I was privileged to attend the rigorous twelve year Ministerial Education program of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (ninth grade through college and four years of Seminary graduate school). While the theological/political viewpoints presented in that system were somewhat restricted, the seven hours of class time each day under razor sharp professors, accompanied by dorm room study hours each evening, taught me how to learn quite quickly virtually anything I wanted to know—a skill I have relied on throughout my life.

Without any idea at that time about the strength of this education and how favorably the skills we had acquired compared to the norm, I now realize that at 25 years of age I graduated and was launched out into the world, “ an intellectual giant and an emotional midget.” Fortunately, marriage, children and working within the University context of the 1970s immediately started to take care of that second issue.

My eleven years of post secondary education firmly established a lifelong love of learning and a continuing passion for teaching. In fact, my biorhythms still remain locked onto the academic calendar. So, don’t call me during school break time!