How to Read in Grad School

Reading becomes an art (or a science?) in grad school.  Mostly because without the proper technique, it is impossible to read everything that is assigned.  Unfortunately, everyone has different strategies, so it is a process of trial-and-error to find the one that works for you.  I am still  working on this.  I like to read every word -- partly because I get caught up in the narrative and forget to read for the argument and partly because I am afraid I will miss something important.  

The other challenge is to read actively and to critique the historian's argument while reading.  This can get complicated when you have books that are about the same topic but seem mutually exclusive.  A verse in Proverbs expresses this dilemma perfectly: 

The one who states his case first seems right, 

until the other comes and examines him.

Proverbs 18:17 

This semester I not only have to read some thirty books for the classes that I am taking, but I also have to read for my comprehensive exams in the spring.  These reading lists will probably end up requiring me to read over one hundred books.  This is where reading strategies come in handy.  Anyway, I was reading one of my comps books, and I came across these reading tips from an 18th-century German educator.  I thought they were amusing...

You should never read while standing or after having finished a meal.  Instead, you should wash your face with cold water and take your book outdoors, where you can read it in the bosom of nature - and aloud, for the sound of the voice facilitates the penetration of ideas.  But most important, you should have the right spiritual disposition.  Instead of responding passively to the text, you should throw yourself into it, seize its meaning, and apply it to your own life. "We must relate everything we read to our 'I,' reflect on everything from our personal point of view, and never lose sight of the consideration that study makes us freer and more independent, and that it should help us find an outlet for the expression of our heart and mind." (Robert Darnton from Johann Adam Berg's manual on reading)

Only a week?!?

I moved back to Starkville last Saturday, and I already feel like I've been here an entire month.  Because my arrival was delayed due to car troubles, my adjustment week was smooshed into one weekend and Monday.  I felt like I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

This semester is going to be jam-packed.  I have two reading intensive classes and one research intensive class as well as three 50+ book reading lists that I have to get through in order to be prepared for my comprehensive exams next spring.  It's insane!  Add teaching two discussion sections, grading 50+ exams, quizzes, and papers, and at least three weekly meetings, and this semester is going to keep me hopping.  I won't be bored...

The challenge this semester will be to keep my relationship with God at the center of my crazy busy life.  Making time to have a quiet time and to mediate on God's Word daily will be a challenge when I have graded work due every day, but that's my goal.  The Bible promises that if we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all these things will be added to us.  Everything else should pale in comparison with knowing the God of the universe and my Savior.  I pray that God will be first in my life regardless of how stressed I am, how busy I am, or even how sleepy I am.

In Christ Alone

I ask great things of a great God

A couple weeks ago a friend told me that it was often during the times that we expected God to do the least that He in fact does the most.  I had been complaining about my upcoming year at grad school and how I couldn't wait to finish and move on to the next, more interesting stage of my life.  Her reminder resonated with me, and I have been thinking about it since, knowing that I needed to hear it and to quit limiting God to my own feeble imagination.  Then, this week at Shannon Forest Christian School, a couple of the women who work in the office were making bulletin boards, and this was one of the verses they chose to display on the wall: 

I was immediately reminded of the advice I had been given weeks before, and I thought "I need to memorize this verse and plaster it all over my house, car, and office, so that I will remember that God has big plans for me even though I forget sometimes."  What an awesome God we have that even the furthest reaches of our imagination cannot even begin to understand what God wants to do in our lives!  Of course, He reminds us of this throughout the Bible, in verses like Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  Or Ephesians 2:10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  Jesus promises to do great things through his disciples in John 14:12-14 saying,  "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it."  

I think I need an attitude adjustment, as my dad says.  I need to quit thinking about the upcoming year in negative terms and start trusting that God has something amazing in store for me.  I can't limit God to my own human limitations; instead, I should trust him to do more than I could ever even begin to imagine.

When thou art present, evil cannot abide;

In thy fellowship is fullness of joy,

Beneath thy smile is peace of conscience,

By thy side no fears disturb,

no apprehensions banish rest of mind,

With thee my heart shall bloom with fragrance;

Make me meet, through repentance, for thine indwelling.

Nothing exceeds thy power,

Nothing is too great for thee to do,

Nothing too good for thee to give.

Infinite is thy might, boundless thy love,

limitless thy grace, glorious thy saving name...

I ask great things of a great God.

(The Valley of Vision)

Paradigm Shift

Why History?

The reconstruction of worlds is one of the historian's most important tasks.  He undertakes it, not from some strange urge to dig up archives and sift through old papers, but because he wants to talk with the dead.  By putting questions to documents and listening for replies, he can sound dead souls and take the measure of the societies they inhabited.  If we lost all contact with the worlds we have lost, we would be condemned to live in a two-dimensional, time-bound present, and our own world would turn flat.

- Robert Darnton

Movin' to Mississippi

Several months ago I blogged about how I did not get into my #1 graduate school. It has been a crazy past few months, but it's also been amazing to see how everything has worked out. The weekend before finals, I went to MSU to present my Community of Scholars research at a history conference. The next week, the professor who organized the conference sent me an email informing me that there was a graduate assistantship available for the fall and that I should apply. So I did. And I got in. And now I'm moving to Mississippi in less than two weeks. I feel a little bit like I'm flying by the seat of my pants, but so far everything has worked out: I found an apartment, a church, and I'm working on accumulating furniture. It doesn't feel like much has changed; however, I know that once my first electric bill comes in, I may change my mind about this whole adult thing.

So, I will be pursuing a Masters in History with a focus on American and European history. I have a teaching assistantship which not only covers tuition but provides me with a living stipend and the chance to get some classroom experience. I found an apartment complex that is full of graduate/medical/international students. There is even a PCA church about a mile from my apartment. I'm excited!

It always amazes me to see God's plan unfold. I had a plan, and then I had a new plan, and now I'm confident that I'm in God's plan. It's good to know that He is sovereign and knows what He is doing because I sure don't.