AP XC

Last night at the Awards presentation, I was struck again by the number of scholar athletes we enjoy as kind of a "fringe benefit" of cross country. It's pretty standard fare, actually, as motivated and disciplined students tend to get drawn toward extra curricular activities of similar virtues. The Big 8 League has a new honor, a "scholar athlete" certificate, given to the top 8 "scholars" at the varsity level by the end of the season. Jason Schupp, Derek Nelson and Katrina Graham were in that elite 8. Mr. Masi, our Athletic Director, informed me that a 4.4 gpa "wasn't good enough" to make the list on the girls' side. It didn't surprise me, for that's what cross country kids are like! Duh!

Since I take my teaching job as seriously as I take my coaching, it's fun on occassion to have some of our runners in my classes. This year, in my AP (Advanced Placement) US History course, it seems the room is overrun with runners! While Dylan Gallagher is the lone Wolf in my first period class, period 4 has six runners enrolled and doing well. Sean, Derek, Jarod, Brad, Kelsi and Brandon are on pace and hitting their stride.

I love it especially because an AP class is alot like cross country: Only the strong survive. It's a challenging course, very fast paced, and with the National Exam awaiting them in May, there's a victorious finish line up ahead that draws the students on.

Today we got neck-deep in a theoretical workout on the ramifications of Abraham Lincoln's "redefinition of the word freedom" during the Civil War. We first chewed on an 1864 racist illustration of Southern fears of emancipation, then followed that up with a Lincoln piece from 1863 that gave an explanation to his critics for why the Emancipation Proclamation was not only legal (some considered it illegal), but also both militarily and socially necessary. The lesson then finished with a disection of Lincoln's masterpiece, The Gettysburg Address. Thrown into the mix, just to see if the kids were paying attention, were connections to the colonial period and the Revolutionary War. Oh yea, Barack Obama wiggled his way into the topic as well. Whew!

It was a bit like mental intervals, with very short rest, and by the time we got to "a new birth of freedom" it was hammer time. I looked into the eyes of these young scholars as they were obviously tracking with the topic, hanging on the pace, and waiting for that exhausted moment when every runner -- scratch that -- every scholar knows they nailed it. What I saw this morning, I've seen many times in practice ... this is hard, but I'm gettin' it.

I know, that realization may not have happened neatly today or even this evening. But rest assuredly, just as it does with running, that point of success ... that great aah ha! moment ... will proclaim itself victorious when these young historians cross that finish line in May... that finish line otherwise known as the AP US History exam.

Keep on keepin' on, scholars!