LETTERS: LEARNING LASTS FOREVER

To the editor:

Graduation time is here, and we congratulate those young people who have attained this goal. Yet there are some brilliant and wise people who have not spent years under university training or tutelage. The same may be said of those who have been granted honorary degrees. We cannot say that an honorary degree has not been earned in terms of merit or work and accomplishment on the part of the recipient.

I have been awarded three bachelor's degrees, a master of arts degree and a doctorate in education. That does not mean I am brilliant or extremely well-educated as much as it is proof that I have spent many years sitting in classrooms in a prolonged effort to gain knowledge in fields of my particular interest and which gave me sufficient recognition of the subject material to understand that even more knowledge is required.

Let us remember that knowledge and skills cannot be measured simply by the number of degrees which one may have, but rather by the intelligence, common sense and dedicated search for information on the part of the individual teacher.

Learning is a lifetime process.

IVAN NOTHDURFT

Cape Girardeau