Is college too easy? As study time falls, debate rises: Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks unearthed previous research, part of a longitudinal study called Project Talent, that showed students of 1961 spent about 24 hours a week studying.

They calculated that those students spent another 16 hours in class time, or 40 hours in total weekly scholarship, giving college, for them, the feel of a full-time endeavor.

By contrast, the typical student today spends 27 hours a week in study and class time, roughly the same time commitment expected of students in a modern full-day kindergarten.

There is no getting around the numbers; college students study significantly less than did their peers from half a century ago. This cannot be questioned. What can be questioned, though – and should be – are the reasons being offered for this change in study time. The WP piece quotes quite a few people involved in higher education, including a few university presidents who note that many students now have full-time jobs while in college, a definite change from 1961. Others posit that general student laziness is to blame, while yet others label a culture of entitlement as the culprit (i.e. students expect to receive an A for doing a minimal amount of work.

Where the study in question falls short, and where the WP reporter, Daniel de vise, fails in solid reporting, is to ask the glaring question of what relationship study time has on grades and graduation rates. Moreover, the article completely overlooks the hundreds of hours of research that have been saved with the digitization libraries, the ever-decreasing time it takes to find the information one is looking for, and the new-fangled research tool called the Internet. With a few quick searches on ATLA and JSTOR I can access most everything that has been written on 4th century Christian baptismal practices and have a listed of reliable resources (that will surely lead me to more resources) in a matter of minutes. A query of this nature would have taken hours just to yield the results of what books and articles one should look at in 1961.

There is another factor, though, that I believe has contributed to the decline in study time and the decline in high performing students with exceptional critical thinking skills. With more and more budgets drastically cutting education funding, professors increasingly have to take on more classroom responsibilities as well as more responsibilities outside of the classroom. This often results in the professor assigning fewer assignments simply because of the lack of time to grade them as well as professors grading assignments merely for completion instead of accuracy, again because it simply takes too long to grade 200 synoptic gospel underlining assignments between class periods, for example.

Finally, the increasing push toward a student-as-consumer model is nothing if not detrimental to higher education. In this model, which many universities, states, and politicians have begun to implement or enforce, professors are evaluated on student achievement and student surveys. There simply is not mechanism in place to accurately, objectively, and quantifiably assess professors. It takes too much work and administrators are either unwilling to do the work or unable to (e.g. lack of knowledge how to or lack of time). The result of this model is that professors are reprimanded if too many students fail, affecting universities’ precious graduation rates.

Simply put, there are many systemic problems in higher education today. Declining study time may be a symptom of some of these problems (it also may not be). What is clear, though, is that actually educating students is no longer the top priority of colleges and universities (was it ever?) – I think this is both on the part of the school as well as students, many of whom do honestly want just to have fun for 4 or 5 years. To be sure, this is partly about the future competitiveness of our country, but it is also about so much more than that; namely, effectively educating ourselves, our children, and our children’s children.

We, as a society, can do better. We should do better. We must do better.

I, for one, am glad that the President has finally come out in favor of equality, though I was disappointed by his admission that it took him so long because he thought civil unions would be enough. Come on, Mr. President, we all know that “separate but equal,” even by any other name, never works.

There has also been, as was expected, a lot of negative reaction from conservatives, mostly conservative Christians. But conservative Christians bashing the President’s faith is nothing new. One criticism did strike me as rather amusing, though. Al Mohler wrote:

Honesty is the best policy, and the President has now made his position clear. He is again for what he was until today against, but that was only after he was for it before. The American people will have to unravel that as an issue of character.

This is amusing to me because while on the one hand, Obama is guilty of the political flip-flop on this issue with his stance changing when he ran for Senate most likely for political reasons. One the other hand, does Mohler think that his candidate, Mitt Romney, has any character at all? Certainly, the American people will have to “unravel” Obama’s flip-flop as an issue of character. That will take about 2.5 seconds for most Americans and I believe that not many votes will be changed by this announcement. But when it comes to Mitt Romney, I’m not sure there is enough time between now and November for the American people to “unravel” all of his flip-flops and abhorrent lack of character. He too, by the way, professed support for marriage equality in 1994 when running for Senate and when asked about it recently he said that his views had not changed since he began running for office. That’s pretty telling. Moreover, Romney has now said that he’ll “take credit for” the auto bailout that saved the American auto industry when he famously wrote an NYT OpEd titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

So, excuse me as I try to contain my laughter that Al Mohler thinks this is a legitimate chink in Obama’s character when his candidate’s own campaign admitted that his campaign was run like an Etch a Sketch, being able to reset and change at any point. Republicans rightly blasted Romney during the primaries because there seems to be not one single issue that Romney has not flip-flopped on at some point in his political career. Try as Mohler may, “character” is certainly not what the 2012 presidential race will come down to and the GOP won’t let it, because they know Romney has no chance in hell of winning on that front.

Sen. Richard Lugar’s searing concession statement: Too often bipartisanship is equated with centrism or deal cutting. Bipartisanship is not the opposite of principle. One can be very conservative or very liberal and still have a bipartisan mindset. Such a mindset acknowledges that the other party is also patriotic and may have some good ideas. It acknowledges that national unity is important, and that aggressive partisanship deepens cynicism, sharpens political vendettas, and depletes the national reserve of good will that is critical to our survival in hard times.

Now contrast this with what Mourdock had to say this morning about bipartisanship:

I certainly think bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view. … If we [win the House, Senate, and White House], bipartisanship means they have to come our way, and if we’re successful in getting the numbers, we’ll work towards that.

I really don’t like the direction our politics is heading in.

Clergy Rebukes Media for Asking Wrong Questions about Amendment One:

Rev. Dr. William Barber, a pastor in Goldsboro, NC says, rightly, that the media has been asking the wrong question. We should not be asking “are you against same sex marriage,” but “do you believe that a majority by popular vote should get to decide the rights of a minority?”

Another quotable line: ”However you feel about same sex marriage religiously or personally or morally, you can be for or against, you should always be against division and hatred and discrimination being written into the constitution.”

NC Family Law Professos Explain the Harms of Amendment One:

In this video by protectallncfamilies.org, family law professos from numerous NC colleges and universities speak out about the concerns they have with how the proposed amendment would affect children, families, and domestic violence legislation.

If you live in NC, make sure to vote against Amendment One tomorrow.

Orbis: Spanning one-ninth of the earth’s circumference across three continents, the Roman Empire ruled a quarter of humanity through complex networks of political power, military domination and economic exchange. These extensive connections were sustained by premodern transportation and communication technologies that relied on energy generated by human and animal bodies, winds, and currents.

Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information. Cost, rather than distance, is the principal determinant of connectivity.

For the first time, ORBIS allows us to express Roman communication costs in terms of both time and expense. By simulating movement along the principal routes of the Roman road network, the main navigable rivers, and hundreds of sea routes in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and coastal Atlantic, this interactive model reconstructs the duration and financial cost of travel in antiquity.

Taking account of seasonal variation and accommodating a wide range of modes and means of transport, ORBIS reveals the true shape of the Roman world and provides a unique resource for our understanding of premodern history.

Can’t wait to try it out and (hopefully) apply it to research.

Harris did that, preaching a sermon titled “Vote For Marriage: One Man. One Woman.” But Harris did not stop there, he went on to say that parents who perceive “effeminate” behavior in their sons should “punch” them, tell them to “man up,” and should “crack” their limp wrists (You can see the full hour-long sermon here). Harris has now come out and said that he “misspoke” and that it was a “joke.” To be fair, you can hear the congregation laughing in the audio of the sermon, but that says more to me about their lack of moral standing than it does that the pastor was joking.

Aside from the fact that I could detect no element of joking in this section of his sermon, the mere idea that one would joke about abusing a child because they do not fit rigid, socially-constructed gender roles is absolutely despicable. And, as far as I am concerned, every member of his congregation that laughed at his suggestion of child abuse is just as complicit in bigotry and supporting child abuse as is Sean Harris. Moreover, while Harris certainly does not represent everyone who is supporting Amendment One in NC (Billy Graham, for instance, and to my dismay, has come out in support of the amendment), his attitude does reflect an attitude and a worldview that must be pushed back against.

I am no longer a resident of NC, but I know that many of my followers and readers still are. I am urging you to vote against Amendment One and to shine the light on the likes of Sean Harris. It is people like Sean Harris that make me ashamed to have ever identified myself as a baptist. Now, I fully understand that there are plenty of baptist groups that would condemn (and have) Harris’ statements including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists. There voice has remained on the sidelines for far to long and voices like Harris’, Richard Land’s, and Al Mohler’s have been allowed to dominate the discussion when it comes to “baptist” perspectives.

Aside from my conviction that the rights of a minority should absolutely never be put to a majority vote and that our country should have equality for all, including marriage equality, the proposed Amendment to the NC constitution does not make gay marriage illegal in NC (it already is). Instead, it only serves to try to make it more difficult to overturn in the future – something I am confident WILL happen – and by many accounts will have many adverse effects, from hurting NC’s ability to attract businesses (something it desperately needs help in right now) to possibly affecting the hospital visitation rights of state-recognized civil unions and even making it nearly impossible for unmarried people (especially women) to bring domestic violence charges against another.

I am quite passionate about equality, but I am even more passionate about helping people see the bigotry and harm that certain conservative Christians are espousing. If anything, instead of trying to amend the NC constitution to take away rights, North Carolinians should be fighting to increase the protection of everyone – men, women, and children – in their state.

Note: Here is an unbiased site with information about Amendment One with arguments for and against the measure.

1. Learn Coptic
I, along with a mix of graduate students, professors, and one undergraduate student are learning/teaching ourselves Coptic this summer. We are using Thomas Lambdin’s Introduction to Sahidic Coptic as well as Bentley Layton’s Coptic in 20 Lessons. Also, we will be taking a bit of an inductive approach as we read through the Gospel of Thomas in Coptic. I am very excited to finally be learning Coptic, as it opens up a whole new world of ancient texts.

2. Write a book review
I am reviewing Emmanuel Tukasi’s Determinism and Petitionary Prayer in John and the Dead Sea Scrolls: An Ideological Reading of John and the Rule of the Community (1QS) for the journal Dead Sea Discoveries.

3. Improve my classical Greek
I will be reading book 6 of Josephus’ Jewish War with a few students and Dr. Levenson to brush up on my classical Greek and prepare myself for reading Xenophon’s Cyropaedia in the Fall.

4. Prepare NT Lectures
I will be teaching an Introduction to the New Testament Course in the fall, so I will spend time this summer preparing lectures, presentations, assignments, and handouts. I am particularly excited about teaching NT, though I suspect my students will be a bit less enthusiastic about the course.

5. Learn French 
Part of my program’s requirements (along with many other religion departments) require doctoral students to show competency in German and French (aside from the numerous ancient languages). I already have competency in German, so I will spend this summer and fall learning French to then take the university reading competency exam in December.

Aside from these plans, Trinity and I have a few trips to NC planned and I hope to get back on the bike a lot this summer (that is, after my broken ankle heals).

Southeastern Seminary rallies support for gay-marriage ban: If the people speak in North Carolina and in the other states and affirm marriage as being between a man and a woman, I believe that it will tip the balance of the Supreme Court to reject trying to foist by judicial imperialism same-sex marriage on a populace that is clearly opposed to it,” Land said. “If we lose, they will exercise their judicial imperialism. That’s what’s at stake, and you’re first up.

First, so much for the separation of church and state. It is nothing new that religious conservatives have been trying (often successfully) to legislate doctrine and tear down the wall of separation, though Land disagrees with this assessment. Second, if I follow Land’s logic that means that if the voters of NC accept a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, then the supreme court following them would be appropriate, but if the voters of NC vote down a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and the supreme court follows them, then this is somehow “judicial imperialism.” That makes sense. Not.

There are more than a few reasons I wish I still lived in NC, but this ranks toward the top. Were I still in NC I would make sure that I voted against a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. I hope that those of you who do live in NC will vote in my place and stand for equality and against discrimination.

Jared Bernstein shares this chart by the OECD which shows how education levels have changed from one generation to the next. The US has made no progress. In other words, the percentage of Americans who are in the 55-64 age range who have attained a college education is the same as the percentage of 25-34 year olds. This is more than lamentable. And yet, the Republicans in the House have just approved a budget that cuts Pell grants significantly.

What Are We Doing?: So the last thing you’d want to do is to cut rungs from that ladder.  Yet that’s exactly what the House Republican budget, authored by Rep Paul Ryan, does.  According to the White House, the budget changes “eligibility and funding under the Pell Grant formula so as to eliminate grants for 400,000 students and cut grants for more than 9 million others in 2013 alone.”

Paul Krugman connects the Republican war on education (what’s a little incendiary language hurt every now and then?) with the plummeting trust of science among conservatives, especially educated conservatives. This is both infuriating and saddening and I have to admit that I continue to be at a loss as to how anyone can think it’s a good idea to diminish education in our society by discouraging it both verbally and financially.

I have the same question as Jared Bernstein: What are we doing?

But, I have another question too, have conservatives shifted their battlefront away from social issues (at least to a small degree) and to education? If so, why?

Graduate School Is a Means to a Job: Never forget this primary rule: Graduate school is not your job; graduate school is a means to the job you want.

This can be easy to do, admittedly. Most of us decide to go to graduate school because we truly do have a deep and abiding love for what we’re studying. However, when we see grad school for what it really is – one step in the journey toward that beautiful and somewhat elusive tenure-track job – we can be that much more prepared for going out onto the job market.

Read the entire article by Karen Kelsky and take it as the good advice that it is. As a student finishing up my first year of doctoral studies, I am ever-grateful for those who have gone before sharing their experiences, mistakes, advice, and wisdom. Being a graduate student and thinking about how to prepare for the job market often feels like groping around in the dark just hoping to find something solid on which to rest our future. Needless to say, every bit of increased transparency about what lies ahead along with well-meaning advice will always be warmly welcomed by this grad student.