Real Beauty

I work alongside many artists. Because some in our department teach computer aided graphic design, I knew a bit about how pictures of models are "touched up" for magazine covers and advertisements. But there is something remarkable about watching it happen.

I viewed this video with Scooter and Skeeter and we talked about beauty in contemporary Western culture. It was very helpful in illustrating how artificial popular conceptions of beauty are.

Tenure Thoughts

There are some technical requirements for tenure. Generally the faculty member must possess a terminal degree. In addition, the faculty member must have served a particular length of time (usually six years) at the rank of assistant professor, although this can be negotiated. There are also some specific requirements that will vary from institution to institution.

But at most universities, including my own, the requirements for tenure fall into three broad areas: teaching, research, and service. There is also an unwritten category generally called collegiality.

In my school, teaching is an absolute prerequisite for tenure. You can be weak in one or more of the other areas and still get tenure. But if you are weak in the classroom, it is very, very difficult. At research institutions, other areas are paramount, but at many smaller Liberal Arts institutions, teaching is the main mission of the university.

Teaching is, however, notoriously difficult to measure. Basically we attempt to measure teaching by student surveys and by peer evaluations. Student surveys are very flawed mechanisms (for example they presuppose that students know good teaching when they see it!). But they do show at least the student perception of the teacher. Peer evaluations occur when a senior level faculty member observes a junior faculty member actually teach a class. These evaluations are less helpful as they are very artificial. The whole classroom dynamic changes when there is an observer present.

Oh and there is also http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/. The teaching profession really hates that website.

On Jobs and Fulfillment

I’m drawn to some of the darker texts in the bible. Ecclesiastes, some of the Psalms and Job are the film noir of the Old Testament. But I was struck by the comfort and wisdom found in Ecclesiastes 5:18-20

“For this is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot. Likewise all to whom God gives wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy them and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their toil—this is the gift of God. For they will scarcely brood over the days of their lives, because God keeps them occupied with the joy of their hearts.”

Almost every person I know, in and out of the ministry, is dissatisfied with their current job or looking forward to their next job more than they are to their current position.

One whom God grants fulfillment in their occupation is richly blessed indeed.

On Tenure

Since I have been consumed with this lately, I thought I would blog about my approaching request for tenure. Tenure is a right, granted to professors to teach in an environment where they needn’t fear retribution for the content of their teaching. Academic freedom is the catch phrase that is used to justify this practice. Tenure gives the faculty member protection from job-related repercussions of the content of their teaching, and (theoretically) can not be taken away.

Essentially it boils down to the idea that faculty (or certain administrators) cannot be fired for what they teach or who they cross in the day to day responsibilities of their employment. Tenured faculty can only be terminated for grossly abusing their responsibilities as professors (not showing up for work, or continued practice of detrimental dealings with students) or due to extreme financial hardship on the university (which happened to some tenured faculty in Louisiana after Katrina). It has also been declared in the case of at least one Baptist college.

Although there is much discussion on both sides, I (unsurprisingly) think that it is an important (if severely flawed) instrument. It frees faculty to express thoughts and opinions that can goad institutions or the larger society in important directions. I also think that it is this reason that it is virtually nonexistent at institutions connected to the Southern Baptist Convention. Although Art has recently discussed the concept of academic freedom at SBC seminaries, but the reality is that it has been diminishing for years at SBC insitutions.

In my case, working at a state insisution provides me more freedom than my colleague at many Baptist colleges and more than at all seminaries.

But how do you ensure that tenure is not awarded improperly or to the undeserving? Some thoughts tomorrow…

Scooter Conversation

Due to an evening meeting, I was able to come home early in the afternoon yesterday. When I walked in the door at three, Scooter was already there:

Scooter: "DADDY! You're home early!!!!"

Taran (pleased with her excitement): "Yes, I got off work early today!!"

Scooter: "Did you get fired?????"

Taran: "Thanks kid. Thanks a lot."

Mancation

What a great weekend!! My brother, Bartolo, and I shared a fantastic Mancation. A mancation is a time of getting away from normal responsibilities to hang out with each other.* We went to Dallas, Texas and spent much time in book stores (Bartolo is also afflicted with an affinity for books) and watching every second of every baseball playoff game on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. Capping off our weekend we went to see the Cowboys thrash the Texans (which pleased me but depressed my brother). (Cheese)Life is so busy and relationships are of such low priority that we spend far to little time with those we love most. (/cheese). It was a great time.

*Note, I Googled the term mancation and ended up with many definitions that involved much drunken revelry and general debauchery. Such activities did not characterize our mancation…alas.

Social Studies Exam

Scooter and I were studying for her social studies exam on Egypt. We studied about Akhenaten (no, not that one) Ra, and Nefertiti. But Scooter couldn't quite get the importance of King Tutankhamen (no, not that one), who had a fairly uneventful reign.


Of course, I had to explain that King Tut was actually born in Arizonia before he moved to Babylonia. She was puzzled until, thanks to the wonders of YouTube...





After we watched it she was silent for a second and then said "Isn't that the guy from Cheaper by the Dozen 2?"

Goodbye to the Fanksy Poon

Corporal punishment has made our home a less chaotic place.

We made the decision several years ago that we would spank the kids only when their actions placed their lives in danger. So Scooter and Skeeter received spankings pretty rarely—essentially only for things like walking out into the street or running away from us in a public place. That system worked very well and we’ve not had to spank either of them in years.

And then we had a son.

We started out with the same general principle for Squealer that we did for the girls. But after about three years, we realized that we were going to have to change tactics. Despite his abhorrence for time outs, Squealer often ignores them and continues to repeat the behavior that led to them. So with that in mind, we began to utilize a small wooden spoon to swat his behind when he repeatedly transgressed his limitations. We initially called it the “Spanky Spoon,” but Squealer couldn’t pronounce that so he refers to it as the “Fanksy Poon” (and of course, we all began to refer to it as Fanksy Poon as well).

But Squealer has matured to the point where a wooden spoon not longer accomplishes is corporal task. Because of this fact, I made one purchase during the rummage sale of which I am particularly proud. I purchased a sturdy paddle from an old ball and paddle game.

I have named it Mr. Buster. Scooter and Squealer took great delight in drawing a mean face on it. The face is frowning and saying the words "Squealer, get back in bed!!"

I’ll let you know when it is ummm…… broken in.

Susan Song Update

The intentional interim process continues at Susan Song Baptist. The church had never planned out a calendar of upcoming events before, so we began that process and it has taken us a few weeks. When we finish the year (next Wednesday) I’ll ask them to look over the calendar and see how many events they have planned that do not concern fellowship. I think that it will be a good tool to help them see their identity.

Last weekend we held a community-wide rummage sale in order to pay the insurance for the church (which runs around $1,500.00 a year). We raised $900 which was a great start. I worked the sale and enjoyed getting to see the people from the church in their natural habitat, away from the Sunday morning service.

I am still trying to reach the former pastor for lunch. He has not been returning my phone calls although I found out form a mutual friend that he has received them. I will try one more time and then write him a letter. I think that it will be good for the church if he returns to the church and lets us celebrate his ministry. Those who know him say that he has a great sense of anxiety.

I hope that he overcomes it!

Final Thoughts on Ramsey

I've thought more about finances in the last two years than I have in my previous thirty-five. Some final thoughts:

1) I am amazed at how pervasive debt is today. School debt, car debt, and a thirty year mortgage (or fifty????!!!!) is the norm. That is a lot of money flying out the door each month. A colleague of mine leased a new car recently. We're close and he knew of our plan. He said "I don't consider a car payment an option. You have to have one and I'll have one the rest of my life." We've decided to get off this debt merry-go-round.

2)The greatest feeling about sloughing off our debt like so much dead skin is the flexibility it has given us. We can now respond to impending crises by rechanneling our money from investments to stockpiling cash when the demands of life appear. We can respond to immediate crises by using our emergency fund. That flexibility feels very liberating.

3) We also have more money to give. Ramsey is big on tithing and while we've been on his plan we've given money to the work of our church like we've never been in a position to give before.

4) My profession is infested with debt. Student debt is rising astronomically, with the average undergrad completing their degree with $19,000.00 in debt. Life is no better for graduate students either. I am concerned about students who go heavily in debt to get into a profession that won't allow them to pay it off in a reasonable length of time.

5) Ramsey's plan isn't perfect. My main criticism is that it is pretty cookie-cutter in its approach. He is a lot stronger on getting out of debt than he is on investing. Probably because so many more people need to get out of debt than they need to invest.

6) Finally, I think one great appeal about Ramsey is the power of his personal narrative. He was a millionaire before the age of thirty, lost it all, and was a millionaire again before forty. The experience of going bankrupt seared into his personality an aversion to debt. Being anti-debt is now a crusade for him.

His plan is simple, but not easy. It is also is not instant wealth or get-rich quick. It is methodical, and takes decades to achieve financial goals. It is simple, but not easy.

As he says "I sell crock-pots, not microwaves."

Why not give it a shot? I would recommend starting by reading The Total Money Makeover.

Baby Steps Four, Five, and Six (VII)

These three steps are carried out simultaneously.

Step Four is 15% of gross income into retirement. We've been putting only 8% of my income into retirement, so we really need to kick this up. We are in the process of setting up an automatic draft into some Roth IRA's for this. Ramsey recommends Roth because it grows tax free. I'd rather pay the taxes now rather than later because I know that I have the money now. Who knows how things will look in thirty years??

Step Five is saving for kid's college. Regrettably, the school system I work for does not pay for tuition for dependants. (I literally do not know of another system or school that does NOT provide tuition assistence for faculty kiddos). We are on our own. Our goal, starting next year, is to save up $2000.00 per kid, per year into an Educational Savings Account. That won't pay for Harvard, but it will get them started. Scooter (at age 11) is the one I'm mostly concerned about paying for. Our goal is to pay off the house by the time she begins so that we can work to cash flow her first year. Which brings us to...

Step Six is to pay off the house early. Ramsey recommends no more than a 15 year fixed rate mortgage, which was the only thing we were doing correctly when we began his program. At this stage, he advises you to pay what extra amount that you can on the balance. We have about 12 years left on the note now and will really work to pay it off in seven years. We are starting off this year by paying an extra $80.00 a month which will pay a bit more than an extra payment per year. Obviously we will need to increase that to meet our goal.

Final thoughts tomorrow...

Baby Step Three (VI)

The third baby step is to build up your emergency fund to 3-6 months of expenses. This is a general rule of thumb that I've seen recommended in some other places as well. Since Kadie (the nurse) and I have reasonably (ummm...mostly) secure jobs, we opted for the three month expenses emergency fund.

For us, that equates to about $12,000. In some ways, this step was the hardest. It took almost as long as Baby Step two, but without the gratification of seeing our debts evaporate. Plus, I must confess that we were not as diligent and focused as we were on Step Two. One gets lax when the wolf is no longer at the door.

It took us until September to save up the money. But now we've done it. We've put $2,000.00 in our local credit union (earning nothing) and the other $10,000.00 into a Capitol One Money Market account (earning 4.8% interest). We figured it would be nice to earn some interest off them for once.

We celebrated tonight at the same Japanese Steak House. Squealer enjoys the open flames. He's got some pyromania in him!

Baby Steps One and Two (V)

So Kadie and I made some plans. First, we decided not to get the minivan fixed right away. We waited for a month to save up the money to repair it. My parents graciously loaned us a car for that month. Kadie then signed onto a contract and began to work extra shifts to generate the $3,300.00 for the new car engine.

We then turned our attention to Ramsey’s plan.

Baby step one was the easiest. Dave suggests $1,000.00 in your baby emergency fund. We had around $1,200.00 in the bank, so this was the easiest of our goals to meet. We pulled out $200.00 to throw at our debts and turned our attention to paying off debt.

Baby step two was the hardest. Ramsey says to lay out your debts, from smallest to largest, (except for your mortgage) and then begin to pay them off. Our debt snowball looked something like this:

$200.00 Bank of America Credit Card
$380.00 Discover Card
$1,100.00 Best Buy computer payment (at a lovely 0% interest)
$17,520.00 Our 2005 Saturn VUE

In March of 2005 we began to pay off these debts. We started with the lowest and worked our way through them. Ramsey reccomends starting with the lowest total amount (as opposed to highest interest rate) in order to make some quick progress.

The toughest debt (obviously) was the car. We purchased the car in November and then took charge of our debt the following spring. Dave recommends keeping the car if you can pay off all your debts within 18 months of starting his plan. We figured that we could meet those guidelines.

And we did it. Kadie worked a few contracts and we cut our expenditures down substantially. We stretched our paychecks and tightened the screws on our budgets. Instead of taking an extended road trip for a vactaion (like to Colorado or Virginia, as we had in past summers) we stayed at a relatives home for a weekend. That was our "big" vacation. We spent more time at home and our riding bikes.

The last month, January of 2006, was the toughest. In that last month our microwave died (it was a wedding gift that had survived 14 years of culinary abuse); our dish-washer died; and our garbage disposal died (right after I had installed our new dish washer, Kadie was CERTAIN that I had screwed something up); and Kadie had her debit card stolen at work (amusingly, they went out and immediately began buying gas. It was when gas hovered in the $2.80’s).

So despite the challenges, we paid off all our debts by November, as well as the $3,300 for the rebuilt minivan engine. When we took our last payment check to the post office to put it in the mail we brought Skeeter, Scooter and Squealer all into the lobby to help us drop it in. And then to celebrate as a family we went out to eat at a really nice Japanese steak house.

And yes, we paid in cash.