Miami offered an exposure to many different cultures and beliefs. I cannot tell which was better 4 years at Lane Tech or four years at the U. The KNOWLEDGE poured in. The UNDERSTANDING came through making mistakes, taking chances and failing. The APPLICATION developed slowly but with that solid mother and father guidance. They had no idea what the world would become but they laid out a loving foundation upon which to build.
I took my inner city urchin and explored. I even learned how to intermingle with various groups, not only ethnic but the layers of educated, the layers of famous and the layers of wealth. I learned to change and adapt to the people around me. Because of my height, blonde hair and blue eyes I had to learn to blend in. I used these attributes to open doors.
I figured out a course outline to give me four minors in addition to my major in Mass Communication-Journalism. In a Political Science class the first time professor was a young man filled with idealism. He had all the students draw a country out of a hat. Each country had a list of resources and trade abilities. Each country had different levels of armies and weapons.
The countries met in class in UN meetings. This class came about before the Zimbardo experiment at Stanford only the result of this class was not expected but the Zimbardo results explained it.
The nuclear countries took a leadership role at the UN table. It took but a few weeks before nuclear war ended not only the world but the design of our political science class. The professor looked horrified at the result. As I reflect I came to understand that the basic rules of psychology must always be a part of UNDERSTANDING but it was not even part of KNOWLEDGE.