Written with Hopes of Bottoming out Soon. Don't read if you have a weak stomach

I believe that if I have something to offer, it has something to do with learning and education. I shall first tell you that I believe that I have no exceptional learning gift, and if I have any intelligence worth noting, that most definitely is not being well-rounded.

I do believe that I do have a unique quality, however. And the reason I mention bottoming out is because I think many or most people should have done what I have with regards to learning. Although I do not intend, at least yet, to talk about politics, they may seep through the walls a bit from time to time. This is one case where they will. I am firmly convinced that America is living in a very perilous moment, and that the outlook is very frightening. I am not at all afraid of terrorists, I am afraid of ourselves. I believe that the attitude that America has toward education cannot sustain a democracy. I would hesitate to say what I'm saying, except that I think family and friends are already gone or won't get this far. It would be interesting to hear if any of them did but I'm not holding my breath. I plan to soon conduct therapy with myself because it's not my nature to be so serious. I want to go through this to think through this part of it.

I'm losing a thread. A moment ago I said that I have done something that I cannot find in any one that I know. That's just the facts. I have studied all my life and that seems to be rare indeed. Already in grade school I was reading things that my grandfather, a minister, left in a bookcase upstairs. I did the library thing, I rented good music as soon as I went to high school at which time I could already play piano and organ quite well. Thanks to my ever beloved mother, I went to the bachelors and masters thing which I am quite sure helped me to pan out the way I am. Some of these things seem to be like flukes, but maybe there more than that. Not long after I got my masters degree, I brought a set of great books and as far as I know I'm the only person who has read them for a lifetime. Encyclopedia Britannica came in the eighties. That is a set of books for study, you know, not for just looking things up.

I also had the good luck of living in Chicago where I met Mortimer Adler of both the great books and Encyclopedia. During the 30 years I followed him any time he spoke. Apologies, but I had to look up when he died. I'm out of touch. In Wisconsin. He died in 2001. His speech was very difficult to listen to in the nineties. I want to give only two of his philosophies which I cannot go forward without mentioning.

He very much insisted that children or teenager's are much too busy learning how to learn to be able to learn. Learning can only began after school is over. Only adults can do the kind of learning which can be called education. That doesn't make sense, does it? He never suggested that everyone should go into education and study the way I have, but I believe that is totally ridiculous in the minds of -- shall I say everyone?

The other basic thing is that children should be prepared for education, which I do not believe is being done. Most of my career I kept a quote in the front of my room for kids to see all year long. It said, "the world will belong to you but it is a hard world. You will have to learn all you can to get along in and understand at least some of it".

Today I heard Bill Moyers on the radio very much saying what I am saying. If Americans were educated as well as the rest of the world is, we would not be in the fix that we now are in, whether we know it, or probably more truly don't know it. I still haven't looked at a web site he mentioned. www.inequality.org

I'm feeling like I should apologize for being so serious, but it had to come out. I hope to very soon conduct therapy with myself and lightened up a bit. Learning doesn't always have to be this serious! These things have been sitting with me a long time.

Peace