The iCandidate Read Online Free PDF

three-sport athlete that includes field hockey and basketball, she is the school’s female version of Xavier. Softball is her best sport, and if X is Millfield’s king of the hard court, she ranks as queen of the diamond. Baseball is a passion of hers, and I learned early on never to get into an argument about it with her without researching ESPN first. At least she is a Yankee fan.
    She finishes tying her hair in a ponytail before answering. “Because talk is easier than action,” she says after a moment of reflection.
    “ Okay, tell me what you would have done?”
    “Something to stop him.” Vanessa is sincere, but she clearly doesn’t have a clue what she would do. Taking a look at the rest of the class from the center of the stage, it’s clear most of them don’t either.
    “ Do something to stop him. Sounds like a plan, but remember European powers like France and England lost the better part of a generation in World War One. Their economies were still fragile and populations war-weary. The Germans had nothing left to lose after the Treaty of Versailles. Isn't stopping Hitler a little easier said than done, Brian?”
    Brian exemplifies the nerd who always got bullied in school when I was growing up. You know, the one who was the least cool, never had a girlfriend, but was one of the smartest kids in class. Brian is a dorky computer geek with no sense of style, which means he will probably found the next Facebook or Microsoft, make billions of dollars, and be dating a supermodel in ten years.
    “ Sure, but if you can take action, you should take action,” he says, tapping his pen nervously on his notebook while he speaks.
    “ Bold words, but doesn't everyone have the ability to take action? Not just nation-states heading down a path to inevitable war. In a broader scope, doesn’t everyone have the responsibility to act when a situation arises that calls for it?”
    “Not us. We're only in high school,” Emilee says. She is your average teenager, although more reticent during class discussions than her peers. Like many her age, she is just trying to find her voice and develop the confidence to use it. “We can't even vote,” she finishes.
    “ Emilee, do you think age is a prerequisite to making a difference?” The question yields unintended consequence of driving her back into her shell. The challenge fails to deter some of my other students, and one in particular.
    “ It is if you want to be taken seriously,” Chelsea says.
    I have been pacing around the room until this point to keep everyone’s focus on me. I decide to sit in my chair, right in the middle of the stage. I turn toward Chelsea and lean forward. “Chelsea, in the military there is the fine line between what’s considered a reason and an excuse. I am not sure which yours is.”
    Chelsea leans forward in her own chair, not for a second backing down to my challenge. “We may never know,” she says, smiling. Again, that’s why she’s a favorite of mine.
    The class ends and the rest of the day’s classes blur by. My academic level students are behind my honors class in the chronology of American history, so I must develop and execute several sets of lessons. Most planning happens on weekends, simply because I am exhausted at the end of a school day.
    That’s another way you can tell the good teachers from the bad. Bad teachers always want to engage in useless conversation at the end of the day because they didn’t expend much energy teaching. Good teachers are mentally and emotionally spent. Great teachers look like they were playing chess against Garry Kasparov all day.
    With quizzes in each of my five classes to grade, I have a pile to plough through. School dismisses a little after two, but teachers are not released until three o’clock. With an hour to kill before leaving, and two before the forced date with my future in-laws, I get right to work grading the quizzes. As I suspected, the honors class did really well on this one.