Greek Night

We had a roommate dinner last night and the guys downstairs picked the theme Greek Night. They made Gyros which were quite tasty.  I took care of desert for the meal:

It was a stretch. But earned me creativity points.

Then we watched the movie Accepted. Also a bit of a stretch for a greek themed night, but our options were limited. The movie has a pretty absurd premis, Justin Long's character can't get into college because he is too average, so he through a comedy of errors starts his own college for average kids based on the ideals of bucking the normal system and college students teaching themselves.

The flick has some anti-ivory tower education stuff that I resonate with a lot. However, this time seeing the film I had some new observations. On things that struck me is that the "students" get better at their chosen craft without teachers. This is where the movie crosses the too good to be true line. There is a lot of things that could be changed about the education system, but I don't think you can get away with no teachers at all. I agree it could and should look very different, but there needs to be some generational  passing on of knowledge. Hard to stand on the shoulders of gaints, with out any giants.

I think a lot of this movie is about is about trying to deal with the extension of adolescences. Right now people who study this type of thing have pushed out the outer age of adolescents to around 28 or so. However, it's a bell curve, meaning not everyone who is 28 is still an adolescence, but it's still very common to see people in that age bracket there. (I won't bore you with all the details, however if you want to read more check out Mark Oestreicher book Youth Ministry 3.0)

The characters in Accepted very much fit into the "still in adolece" phase of emerging adulthood. Too old for high-school and youth group, not ready to take on adult responsibilities and don't fit into the typical next step of college. This movie portrayed an idealistic environment where they could live in a adolescence Eutopia of fun and parties without the burden of responsibilities  in the accemdia college world. Originally I thought I would love to be a part of the world of South Hampton, but these days I tend see responsibility as a blessing not a curse. As my good friend Spiderman says "with great power comes great responsibility" and I feel blessed to serve the ways in which I do. Which means no residency in the school of  South Hampton. How ever the ocasional weekend visit might be ok....