fortitude, turn a blind eye to the mistakes of the past and present
and move positively toward the future – namely its promise of
salvation in technology. Young minds are scheduled to enter the
halls of my at-risk high school in a month, and they will indeed
arrive with a complex problem set: poverty-ridden homes,
family histories of drop outs, the lure of gang activity in the
neighborhood, second language barriers. To them, the academic
climate is largely aloof, clinical, and irrelevant, so in anticipation
of the obstacles I will face in my twelfth grade Language Arts
course, I have deliberately set aside nine consecutive Fridays for
students to engage in independent explorations of topics that
interest them. My goals for this massive undertaking are all
inclusive as I want my Internet Inquiry to serve as a capstone for
all the reading, writing, critical thinking, problem solving,
collaborative, and multimedia presentation objectives I cover in
Pacesetter English, a College Board course of study for grades 9-
12 that shows adolescents the way, the truth, and the light of
voice and textual power in the modern era. In short, each student
starts the semester by identifying a leader, a celebrity, a crisis, a
hobby, or some other aspect of life that interests him or her
enough to devote a steady stream of energy to its study. In
becoming an expert on his or her subject, the teen is ultimately
expected to convert the expertise into an authentic museum
exhibit to be viewed and critiqued by his peers