Public Education as a Cultural Construct

 That Thy Days May Be Long On This Earth...

22nd March 2024:

https://www.boundless.org/advice/does-the-very-act-of-sex-cause-you-to-be-married/

    I find myself delighting in mathematics, again, after some decades. I am serving as a long term math substitute at the local high school.  I have freshmen and sophomore honors students in First Period, 2nd Period, and 3rd and 4th periods for remedial math, students with IEPs, and a substantial number of students from other cultures who now use English as their second language, which presents some distinctive roadblocks to their ability to understand concepts presented in the language of instruction, English.  

     I believe I sense their confusion far better than the other math teachers here, due to my experience living in a non-Western culture from 1996 to 2011 (South Korea), and in teaching 33,520 hours of ESL there in my private ESL business and in three universities. I preferred the university positions to my private teaching, and with a "do-over," I would not teach privately at all, even though it pays so much better.  I would rather live more thriftily and stay in South Korea an extra decade if necessary, in order to accumulate enough money for retirement.  Even explore other options for earning money, in creative writing or something else.  

    But, the burden of teaching in my home was too much for my wife, who suffers from anxiety and gets along better with just family in her home.  You see, I converted one of our four bedrooms into a classroom, for the students.  And, I taught as much as 63 hours per week at the zenith of my workload.   

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    Not unike Naaman in 2 Kings ch.5, we seem to want to do some great thing in order to evangelize the lost in the land of our birth, but particularly when we emigrate to a new land. By our pride, we have considerable challenges avoiding the siren call to do something that will bring attention and accolades unto us, even in subtle, "refined" ways.  It is still pride the beckons us, drawing us away from the simplest, most efficient, but frequently unnoticeable and humble means by which we can gain "cultural currency," and smoother access to a ready and trusting audience in that new land.

    Learning the native language has obvious importance in garnering influence among the natives. Within a democracy of modern times, the would-be witness to Christ can acquire deceptively great social capital merely by submitting to and acquiring the sort of education that is carbon-copy common throughout developed societies today, culminating in an undergraduate college education.  You can get that in virtually any nation and the utility of that degree then transfers into any other modern nation  which you may visit.  Not unlike the Roman roads connecting the cities and cultures of the ancient world, public education as a cultural construct in modernity is of unparalleled utility as a practical, universal means of reaching nonbelievers; the roman roads providing physical access and the modern public education providing a universal means of acceptance into all societies by virtue of its social capital.  

    People in South Korea would never have trusted me very much, let alone hire me, had I not gone through the public school system in the United States, finishing it off with a college degree.  Yes, you enter a more select group when you have a graduate degree, but the acceptance of the huge majority of people in South Korea was gained merely by my having an undergraduate degree from SUNY.      

    Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. 6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. 7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.

    And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. 9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.  (2 Kings 5: 1-