I had some good teachers in the mix as well. My favorite was a dorky (sorry, but he was) Economics and Government teacher who did two awesome things: 1. Brough

I had some good teachers in the mix as well. My favorite was a dorky (sorry, but he was) Economics and Government teacher who did two awesome things: 1. Brought in a financial broker who taught us how to read the stock pages 2. Ran for a local political office so we could see how the process really worked. He would talk about his debate experiences, his polling numbers and his platform to us in a completely matter-of-fact way, and this fascinated me to the political process. Probably the best nugget was the reality, which he brought up, was that while he tried his best to be charismatic, he just wasn't, and his efforts to get noticed as a candidate were effectively shouting in the wind. He was resoundingly defeated in the elections, just another no-name candidate in a sea of people who most voters have never heard of, but our class learned more about politics in one school year than decades of watching CNN.