Using foreach() to get values from a checkbox form [closed]

I created a form on my Drupal 6 site where users have the option to choose multiple topics from a checkbox list. Here is what I am doing to try and output those values:

$i = 0;
foreach ($node->field_topics as $key => $value) {
    echo "$key => $value<br />";
    $i++;
}

This outputs to (if the user were to choose 3 topics):

0 => Array
1 => Array
2 => Array

How do I get the actual value in the array and not just the word "array?"

I tried this:

$node->field_topics['value'] or $node->field_topics['#value'];

and it says invalid argument.

Thanks for any help on this.