Twenty-five young teenagers are sitting at their desks in the classroom, minds focused on anything and everything except the complex algebra problem that their teacher is writing on the board. Suddenly, their reverie is broken by the word of the teacher: "I need a volunteer to come to the board and solve this simple binomial equation." Immediately, students become deeply involved with books under their desks. Pencils suddenly drop to the floor. Eyes become engrossed on a page, any page, in textbooks. No one dares look at the teacher. "Jerry, what about you?" asks the teacher. "I know you can do it."

Jerry's heart sinks to the bottom of his new high-top shoes. "Why me?" he thinks. "I can't do this. I'll be humiliated in front of everybody. I can't do this. That teacher has it in for me for n…