Sue

I am a retired engineer, I have 5 children and 7 grandchildren, I live in the Smoky Mountains of southwestern North Carolina.

I have a good bit of formal education and twenty five years of self-learning. I began the self-learning experience while in my mid-forties. I had no goal in mind; I was just following my intellectual curiosity in whatever direction it led me. This hobby, self-learning, has become very important to me. I have bounced around from one hobby to another but have always been enticed back by the excitement I have discovered in this learning process. Carl Sagan is quoted as having written; “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”

I label myself as a September Scholar because I began the process at mid-life and because my quest is disinterested knowledge.

In my learning journey I have become convinced that the citizens of the United States must become more intellectually sophisticated if our civilization is to survive another 200 years. Out technological ingenuity has provided us with very powerful things and we have not developed the understanding commensurate with the power of this technology.

Our command of the natural sciences has not been matched by our command and control of our self and our community. It is imperative that adults quickly overcome the idea that we can store our intellect in the attic with our year book when our school daze are over.

I post on many forums because I am trying to convince adults that self-actualizing self-learning is not only necessary but it also very satisfying..