As we were Kulaks, I was not entitled to state sponsored education so my education was started at my Grandfather's knee. Frankly, I'm grateful for that fact.

He was a huge proponent of educating the youth amongst adults, not separate from them, and so I was always included in debates and discussions concerning the various important issues of the day: politics, history, religion, philosophy, sciences, languages, economics, morals and ethics, etc.

He used to say "How is a boy to grow into manhood if he is constantly segregated from manhood? How is a child to learn to think like an adult if he is always surrounded by other children; always separated from the intellectual discussions of the adults we hope he will emulate? We exercise his body so he will be strong, so we must exercise his mind so he will be smart."

An ardent promoter of autodidactism and of educational immersion, he always included me in important discussions and encouraged me to participate, explore and learn.

The topics of greatest prominence were religion, philosophy and politics and especially how they interacted. My grandfather taught mea great deal and my current thinking is largely - if not wholly - shaped by his early teachings.

We traveled a great deal in order to expose me to a wide variety of spiritual traditions, so aside from our own native spiritual practices, I was also taught a great deal about various traditions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Zionism, and several so-called "Pagan Religions" or "Earth Religions" as well as European mythological religious systems.

I was only introduced to formal education at the age of thirteen when my mother decided that I needed a real education here in America. That was a dismal disappointment, and quite frankly, I was struck by the irony that despite the truncated education in this country, the educators assumed that I must be a dullard for lacking their style of education.

while I was supposed to still be attending high school, I took courses at Middlesex County College to study business administration and marketing at the behest of my then-employer and converted that non-matriculated work into a course study towards an Associate's in Business Administration & Marketing (ABA - 1987 - Middlesex County College).

While at MCC, and because of my background and childhood studies, I was invited to participate in a number of round table events at Rutgers and Princeton concerning religious and philosophical studies. I attended chaired events and debates, congresses, and summits within Rutgers department of Humanities, some sponsored by the World Council of Religions.

Well, this led to my pursuing a Master's degree in Religious Studies which I completed in 18 months.  but by this time, I was spending most of my time out of the country working so my academic career had to wait.