west of Chicago). If it would pay the bills, I would write haiku and shoot photos all day, but alas, I had to get a real job. I coordinate the production and promotion of distance education courses for a paleoconservative, classics-focused, magazine-publishing "think tank." I freelance for BigBlueHat, a South Carolina based web firm. I have a number of dream jobs, some of them more or less likely to be realized. Since the Discovery took off without me yesterday, I've had another reminder that "Astronaut" isn't one of the likelier dreams to be fulfilled. I'd love to be a Wife, a Mother, perhaps a Missionary, a Teacher, a Writer. I'd love to teach creative writing on a university level. I'd love to teach English as a foreign language overseas somewhere. I'd love to write with a Christian worldview, yet competitively artistically and credibly, for a mainstream audience. For now, I'm doing a lot of stuff that I hope will continue to employ and multiply the affinities and abilities God's given to me -- I help out in various ways at my church, teach ESL, teach Greek, edit for Kids4Truth, take pictures, study languages, read fabulous books, sit around plotting ways to visit cool people like my new nephew, and -- last but not least -- I write the occasional poem or essay or article.

I don't have a skyrocket IQ. My GPA in college was nothing to write home about (unless the deans were writing warnings home about it). But one of the best things any woman can learn is the vast disparity between what she has learned and what there is left out there to be learned -- in other words, how much she doesn't know. There are a lot of things I should be doing, or that I could be doing, but I'm not unhappy or overly stressed. If I get stir-crazy or tense, there are always rollerblades in the trunk of the car. There are always dishes to wash and letters to write and people to see and places to go. My mama (who has a degree in education, by the way, and who is still pursuing a Masters in Educational Leadership and Supervision) always said, "Only boring people get bored." A lifelong learner is never bored, and I'm content with how my experience with higher education has helped me become just that -- a better lifelong learner.

Just who are these women? (Allison)

2005-07-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

This is the fourth post in the introductory series.

"a quarter of a century and I still have my hope" --eric peters

My name's Allison Redd and I'm 25 years old. My parents still live in the house where I was raised, located on the banks of a creek in a tiny southeast Alabama town. An only child, I attended public school with the same group of folks from kindergarten until my senior year. My parents instilled in me a desire for higher education: it was never a question of if, just where. I am forever grateful for their guidance: at their prodding, I attended Birmingham-Southern College on a tuition scholarship, where I developed an interest in roadtrips, Reformed theology, and midnight breakfasts. Upon graduation, I left BSC with a greater passion for service-oriented life, a heart for revitalizing urban communities, a much longer books-to-read list, a better appreciation for liturgy and the church year, and a degree: a B.A. in English with a minor in art.

On one particular college roadtrip to see a particular musician, I met my fantastic husband, Gaines, who also hails from the heart of Dixie but stayed in Atlanta after graduating from Georgia Tech. After a two-year long-distance relationship, Gaines and I celebrated the first day of our marriage on August 10th, 2002.

We live in an international apartment complex in northeast Atlanta; our neighbors hail from places like Mexico, Venezuela, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, China, and Korea. For the past three years, we have been part of a ministry called Apartment Life, which seeks to build community and share Christ in urban multi-family homes. Our time requires a mingling of event planning and ministry; this unique vision stems from the desire to connect the local church with apartment complexes so that both benefit. Though we will soon take a sabbatical from our CARES Team duties, we plan to stay in the same apartment and continue developing the friendships we've made. I know the kids will keep knocking on our door for popsicles, and I'll probably teach another ESL class in the evenings if I have time.

I went to college seeking Christian community--and I found it. I also discovered a yearning to be part of God's transformation of the world. It had not occurred to me before that He sees fit to use us as agents in His redemption of the earth, that all callings are sacred for those in Christ. It took a few extra years for me to discover that my role, for the present, is to be a teacher. On August 7th, I will graduate from Georgia State University with a M.Ed. in English education. A week later, I'll introduce students to the joy of reading excellent literature as I begin teaching 9th-10th grade English at a public charter school near our home. I love working with international students, and hope to garner an additional TESOL endorsement (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in the next few years.

Higher education is not for everyone, I know. However, I also know that as a wife, daughter, sister-in-law, and (hopefully) mother, my life and the lives of those around me will be enriched because of my years as a professional student. My experiences on the hilltop in Birmingham and among the highrises of Atlanta cultivated in me a wealth of diligence, patience, endurance, and joy that I would not have otherwise. The fact that my parents (and my husband) sacrificed in order to grant me those opportunities makes this blessing that much sweeter. Their support has sustained me through the plethora of papers, projects, and practicums required over the past year and a half, and when I one day see my students walk across a stage to receive their diploma, I will know the effort was not in vain.

Just Who Are These Women? (Rachel)

2005-07-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

This is post number three in the series.

My name is Rachel Draper. Age-wise I register right after Liz as I am almost 24. I was blessed to be home schooled during my whole elementary and high school education. After high school graduation I attended the local community college for three years and graduated in 2003 with an Associates in liberal arts. I then transferred to Bradley University where I completed my B.S. in mathematics this past May. I would love to continue my education in math some day, but at this point I’m taking a break from formal education.

I got married to my wonderful husband, TJ, this past June, so I’m still in the adjustment stage. Lately, I have found myself spending my time sewing, reading, doing cross-stitch and cooking and then of course the less pleasant aspects of homemaking – cleaning. However, I haven’t been able to escape from the math books and you can sometimes find me scratching away at problems on my slate chalkboard.

I’ve been enjoying this blog too much to post on it, but I thought I better come out and introduce myself instead of hiding in the shadows. I enjoy it because it reminds me that it is possible to enjoy formal education and value it, while at the same time valuing home, family and children. The two are not mutually exclusive and I love seeing both set forth as examples in women’s lives.

Just Who Are These Women? (Liz)

2005-07-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

Post number two in the series.

My name is Liz. I am significantly younger than many (dare I say most?) of these ladies, registering in at almost 23 years old. I started college when I was 16, and subsequently spent six years in undergrad enjoying the way I could let my ecclectic nature wander about from subject to subject. I graduated last summer with a B.A. in Liberal Arts and intend to pursue an M.A. in English within the next five years. Camille has recently got me thinking about adding a Ph.D. in Linguistic Anthropology on to the end of that, but we'll have to see what happens. A self-defined ecclectic, I have dozens of degrees that I would like to have before the end of my schooling. My parents like to say that I'll be a professional student for the rest of my life. I honestly hope they're right.

I did everything in life early, and married my husband three years ago next month. We have a 19 month old son that I am continually blessed to stay home with. I intend to stay home for as many of the early years as I can. I aspire to become/am working on becoming both an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant and a freelance writer.

I tend to spend my time reading, writing, scrapbooking, sewing, and otherwise trying to be useful. I enjoy College Girl because reading the posts and discussions stretches my mind - and I can only hope that it has a similar effect on those reading us.

Just who are these women? (Mollie)

2005-07-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

Perhaps in an effort to "extend the hand of friendship," perhaps to lend some credibility to us all, here is the first in the series of college girl introductions. All introductions are open to curious questions.

My name is Mollie Campbell Greene. I hold a B.Mus. in Piano Performance and an M.A. in Dramatic Productions, from Bob Jones University. I am also a licensed Kindermusik educator and currently teach both Kindermusik and piano from our home studio, Greene Bird Studios.

I am married to Aaron,

and we have two fabulous children, Henry, 3, and Jude, 1.

I am currently a play-at-home mama and hope to maintain this position for a very long time. We live in central Illinois near to my parents and three of my still-at-home siblings.

When I'm not in the midst of mothering, and sometimes when I'm right in the thick of it, I enjoy making and listening to music, reading piles of various and sundry, clicking my way through cyberspace, digging in the dirt and helping things grow, sewing and creating of all kinds, theater arts here and there, studying child development, cooking and eating, different flavors of reality tv, taking care of this beautiful house with which we've been blessed, and all matter of family life in general.

I enjoy college girl primarily because I learn something new in nearly every post and secondarily because it confirms my already strong belief that the best thing I did for myself and for my family was spend more than half of my twenties pursuing higher education!

is homemaking a career? (mollie)

2005-07-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

Lately I've encountered the following statement regarding homemaking:

...This is my career. If I were in another career there would be just as many demands on my time and energy . . . it would require organization and routines and schedules .

On the one hand, yes, it does help me to look at my housewifery/mothering job as my "career." It helps the day's demands and routines seem easier to manage, etc., as I'm not thinking that I just sit at home doing nothing constructive all day. Most likely it's a psychological approach to the thing, no?

On the other hand, what of mothers and homemakers who work at home as well? Or work outside the home? If a mother does all that I do and works (whether it be a few hours or forty hours a week) at a monetary paying job, something that she's been educated toward doing, and this is her "career" what is the *other,* then? Is it secondary to her career? Is her job secondary to her "career" as a mother?

Or are homekeeping/mothering/housewifery and the term "career" polar opposites?

Marching (Camille)

2005-07-11T16:07:00.000-07:00

I will never forget the first year I marched with my Ph.D. regalia. You have to remember that one of the chief reasons anyone gets her Ph.D. is because geeks so rarely have the best attire in the room. But on graduation day, you really rock with those colorful giant hoods and the groovy tams.

I was the “youngest” Ph.D. and so I marched in next to the oldest -- Dr. Panosian. He was always one of my favorite teachers as an undergrad with his sonorous voice and wise words. Dignity on two feet. He oozed a professorial persona. I was always in awe of him.

And here, while singing that sentimental hymn, I marched in with him. A green Ph.D. with folded wrinkles still in my unbesmirched tri-velveted gown. He joked in the line when we were supposed to be quiet. He made gracious small talk to his former HI 101 nobody. He was really charming. And I was struck that I had the honor of honoring those 2002 graduates alongside him.

His wife had been my office mate. I will never forget those two short semesters sitting alongside her in that crowded office. "Some of those WCTU speeches would drive you to drink!" HA! "Remember, Camille, it's our job to help them find God's will in their lives." I still try to channel the spirit of Mrs. Panosian when I sit in front of my sophomore majors deciding their potential in my department. I was never her student, but I always count her as my friend.

And now as my EN102 teacher and I are "sparring" online, I think back. What other way can I come alongside these pillars of the Faith, these bulwarks in the Life of the Mind, if it hadn't been for my stint in higher education?

I'm honored that I am a peer to those great people while I make my own students my peers.

The First Thing I Learned in College (Elizabeth)

2005-07-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

For many students, beginning college signals a move into a less sheltered existence, where you become increasingly aware of the "dark side" of this world. This was not my personal experience. The first thing I learned in college was that life was not as hopeless, terrible and overwhelming as I feared.

My life as a high school student was chaotic, stressful and punctuated by inappropriate experiences courtesy of my adoptive step-mother, “C”. Life with C was like riding a mega roller-coaster built on a mountain- not your usual ups and downs, but HUGE ups and downs where you thought you might DIE when your little caboose came squealing down the tracks into the valley, only to be thrust up again higher than you really wanted to go, always conscious that you had to come back down. The ride had begun in earnest when my parents divorced shortly before my sweet-sixteenth birthday. C propelled the ride, and I naively contributed time, energy, money, and support to keep her going from one crisis to the next.

When I got to college, my new friends and professors didn’t care about C. For the first time in recent history, she was irrelevant. Her drama which invaded my life in a multitude of ways as a high school student, no longer mattered. It was all about me. After living a life in which everything that happened to me was filtered through the lens of how it would affect C, it was refreshing to my soul to be able to just BE without her shadow cast over me.

Yes, she was still in my life, though not for long. I felt buoyant, floating in a new dimension. I had prayed that my life would be calm, but had begun to doubt it would ever happen. But it had. I began to move in a world where learning was valued not just as an ends to a mean (college degree = rich college husband in C’s mind), but as a good in life. Music, science, literature, friendship, laughter, good books, and hard work refreshed me, renewed me and filled me with hope. The stark contrast of the chaos of my pre-college life and orderliness, purpose and joy of my life in college enabled me to make some hard decisions about my family relationships. My heart softened toward my father and our relationship was restored. I was reunited with my brother R (who had been praying for me during the four years we had been estranged following our father and C’s divorce).

The little lessons and joys of college quickly taught me a big lesson, not to allow my soul to be taken captive by fear and dread. I had confirmation that God is indeed faithful and He hears my prayers and His desire is for relationships to be restored, and love and faith to prevail over fear and dread.

one voice, varied thoughts (Karen)

2005-07-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, a friend of mine expressed her concern over some of the posts on this blog. My response to her is something I think needs to be stated here.

We are a group of Christian women (our number seems to be growing) who believe that going to college can be a good choice for a Christian woman. We do not believe it is the only choice nor do we believe that everyone has to pursue an education, formal or not, in the same way.

We do hope that we challenge the thinking of those who believe that college is a wrong choice for women and we especially disagree with the voices of those out there who say it is a sin for a young woman to go to college.

From time to time there will be posts that cause me, personally, to strongly disagree, even react. This is a good thing! Not only does it stretch me but also those who read all of us as one pro-college-for-women voice. I hope that we can demonstrate that we are able to sharpen each others' iron while maintaining our unity about women and college.

Letter to Biblus Sempronius, Defense of the Liberal Instruction of Women (Camille)

2005-07-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

From Laura Cereta, 1488:

"Women have been able by nature to be exceptional, but have chosen lesser goals. For some women are concerned with parting their hair correctly, adorning themselves with lovely dresses, or decorating their fingers with pearls or other gems. Others delight in mouthing carefully composed phrases, indulging in dancing, or managing spoiled puppies. Still others wish to gaze at lavish banquet tables, to rest in sleep, or standing in mirrors, to smear their lovely faces. But those in whom a deeper integrity yearns for virtue, restrain from the start their youthful souls, reflect on higher things, harden the body with sobriety and trials, and crub their tongues, open their ears, compose their thoughts in wakeful hours, their minds in contemplation, to letters bonded to righteousness. For knowledge is not given as a gift, but [is gained] with diligence. The free mind, not shirking effort, always soars zealously toward the good, and the desire to know grows ever more wide and deep. It is because of no special holiness, therefore, that we [women] are rewarded by God the Giver with the gift of exceptional talent. Nature has generously lavished its gifts upon all people, opening to all the doors of choice through which reason sends envoys to the will, from which they learn to convey its desires. The will must choose to exercise the gift of reason.

"[But] where we [women] should be forceful we are [too often] devious; where we should be confident we are insecure. [Even worse], we are content with our condition."

Confusion about having a college girl (Mollie)

2005-07-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

Due to some recent confusion raising the questions, "Who has got a college girl?" and "Is this blog promoting the shameful practice of going to college in order to earn an MRS. degree?" We give you, the college-girl readership, sidebarrage answering such questions and, hopefully, giving a more noble explanation than many of you might expect.

edited to say, note the revised side-bar.

thanks for the input, girls!

wise words on anti-college trend (Karen)

2005-07-07T22:39:00.000-07:00

I discovered this quote tonight and thought it belonged here. It came from an interesting website called www.patriarchy.org. I have been pleasantly surprised by the content on this site. This was written by Andrew Sandelin.

Apron-Centered, Kitchen-Table Tutelage
The authority that some patriarchalists arrogate to themselves truly borders on tyranny. One has written that a father who sends his daughter off to college is guilty of irresponsibility. Apparently, all daughters must maintain residence in their father’s household to be deemed “under authority.” Not a shred of Biblical evidence supports this theory and, in fact, at times the father may be guilty of irresponsibility if he does not dispatch an intellectually gifted daughter to college. (The idea that children should ordinarily stay home and take Internet college courses is fraught with peril. We will never train culture-reclaiming physicians, nuclear physicists, and engineers by such apron-centered, kitchen-table tutelage.)

Obsequious Sons
Patriarchalists sometimes do even a greater disservice to sons. In ancient, clan-based societies, a son (even one in his thirties and forties) would remain obsequiously apprenticed to his father and would become the new, blood-based patriarch only when his father died. This is a pagan idea, not a Biblical one, even though some patriarchalists today demand almost unswerving obedience and servanthood from their forty-year old married sons. Sometimes in the process they completely trample on their sons’ obvious gifts, which could be used most profitably elsewhere. Any daughter-in-law that that permits such an outrage will suffer greatly for it.

You can read the entire article here.

contention and concession (joy)

2005-07-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Not that I want to play devil's advocate here, but I think it seems only fair (and in the interest of arguing with integrity) that we acknowledge some of the remonstrations that are brought up against the prospect of sending a Christian daughter (often away from home) to a college, be it a Christian or secular school.

What are some of these questions and griefs raised? I'm not even completely familiar with them. What are the real or perceived (i.e., very real to some) dangers of a college education for the godly young woman? Of what are some of these parents or pastors leery?

We don't need to be dismissive in our attempts to be persuasive. In fact, I think we have a solidly convincing case. We needn't fear that conceding a few legitimate or at least potentially (in someone's world) possible concerns will destroy our faith in how God used higher education to form us into more capable and loving servants for Him.

So I'll start. I wonder are some people concerned that a young Christian girl might lose her focus or get overwhelmed by all the opportunities afforded her in a liberal arts education at the university level? I confess. That happened to me. I often joke that I managed to cultivate a hopeless case of ADHD when I was in college, that I minored in Extracurricular Activities, that I did indeed change my major at least once, that I became a Mountain Dew addict, that I lost tolerance for noise and for caraway seeds, that I wanted to be the wife of an evangelist-missionary-carpenter-accountant-cellist (depending on the predicted vocation of whichever boy held my interest at the time), and that I knew all the dorm girls' last names but couldn't seem to recall my New Testament chapter content for the quizzes. And that's not the half of it. So there. Guilty. As charged.

On the other hand, I honestly believe that God is big enough to work in us and our circumstances IN SPITE OF us. We're going to have to learn some of those hard growing-up lessons somewhere, sometime: prioritizing, scheduling, simplifying our lives, building vital relationships, undergoing the shame and pain of well-earned rebuke and consequences of our choices. And that's not the half of it. We're there to learn. We might retain some good and some bad along with the diploma we actually set out to achieve. But college, like any context wherein a Christian finds himself, is just another milieu for God to continue to work sanctification in our hearts.

I learned some negative things at college, but I also believe in a sovereign God Who used a fallible group of men and women, by His grace in all of our lives, to work out His agenda for me at that time in my life (partly for how it would benefit me now and in the future, and mostly for His own glory).

What else do people have against higher education for their Christian daughters and for their young female parishioners? I'm confident, not arrogantly so but certainly assured, that college was good for me, the best thing for me at that time in my life. A privilege and a gift from God Himself which I don't dare take lightly. What are the issues against it? Are there legitimate concerns that we could address? Misunderstandings that we might eradicate with some facts, an appropriate word in season? I'm game.

Women's Ways of Knowing (Camille)

2005-07-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

I can't forget Carol Gilligan from the 1970s:

"Women often feel alienated in academic settings and experience 'formal' education as either peripheral or irrelevant to their central interests and development. . . . In everyday and professional life, as well as in the classroom, women often feel unheard even when they believe that they have something important to say. Most women can recall incidents in which either they or female friends were discouraged from pursuing some line of intellectual work on the grounds that it was 'unfeminine' or incompatible with female capabilities. Many female students and working women are painfully aware that men succeed better than they in getting and holding the attention of others for their ideas and opinions. All women grow up having to deal with historically and culturally engrained definitions of femininity and womanhood--one common theme being that women, like children, should be seen and not heard." (4-5).

Little Sisters go to College too (Camille)

2005-07-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

My big brother, Steve, has always loomed large in my life. He’s eight years older than I, and wow – I’ve grown up wanting to be just like him. And it is weird that two people in the same family would both have Ph.D.s in Rhetoric. That’s weird! But it makes for terrific dinner conversation.

He told me that I had to go to Bob Jones or he’d disown me. He was joking. But I didn’t know that. I hung on his every word. Visiting BJU to see him on T-giving and Easter and to see all his graduations was like going to a second home. I loved it. I loved everything about this place. All the boys. Wow – ALL the boys looked neat and clean and were polite. I had a crush on every single one that I saw. Every single one. I even married one that is probably the neatest one in the bunch. He’s so tidy!

My first semester Steve was on faculty. I tried NOT to hang on his arms like I was used to, but I so wanted to. I felt so proud to know that MY brother was still a BMOC and on faculty. I complained about the usual things that freshman complain about. He listened politely and comforted me through the throes of those first semester.

He married and moved to start his Ph.D. work when I became a sophomore, and I was really on my own. And in a way, that’s when I came into my own. I was away from that looming personality. I was myself.

And I finally got to be the bigger sister to my roommates. I pulled pranks on them. Hid teddy bears. Kidnapped baby blankets. Wrote ransom notes for beloved objects. Short-sheeted beds. Good stuff.

If I didn’t find myself though outside of my brother, I would have always stood in his shadow. Neither of us wanted that, but that’s still what would have happened. I would have always been just the little sister.

And now, I’m a sister. His peer. And I can spar with him like no other.

Getting the Job Done (Mollie)

2005-07-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

When I got to college I realized fairly quickly that I possessed an undesireable amount of laziness. Certainly, I've always been productive, with many interests, always having several projects brewing inside my proverbial cauldron. But after two days of classes I sat down on the floor of my room with new textbooks and made lists, a calendar of sorts, plotting the impossible task of "getting all of this stuff done." Needless to say, I was completely overwhelmed. With eighteen credits standing tall in front of me, Christmas-break so small and squinty in the distance, I honestly did not know if I would make it.

I learned right away that a music major does not have a social life. And if she does, she is shirking her practicing responsibilities, for she can always practice for just one more hour, and if she really believes that her fingers cannot tinkle another ivory, she knows that she still has a pile of bookwork waiting in her room. All of my friends did their bookwork while I was practicing and at the end of the day I still had an entire night of chapters to read and papers to write.

Aside from the academic responsibilities, there were the little annoyances of required activities and an imposed bedtime, something that myself and the other owls in the school despised and complained about on a near daily basis. It seemed that whenever I was about to stake my flag into the mountain of work to do that some required event would pop up and I would be just barely behind again.

I learned two things from this: first, that no matter how much there is to do and no matter how little time one has to accomplish the tasks at hand, it all gets done. This is an invaluable skill to have! And while I worried my way through grad school, every assignment was completed, every project executed. My life has slowed down considerably and yet this remains true: there is no reason to be overwhelmed, there is always enough time, and there is always the ability to muster enough energy to get the job done.

Secondly, I greatly increased in productivity. My creative output was greater each year that I studied and worked. And while previously I was able to "get things done" and was always busy, the years that I spent in college and grad school taught me that working hard is more enjoyable than being lazy, that there is nothing more enjoyable than the stress of working to accomplish a daunting task, and that there is nothing more satisfying than a job well done. Certainly, without college I could appreciate these things on a certain level, but without being pushed and stretched, without holding the potential ball of wrath of a particular professor in my hands, I think that my drive to create and accomplish would be severely diminished. What a sorry loss! With a lifetime of productivity ahead of me outside of the academic world, six years of formal education is a small price to pay.

The First Thing I Learned in College (Allison)

2005-07-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

The first thing I learned in college was that cardboard boxes can be a decorative item.

When I arrived on the steps of the freshman girls' dorm along with my mother and my father, and my entire material existence stuffed into the back of a my old Accord, I was completely unprepared for life with a long-term roomate. An only child, I'd never actually shared sleeping quarters with anyone for more than the three weeks I spent at summer camp.

Though my "roomie" and I had been placed together by a random "potluck," we had met earlier that year at a girls' scholarship program. Besides participating in the program's state finals together (we both played piano for the talent portion and were one of the top 4 academic finalists), we also both had played varsity high school tennis and we brought brand new laptops to begin our college career. We even coordinated our decor weeks prior to that first day-- I brought curtains and a stereo, she brought a fridge. Despite our frighteningly similar extra-curricular attributes, though, we were two very different Alabama girls. For one, she had a steady boyfriend and I did not. She was also immaculate.

I thought I was fairly well-organized (I always meticulously packed my camp foot locker and alphabetized and sorted my books by genre, though the trunk never returned home quite the same way it left and my system always needed extensive maintenance). However, I was unprepared for the space-efficient aesthetic mentality that arrived just as my dad was ordering some poor sophomore guy to crawl under my bed and put it up on cement blocks. I was definitely not prepared for the fruitful results of repeated summer trips to Big Lots, including the aforementioned storage boxes.

They came three to a pack, and were meant to hold important files. For my roommate, however, they contained all the odds-and-ends (hats, sweaters, old yearbooks) that I was happy just to stick on top of the armoire. She had a place for everything. If it didn't fit one of the normal categories like in the closet, the bureau, or under the bed, then it went in the boxes. These were not ordinary cardboard boxes, either--oh no. Their practical purpose was concealed beneath a blue and white toile pattern (long before toile was the fashionistas' rage). They had lids! And handles! In comparison, my plastic laundry basket and mis-matched shoe boxes seemed tacky, obtrusive, and mundane.

My roommate's obsessive attention to streamlined household appearances versus my unique flair for personalized "artistic clutter," suggest only some of the conflicts that would arise during that first year away from my parents' home. However, looking back I know now that learning to deal with those conflicts (or realizing that I handled some things really badly) has prepared me for my life during the rest of college and beyond. I recall lessons I learned about trust, honesty, and respect that I am still enacting through my marriage.

Most of all, I've come to believe that college is a type of boot camp for forming authentic relationships. I can see now that my roommate's influence on my relational life has been substantial. Because of her, there will be absolutely NO baby-talk, ever, between me and my husband, especially not in public or over the phone while someone else is in the room, but also because of her, my relationship with my mom has improved--I call more often than every fortnight now-- and I've learned that girl friends are the best counselors in the world. I'd like to tell her "thank you."

The telling sign that I've taken her positive examples to heart? My next trip to the store involves buying some of the previously despised clutter-controlling and aesthetically pleasing cardboard boxes. In blue.

Celebrating Formal Education in the Life of a Christian Girl (Liz)

2005-06-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this today. Really, what does 'Celebrating Formal Education in the Life of a Christian Girl" mean? What is it that we are celebrating?

College is more than books, papers, and exams. It is more than sitting (or sleeping) through classes and regurgitating the proper information in order to get the proper grade and the proper piece of paper at the end. College is more than something that has to be done in order to make more money, or have a successful career, or be well-educated. It is much more.

In College, I learned how to turn the hall of my wing in the dorm into a slip-n-slide at 2 AM on a Saturday night. Was that a silly, immature thing to do? Sure. But it taught me the importance of fellowship, laughter, and good friends. In College, I learned that the arrangement of dorm furniture is an exact science. And it taught me persistence, determination, and the benefits of brute strength. In College, I learned that sometimes relationships end and that's okay. It taught me the importance of grace, trust in God, and being true to myself. In College, I learned that I can't control the actions or emotions of other people. It taught me to be gracious, gentle, and sensitive. In College, I learned that sometimes bad things happen to good people. And it taught me the amazing power of prayer.

So I celebrate formal education in the life of a Christian girl. My formal education was a time of learning - academically, spiritually, emotionally, and realistically.

How ya gonna keep 'um down on the farm once they've seen ....college (Karen)

2005-06-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that possibly one of the reasons that people don't want women to go to college is that it is assumed that women will no longer be interested in being wives and raising children and overseeing the running of households once they have tasted of life outside of the walls of their house.

This is nonsense. Every one, whether a man or a woman, has seasons of life. We begin as children who are in the season of learning and studying, we grow into adulthood and continue learning things, but with more specific goals in mind. When we marry, we have new responsibilities, especially to our husbands. As mothers, we have children who must be put first and nurtured and cared for, setting aside our own personal enrichment goals. Then, as the children grow older, we have more opportunites to seek out our own interests. This is part of God's plan. If children were to be abandoned or raised by caregivers or fathers, moms wouldn't be the ones with the breasts. And if we were not to think and study and contribute to our world, especially as Christians, we wouldn't have brains.

To me, it is all a matter of looking at our lives in seasons and reveling in each season as it comes along. Just because a woman has many interests and loves to learn and study does not mean that she does not value all the stages and seasons of her life and will enjoy a home and family.

Isn't it interesting that in God's perfect plan, women reach a time when they are no longer able to physically bear and nurse children? Did he intend for women to dry up and blow away then? No! It then becomes the season when you can delight in being an older woman!

An older homeschooling mother told me that she has, for several decades now, kept a part of her week to pursue things that she enjoys, to study and learn things just for her own experience, believing that she is a better wife and mother because of that. I, too, have tried to do that and would agree that I am a much more interesting person because of it.

That is exactly the point of this blog, in my humble opinion. Placing women into categories where they are not supposed to better themselves educationally harms every member of the family, every member of the body of Christ. Defining roles and training and "girl" and "boy" goes beyond what the Scriptures teach.

As a WIT, woman in transition, each year moving out of the "stay at home mom stage" of life and into the "I am grandmama and I have learned a thing or two by gum" stage, let me say that I have seen college, I have loved being down on the farm, and now look forward to the days when I can do both.

The Cult of Domesticity (Camille)

2005-06-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

From Man Cannot Speak for Her:

"The concept of 'true womanhood,' or the 'woman belle ideal,' defined females as 'other,' as suited only for a limited repertoire of gender-based roles, and as the repository of cherished but commercially useless spiritual and human values. These attitudes rose in response to the urbanization and industrialization of the nineteenth century, which separated home and work. As the cult of domesticity was codified in the United States in the early part of the century, two distinct subcultures emerged. Man's place was the world outside the home, the public realm of politics and finance; man's nature was thought to be lustful, amoral, competitive, and ambitious. Woman's place was the home, a haven from amoral capitalism and dirty politics, where 'the heart was,' where the spiritual and emotional needs of husband and children were met by a 'ministering angel.' Woman's nature was pure, pious, domestic, and submissive. She was to remain entirely in the private sphere of the home, eschewing any appearance of individuality, leadership, or aggressiveness. Her purity depended on her domesticity; the woman who was compelled by economic need or slavery to work away from her own hearth was tainted. However, women's alleged moral superiority generated a conflict out of which the woman's rights movement emerged.

As defined, woman's role contained a contradiction that became apparent as women responded to what they saw as great moral wrongs. Despite their allegedly greater moral sensitivity, women were censured for their efforts against the evils of prostitution and slavery."

Treading in her Footsteps (Camille)

2005-06-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

On February 17, 1905, a new memorial was placed in Washington D. C.'s Statuary Hall in the Capitol to represent the citizens of Illinois. Every state preceding this time had chosen one of their sons. Illinois, however, was the first and the only to honor one of its daughters. Pictured standing next to a pulpit as if about to preach, Frances Willard*teacher, college president, first Dean of Women at Northwestern University, temperance activist*was easily recognized at her death as the one of the most influential women in the world.

She became the first woman President of the Evanston College for Ladies and defined it as "the paradise of women" with women "for the first time, recognized and proved as the peers of men in administrative power"(Willard, Glimpses 199). She instituted co-educational literary societies with Northwestern University in order to "break down prejudice against women's public speech and work. . .[and to] refine the young men and develop intellectual power in girls"(Willard, Glimpses 207). She established complete self-government: "Our Self-governed do as they please, have all the privileges of teachers, subject only to general order of exercises, such as go to bed at 9:30, to rise at 6:45," and, of course, mandatory church attendance (Willard, Glimpses 215).

In June, 1872, Evanston College had its first and only Commencement. The Chicago Fire eight months earlier ruined any hopes for future financial help from local business interests. Therefore, the Evanston College for Ladies became part of Northwestern University with the Evanston faculty still in complete charge of their students (Willard, Glimpses 227). Miss Willard became Professor of Aesthetics and the first Dean of Women teaching Freshman Rhetoric and Composition (Willard, Glimpses 229-30).

Isn't it interesting that this moral Christian lady saw education for women as a way to refine men? What happens when we leave the educational system then?

Boys vs. Girls (Camille)

2005-06-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

Okay – are there different reasons for a boy to attend college than for a girl? Do other people think so? Should there be different reasons? I don’t know that my parents ever told me that there were different reasons for Steve than for me? ::shrug:: Will I tell my son different things than I’ll tell my (Lord willing) daughter? Everybody jokes about the MRS degree. We all giggle at those Becky-Home-Eckies taking Greek among all those potential preacher-boy husbands and making sure their piano skills are in order. ::scratching my head::

The First Thing I Learned in College (Liz)

2005-06-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

The first thing I learned in College is that knowing exactly where you're going and what you're going to do when you get there is highly overrated.

I walked onto campus fresh out of high school (a year early) knowing exactly what my major was, what classes I needed to take, and what road I needed to take to get where I was going. I didn't take college seriously as an education, an experience, or a way to better myself. It was just an extension of high school. It was what was expected of me, so I was there.

As time passed I realized that I did not, in fact, know everything about everything. I didn't even really know myself. I started paying attention to the college experience - the classes, dorm life, campus activities, and everything I could absorb. Slowly, I learned that ambition isn't everything. Having every detail of the future already planned is no fun, as it allows for no spontanaeity.

College is about the here and now, not just about the end result and the where you are going. So is life. I'm still unsure about what "career path" I want to take. Until I figure it out, I'm going to continue busying myself with absorbing and learning from the right now.

The First Thing I Learned in College (Joy)

2005-06-29T12:27:00.001-07:00

There was an Italian cafe across the street from campus my freshman year. The building that housed this little cafe was eerily jinxed, maybe even haunted, or perhaps owned by people who would deny the importance of a college education. It was there that I learned my first college-days lesson, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Restauranteurs were like transient phantoms in that building. As soon as a restaurant would apply for a liquor license, my alma mater and a brood of other concerned citizens would protest (seeing as how it was illegal in our town for a restaurant to sell alcohol a mere bottle's toss away from a school where minors roamed). Regardless of whether the city granted, withheld, or revoked such a license, the neighborhood consumers would stop consuming -- whether a Mexican place or a deli or a ritzy steak joint, no restaurant could turn a profit after taking the suicidal liquor-license-application step.

Disregarding the historical tradition, new owners would invariably feel compelled to file for a license, apparently believing a liquor license would reap for them more positive returns than the negative effects of the lost across-the-street business. They were always wrong. By the time I left school, nearly 8 years later, I didn't even know what restaurant was currently occupying the building -- maybe they even tore it down? -- because I had become so accustomed to ruling it out as a possible place to eat.

My freshman year, however, the occupants were Italian chefs, jovially cranking out affordable pasta and hot Italian subs or pizza on plastic plates, all Fazoli's-like. An acquaintance from class or the dorms took me over there with a group of upperclassmen. A guy at another table was a graduating senior whom I knew from my hometown. I think it's a pity, in a way, that he could've gone ahead and taught me this lesson when we were growing up together, but here on out he will bask in fame, having taught me the first real useful thing I remember learning at college. (I still count it as "college," even though we were indeed a bottle's toss off campus at the time.)

Pay attention, ladies, for I think I may say this only once. I own verbal rights to pass the legacy on to my children, but I've never investigated the royalties for publishing information of this nature via the blog venue. I have refrained for three years on my own blog, and I feel that now must be the perfect time and platform to flash the worldwide web with wisdom.

The how-to is easy, and the honing-to-perfection is pretty much a snap, as well.

1. Take a plastic straw,
2. Insert it into your [pop] (or "coke," if you attend college in the South, "soda" if in some parts of Illinois and Minnesota, etc.),
3. Suck up a strawful of [pop],
4. Place your tongue at the top (thereby to hold said [pop] at the same level),
5. Raise the strawful of [pop] an inch or two above the level of the rest of the [pop] in your glass (but do not remove the straw entirely out of the glass nor away from the glass),
6. Pinch the bottom of the straw, closed firmly between two fingers,
7. Remove your tongue as the vacuum cap (the [pop] will remain in the straw now because of your pinching at the foot of it),
8. Take a deep breath,
9. Blow slowly but steadily across the top of the straw, WHILST
10. Simultaneously, and equally as slowly-and-steadily, loosening your pinch at the foot of the straw,
11. Allow the [pop] to escape slowly and steadily out the bottom of the straw and into your glass, WHILST
12. Still blowing, you will hear a hollow whistle whose sound will gradually lower in pitch as more air appears in your straw and less [pop] clogs it.

When rightly executed, you'll find this no-mess talent has the potential to entertain fellow diners and spur tabletalk from friends or complete strangers for half-hours on end!

A childish prank? Perhaps. Or maybe something more. I am 29, as yet still unwed, and looking forward to family life, if the Lord permits. I haven't done a lot of pre-planning for my future wedding, nor do I sit around making up traditions to incorporate into my future home. In excess, such pre-prep seems contrived, inauthentic, simply because I have no tangible "hooks to hang it on." It's like counting ice cubes that are probably going to melt.

I do have one pre-fabbed rule established for my future household, despite my virgin naivete of child-rearing pits and loopholes: MY KIDS MAY SING AND WHISTLE AT THE TABLE, SHOULD THEY EVER SO DESIRE.

I am a soup-aholic, and I blow on my hot soup to cool it off. (I even blow on my frozen ice cream to melt it down.) And why just blow, when you could whistle a little tune at the same time? I do indeed whistle, and I plan to keep on whistling over my soup in my own home, and I do not plan to stop whistling when I start sharing my table with my kids. One group of college-friends and I used to close our weekly lunches with a hymn -- right there in the dining common amongst thousands of people. A little music is good for the digestion.

Can I possibly imagine that my own offspring might embarrass me one day if I allow them to cultivate such a habit? I do imagine they will. Do I fear it? (Ought we fear embarrassment?) No, not really. There are worse fates. I would like to teach them to consider the expectations and preferences of other households (table-singing on visits or in public would be a matter of disobedience punishable by revoked table-singing privileges at home), but I would also like to teach them to appreciate life, to share themselves, to harmonize, to delight in the smallest gifts, and to do it together.

And I guarantee they won't be waiting till college to learn the lesson of the whistling straw.

History of Education for Women (Camille)

2005-06-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

A brief overview of the history of women’s education proves that our empowerment has always been directly tied to our ability to access higher education. The same is true for other disempowered groups.

So I guess the question that this academic has to ask is this: what’s really going on here? By dismissing college for women, what power is being stolen from them?

Training Wheels (Kristen)

2005-06-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

My husband and I were talking last week about why college is important and we decided that college is like real life with training wheels. I have two siblings in their mid teens, living at home. My parents pay for almost everything they want and need, but dole out money as needs arise, not lump sums. They also do their laundry, remind them to study for tests, help them decide what classes to take, etc.

When they go off to college, those things will change. Whether they work or my parents support them, they will have to manage money. They will do their own laundry and clean up after themselves. They will keep track of their own classes and what needs to be done. But they will do all those things in the safety of an environment where there are safety nets if they fail. They'll have an RA and everyone in the laundry room to ask about laundry (I helped out more than my fair share of people the years I used the campus laundry!). They'll have a limited amount of money (and no credit cards -- family rule!) so that if they mismanage their money, they won't lose much other than nutrition when they have to eat ramen. They will have resources like learning centers and sympathetic professors to help them navigate their classes if they need help.

Going straight from home to moving away to start a job or straight to marriage won't give them that safety net. We all fall down a few times before we get it together and I'd rather my siblings and my children get real world practice before they are thrown out into a place where it really counts.

Apprentices and Masters (Mollie)

2005-06-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Many of the anti-college crowd embrace apprenticeship. They send off their children at the appropriate age in order to have them learn the trade or whatnot from the "master." Personally I believe that apprenticeship can be a profitable and worthy education choice for some people. What concerns me, however, is that many of the "masters" chosen to educate the children of these anti-college parents are actually not "masters" of the craft at all. They may have some talent in an area, but they are certainly not worthy of the title "master." I find it strange to call such a person "master" when she hasn't seen enough of the craft in order to have outside sources say, "This is a successful person who is a master of their craft!"

If, for instance, I were to send my daughter to apprentice under a Master Homekeeper, I would send her to work under the guidance of something of a Christian Martha Stewart. I would insist that the Master be an ingenious gardener, able to identify all plant life (using latin names, of course). She would be a fabulous cook, knowledgeable in the cuisine of many cultures, able to chop quickly without cutting herself, organized enough to have a well stocked kitchen at all times yet on a reasonable budget. The master would have to have magic in her fingers as she sat at the sewing machine. She would never have pizza stuck to her kitchen floor and if, for some reason, something similar were to be stuck to her floor she would not automatically give the clean-up job to her apprentice -- she would do it herself and her apprentice would see that mama normally takes care of such jobs. She would be a dumpster diver and treasure seeker. She would have a well-worn Bible and would teach my daughter from it regularly. She would have a model marriage in which her husband serves and loves her, in which she serves and honors him. She would have to be a gentle mother, with kind hands and words. She would not take advantage of my daughter, her apprentice, delegating the primary childcare to a novice. She would teach this greatly important task to my daughter by example, primarily. She would be well-versed in child development, and would pass this, as well as the practical aspects of child-rearing and homekeeping.

Above all, I would want to be sure that my daughter would be learning that a mother needs to know many, many things in order to be most successful in her job -- and that oftentimes, mama has to "go it alone." Her husband will be there some of the time, but for the most part, mother carries the homekeeping and child-rearing burdens. She will need to know that she may not have a "mother's helper" in her own home one day, that she is not apprenticing to be a mama who has a mama's helper, but that she is apprenticing to do the job, to do it well, without complaining and with joy, by herself.

Of course, college girl that I am, there is about a 99% chance my daughter will be a college girl, too, so . . .

The Educated Wife and Mother (Mollie)

2005-06-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I will stumble across the uninformed person who poses the question,"Why did you spend so much time and money to earn a master's degree when you were 'just' going to be a stay at home mom?" Perhaps it is unfair to consider the askers of such questions to be uninformed. But I can only wonder what it is that they believe is so mundane about homekeeping and mothering that only something like docile idiocy is required in order to pursue such a career. Interestingly, most of the people who have posed such questions to me are firm believers that women should be firmly planted in the home and not whoring about in the
secular workplace. They value motherhood and wifeliness. In fact, the mothers in such homes are homeschooling their children, educating the next generation, attempting to produce fruitful, successful, well-adjusted adults along the way. And yet their attitudes about educating women formally (as opposed to an informal apprenticeship) are astonishingly anti-woman. Many of them believe their wives are intelligent and capable and yet they highly disapprove of women attending college, of women honing their natural intelligence. I'm sure there are many reasons for such beliefs, perhaps one of the lowest being a fear in such men that their wives and/or daughters will surpass them intellectually. Shame on them! Perhaps our resident historian should give us a psychological analysis of men with such thinking! ::poking C with stick::

In all sincerity I must ask: why should wives and mothers and homeschool educators not be educated so that their God-given talents, brains, abilities and gifts be the very best that they can possibly be? Why should these gifts be squandered? Should the woman who believes that her "place" is in the home be any less educated than a woman who works at a paying job? Why should such a woman *not* pursue college, just because she will be washing dishes, changing diapers and sorting laundry on a daily basis for years to come?

I don't know that I want to defend the expense, from money to time, that it took to earn my degrees. I don't really think a justification is necessary from my side of the issue. I've yet to hear a satisfying justification as to why women do not need to be educated. Until then I have to say that all women would benefit from a formal education, that most women should seriously consider and attend college, and that those who choose not to pursue college need to be making educated, defendable choices.

College = Me (Camille)

2005-06-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not saying it's this way for everyone, but it most certainly is this way for me.

I so closely identify with my college experience that I couldn't leave. This is home for me.

So when I hear people say college grads are snobs, college grads are greedy, college is just like a house of prostitution, yup, I take it personally.

Imagine anything you so closely identify with: motherhood or Christianity, for instance. And then you hear someone say, "Ah -- those women who do extended breastfeeding are just doing it for the sexual charge they get out of it!" Or "Christianity is ignorant and racist." Because you so closely identify yourself with that, you are going to take it personally.

And when college grads say, "I can say we're snobs because I am one." Hmph. That's like saying, "I can make fun of women/blacks/fill-in-the-picked-on-group because I am one."

No, fun-making when it's a slight is still a slight. It's still stereotyping. It's still ungracious.

C

Two Kinds of People (Camille)

2005-06-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

I still think there are two kinds of people in the world:

People who finished a college degree.
People who can't stop talking about how they don't need a college degree.

Their over-protestation proves that they do feel like they need to prove something. They do feel the lack, but they don't have the awareness or courage to say the obvious.

The First Thing I Learned in College (Kristen)

2005-06-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

I went to college prepared. I had spent several weeks on campus in high school for various camps and conferences and I knew my way around. Heck, I had even stayed in the same dorm, on the same floor before. I wasn't going to be one of those freshman that walked around with a map looking clueless, I was going to blend in and be cool.

It took approximately 14 hours for the coolness to wear off.

I was humbled by my roommate, a cosmopolitan New Yorker who referred to me on the phone as "the crazy Christian roommate -- one of those evangelical types." I was humbled by my sophomore suitemates, kicking off the first day back with a thumpin' party. I was humbled by food, trying to figure out how I was going to survive on an average of 1 all-you-can-eat meal a day.

I decided that in the interest of finding likeminded friends and getting some free food to augment my pitiful meal plan, I'd attend every single kick-off and freshman welcome for every single Christian group on campus. Finally, an intelligent decision.

I made an older friend in InterVarsity, a junior, a small group leader that lived on my floor in the mostly freshman dorm. I learned that someone older and wiser and better acquainted with how everything works can be pretty helpful to have around.