Knowledge Is Good

If you ever saw the movie Animal House, you may remember the opening scene and the statue of the founder of the fictitious Faber College, Emil Faber. They slowly panned to the bottom of the statue where the words Knowledge Is Good were inscribed.

Of course that was just the first of many jokes throughout that wonderful movie and it's spoof on higher education. This post is not about Faber College, Delta House, Otter, Boone or even Bluto, played by John Belushi, who I believe was one of the best physical actors of all time. He never had to say a single word and with just his body language, eyes and facial expressions made audiences laugh hysterically! It is still being watched by a whole new generation.

This post is about higher education and the amount of post-secondary degrees my immediate family have achieved. While cleaning the other day, my mother gave me an article she found in a box. I have attached it to this post. It is from the tiny town of White, South Dakota where my parents grew up on farms a few miles out of town. The title of the paper was The White Leader. It was published in the spring of 1980. White, South Dakota is a tiny town of about five hundred people located fifteen miles northeast of Brookings, South Dakota.

Between my parents, my five siblings and myself we hold three Associate of Arts degrees, six Bachelor of Arts or Science degrees, three Masters degrees and one Juris Doctorate degree. My father, Arlin Patrick is in the lead with one Bachelor of Science degree and two Masters degrees. His Bachelors degree is in education, as are Kathleen's, Chad's and mine. You could say the apples did not fall far from the tree with us.  

In fact, my dad's undergraduate degree is in physical and health education, and my degree is in school and community health education with a minor coaching. You could say I followed in his footsteps. I literally grew up in his footsteps as he was always coaching once for or another I was following him everywhere. I have one photo of him teaching me how to use a basketball scorebook when I was six years old. I was a Gym Rat from the time I was old enough to walk.

I have many great stories about growing up with a father whose job it was to play. He coached and mentored me until the night of my accident. Then, he helped carry me off the field and kept me from going into shock. I tell several stories about him in my book I Still Believe In Tomorrow. I also have pictures of him at my accident scene on my website. You may see them by clicking here, here and seeing one in the book.

Here is the article I mentioned earlier:

Click on the image to make it larger:

As always, I welcome your comments.

Later,

Mike