Everyone Starts With an F

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At the beginning of the term, I announce that all of my students all begin the class with an F. You see, although they may have obtained 100% of the possible points so far, since they have obtained no points, 100% of zero is still zero. Some of them take this rough, probably because it’s the opposite perspective to the usual one.

Most students begin their courses under the misbegotten notion that they all have a perfect score. The problem with this is that for many it is an unachievable promise for them to maintain it, and so they disguise as hope and progress an expectation that is incompatible with the educational environment. Far too many programs mistake grades for learning. This sets up the students to all be failures.

Everyone starts with an F. You have earned ZERO points. Everything you do is something that you earn, and everything where you earn fewer points than you desire shows where you need to refocus your efforts and where you have room for growth. I am frequently asked what kind of grades I 'give'. I do not give grades. You earn them. If you do not earn a passing grade, it's because you are unwilling to pay the price.

The normal philosophy is negative. It invites you to manage how badly you fail. Mine allows you to decide what price you are willing to pay for the achievement level you desire. Although there is some resistance, it shows which students are willing to rise to the challenge and pay the price. You see, far too many of them waltz in with an attitude that says "lay the daily knowledge on me". Then they expect to regurgitate facts on an exam. Nobody is going to come in and ask them to explain Dalton's Atomic Theory or LeChatlier's Principle, ask them to name an organic molecule or show which resonance form contributes to the bioactive form of a chemical synthesis, but they may have to apply those things in answering questions on the job or in making choices about what to do.

In the end, I want my students to be able to use the information I give them. Consequently, my courses usually have a bimodal distribution; that means there are two bell curves, one at the high end of the grading scale that shows who was willing to pay the price and another at the average end of the grading scale that shows those who are going through the motions hoping for good enough. Some students even admit that. I remember one older gentleman last term who was happy if he earned a C. I am sure he was surprised and happy with his B. He earned it. He learned, and that's what it's supposed to be about.

As far as I'm concerned, grades are a poor measure of education. They show who is able to regurgitate information. They do not show who is inclined to do the job, who is dedicated to stay the course, who would be the best personality fit with the doctors, or anything other than who has the most stuff shoved in their brain. However, this summer I have been blessed with a marvelous group of 37 students, a majority of whom are motivated and engaged and excited to learn. You see, I explain things to them that they have always wondered, that are relevant to their lives, that inspire their minds, and that help them understand the world and the universe around them.

Many of them pay me the finest compliment they can pay any instructor and sign up for the second term in my section (I only have one section of that course). I look forward to fall and spring with my second semester Chemistry students. There will be more learning, more challenges, but more synergy, and by that both I and the universe will have done useful work.

As in Chemistry, everyone begins life with an F. We are all born into this world poor, naked, hungry, angry, and upset at having been unceremoniously removed from the comfort and safety of the womb. What makes the difference for us is that we have a Savior who is concerned less with our grades (deeds) and more with our nature. He wants us to learn, to turn to Him, to improve when we can and hold our ground when we get there. What He asks us to learn is how much we have a need for a Savior to change our natures and make something better of us. If we are willing to pay the price, repent, and turn to Him, then we pass, not because of anything we did but because of His grace. We read this in the scriptures, that it is by grace we are saved, not by works lest any man should boast. It cannot be by works or else spending time in my garage would make me out to become a car.

Everyone starts with an F. Only the penitent man shall pass.

Hellish Philosophy

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For an unrelated reason, I reread the Screwtape Letters Tuesday and came across the phrase "whole philosophy of hell". I believe that this hellish philosophy, as manifest in our mortal realm, is the foundational element for almost all human suffering. In other words, we use the philosophy of hell in a vain attempt to establish utopia, and it makes us miserable.

Here is the relevant quotation from my copy of the Screwtape Letters on p 70:

The whole philosophy of hell: My good is my good, and your good is yours. What one gains another loses. If it expands, it does so by thrusting other objects aside or absorbing them. To be means to be in competition.

Our politicians, our pastors, and sometimes our parents have this misbegotten notion that life is a null-sum game. They might have this because I know I teach my students that matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed, but that is in total for the entire universe. I also teach them that the amount of gold on earth increases every year because gold is made by stars, and so even now during the heat wave, a small sum of gold and platinum atoms is landing on the surface of the earth, propelled here from Sol, our sun.

Almost every intervention and government program begins with this notion. Ronald Reagan said that "We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one!" There is no notion of invention, unless people want to patent something and earn a profit, and there is no notion of increase. They actually believe in a world, truth be told, full of an ever-decreasing amount of resources! Think about it! They would have you believe that without their intervention, we will eventually use up all the stuff that makes life matter. This they do to destroy your freedom.

Unfortunately, the somnambulent public is party to their charade. Many people do not want freedom because it means they have to work. Checks are sufficient to provide comfort and give them food, cell phones, their cars, and their plasma TV. It doesn't hurt to be poor in America anymore. Additionally, as opposed to yesteryear, there is no stigma against people who are not working; in fact, the stigma goes out to people who live within their means and save for a rainy day! Many people expect and demand that those who have oil in their lamps by their wisdom give to the rest of the foolish virgins!

Everyone in this hellish world believes he is right all the time. He does not care about whether there is evidence to the contrary. They secretly go about all their investigations on the preconceived notion that they are right and bend facts to fit theories and throw out exculpitory evidence. They cannot be taught; they are convinced they are right. I cannot imagine how awful it must be to always be right. I try to keep in mind that I might be wrong. If heaven is full of the kind of people who think only evil of me, then I'd rather be in hell; I think I'd be more comfortable where people at least admit they are in hell.

I-9 Forms and Illegal Aliens

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At the end of last week, many of my coworkers (as I found yesterday) and I received an email from HR. I thought it was an error. They were telling me that my I-9 form indicated that I was ineligible to work in the United States. Monday, I reached the person who knew what was going on with my form and learned that almost five years ago I had signed the wrong line.

What they are not telling you is why they are suddenly interested in harassing at least handfuls of us to come correct THEIR error. You see, I don't work in HR. How can they expect me to complete their forms properly? I learned that we're about to be audited by the Federal Government, and for EVERY I-9 form that is incorrectly completed there is a fine of up to $250000, which means that it will cost our institution at least $1.5 million just from the other people I know affected by this.

Duplicitously enough, we live under an administration that does not require Identification for illegal aliens but is about to fine an institution of higher education for not completing paperwork correctly. They are not bothered by people who are intentionally breaking the law; they just want to fine people who normally comply. They hand out gift baskets and goodie bags to illegals, insist on doing things to help the innocent children, and throw open the Arizona border. The citizen has been reduced to second class or coach.

The fact of the matter is that people suffer all the time from circumstances they don't control. We have criminals in this country whose children are deprived of their fathers, but the government only coddles the children of illegal aliens who are not incarcerated. I was just thinking last night how grateful I was that for many months now my commute has not been complicated by a presidential motorcade, a collision, or road construction. Yet, those hedge up the way of many people. Our government props up and subsidizes CERTAIN people. Sometimes it's people who will return the quid pro quo, and sometimes it's just to buy votes.

You see, the Democrats are desperately reliant on new voters. Barack Obama has made things worse, even as he still blames Bush. The government is reliant on new money. Barack Obama's government has overseen a period of history where the middle class has born an increased burden of total taxes. They are coming here to fine Nevada, because we're still treading water financially. Yet, they don't clean out their own house full of tax cheats and croney capitalists. It's duplicitous in the extreme.

I told a friend yesterday that I am less concerned with what the rules are as I am with the notion that they apply equally to everyone. What I see here is one law for the people Obama likes and misery for everyone else. At least for me I do not live paycheck to paycheck, and when they sort this out, I know my checks will find their way to my accounts.

Making Good Time

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There are a lot of crazy people out there with ideas they think are wonderful. They believe themselves to be leaders when in reality they are managers, interested not in the outcome as much as they are in the process.

The story is told of a work crew in sub-saharan Africa tasked with cutting a rail line through the jungle. The management team organized the workers into one of the most efficient processes the world has ever seen. The crews doing the cutting were constantly rotated to keep the workers fresh and preserve strength. Support teams followed up close behind supplying a steady refresh of sharp tools and replacement items to push the work along. Managers sent back reports that impressed shareholders at the amazing progress being made by the crew which cut through the brush at a rate unexpected in that day. Everything seemed to be working perfectly.

One day, a scout went up a tree to verify the trajectory of the rail line and to survey the progress. It was not until then that the crew realized they were ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE RIVER. He yelled down to inform them, went to see the management, and argued. He was told to shut up, because they were making good time.

We have people in government (politically speaking as well as other ways) who are not concerned with what is being done or if it's being done well. They are like the commander in the Bridge Over the River Quai who don't care that what they are building will be used for evil ends because they beat deadlines and received amazing bonuses for their great work. This kind of attitude is to be accepted and praised in America according to the liberals. If it had been this way in the 1940s, we would have sent back the German physicists to Hitler by whose work we eventually developed the atomic bomb. Perish the thought if Hitler had one and we did not!

These same people point to nations, organizations, and families that do not share our values. They point China as a model for efficiency, ignoring the fact that although China might build roads, bridges and buildings more quickly than we do that it also builds gulags and concentration camps more quickly and efficiently than we. The value and virtue of a project is never questioned as long as we are making good time.

In the end, the work of that crew in Africa was completely wasted. It wasn't headed anywhere useful or valuable, and so the entire project would have to be scrapped as useless work. At the same time as people in our government do this, they insist that all we need is more time, more stimulus, more QE, and more of the same, that the problem is not that management made a mistake but that the surveyor had the audacity to draw attention to the mistake. "We're headed the wrong way!" "Yes, but at least we're making good time."

Loving Absolutely

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I'm still working on the concept of love, but I had a realization this week that I feel I ought to share. I realized that even I, with all of my great facets, frequently love conditionally. I love, hoping that people will do or choose or be what validates me, and when they don't I am upset. I guess I never really knew better, but it also means I may have never really ever loved.

Beginning with a principle, we see the truth in loving without conditions. When you hurt your arm, you do not cut it off. You nurture it, protect it, take good care of it, minister to its healing. You are not concerned so much with whether the arm brings you flowers or heals back perfectly; you are happy that it heals at all. You know it's better to have a lousy arm than none at all, and you are anxious to preserve whatever function and form you can of what was once precious to you.

People too sometimes get hurt. If we really love them, then we continue to take care of them, love them, and befriend them. We do not cut them off when they do not meet our expectations, validate our opinions, or satisfy our needs. That's not love, or at least not the love we all discuss and allegedly seek. That's self-love, selfishness that says, "Give me what I want, or I will be a miscreant". It's conditional, and so it is not pure.

God loves us because of who we are, not because of what we do. He knows that even the best of men are exactly that- the best of men, and men are pretty inconsequential on a universal scale, despite what the government says. I am not claiming His love is unconditional, but what I have realized is that it's not conditional. The Atonement has occurred. It paid the price for all human weakness of all time, and if we really believe that we must embrace that Christ has already made the mistakes of men right unto us.

Of course, we prefer a particular outcome. When people begin to suspect our love is outcome oriented, they resist. I know scores of people who love conditionally, codependently, exacerbated by the notion in popular media that "I love you and I know we'll be together no matter what, and I won't rest until we are". That is selfishness, and I love nothing so selfishly that I will not allow it to leave if it chooses or let it go for its own good. It's in the songs, the books, the cinema, this bastardized love that says I love you because I obtained a certain outcome or because I expect my love to lead us there whether you know it or acknowledge it. I have been guilty of this as well I realized over the past few days, and I am ashamed.

I still don't know how to do this. You see, most people love conditionally. Even those who mean well don't really get it, and maybe that's the problem. You can't learn how to love perfectly from imperfect beings. You can only learn how to love like God if you allow Him to teach you how He does it. He will, and I have already started my lessons. Wish me luck.

National Anthem

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I don't usually showcase a lot of my own talents aside from writing, but I find it prescient and appropriate to post my own rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. I recorded this over two years ago. The pictures are all mine. The guitar is played by me while I sing. All rights reserved except as prohibited by US Copyright law for the work of Mr. Key.

America the Beautiful

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The Constitution of the United States is a heavenly banner; it is to all those who are privileged with the sweets of its liberty, like the cooling shades and refreshing waters of a great rock in a thirsty and weary land. It is like a great tree under whose branches men from every clime can be shielded from the burning rays of the sun. --Joseph Smith Jr, 25 Mar 1839

This week, I have been attacked afresh for my religious affiliation. I expect, as the Presidential campaign advances, for these attacks to escalate. Any many who accuses us of being unfriendly to the United States and her Constitution accuses us of being unfaithful to our Faith.

Several years ago when I first visited Independence Hall for the first time, my friend Thom observed that I was exceptionally quiet and respectful. I told him that these documents were to me as if works of scripture and as such deserved the quiet reverence we accord to other documents inspired of God.

As I cannot say it better than a prophet of God, I leave you with his words on this Independence Day. I know that you share this feeling and pray that you will do all in your power to keep it alive.

Good in America

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I was extremely disappointed today to see a video of Jeff Daniels talk about how there is nothing great about America. I particularly enjoyed his depiction of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain in Gettysburg, but apparently he's just a very good actor. He's about as far from Chamberlain as you can go.

People like to look for the bad in things. Mostly, I think it makes them feel better about themselves. Sometimes I think they use it to distract us from looking for the bad in the things they love or in themselves. In the end, I think they do it because it's easier than looking for the good.

My mission was a very difficult period of my life. I remember once, when my father asked me to sit down and think about the good in my companions, I struggled because I found myself splitting hairs or able only to focus on their weaknesses. It took a greater number of years than I like to admit to see them as they really were.

People choose to see the bad in America. Funny enough, these same people want to be in charge of a nation they allegedly hate. As for myself, I don't affiliate with things that I consider to be counter to my values and beliefs. I eschew them. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to lead a nation they considered evil.. Historically, these kind of people would CONQUER those nations instead.

Although there are bad things about America, there are many wonderful things too. People like Mr. Daniels do not see because they do not wish to see. They, like most people, pass on the data that supports their own point of view and ignore the rest, all the while claiming to be 'objective'. Although they will probably fly flags, shoot off fireworks, and barbecue with neighbors this Wednesday, they do not support America. How can you support something you hate?

This is one of the least racist, least nationalistic, least isolationist nations on the planet. When I was living in Austria as a missionary, I remember one night sitting around after dinner when the topic came to foreigners. Those gathered began to complain about how much they hated foreigners and wished they would go home. Suddenly, I pointed out that I was a foreigner, and the room fell silent. No matter my skin color, my Swiss ancestry, and my mastery of German, I was NEVER going to actually be an Austrian. I was always going to be a foreigner. The same cannot be said in America. We don’t care where you are from or who your father is if you’re contributing to the advancement of our society.

America if left to its own devices will feed the hungry, administer to the sick, free the captive, and right any wrong. They are the world’s most dependably compassionate people. People mock their fascination with the “happily ever after” concept, and yet they of all people hope, even against hope, for a better world, for peace in the Middle East, and for the expanse of virtue to other shores. In America it matters what one is, not who one’s father was, as is reflected in this quote: “Whether you're made of old parts, new parts or spare parts, you can shine no matter what you're made of .”

By looking at people full of hope and compassion, people learn about what it really takes to change the world. Nobody learns how to be alive by studying death or by asking those whose life hangs in the balance. More to the heart of the matter, people truly possessive of hope and compassion, of the virtues of humanity, constitute the only muster by which the world and its denizens hope to be elevated. “You cannot turn to a corrupted man to understand things of the spirit. He knows nothing of the ethics being discussed” .

They like to talk about Europe as the light of the world. Even Europeans have decided in this generation to see only the bad about America. Yet it is Europe and not America where most of the evils attributed to America arose and in America where they were first laid to rest. Europe went through the Dark Ages. America arose after the enlightnement, the Enlightened Experiment as one pilgrim wrote. It's populated with men, and everything built by men will have flaws. It was however built by some of the best of men who embued it with their virtues and inspired it with their rhetoric and built it with their hands and hearts and fortunes. That is what we celebrate. We choose to see the good, celebrate it, endorse it, and follow it. You tend after all to end up heading toward that which keeps your focus, and as soon as America's detractors realize that, they'll actually be able to help us head towards greatness rather than always glancing back as Lot's wife on the evils we left behind. America is a land of promise to all those who have God to be their King.

A More Excellent Way

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The entire point and purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to show men a more excellent way. Although some people do not adopt it, thinking instead that signing a membership roll is the same as behaving like a member, it exists to make bad men good and good men better. For some time I have been saying that if your Faith has not made you a better person, it matters very little what Faith you join. Even more frustrating for me, there are people who resist more truth, more opportunities, more assistance, claiming that they have enough.

What it really seems to boil down to is the price people are willing to pay. Every semester, when I speak with my students, there are those among them who do less well than they expected and a few who do not expect much from themselves. I explain to them that what they receive is commensurate with the price they are willing to pay. If they don't invest much in, then losing or failing doesn't hurt as much, but that which we obtain too easily we esteem too lightly. I expect them to stretch and work for it, but in the end, I desire their success and advancement.

During our Sunday School this week, a member of my congregation reported on his son's activities in Boy Scout Camp. Apparently his son did not want to stick around to help take down tents and pack up the camp. You see, the fun part was over, but that doesn't mean that the work is over. It takes far more to put on a scout camp than most of the boys realize; it takes I am sure more than even I realize. This gentleman explained to his son that there were better choices that he could make. Proverbs abound about how many hands make like work and if we whistle while we work there is a spoonful of sugar. I know when I accompany my father with boating trips we appreciate those who are helpful in preparing and cleaning up afterwards.

Perhaps that is one reason why I really love my beagles. Generally speaking, they are eager to please and truly desire to be better. I think my biggest problem with these dogs is that their attention span is so short that it's easy for them to unlearn habits that are not continually reinforced. However, they are eager to make me happy. I have managed, after several years, to get my beagle to take treats from my hand without getting too excited. When I offer it too him, I say "Gentle", and he frequently removes the treat as gingerly as any animal can that takes food directly with its teeth.

Over the last few weeks, there has been a theme on my mind. In addition to my fear that we sometimes do not let the Atonement take away the mistakes of men we meet, sometimes I also think we refuse to let them rise as far as they are willing to pay the price. We encourage them to reformation, but there is nothing that says that because we have reformed first that we will be better or that we are allowed to hold them back. The Gospel of Jesus Christ exists to make bad men good and good men better. His Atonement erases their mistakes. His involvement makes of them what Lewis calls the "New Men". Who are we to stand in the way?

At least in my experience, I see a lot of people who are satisfied when things are "good enough". They rarely consider what might be better or best. Even when they think they are better, they do not allow other men the opportunity to be better than they are. However, like I tell my students, I am not interested in proving that I am better than they, even if it's true. If the rising generation is not better, smarter, more capable, and more moral than we, our society stops advancing. I do only myself a favor if I beat the students down and hold them back. I truly desire for every one of them to eclipse me in intellect, in achievement, in wealth, and in every way. Sure, that assaults my ego, but it's what's best. It's a more excellent way.

Are we not all beggars? Are we not all dependent in the same way on the same God for our breath, for heat from the sun, and for everything else we receive? The only reason we have anything is because God allows us to have it. We remember our riches and puff out our chests, forgetting to thank our God for them. Then, we unjustly take credit for our success while ascribing blame to God for all of our ills. This morning while running, I explained to God what I would like with the proviso that most of what I have desired would have turned out to be a bad thing for me. I know He has a more excellent way, and so I told Him that if His will and mine are the same, that would be awesome, but that I choose His way and will over mine. I have always been led to a land of promise when I was submissive to His will. Just as He is anxious to bless, I am anxious to please Him. I hope He will be gentle.

We Talk of Christ...

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Saturday afternoon, when I returned home from my hike, I took a shower and sat down to relax. Ironically enough, I was reading the Bible when there came a knock at the door. Not expecting company, I am surprised I got up, but I did.

At the door, I found a family that turned out to be a group of people proselytyzing for the Jehovah's Witnesses. Since their door approach revolved around Jesus Christ and given the fact that I have myself been a missionary, I decided to invite them in. To my great surprise, they declined and did everything possible to move along although I did manage to get a copy of their booklet. I've never read it in English.

When I was on my mission, we tracted into a neighborhood full of Jehovah's Witnesses. After a few homes, one of their members invited us to their Bible study group. To their great surprise, we accepted. Over the next several weeks, we met with them and discussed not only their magazine but also the passages of scripture upon which their magazines were allegedly predicated. We had no ulterior motive. We were there to study the Bible.

To our great dismay, eventually one of their leaders put a stop to our visits. I can only assume he feared that our continued visits would strip him of control over his members. In the case of my recent visit, I was completely surprised that they rejected an opportunity to talk with me in my house about the Savior. Maybe they're not used to it; maybe they were afraid of me. Very few people have actually been invited into my house.

I'm excited to talk about Christ. Perhaps that's why some of my students are surprised by me. They expect scientists to believe in data and worship statistics. I would rather talk about that, but since I don't have a degree in theology (because I don't think that makes a man a servant of God since Paul wrote the Hebrews that "no man taketh this honor unto himself save he is called of God as was Aaron"), I don't teach that at college; I teach Chemistry.

You see, I am not concerned with my convictions. Even when leaders of my own Faith insist that I follow blindly the philosophies of man, I take everything to God and inquire of Him. I act only if I feel that it is what I ought to do. Come on over any time and I'll be happy to talk of Christ with you.