Viking slave ship flying a Christian flag

What makes a Christian employer Christian? When an employee signs on to a company that claims to be Christian, there is an expectation that the Christian values touted in the mission and vision statements will extend to the employees. It is a shock when this is not found to be true and that employees are treated like chattel and not like brothers/sisters in Christ. Does just flying a flag saying, "We are Christians!" translate to "Yes, this is indeed a Christian organization" or is there something more?

**Caveat:  This piece will not address the joys of TEACHING, the wonders of student breakthroughs, the beauty of relationship-building. That happened IN SPITE of the conditions described below.

Once upon a time found myself in a situation where this question is pressing in my mind. With excitement I accepted a position where I felt I would be part of a Christian family joined together in a worthy mission.I had been part of two amazing Christian schools that were exactly that (Akron & Sparta), so my expectations and joy joy seemed fully appropriate.  That excitement soon turned to discouragement, dismay, and ultimately despair as I discovered that teachers were merely cogs in a machine. If a cog was broken from lack of maintenance/care, then a new one was found. So much so that most of the staff was new. When I resigned, the principal asked me, "What happened to the excited, passionate woman I hired?" I said, "You tell me."

One thing that took its toll on that excited, passionate woman was that she was cooked. She was standing on her feet in an exceedingly hot classroom without circulation for the lion's share of an eight-hour workday. Professional clothes stuck to her body, sweat pouring from her face.  At 7am the classroom started out in the 80s from August through September and went up throughout the day. The first five and a half hours of the day were spent standing/walking and sweating with a less than 20 minute break before more of the same. The more bodies in the room, the higher the temp (afternoon there were generally 30 bodies, the majority adult-sized). Even heat at temperatures of 80F has a marked effect on human performance and health. See https://www.ehstoday.com/health/news/heat-stress-affects-performance-7791   The OSHA technical manual recommends employers maintain workplace temperatures in the range of 68-76 degrees Fahrenheit and along with humidity control. For 8 weeks I worked in conditions over 85F with  humidity ranging from 58 to 90%.  There were many days with classroom temps at 86 and a heat index of 79, that gave a classroom real-feel of 96F. During the severe Ohio heat wave, temperatures were greater but I did not have a gauge set up.

On October 3rd, the effect of the heat was so severe on my body that I experienced muscle cramps, trembling, and a rapid heart rate. The substitute in my room (to replace a teacher who was fired after telling admin that they had become militant and legalistic) said that I was extremely red. He was greatly concerned and thought I needed ice from the nurse but I was so afraid of not getting the required work done that I sat down in front of a fan for a few minutes. On the drive home that day I was unfocused and shaking. I went to the doctor the next day and was prescribed two days off. By this point I knew that nothing would be done about the heat because I had spoken to the the principal about it several times to no avail and with flippant response.

My second floor classroom was above the boiler room and next to the computer servers, whose venting was directly into the attic above my room. My classroom had two windows which looked out upon a sort of courtyard area consisting of a asphalt roof just below the windows and two brick walls. There was a small alleyway after the roof and then the high school building walled it all in. It was an area where no breeze could enter but the hot sun would bake the roof and the brick walls and drive the heat into the classroom. It reminded me of a pizza oven. The classroom was HOT. Teachers were required to bring their own fans. Three fans did absolutely nothing.(I'm a widow on a limited income; I cannot afford to buy large industrial fans myself).  A person entering the room from the hallway was hit in the face with a blast of heat. After a weekend of temperatures in the low 50s with the windows open and fans on, the temperature in the classroom on an early Monday morning was still 79F and would rise into the mid-80s as the day wore on. September was very hot and the temperature in the classroom was often up to the low-90s - and this does NOT include the heat index factoring in the humidity.  Students were sweating, requiring frequent trips to the fountain, getting diarrhea from the heat, and becoming fatigued. This made learning extremely difficult and of course, wildly uncomfortable. Repeated pleas to the principal led to flippant statements like, "Fall will be here eventually!" and moments where it seemed like something might be done but, sadly, nothing happened except one thing. Speaking to the Dean of Students during one of his frequent trips into the room, he criticized me and said, "Don't complain. Tell me solutions."  I *did* offer solutions: Buy industrial fans. Put ceiling mounted fans in. Put fans in the corners of the ceilings, creating circulation. None of this was done.  In the seventh week a portable air conditioner showed up in the room (the day after I was so sick it scared me and the doctor prescribed two days off). The unit was the kind that has an exhaust tube to stick out a window and the size to cool a 12X10 room, certainly not a large classroom. No matter - it was left sitting in the back of the room and never hooked up. It would require the removal of a window or sticking it out the window and rigging up some sort of framework around it. Instead it just sat there, a token of the transient thought of relief. Classroom temperatures that week climbed to 86 with a heat index in the 90s.

In a meeting that began the school year, the principal first shocked teachers by adding 15 minutes to the workday without informing them (no compensation). She then emphatically addressed the staff with a pointed, shaking finger, "School begins at 7:15 sharp and not a moment later."  Obviously, that creates a tone that says, "I think you are a bunch of slackers and I'm putting you on notice that no slacking will be tolerated."  (She later retracted the extra 15 minute demand due to the outrage). Meanwhile, the week of "professional boot camp" that this kicked off was a relentless chain of meetings and classes. New teachers to the school were given zero time in their classrooms. At this time they did not have class lists, copier codes, and many did not have curriculum.  Class lists were provided toward the end of the week but still the new teachers were not given classroom time. 

The principal, to me on two occasions, cavalierly stated that teaching was "not a 9 to 5 job" and mentioned new teachers who were in their classroom over the weekend doing what needed to be done.  As if this is good - as if this is just "to be expected." That cavalier attitude was repeatedly encountered. The message was clear: You are expected to use as much of your private time as necessary to do the work we do not give you time to do while on the clock in the building.  Now all teachers know that one *must* bring work home, one must do a great deal of planning home. However, most schools provide TIME within the walls to do some of this.  Schools provide early dismissal days for students before interims and grading periods that are "teacher work days" so that teachers can accomplish this. They provide planning periods that strive to as adequately as possible provide time. One school in this area has made every Wednesday an early dismissal day so that teachers can have meetings and work in their rooms.

So it is established that in order to complete necessary duties, some teachers were coming in on unpaid weekend time. It became abundantly clear that work/life balance was not a consideration.  On the annual schedule, teachers were told that there were two after school staff meetings a month.  These meetings extended one hour and fifteen minutes past the close of school.  One was informed this in the beginning of the year and therefore, could prepare accordingly. My experience was that these were well-planned meetings and the agenda was firmly followed.  However, a group for newer teachers to the school was led by an adviser. This was initially expressed as a meeting that would occur during the professional development days (scheduled on days that students had off from school). This adviser was given carte blanche to demand that newer teachers stay after school an additional two days per month AND that they drive to an off-site coffee shop for these meetings.  The adviser stated in a meeting that "if something is important, it is worth sacrificing two hours for" - this was actually 2 1/2 hours plus having to drive off-site and all that entails.

Now to a twist in the workday.  Teachers were shocked to find that student AND teacher lunches were trimmed down to 20 minutes a day. Teachers were to walk their students to lunch, obviously reducing their own lunch time.  During lunch they needed to answer emails, supervise lunch detentions, and often have surprise meetings with admin or student development staff who chose to pop into the room. Actually getting to eat a meal and have a moment of sanity was not going to happen.  Heaven forbid you needed to wait in line for the sole microwave or use the restroom. (Here absolutely no regard to studies that have shown that cutting down lunch time leads to more student lunches being wasted and less nutritious food intake. I could paste in here scientific studies in stacks, but that is for another article).

Also shocking was my discovery that students as young as fourth grade - ten year olds - no longer had recess.  Who takes recess away from fourth graders? These are children!  That said a lot to me. An administration that doesn't understand the psychological needs of children is certainly not going to care for the needs of the teacher. “Some devalue recess because they assume it to be — as they assume play in young children to be — a waste of time, time that could be otherwise more efficiently spent,” Anthony Pellegrini, former professor of educational psychology at the University of Minnesota, wrote in a 2008 paper. “There is no theory or empirical evidence to support this point of view. The counter-argument, that recess is good, is backed by a large body of theory and empirical research.”  This "Christian" administration was far, far behind the latest studies showing that the drive to achieve higher test scores was not going to be achieved by reducing recess.  I had to ask myself:  What kind of "Christian" people lack compassion and understanding of children to the degree that they will not allow them time to eat or time to release their stress with play?

The copier room became a place where teachers could briefly meet and cry to each other, some with actual tears. The school day started at 7:15 (sharp, remember?) but on Mondays one had to be in the cafeteria "SHARP" at that time for a "stand up" meeting.  That meant that on Mondays if you needed to do anything to set up your room, you needed to be there much, much earlier.  At 7:30 classroom teachers were required to be at their doors, greeting students and watching the lockers.  For me, I was on my feet from 7am or earlier until after taking the students down to lunch, arriving back in my room around 11:52, unless I stopped at the restroom.  I was back on my feet to watch the halls by 12:11 and on my feet until after I led students to specials at 1:55. My planning period, nearly always taken by meetings, lasted until students returned at 2:35, when I needed to be on my feet again, watching the halls. Wednesdays involved walking car-riders down and standing in the cafeteria until 3:10.

Everyone pretty much had this relentless schedule of standing on their feet for all but a brief period of time.  When we met in that copier room (where the bathroom was located), the stress was freely shared. The staff which started out in August as happy, excited co-workers became a host of beaten down men and women dragging themselves through the day.  The first teacher worship during boot camp week had been amazing and inspiring. The last one, after these 8 weeks of being squeezed like an old mop, was dull and lifeless. The joy had been wrung out.

There were other issues that played into teacher dis-encouragement including micromanagement at a level that I had never before witnessed. That can be nerve-wracking but we were given a heads up in the beginning of the year that admin would be "in and out of classrooms." I didn't know that it meant a continual parade of interruption, but at least it was expected and I chose to overlook it and keep teaching. At that copier, however, teachers wondered and worried thinking it was *just* each of them experiencing the parade - as if they were personally under a microscope. I think it helped everyone to know "no, you are not alone, they are doing it to all of us."

I've yet to mention anything that shows Christian love and care for the employees, for a sign of something that shows the edification of co-workers in Christ. I wish I could but I cannot say anything jumps out other than a breakfast served by admin during the last day of boot camp week. There was no teacher lounge. Teacher birthdays were not recognized during announcements (happily, students were). There was a quickness to criticize and rare moments of praise. It seemed like more and more was piled on to each day. More procedures, more meetings, more directions to insure that not only were "i's" dotted and "t's" crossed but that the slant of each letter was perfectly in sync and that the dotting and crossing were at standardized heights." (I found this amazing when a situation with severe mold on classroom furniture occurred and the administration was decidedly NOT inclined to follow prescribed decontamination procedures. If one is going to be rigid, rigidity on safety and health should be exercised. In the situation occurring on October 15, the mold was handled in a completely unacceptable manner).

A good secular employer knows that his human capital is his greatest asset. Key to good human resource management is appreciation. Employees need to feel appreciated and respected.  A weary and unappreciated employee can quickly become a disengaged employee. The human body is a wonderful piece of equipment and must be maintained and tended with care.  Therefore, adequate breaks and a healthy work/life balance should be fundamental. Should a Christian organization show less care and concern than secular bodies?

Therefore, one must ask -- what does the Bible say about Christian employers?   While there are no specific addresses to employers, there are many Bible verses that apply.

The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. Proverbs 12:10

1 Corinthians 9:9
For it is written in the Law of Moses: "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Is it about oxen that God is concerned?

Colossians 4:1
Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

1 Timothy 5:18 "For the Scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain, and again, The laborer is worthy of his hire."

Acts 20:28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Luke 6:31
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Deuteronomy 24:14
“You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.

Proverbs 11:1
A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.

I can now clearly see why the world looks at people and organizations that declare themselves to be Christian and scoff. I have had the privilege of working for two Christian organizations in the past that indeed were godly, loving and wonderful places with admin that loved both students and staff. I will hold those places dearly in my heart. However, this situation has led me to shed my naivety and in the future, I will be wary --- very, very wary.

(I hesitate to share this publicly because when one blows a whistle one opens up to all sorts of criticism. At least I have documentation of the heat AND the fact of its physical/mental effects on performance. It is sad to say that I have to retain other evidence to protect myself).

I don't like roller coasters

Those who know me well know that I do not like roller coasters. I don't like being propelled at high speeds around hairpin turns nor do I like plunging downward at severe angles. My favorite ride was at Geauga Lake and it was Grizzly River Run. You are in a raft and waves fling you about a little, you get splashed, if you are the unlucky/lucky one to be directly under the waterfall you get drenched. It's not a ride for thrillseekers. It's just FUN without being extreme. I wish life was like that.

Tick tock, time marches on

It has been 12 days since I taught my last power yoga class and the last day I had students in the classroom. We spent the rest of the week in school preparing more blizzard bags and trying to figure out what was going to be happening.  Friday we found out we'd be working from home. 

For a week now, it's been social isolation. Homeschooling my two grandsons, preparing classwork, calling students. The gyms are all closed - no classes to teach. Doing workouts on my own. I'm thanking God that several years ago we bought a couple of spinning bikes; I can still work on my Sprint coaching and hope to one day do the filming.

I'm amazed by the toilet paper hoarding. It's sparked a great number of hilarious memes, so that's something. People are going bananas hoarding stuff.  I think about what I've learned about serious events in the past and how everyone shared. Rationed. Not this culture. Hogging, hoarding.

With all of the uncertainty we find ourselves in, I think perhaps the most stressful thing is wondering what other ugliness will be revealed about our cultural condition.

Neither shall any plague come near thy dwelling...

Here we are in the midst of a crisis that we haven't seen in our life time. I was a child during the 1973 Oil Crisis. I only have the vaguest of memories of gas lines and people getting gas based on odd or even numbered license plates. I was a young mother during 9/11. Neither of these events affected "life as we know it" the way the coronavirus is.

Last night I taught my last power yoga class until further notice. I was the last class taught before that fitness center closed. Yes, people came. We distanced ourselves properly...and it was wonderful. My theme for the class was anxiety. As we flowed through wonderful poses, we focused on strength in peace, strength in breath, strength in calmness of mind, strength to maintain balance and to be flexible no matter what life throws our way. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind.

Prior to this I had spent the day at school. School was open but only two students in my class showed up.  The day was occupied by making two more blizzard bags. I had already made the first one on Friday. We staggered copier time so that every teacher would get a fair chance to get this task done.  I had spent a great deal of time on the weekend seeking out materials that would be educational, but not over reach.  The fear is that many children won't bother to complete the assignments.  Three weeks worth were made but the word from our governor is that schools may be closed for the rest of the school year. Normal may not return until July or August.

**I actually began writing this on 3/17. Today is 3/28. Things have continued to get weird.

The law of club and fang

Life. It is a beautiful and terrible thing. Oftentimes you find that the terrible comes when you aren't guarded, when you trust too much in the wrong things, the wrong people. We are given a principle in Psalm 118:8, "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man." More up close, we are told to beware of the people that are close that we feel we should trust. Jeremiah 9:4 "Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother deals craftily, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer." (But don't forget Proverbs 27:6, "faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy"). In Jack London's The Call of the Wild, the burly St. Bernard-mix Buck is stolen from his pampered life as a beloved family dog in California and sold into a hellish existence of violence and servitude in the northern continent during the Klondike Gold Rush.  He went from a land of civilization - even his interactions with other dogs had its moral codes - to a life where kindness, courtesy, and fair-play were non-existent. He was kidnapped because his dealings with men prior to that event were always good; he was finessed by the gardener's apprentice. He had built a naive belief that humans were to be trusted; he found out otherwise as he was sold and exposed to never-before-known-to-him violence.

"Here was neither peace, nor rest, nor a moment's safety. All was confusion and action, and every moment life and limb were in peril. There was imperative need to be constantly alert; for these dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang."

Buck found himself beaten into compliance (but never submission!) by the man in the red sweater. He watched in horror as friendly Curly approaches a husky in a amiable way and has her face ripped open. As she responds to the attack, a pack of dogs surrounds her and takes her down. Buck never forgets her savage end, nor Spitz seeming to laugh at her demise. He cements his will against ever letting himself go down in a fight. Cruelty and violence have replaced fair play; he must adapt or meet a similar end.

"He had learned well the law of club and fang, and he never forewent an advantage or drew back from a foe he had started on the way to Death. He had lessoned from Spitz, and from the chief fighting dogs of the police and mail, and knew there was no middle course. He must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was a weakness. mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed."

My tendency is to trust. To believe that deep down, people mean well. For years I had been in a rather insular life - homeschooling, homeschool groups, church, working with children in rec league. Here and there, I ran into an occasional bad apple, but for the most part I dealt with honest, moral, empathetic people. When I finished my degree and hit the work force when Erin was in high school, I discovered a different, wilder sort of world - but still manageable.  After all, I had a safe haven in Pat to come home to.  However, when Pat passed away 3 1/2 years ago, I began to discover the law of the club and fang in earnest.

My students have taught me the  pop culture understanding of being "finessed." They don't want anyone "finessing" them - saying one thing, doing another or manipulating them. When you  trust people to be honorable, to have good moral standards, to be ethical - it is easy to be finessed. Buck was finessed into taking a walk with Manual and wound up sold, beaten and dragged a thousand miles away. Buck was also finessed by a dog who appeared friendly but would snatch his dinner in a heartbeat. Most of us have met people who will lie, slander, whatever it takes to get ahead, to achieve preeminence.

The more I become acquainted with the law of the club and fang, I find that I get a deeper understanding of Kipling's "If--" The more I deal with its workings in the world, the clearer it becomes that it is at work in our own realms. I remember my father saying repeatedly that it is a "Dog eat dog" world. Since it is my father who introduced me to Jack London, this might be why the law of the club and fang strikes me so deeply. It would be easy, I think, to decide to play as dirty as you are played - but I believe there is a loving Father who would be saddened and shamed by that behavior. I know I've mentioned before how I clung to the "Filling the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run" line for years... Now other verses have been becoming more clear.

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise

My hope is to be able to be on guard like Buck without the need to resort to the cunning he use in snatching an extra morsel when the opportunity arose. It should always be in the goal to never be part of the pack that rips apart the fallen. It could be that finding your "pack," is the best way to operate in this dog-eat-dog world. Sadly, although Buck found trust and love with John Thornton, Skeet and Nig, the primitive never left him. This goes unfinished as a ponder the hows and whys of rising above after having been nipped by the fang and beat by the club.


*A side note: Kipling and London were contemporaries. While there seems to be such disparity in their inspirations, both witnessed the law of club and fang.  Kipling and his sister endured the torment and terror of childhood abuse in the hands of Mrs. Holloway  who boarded them while their parents were in India. "Often and often afterwards, the beloved Aunt would ask me why I had never told any one how I was being treated. Children tell little more than animals, for what comes to them they accept as eternally established. Also, badly-treated children have a clear notion of what they are likely to get if they betray the secrets of a prison-house before they are clear of it."

What the Dickens!

It is Christmas Day and it is the first Christmas since Pat passed away that I was not sad when I woke up. When my eyes opened this morning, my heart awoke with gratitude and joy. Home was occupied by just me, my two dogs, and my cat - yet I did not feel lonely at all. My spirit was not weighed down with a melancholy aching for Christmases past. The specters of fear and worry were nowhere in sight. Just a pure joy for the day and the Lord who made it.

The past few weeks have been hectic with this fortnight being particularly exhausting. It would be the first Dec 24th that I had to work. There was very little time between work and church - then I needed to get to the family gathering. The week before it even happened, I was worn out just thinking about it. But then, I watched A Muppet Christmas Carol with my students. I've seen this many, many times. I've seen many versions of A Christmas Carol more times than I could count. Yet once again, even this more playful version spoke to me.

In Dickens' book, Marley’s ghost says to Scrooge ‘’No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.’’ I began to look at working on the 24th as an opportunity. Not only did I get a lot done, but I played cornhole with the kids, enjoyed time with my fellow teachers, and had a great day.

On Sunday, my tearful prayer and the Lord's nudge to change my focus was rewarded with the beauty of His Light. He is the Light of the world - and as Michael Card sang, how can there be in darkness in me if He is that Light? He abides in me and I in Him.  Let that Light shine!  When I taught my yoga class on Monday night, my theme was joy - and indeed, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

I also realized that grief had me dwelling to much in the past on special days. I was burdened by old, beloved traditions that were not, could not be the same. It was like the weight of a heavy stone dragging my heart down.  But in a Christmas Carol, Scrooge learns and says, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.’’ The past is only part of the equation of my life; it is to be looked at and learned from. It is not a place to wallow.

When I awoke this morning, it wasn't about me waking up alone; it wasn't about emptiness or the bustle of preparations... it was about the Good News. Jesus Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly!  John 1:4, "In Him was life, and that Light was the life of men." --And that waking up alone nonsense, I never felt less alone. Thus, I moved on through a day of laughter and love.  Merry Christmas - regarding the born-again Scrooge - “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!’’

Facing anti-intellectualism? Don't apologize for being smart!

“By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the the impossible.” C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

I'm done apologizing for being smart. Why is it that if you are intelligent you constantly feel you have to dumb yourself down to be accepted by peers? Why is it that people are offended just because you know things? And why does knowing things get dismissed so readily with the insult that you are a know-it-all?

There is no crime in knowing many things. There is no need to pretend that you don't know many things. Chances are that if you know many things it happens that you are also very aware of the many things you do not know.  Quite possibly you will seek to know some of those things, too, because you are born with a deep-seated curiosity. There is a universe of things to know and there is zero fault in acquiring what you can.

There is also nothing wrong with sharing what you know, this, in spite, of the fact that there will be people who are intimidated by your brain power. If you have answers or input that conflicts with what they believe to be, you can expect to be considered arrogant - no matter how innocently you deliver your knowledge. SO BE IT.

I read a thread on Quora where a parent asked, "My 8 year old son has a 150 IQ, what should I do?" Someone answered to this effect, "Either coach him to dumb himself down so that he can be socially accepted OR allow him to think, dream, dare to use his gifts."   The first option is indeed a sad truth that many gifted folk feel is their best option in order to function within society.  Guess why? Because if you act smart, talk smart, daresay admit you are smart, you are perceived as a conceited braggart without ever even  bragging. Just by being.  Yes, just by being.

I remember being a teenager and being mortally embarrassed by the fact that I was in MENSA. I felt fearful that I would be made fun of, that it was a symptom of abnormality, or even something to be looked upon with as much disgust as if being accused of being a Nazi. We live in a sick world when something such as being born intellectually gifted isn't treated like a gift - while being gifted athletically is coveted. It took a long time to get away from those fears - many years in fact.

In the past year I've met some brilliant teens who felt misunderstood and had all those same fears thanks to a society that dislikes smart people. Whenever I meet a student like this, I do my best to encourage the thinking, the dreaming, the daring to use and appreciate the gift of brain power. I can't tell them that the stigma of high intelligence will go away, but I can tell them that just as "lions don't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep," they should not lose sleep over the insults or aversions of those who are intimidated by their gifts and seek to shame them for "knowing many things."

As for me, I'm 56 years old and I'm done being concerned with how my gift is perceived. God gave it to me and hopefully, I use it to glorify him. My daughters are highly intelligent. I see it in my grandchildren. My prayer is that they never, ever feel ashamed because of their hunger for knowledge and their ability to use it. As C.S. Lewis said, it is NOT humility to disavow the brains God gave you. SHINE.