School

Set your story at the eve of the first day back at school.  

Got to make sure I've got everything ready. Bookbag, text book covers, three-ring binders, paper with three holes in them, a scientific calculator, a compass, etc. School supplies and new clothes. See, most kids my age aren't excited to go back to school, except maybe to see their friends, but I am. I'm in the Honor Club, Mensa, taking all the AP courses, because I love learning. See, when it snows outside during the winter, everyone is praying for a snow day and listening to the radio to hear what schools are canceled due to the weather. They're hoping our school will be closed, but I'm praying our school will be open. 

See, I've lived with idiots for most of my life and I understand the importance of education and I strive to do my best. Other kids are worried about socialization, sports, getting into a club, talking about the fad TV show that's on the air, getting toys for Christmas from their parents, but I'm not into toys, I'm into academics. What's your least favorite class in school? Recess. See, they used to make me go outside to play and socialize, but they discovered it was better if I got a library pass and ate my lunch in the library.  

See, I'm in sixth grade and I'm already learning about calculus, taking evening classes at the local community college, and acing spelling bees. I've applied for teaching jobs at local colleges in the summer for fellow students who are falling behind on their work. Tutoring. I'm good at tutoring, but sometimes I don't understand what they don't understand. For example, once I was teaching a tenth grader about imaginary numbers. See, two times two is four. Negative two times negative two is four. Two times negative two is negative four, but if you take the square root of a negative number, it can't be a real number, so it's an imaginary number. The student gave me a blank stare and asked me to please simplify what I was saying. We wasted an hour with him still not understanding.  

And there are times when I read text books from the library for fun. But, I've learned I need to be careful because some text books in the library are outdated and therefore worthless. But, the government files are fascinating to me. Did you know there are volumes of documentation about what happens in Congress? Oh, but then I discovered the book Robert's Rules of Order Fourth Edition. It was fascinating. It talked about parliamentary law. It talked about how to maintain order during meetings. See, only one person can speak at a time during a meeting and there need to be elections to determine who will be the president, the vice president, the treasurer, the secretary, and the trustees. You also have to make sure there's a quarum for a vote, which means at least two thirds of the official membership must be present. And each person's role as a member of the board must be described in detail and the person running for the position has to be aware of what their duties are and take an oath to fulfill their duties in that role.  

Then, there's the section about what to do when things don't go the way they're supposed to. Fascinating. For example, suppose there's not enough people in the meeting for a quarum, suppose someone decides to bench or postpone an idea. What has to happen in order for business as usual to continue? Or suppose someone interrupts the person speaking and is told they're out of order, but the interrupter continues to talk after the chair person tells the interrupter, their out or order. Believe it or not, sometimes the chairperson has to call the police department to get the person who's out of order removed from the building.  

Oh, when I get my report card, if I've gotten straight A's, which happens almost every semester, I get to watch CSPAN 3 on satellite. It's fun seeing how congress people use Robert's Rules of Order in real life. Every year Robert's Rules of Order comes out with a new addition and every year I beg my parents to get me the new version for Christmas. Someone at school once asked if they could look at my new addition of Robert's Rules of Order, and after making sure their hands were clean, I let them look at it. They got a blank look on their face. The kind the tenth grader had with imaginary numbers and he gave it back to me and told me it looked boring. I can't imagine how anyone could think this book is boring; it's full of action. 

But, maybe you think Robert's Rules of Order is all I read, but it's not.  I also enjoy glancing over The Farmer's Almanac. See, almost no one understands the importance of how much rain comes down and when it comes down. But, back to the interesting stuff. So, let's say a member of Congress introduces a bill to the House of Representatives. The members of Congress need time to read over the bill to understand what it says. There also can be pork with the bill. Pork makes congress people look bad because if a congress person agress with a bill, but doesn't agree with the pork, they generally for for the bill anyway and then there are ads on the TV which say the Congress Person signed a bill that supports X, when the congress person didn't support what was in the pork, but did support what was in the bill.  

There are so many interesting things in this book, like what to do if an important member of the organization resigns or dies. Sometimes, they have to have an emergency meeting with an emergency vote to keep the organization in tact. But, there are many off the book rules in Congress. Like, instead of attacking the person who wrote the bill, attack what in the bill you don't like. It's important to actively listen to the opponent's views, too, so you can understand their perspective, even if you don't agree with it.  

But then, when watching C-SPAN 3, I noticed something. These professionals were socializing about Pop Culture; things like what movies they wanted to see, how each other's families were doing, and they weren't focused on Parliamentary Law all the time; only in meetings. So, that night, I put Robert's Rules of Order on the shelf and went to my AP classes and worked hard, but when it came time for lunch, I decided to go to the cafeteria and engage in small talk. Imagine, me, a genious, but stupid in socialization, but I'm going to keep working at it and get it, eventually.