This past Sunday, I attended the opening Honors Convocation at Kansas University. I did so because, for the first time in many years, I will be teaching an honors freshman seminar. The official festivities were pretty much what I expected: uplifting speeches by various faculty members and administrators. But what I found most interesting — and uplifting — was that this was the first chance for me to meet the 10 young people who would be in my seminar this fall. I was impressed and amazed.

I decided to apply to teach the honors freshman seminar to mark my 40th year as a university teacher. I first started teaching at Cambridge as a graduate student in 1975. Since then, I have taught undergraduates, graduate students, law students and even a fair number of my friends and other baby boomers in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute here at KU. But it has been a very long time since I was permitted to teach first-semester freshmen, so I really didn’t know what to expect on Sunday as I sat at my table waiting for the 10 students who would join me in exploring the subject of targeted killing and drone warfare this coming semester.

What I can say now, after having only a few minutes to chat with my students, is that they are remarkable: smart, seemingly fearless and exceptionally well-spoken. Most were from Kansas, but a few were from farther afield, from places like Virginia and Texas. Their interests ranged from engineering to strategic communications to nursing to political science. But what they all had in common was the drive and the success in high school to gain admittance to KU among the 300 or so beginning honors students.

I had the feeling that I was truly sitting with a group of young people who were going to make a positive impact on the future of Kansas and the future of our nation and the world. And I realized that these young people are the most important resource Kansas possesses. These young folks will not create new jobs next year nor generate higher sales tax revenues for the state in the short term. But, if we educate them well and permit them to achieve their full potential, they will ensure that the future of our state and nation is bright. They are the future, nothing less.

Anyone who believes that education in Kansas should not be one of our highest priorities should spend some time with the 10 young people I’m going to work with for the next few months. They would then realize how precious an asset these young people — and all the others like them — truly are. The other thing I realized on Sunday is how lucky I am to be their teacher.

— Mike Hoeflich, a distinguished professor in the Kansas University School of Law, writes a regular column for the Journal-World.