Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 11:58:15

Money, Money, Money

Dr. Carl J. Arnold taught the money and banking class at Presbyterian College when I was a student there. I can still picture him in 1986: dark, crewcut hair; pressed khaki pants; white, short-sleeved, buttoned-down shirt; dark, plastic-framed glasses; and a pocket protector. Ok, maybe he didn’t wear a pocket protector. In any event, he should have worn one if he didn’t.

Dr. Arnold was known for being tough. Before taking his class, I had thought that multiple-choice questions were easy — rule out the ones that were wrong, and you were left with the correct answer. But Dr. Arnold raised multiple-choice questions to a fine art form. His answers were long and convoluted, filled with multiple qualifications and possibilities. The answer E seemed to always be “A but not B unless it is Wednesday and it rains, then it’s A, B and sometimes C but never D, unless it’s cloudy with a chance of rain.”

I would read the question and potential answers again and again to make sure that I understood the premise. It was challenging, but I loved it. Dr. Arnold was a great teacher. Hard, but good.