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SUCCESS...

"To be successful is

to be helpful, caring,

and constructive-

To make everything

you touch a little bit better.

The best thing you

have to give is

yourself."

Norman Vincent Peale

ARE WE LEARNING ANYTHING MORE, OR DO WE KNOW IT ALL?

Guest Commentary

Courtesy Bill Ellis

Syndicated Columnist

West Virginia's resident philosopher of the common people, Kermit Hodge, tells about his

great-grandson, Jared Hodge, and his

first day of school. Mr. Hodge, the

man of a million stories (so it seems),

asked, "What did you learn in school

today?" He was astonished to hear,

"Nothing."

A bit puzzled, great-grandpa Hodge

replied, "You mean you didn’t learn

one thing from your teacher?" He was

taken back by Jared’s answer, "I already knew all she told us."

Millions of people throughout the world are trapped in poverty. Lack of education becomes a slave master. Those who have the advantage of formal education and opportunities for advanced learning seem to always earn substantially more than those who are less educated.

It is amazing how many colleges and universities have life-long learning plans, even degree-completion programs. It can be done right in your own home through most schools while others may require a few days on campus each year. It is possible to learn outside the "ivy walls" of traditional academia.

Recently, I was asked what I would do if I had enough money to do whatever I wanted. The answer was easy, "I’d go back to school." But I have to keep working every day to pay the bills that come due each month. I do not often quote Confucius, but he reportedly said years ago, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." To read and study is one of the pleasures of life. Doing what we were born to do turns hard work into a priceless privilege and happy experience.

Dr. John A. Morrison, for 39 years the founding president of Anderson University, believed "We are all ignorant, just about different things." The most highly educated men and women in the whole world, if all their knowledge could be combined into one gigantic brain, would only know collectively an infinitesimal speck of what there is to know.

We all need to be learning every day. We will never know it all. Can we improve on our ignorance? At any age? Of course, we can. We can eliminate enough of our ignorance that others will notice. It's simple. Begin to read some good books.

One of my all-time favorite quotes about education comes from Dr. Jerry L. Stevenson, a learned man, who said: "Read six books about any subject and you will know more about it than 95% of the people you will ever engage in conversation."

Keep reading. That is the secret. If you want to know about schools and their distance-learning and continuing education programs go to their websites. For example, Anderson University, Warner Southern College, Mid-American Christian University, Warner Pacific College, Circleville Bible College, Liberty University, Southern Evangelical Seminary and dozens more.

Try a college or university near where you live. Close to my home are such terrific schools as the University of Charleston, Marshall University and West Virginia State University. Similar schools are also close to you.

Another source for learning the most important things in life is: www.BibleSurplus.com. In all those Bibles, available by case lots for churches, colleges and businesses, at drastically reduced prices, you can learn the greatest of all truth.

The Bible is the one book that deals with the kind of truth that will help eliminate ignorance, keep us learning and destroy the silly notion that we know more than God. Jesus, got to the point quickly: "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 15:6). That is eternal truth. Education is the conquering enemy of ignorance.