Ted Collins was an assistant superintendent for education, planning and research in his late 20s when his ambitions lead him to enroll in night school to learn what he needed to know in order to advance in the educational bureaucracy. His first course was with Professor Vance who did not believe in wasting time. As soon as she verified her microphone was working, she launched into her first lecture. Afterwards, Collins wondered what possessed him to try to become a school principal and whether he should drop the whole thing.