#1 Why Run?

I want to do something more with my life, and back in Virginia, I had started to run for the James City County School Board, but when the school board staff contacted me about attending a meeting to introduce myself, along with the other candidates, to the media, I chickened out. As Viper said of Maverick, I have "a confidence problem." I actually have two, and they are severe and chronic enough, to properly call them phobias. I have a phobia of public speaking and another one of being in an audience. I got the first one at Ferguson High School in Newport News,Virginia speaking Latin from our fourth-year textbook and the second one at William and Mary. I got through undergraduate school and my first master's without having to give a speech, but for my Master's in Social Work, I had to give two speeches including introducing and defending my research paper. I got through the first speech by making it about my phobias and then got through the second by admitting that it was scary getting up before classs. This got a murmur of sympathy from my fellow social workers (if you aren't the nurturing type, you don't belong in social work), and fortified, I proceeded on. If I could function okay, I believe these disabilities would help me in having empathy for students who are challenged by school in general or any specific aspect of it. But this does not mean I would concentrate solely on leaving no student behind because I believe that every student should be able to get ahead and go as far as his abilities take him while in public school. Peter Nickerson at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.