You're in your office adjusting patients. Maybe you had an opportunity to speak to a group of high school students about backpack safety. Or, you're at lunch and a young person is taking your order.

Wherever you turn, there are many young minds that haven't a clue as to where they are going.

I was one of they lucky ones. Due to a back injury that led me through the medical realm and to a chiropractor's office, I was fortunate enough to find a doctor who gave me career advice that changed my life.

Are you taking every opportunity to tell potential chiropractic students about the vision of helping people who need our services desperately?

My chiropractor sat me down and spent time explaining how the nerve system functioned and why, after I was adjusted, I was able to recover from my back injury. He told me about how incredible the healing powers of the body worked.

I sat amazed after our conversation. My doctor took a personal interest in me and where I was headed career-wise. Up until that point in my life, I would never have thought about chiropractic as a career.

This scenario took place in 1968 and from that moment on, I knew that being a chiropractor was what I wanted to do. That doctor and I stayed in contact for many years.

In high school and college, I never lost sight of what he told me. My reports and research papers were all about chiropractic, the mechanism of the subluxation, and how chiropractic helps most health problems.

My teachers and professors were dumb-founded by the papers. They had never heard of such controversial talk. Some of them questioned me about where I got such information.

After my explanation in simple terms, some of them understood the concepts of the body being a self-healing mechanism. Many of the teachers wanted to find out more about this natural healing phenomena. It was a great way to have chiropractic noticed and at the same time, have a unique opportunity to explain chiropractic to an educated group of people.

Although chiropractic is now on the forefront of healthcare, I was met with a great deal of skepticism throughout the late '60s and early '70s.

We must realize the impact of sitting down with young people who are in high school and pre-college and inspiring them to become chiropractors.

The chiropractic colleges of today have made great strides in the educational technology that was not available before the computer age. When walking through chiropractic colleges, it's clear they have updated their classrooms, libraries, x-ray facilities, audio-video studio equipment, and added complete printing and graphic equipment.

Classrooms now work with Power Point presentations, laptop computer terminals and a much more interactive teaching style that has allowed the students to become far more involved with the subjects they are being taught.

With the new dawn of educational tools, our universities should be applauded and supported by the field doctors who graduated from those universities.

One area that needs more clarification, however, is philosophy. Students nearing graduation need to be grounded and steeped in the background and history of chiropractic. Some still wonder how and why it works. Understanding the "how" and "why" is a powerful source of clarity for the new practitioners and will be an important component of the delivery of chiropractic care.

You can't feel or believe in the power of chiropractic, without understanding the philosophy. It's like thinking about hitting a baseball at the time of impact. Creating the chiropractic instinct comes from knowingness brought to you by believing in what you are doing based on the "why" or philosophy we learn in our colleges.

Students are getting a great academic education, but they have nothing to hang their hat on philosophically.

When I attended chiropractic college, we were taught about the who-what-where, but most importantly, the "why" chiropractic worked, and the philosophy behind it.

The doctor that enlightened me those many years ago, talked in these terms: Innate intelligence; afferent, efferent flow; above-down-inside-out. Today's students need to get back to the center of chiropractic not as an option, but as a mandate.

Without taking time with young patients who have already experienced chiropractic, we are missing an opportunity not only to educate them about what we do, but also to encourage them to be a part of our fantastic profession.

Many young people are desperately looking for an opportunity to give of themselves to a worthy profession that has already changed so many lives for the better through natural healthcare.

Our day-to-day process with patients would be more rewarding if we took five young patients or potential students and mentored them much like the doctor who took time out of his busy practice to mentor me. I look back so many times and think of him with gratitude for what he gave me.

So, when is the next time you will send someone to school?