Posts Tagged ‘history’

My Story: My Education

July 15th, 2010

I want this to be a place where people can really get to know me and I them. I don’t want to be an impersonal blogger who’s writing is disconnected from her real life and story. So, I’ve started this little series called my story to help you get to know me better. Today’s segment I want to tell you about my education, but I don’t want this to end up sounding like a resume. I’ll try – we’ll see how it goes.

My memories of elementary school include things like a field trip to make bagels at a bakery, and going to see Plymouth Rock and walking on a recreation of the May Flower, following deer tracks through the forest, copying scripture, painting a world globe on a pumpkin, doing math problems with my dad in the kitchen, and reading tons of books, but especially Lewis, Tolkien and George MacDonald. Yes, you guessed it. I was homeschooled. And I loved it. Well, that is I loved it until I hated it…and then loved it again.

I loved homeschooling when we were doing it, but when I started going to school again in six grade I found the transition incredibly difficult. It was a private Christian school and they were pretty adapt at working with homeschooling families. But, it was still hard for me. I’m naturally very introverted anyway and the transition from learning in a free atmosphere with close family and occasionally close friends who also homeschooled to being in a big school setting with lots of people I didn’t know – well, it was a bit of a shock to my system. I withdrew a lot and sort of hid into myself for most of that first year. Eventually a few other girls really drew me out and befriended me and before I knew it I was doing great and loving school once again. But, throughout most of junior high and early high school there was a part of me that resented my parents for homeschooling.

I felt like they had put me at a disadvantage socially and like it was their fault that I had such a difficult time transitioning into a social school setting. I resented the fact that it was easier for me to socialize with people twice my age then it was to socialize with my peers. I think there have even been times in my life when I have used the fact that I was homeschooled as an excuse for my own fears and insecurities when it came to meeting new people. Thankfully, I eventually realized that my difficulties meeting new people weren’t my parents fault or the fault of homeschooling. My parents had given my siblings and I lots of opportunities to socialize and in homeschooling us they had give us other gifts that were invaluable for our development and overall success in life.

Now that I’m older (and hopefully more mature) I love the fact that I was homeschooled. I love that the schooling I received was truly unique for my needs. I love the fact that the schooling I received instilled in me so many of my current values. I love that it enabled me to see so much and experience so much from a very young age. In fact, when the time comes to put my son in school I will seriously consider homeschooling him because overall I have such positive feelings toward my own experience. I am so grateful now that my parents homeschooled me and I know now as a parent myself the sacrifice that it involved for them.

I’m also thankful that they put me into a Christian school for junior high and High School. Once I settled in I had an amazing experience there. Especially by the time High School came around, I felt like I fit in there. I had close friends, and knew everyone in my class. I was involved in nearly everything. I felt like I had a place and a purpose there and I loved that feeling. I had a very positive high school experience and I’m so grateful for the education I had.

But, I did go to a private Christian school, and as anyone who has been through that can tell you, there are definitely some negatives associated with Christian schooling. I lived in a bubble for high school – it was a bubble I loved, but it was a bubble that would inevitably be broken and I for one did not take the braking very well.

When I graduated high school my parents had only one requirement: I had to go out of state for college and I had to live on-campus. Going away and living on campus was something they never really experienced and I think they thought it would be really important for my siblings and I. In some ways they were right, going away was incredible significant for me, but it was also one of the most difficult things I’ve ever been through.

I went to a university where I didn’t know anyone and suddenly I felt like I was in six grade all over again. That first year in college really shook me. It shook my faith, my health, and pretty much everything I believed about the world and my place in this world. Now I am so grateful that I went through it, but at the time it felt like a long nightmare.

After the first year I moved home and changed schools. After that I went to three different universities and took classes at three different community colleges. I changed majors three times – from Theatre to Education to my final major of History. I think in some ways during that time I was searching for some place to belong, some place where I fit, a community I could call home. I never really found it in school again, like I had in high school.

In the end I finished my bachelors degree in four years with an above average GPA and I was so glad to be done with it. I felt completely relieved to be finished with school, which I had started to hate by the end (28 credits a semester might have contributed to that).

Sometimes I wonder what it was all for. All the stress, all the rush to finish, all the money spent. For what? So, that I could get married, run off to Europe, have a child and do work that in no way utilizes or requires the degree that I received. Other days I’m grateful for the experiences that pressing through allowed me to have. I’m proud of the fact that I’m the only one in my immediate family with a college degree. And I’m thankful for the experience getting a degree gave me. My dad used to tell me that getting a degree wasn’t so much about the information you learned or what degree you got as it was about the process and how that process shaped you. Now I know he was right.

So, what is your education story? If you were homeschooled how do you feel about that now? If you have a college degree do you use it? Are you glad that you have it even if you don’t use it?

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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History: Cyril and Methodius

January 27th, 2009

Before I moved to Prague I knew very little about this area of the world. Even though I majored in History in college, I still feel like I didn’t really know all that much about the area that I now live in. I’m guessing that many of you also aren’t all that familiar with the history of Prague or the Czech lands. So, I decided that I want to occasionally post a history blog so that you can better understand this place that I live and maybe a bit about why I choose to live here.

Let’s start with a brief account of Cyril and Methodius…

It is said that Christianity came to the region with the great missionaries Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century. They are often referred to as “Apostles to the Slavs” and their work did much to influence the development of the region. Though German missionaries had been in the area before Cyril and Methodius they had not seen much success in converting the area. Cyril and Methodius took a different approach from the German missionaries and the results were also quite different. They translated the Bible into what is now know as Old Church Slavonic, which allowed liturgies to be said in the common language of the people. In order to do this they created a Slavic alphabet which is in use in many places even to this day. There were of course those who opposed their use of the Slavic language and who argued that Latin alone should be the language of the church and church documents, but because of the success of Cyril and Methodius’ mission both Rome and Constantinople honored them.

I think the story of Cyril and Methodius is very interesting. It seems to me that they at least partly cared about meeting people where they were. At a time when most church services where performed in Latin and when many missionaries insisted on Latin being used, Cyril and Methodius reached people in their native tongue. They entered into the lives of the Slavic people. The brothers worked in Moravia for just less than five years but because they taught the people in their own language they have been forever remembered as the ones to really bring Christianity to the Slavic lands.

It seems that often today we do the same thing that the German missionaries did, we try to convert people by forcing them to do things our way. Maybe we don’t make them do their service in Latin, but we do make them conform to our cultural standards. Cyril and Methodius didn’t do that, they allowed the people to be Slavic instead of trying to make them something they weren’t.

Lord, may we each minister to those around us without trying to take them someplace they aren’t ready to go. Without trying to force anything to happen. Without trying to make them look and act like us. May we meet people where they are at and reach out to them in ways that allow them freedom to be who you made them to be.

Rejoicing in the journey –
Bethany Stedman

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Roundup From Around The Web: Extreme! :)

February 19th, 2008

Do you ever have days when you just feel inadequate… un-used… un-creative… out of the loop? I feel a little bit like that right now…
I worked a ridiculously long day yesterday which was not fun, but some good things came out of it I think… well for one I got a lot of hours out of the way and a lot done, but maybe more interestingly I was able to spend a lot of time blog hopping and reading articles and watching interesting video clips (my job requires me to spend a lot of time on the computer but often the work is rather monotonous and can be done while listening to lectures, half watching video clips, etc – I still struggle sometimes with whether or not it is ethical for me to do these things while working but then I think that if I couldn’t do them I would probably go insane from the monotony and end up quitting my job which I don’t think is what I or my employer would want…so, I continue). Anyway, I found a lot of interesting posts and articles and videos that I would like to now share…

First, some stories…

Here is a story about a female referee that one school wouldn’t let ref because they said they didn’t believe women should be in authority over men – personally I thought this was ridiculous and I was very proud of her male co-workers who, when they heard about what happened, decided to protest by not working for refereeing for this school  

This post gives a beautiful and extremely challenging picture of what it means to really follow Jesus and what it means to follow Jesus despite our clumsy and often broken efforts.

I have been reading this blog off and on for a few weeks now but this particular post really stood out to me. It is a beautiful story of history and love. Reading it made me cry.

Second, some challenging discussions…

In this post an introvert wonders about hospitality and what radical hospitality should look like. “I wonder if stretching myself in this area is good discipline, or if it is actually being untrue to the person I am? Is it more genuine to just let my friends know that I am introvert who enjoys their company, but needs to get away, or should I look at pushing thru this and learning how to live in a different way, while still being who I am?” The comments here are also really interesting.

Sarah at Accidental Blog discusses whether or not there is a “right” expression of ecclesia.

Third, some other interesting thoughts…

Theopraxis discusses Isolation and the Suburban Condition – I found this to be an interesting post giving me a lot to chew on.

I just found this blog today and came across this post about this families “consumption fast” very interesting and challenging. The idea is that they aren’t going to spend any money (no shopping, eating out, movies, etc) except for paying bills and buying necessary groceries. Bryan and I have gone through periods where we have basically unconsciously done this because of necessity for a week or two here and there but I was really intrigued with this families goal of doing this intentionally for months straight (until July). Check it out to read his thoughts on the idea.

Here is an interview with N.T. Wright discussing Heaven… Interesting stuff.

Fourth, some very interesting videos…

This video is a clip of David Fitch talking about Church Planting Via Missional Orders. I found it very interesting and challenging.

My friend recently told me about TED and the videos that are now being shared from that gathering of people. I haven’t watched that many of them yet but they are FASCINATING. Basically each video is about 15 to 20 minutes long and they are little mini lectures about a variety of topics given by a variety of people (business professionals mostly it seems) – seriously very interesting videos. In this one Hans Rosling debunks common myths about developing nations using some fascinating media and enlightening statistics. In this other video John Doeer talks about climate change and green technologies (I personally found him a little extreme to listen to but I agree that we need to take better care of the earth that has been entrusted to us and I really do think that greentech can not only be good for the planet but can also be profitable and economical. In this video Larry Lessig talks about how creativity is being strangled by the law and talks about how we need new creative laws to deal with the advancements we are facing.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on any or all of these!  :-)

 

Rejoicing in the journey –
Beth Stedman

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