READING THE NEWSPAPER IS TRADITION IN NITZSCHKE HOUSEHOLD

Dr. Dale Nitzschke grew up listening to his mother read the weekly newspaper in their small hometown of Remsen, Iowa.

"It was the source of all knowledge," said Nitzschke, Southeast Missouri State University's president.

"A couple of my brothers still get the paper today," he said.

Nitzschke has moved around a lot in his educational career, but one thing has remained constant. He and his wife, Linda, are habitual newspaper readers.

Over the years, they have instilled that habit in their five children.

"They saw us reading it all the time," said Nitzschke.

Their children learned at an early age that newspapers are an important source of information.

"We always knew what movies were showing," he said.

"If you want to know what is happening, you look it up in the newspaper."

Nitzschke said he and Linda used to talk at the breakfast table about articles in the newspaper.

Reading became a household routine.

"We even talked about how important it was to read good comic books," said Nitzschke.

Once the family was snowed in for three days. They spent the time huddled around the fireplace, reading "Watership Down."

Nitzschke has served as president at several universities. He was often quoted in the newspapers.

At times, articles, letters to the editor and opinion pieces weren't kind to Nitzschke.

But the newspaper articles prompted him to discuss his job and university issues with his children.

"If it hadn't been in the newspaper, I probably wouldn't have talked to them about it," he said.

Reading the newspaper ultimately served as a kind of textbook for the Nitzschke family.

"It was used as a tool to teach our children how important reading was in a general sense," he said.

Reading the newspaper led to reading books and magazines, he said.

Nitzschke said the newspaper-reading habit has been a factor in the successes of his children.

"Used properly, I think it can be a tremendous learning device both inside and outside of school," he said.