Education Manifesto

We place too much value in education.  That's right, I'm a teacher.  Here is why:

I overheard one student asking another: "Why aren't you going?"  "I am, I'm just starting at community college," said the other.  "But why not start out wherever you want to end up?"  "I can't pay, I don't qualify for FAFSA" (federal financial aid).  This is the case for so many of my students.  This one in particular is an excellent student: trustworthy, hardworking, willing and excited to learn.  But he isn't a U.S. citizen, so is therefore left out of the educational loop.

I on the other hand qualified and took advantage of tens of thousands of federal dollars in loans and grants.  Serenity and I together still owe over $20,000.  I've heard it and said it hundreds of times: teaching pays the least of any profession that requires a masters degree.  With a family of 6, I qualify for both food stamps and Oregon Health Plan.  I have a masters degree and found a good job in my chosen field and I still qualify for public assistance!  Something is wrong with the economic system we live in.  I am not someone who complains about my pay, I didn't get into teaching to become rich, and I enjoy what I do.

The internal conflict begins however, when I talk college with my students.  A report just came out that tells us that for the first time in history "the number of jobless workers age 25 and up who have attended some college now exceeds the ranks of those who settled for a high school diploma or less."

 

True learning can and does occur at university, however, as someone who attended 5.5 years of college can attest, much of it is jumping through hoops to attain a degree.  Learning is a choice, I don't need some certificate to tell me what or how to think.  Our world is becoming increasingly egalitarian, the free flow of information is helping many people become (even though it is a teaching cliche) "life-long learners".  I also fully understand that an education can be the tool that allows for those who are on the margins of society to become plugged into the world around them both socially and economically.  However, too many times, someone's level of education attained is how we define them.  We seem to place more worth (or at least I have / do) on someone who has attained a high school diploma over someone who has dropped out.  A doctor is somehow considered better than a migrant worker.  Herein lies the central question: Should our education define our worth?

It would be a central and fundamental shift in our thinking, especially as a teacher.  At WAAST (Woodburn Academy of Art, Science and Technology) where I teach, we tend to highlight our graduates who have attended prestigious colleges or who have went on to become successful in their chosen higher-level fields (after attaining some sort of higher-level degree).  I once had a principal who told us that every single one of our students should attend college.  What exactly should I say to a student who cannot attend college because of economic or citizenship obstacles?  Typically we all might intentionally or unintentionally consider that student as inferior and consequently treat her differently.  How should I lift up my students who either can't or choose not to attend college and treat them with dignity, respect and a sense of worth?  I believe our view of economics directly reflects how we view others.  If we have become conformist to the consumeristic and materialistic world around us, then becoming a doctor or lawyer or some other high paying profession is the ultimate goal and achievement.  If this is the view we have, then yes, college degrees and educational achievement should define our worth.  But if we reject this broken economic system or even question it, then educational achievement should not and does not define our individual worth.

Telling a generation of young people that their worth is tied up in where or if they attend college is a fallacy.  Educational attainment is no longer the measuring stick for success.  As an educator, I need to do a better job of making it clear to my students that their own individual worth is not connected to their chosen profession, or even a profession at all.  Ultimately, in God's eyes, someone who dropped out of school in 3rd grade and picks strawberries is as worthy of love and acceptance as someone who dropped $200,000 on a doctorate degree.

Vegetable Oil Conversion Installment #2

While I wait for the diesel conversion to be completed, I have been ordering veggie conversion parts and contemplating the new system. I've also been busy installing a 330 gallon IBC tote in my garage: 

(Notice how I have already poured some veggie oil in?  That is 45 gallons and it barely filled it past the spigot.)

I had to figure out adapters for bringing the 2 in. thread of the IBC down to a 3/4 in. fuel hose, and I found this at my local hardware store, Long Bros. here in Woodburn:

I have a 20 ft. fuel hose and auto shut-off nozzle on order from Northern Tools.  Not too long and I'll be set up to transfer fuel from my filtering location:

 . . . to my IBC tote and then be able to pump directly into my Vanagon.

Vegetable Oil Conversion - Installment #1

Our beloved 1987 2.1 liter Volkswagen Vanagon Wolfsburg Edition went belly up during spring break. So this is the prefect time to drop in a 1.9 liter turbodiesel and convert it all to run on vegetable oil. Yep, we are going 2/3 veggie (we still have a CJ-5 Jeep that I drive to work each day, which is only about 5 miles, so WVO doesn't make sense).

I have been thinking (Serenity might call it obsessing) about the conversion since then. I don't want to pay $4,000 to have someone install something that I think I can do myself, so I plan to install it myself. I also don't want to pay for engineering that I'm not sure either 1) fits for my climate or 2) doesn't make sense economically so I don't want to purchase a kit and am designing my own system and schematic.

However, I am not a mechanic, so I found a local guy named Mike who does engine swaps with Vanagons (Subarus, TDI, etc.). It is obviously a specialized trade (swapping a gasoline engine for a diesel). The actual vegetable oil conversion will be done at Mike's shop, but only with his guidance :)

I have thought about this conversion a lot lately (I do my best thinking at 3am right after Luci wakes me up, and in the shower), there is a lot to think about: tank placement, heat exchangers, waste coolant heat, 3-way solenoids, injection line heaters, etc.

Basically the theory goes that vegetable oil (VO) burns similar to diesel once it is heated to around 180 degrees which changes the viscosity to be thinner and burn more complete.

“The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time.” - Rudolph Diesel (1912)

So, heat the VO on it's way to the injectors and you have a fuel that cuts emissions by around 85% and can be free if you know where and how to collect it. Along with heating the VO you must start on diesel (don't want to force cold VO into the engine and injectors) and purge the system of VO by running diesel through it before you shut it down each time, which takes about 30 seconds although it varies depending on how well designed your system is.

OK, so let me explain my design. Starting with the VO tank (which will be under the rear seat and will be 20 gallons giving us a range of over 500 miles per tank) the lift pump pulls VO out of the tank and pushes it through a "VegTherm" which can heat the VO to temperatures near or above 200 degrees depending on climate and time of the year. If the temperature of the VO reads excessively high during the summer months I will have a manual switch that turns the VegTherm off. Next the VO travels through a coolant heated filter head and into the filter which will be heated with a WVO Designs 12 volt electric filter wrap. From the filter the VO travels to the 1st of two 3-way solenoid valves where I can control from the dash whether it pushes out diesel or VO. A temperature sensor will inform me if the VO temperature is too high before it goes into the fuel injector lines which are heated with 12 volt electric wraps. What fuel is not needed at the injection pump is then sent back through the return lines either to the diesel tank or looped back into the VO lines depending on what I have selected on the dash of the Vanagon.

Here are some pictures of Mike and I as we dropped the old engine out of Wolfy. The 1.9 turbodiesel engine should be installed this week or next and then we can get to work on the VO system.

We are prophets of a future not our own

Oscar Romero was assassinated 32 years ago this month. Some argue whether he actually spoke or wrote the prayer below, but either way, it is profound.

It helps now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capability.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

Amen.

Why we do what we do. . .

"We can't love God unless we love each other. And to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread and we know each other in the breaking of bread. And we are not alone anymore." ~ Dorothy Day

There is something very symbolic about food, . . breaking bread together. It transcends language and culture. We had a "leadership" meeting at our home amongst our friends from the Jubilee Food Pantry last weekend. It was amazing and remarkable. Simple too. We broke bread (well, actually not bread we had homemade and authentic posole and enchilades) with our amigos. It was really the first time that we had the opportunity to share our vision for the pantry: build community, love one another and enter deeper into the Kingdom. It was especially cool for me in that many of the husbands came with their wives, which is usually not the case on Tuesday evenings. As what I shared about our hopes and dreams with this community was communicated by one of the family's high school aged daughter, there were a lot of heads nodding and quite a few smiles. This is encouraging since many had no idea why exactly we do what we do ~ other than to love Jesus. I think the quote from Dorothy Day above sums it up very nicely and I will paraphrase: we cannot love God fully unless we are loving each other, we love each other by truly knowing each other, we can better know one another when we break bread together, when we break bread together we become community. Pretty simple and the posole was good!