Degrees and Educational Background
Master of Divinity, Bangor Theological Seminary 1980
Master of Philosophy, Drew University 1992
Doctor of Philosophy, Drew University 1997
Interviews with Dr. Paul Sparacio:
Hi. I’m Paul, Editor-in-Chief at CollegeRank. Here’s a little about me:
I grew up in relative poverty—never more than two pair of pants to my name and, at any given time, holes in the leather soles of my shoes (on account of which I was constantly having to make cardboard inserts so as to preserve my socks from ruin).
Initially, with a disinterested stepfather and an overworked mother struggling to hold the family together, I found the educational experience quite difficult and very discouraging. So much so, in fact, that by the end of the second marking period of the third grade, I had already managed to accumulate six “F”—two each in Reading, Spelling, and Math (then called Arithmetic).
Fortunately, I had a teacher (Mrs. O’Brien) who saw something in me—a potential that neither I nor, apparently, anyone else had managed to see. She therefore arranged for me to be tutored twice a week, for forty five minutes per session, prior to the start of school. Suddenly, with a mix of gentle firmness and an abundance of encouragement, my tutor (Mrs. D’Andrea) began a process that led to turning my academic experience completely around. Within a matter of only a few months, instead of “C,” “D,” and “F” I began consistently earning “A’s” and “B’s.”
Like anything one comes to do well, learning became wonderful rather than dreadful. For the first time I began to view education in a positive light. Initially though, I began to look at education simply as a path to escape my poverty. “Pursue a degree,” so I told myself, “in a vocation that will enable you to earn, at the very least, an income that will permit you to live comfortably.” Put another way, starting off, education was more a means to an end (rather than what it would later become: an end in itself!).
Somewhere between late Junior High and early High School, however, I discovered that this utilitarian approach to education had unconsciously morphed into something else, into something more, into what I just hinted at above—a love of education itself, education as an end in itself! For I was increasingly seeing—indeed experiencing!—that in addition to economic independence, education could even more importantly provide a person with intellectual freedom and independence.
I, over time, increasingly found that education was able to provide me with the mental tools with which to navigate the the ever expanding onslaught of information, the mental prowess to sift and sort through all the various and voluminous data being sent my way. And, best of all, my education provided me with the ability to draw my own informed conclusions, rather than always having to rely on and being at the utter mercy of another’s mental framing of this issue or that matter that happens, at any given moment, to be at hand. Now, with a well-formed education, I found that I possessed the mental apparatus to discern the “story” currently under discussion myself, instead of blindly accepting or trusting the narrative of another.
Educators, such as my third grade teacher and tutor, taught me that I COULD think. Other educators, especially in high school and undergraduate school, taught me HOW to think. Still others, in graduate school, taught me those things about which it is BEST to think. Cumulatively, thanks to them, particularly, and the education I pursued, generally, as a result of their guidance, I have attained a wealth that far exceeds any that can be measured in terms of money—specifically, a mental treasure of the mind that brings a freedom and independence which is not subject to market or military forces.
Dr. Paul F. Sparacio, Ph.D.