Do you remember the name of your college economics professor from your freshman year? Probably not, but I remember mine. S. J. Park, he said to just call him “Park” as we would never be able to pronounce his first name. He was from Korea and had a heavy Korean accent.

I hated economics, but Park made it understandable and interesting. He appealed to his audience by using beer as the illustration for most topics. Being from Korea, Rolling Rock was his beer of choice.

At that time in my life, I thought Miller Genuine Draft was the greatest thing on earth. Rolling Rock was also good, but it was just another beer to me. But Park points out that Rolling Rock is special as it is not made from barley like most beers are. Rolling Rock used rice instead of barley.

This made for some great economic examples. For instance, should the price of barley go up, the price of beer would go up; but not for his beloved Rolling Rock. And, if the demand for Rolling Rock would go up, so might the demand for pretzels.

And so it went, a semester of economics, a subject I can’t stand, but actually looked forward to because the of the instructor. It reminds me of a calculus teacher I had in high school who was just the opposite; he was as dry and boring as could be. One day, upset that we weren’t understanding and falling asleep, he accused us as being the problem because, “it was not his job to be interesting, it was his job to teach.”

How can one be so wrong? I take that to heart when I teach and instruct, which is part of my profession and my responsibility as a parent.

Park was excited about his Rolling Rock, and then so we were. At one point in the semester he told us that he was excited about his friend getting married and they were coming over from Korea to celebrate. The following week we were all sitting in class bright and early just after dawn (around 9:30 AM) and he was a few minutes late to show up. He told us in his thick accent, “My friend came over from Korea. We celebrated and drank much Rolling Rock all night. No class today.” And he walked out.

Good for him I say! Perhaps Park was a pioneer in my mind that got me to start thinking more about beer than it just being a bubbly alcohol beverage…

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