Wartburg Theological Seminary : 2005 Seminar

• Carpocrates (Behavioral Problem)
• Jonah (Emotional Problem)
• Boso (Intellectual Slowness)
• Heloise (Learning Disability)
• Abelard (Physical Disability)
• Quintilla (Anti-Intellectual)

Faculty:

• Quark (President)
• Thomasio (Dean)
• Hildegard (New Testament & Greek)
• Eusebius (History)
• Macrina (Theology)
• Marcella (Old Testament & Hebrew)
• Boethius (Education)

Setting: Faculty Meeting

Dean Thomasio: Next on the agenda is our discussion of current students and any problems or difficulties encountered so far.

Hildegard: Jonah is so fragile. You may recall that he had to withdraw from Summer Greek because of the stress it placed on him. He broke down the third day, saying that he couldn’t learn the cases. I worked with him individually every day, but by the second week it was clear that he was in such a high state of anxiety that he couldn’t learn. Well, this semester I’ve been tutoring him, and he seems to be handling the Greek better, but now he is slipping in his New Testament course. What experience have the rest of you had with him?

Macrina (who is also on Jonah’s synodical committee): Jonah also surprised us at his candidacy entrance interview. He became speechless with anxiety, unable to answer questions. We’ve never experienced such emotional vulnerability and were afraid of what refusal might do to him. Because of this we finally granted him entrance to the candidacy process.

Eusebius: If he’s too fragile to survive an entrance interview, he probably shouldn’t have been admitted, at least not until he’s stronger and healthier emotionally. He is likely to continue to have problems here in seminary. Unfortunately, when Candidacy Committees refuse to make these difficult decisions, then we end up having to make them, and it is that much harder on the student because it wasn’t done early in the process. In the long run, admitting unstable students is not doing them or us any favors.

Boethius (Jonah’s advisor): He just needs more time. He’s seeing a doctor who is working on new medication for him—that will give him the energy he needs to succeed and help with the anxiety. And I’ve advised him to take the work more slowly, not try to finish in the usual length of time. That means fewer courses and more time to catch up.

Eusebius: He will need it. New Testament isn’t the only course he couldn’t complete. He received a shockingly low score on his first history exam; he is taking an extension, but it looks as if he still won’t be able to complete the course. I’m not at all confident about him making it through this first year. I think his problems are more than physical.

Thomasio: We also need to be concerned about Heloise. She has diagnosed learning disabilities and will need special attention. However she is quite bright and should do well under the right conditions.

Macrina: What sort of special attention does she need? Is it a matter of requiring certain test conditions? Or is it an inability to learn certain kinds of material? Will she need different assignments from the rest of the class? Most of us don’t have any training in how to adjust our teaching to LD students. Luckily some students know exactly what they need and are able to articulate it, but others are early in the process of finding out about their disability and don’t know what will work.

Thomasio: How is Abelard doing? We haven’t much experience with physically disabled students—are any of you aware of problems? I know that it is difficult for him to open the outside doors because of their size and mass.

Hildegard: How about installing those handicapped automatic door openers that many public buildings now have?

Boethius: It might also help if we started posting notices and sign-up sheets lower where those in wheelchairs can see and reach them. I suspect there are many small things we could do to make this place more handicap-accessible and friendly.

Marcella: I had a disturbing encounter with Carpocrates this week. I was trying to help him with his major Hebrew paper. He couldn’t understand the assignment and was becoming more and more frustrated. Finally he responded to a suggestion of mine with an obscenity. I fear that this is just the tip of the iceberg—he has a serious anger problem. There have been other indications of this in class and students talk about Carpocrates’ difficulty in keeping his anger in check.

Eusebius (Carpocrates’ advisor): This isn’t the only time or the only problem. Another of my advisees is deeply troubled by Carpocrates and came to me the other day: Apparently Carpocrates is spreading a lot of hate in the dorm, speaking out against you, Marcella, against other professors (including me), against her synod, and against the seminary. He is spreading disaffection and trying to get other students to join him in grumbling and complaining. He’s creating a hostile environment in the dorm and sowing dissent where it wouldn’t be arising on its own.

President Quark: This is a case where it is necessary to be firm with the student: his behavior has candidacy considerations. You need to talk to him, and his synod should be informed.

Eusebius: He won’t be happy. In fact, I fear that he could become quite vengeful. What should we do to protect ourselves legally should he try to make a court case out of this?

Marcella (Boso’s advisor): We have different kind of problem with Boso. He did so poorly at his approval interview that the faculty team recommends postponement. The approval essay he wrote was incoherent—he clearly did not understand the questions and his interview confirmed this. Unfortunately, he seems clueless about his own lack of ability and really doesn’t see that anything is wrong.

Macrina: This isn’t a new issue—Boso’s name has come up in our discussions every year, but somehow he keeps sliding through. How is it that we get into this position with one or two students year after year? We need to have some way of identifying and weeding out students whom we know won’t make it. It’s not fair to those students, it’s not fair to their instructors and classmates, and ultimately it is the church that suffers when unqualified students are allowed to graduate and be ordained.

Boethius: Is there evidence that Boso will improve enough with another semester’s work to be approved in the spring? Are we simply delaying the inevitable and, if so, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to deny now rather than postpone?

Marcella: The larger question is how can we identify and deal with student problems (and problem students) before they escalate to this level.

Eusebius: Something else that might help is if as a faculty are more consistent with each other in how we deal with students. Sometimes we are the ones who are reluctant to make the tough call and fail a student. Or pressure comes from student or advisor to bend the normal rules in order to keep a student off of probation or allow them to withdraw from a course instead of failing it. It is hard to determine which situations are a matter of law or gospel.

Hildegard: I am concerned about Quintilla. She struggles with her classes, but I don’t think the problem is lack of ability; instead she seems resistant to learning. She has a rigid, almost fundamentalist, approach to Scripture and refuses to learn differently.

Quark: Is it refusal or a lack of understanding or fear of interpreting the Bible in a non-literalist way? We need to distinguish between students who are anti-intellectual and refuse to learn anything new, and those students who are cautious but open to new approaches if they see the benefit, especially for ministry and mission. We need to find a way for them to feel safe here, to create a climate where they feel free speak out without fear of being jumped upon for not fitting in with the liberal majority.

Macrina: We spend a lot of time discussing struggling students, but another student came to me asking if there couldn’t be more advanced courses. Our brighter students are not being challenged enough.

Thomasio: That’s true. One of the juniors came to me wishing that there were more academic opportunities. She’s finding that she already covered much of the first-year course material in college. Is there a way to adjust courses for the gifted or advanced students?

Hildegard: And how do we recognize them in advance that first year? College transcripts are not always good predictors of how students will do in seminary. Is there some way that these bright students who already know the material can let the instructor know, or ask for more advanced work? We need to encourage them to take the initiative, without opening the door to any student who is bored and wants an ‘out.’

Macrina: In theology our syllabus offers a wide variety of reading and research opportunities. That way we try to catch both those students who have never encountered theological studies before and those more advanced. Of course, it also can create extra work for the faculty.

Thomasio: So, a number of different issues have been raised here. Some are more readily amenable to solutions than others: we could create a workshop on learning disabilities, increase our accommodations for physically handicapped students, design syllabi with a greater range of options and learning opportunities for advanced (and maybe also for slower) students.

Quark: Our real problems seem to focus on students with deeper troubles—emotional or psychological distress, attitude problems, resistance to learning, and limited intellectual ability. This is probably where we need to start our work.

Disclaimer: While the issues raised in the above narrative all arise from actual experience, the students named are composite characters and do not represent actual students at Wartburg Seminary.