Dick Grayson sat at the lunch table trying to finish up the last of his lunch as he read through his notes for the next class. As he took the last bite of his sandwich, Barbra Gordon walked up to his table and sat down in the chair across from him. "I can't wait to hear what subject you decided to do your report over," she said smiling.

Dick looked up at her a bit annoyed. "Oh yeah? Well, you're just gonna have to wait until next period."

Barbra slumped back in her seat and crossed her arms. "I hate having American Government right after lunch. I'm always so tired and don't want to do anything or pay attention to the teacher."

"I think we all get that way, but I find the class really interesting," Dick replied as he put his notes back in his folder.

"You think every class you have is interesting," Barbra said.

"Not every class," Dick said. Before Barbra could speak again, the bell rang. "Well, come on. I'd like to hear what you decided to do your report over, too." Both Dick and Barbra then stood up and headed out of the cafeteria.

By the time the second bell rang, Dick and Barbra found their seats in the classroom and Miss Selma shut the door. "Alright class, quiet down so we can begin. Now, Friday I gave you all an assignment to pick a concern or problem at the state or local level that you believe is proper for the state or local government to address, and potential solution to make it better. We won't be able to get to everyone's reports today, but we will begin them today and hopefully we'll be finished by Wednesday so we can take our quiz." All the students groaned at the mention of a quiz. "Ok, is there anyone that would like to start off?"

Dick looked around and saw that everyone was staying completely still. "I'll go, Miss Selma," Dick said as he raised his hand.

Miss Selma smiled. "Thank you, Richard. You can bring all your notes up and begin when you're ready." Dick nodded, gathered his notes, and walked to the front of the class. "I'm very eager to hear your report," Miss Selma told him when he got up to the front. She then walked around and sat down at her desk.

"The problem that I have decided to address is the one about local graduations," Dick began. "Gotham Academy is not the only school in Gotham, plus the fact that there are many small towns near Gotham that have high schools as well. We all have friends from these other schools, and some parents have children in different schools as well, and the one problem that we face is the fact that graduations for these schools are on the same day, at the same time. Graduations are a time to celebrate an accomplishment in your life with friends and families, but because schools have graduations at the same time, these friends and families have to chose one graduation over the other making whoever they do not go see feel like they are not as important as the one they do go see. I say that the local government needs to address this problem and fix it."

Dick heard a lot of the students agreeing with him, and it was getting louder in the room. "Quiet!" Miss Selma said sternly to the students. Everyone got quiet again and was paying attention to Dick once again.

"Now there are steps that we can follow to help solve this problem. The first and second I have already done which is identify the problem and then do research so that I could learn more about it. As a group we could contact whoever would be in charge of taking care of the problem, so in this case it would be the school boards or the school's superintendent in each of the towns. After that we need to find a way to get others involved, as well as find other people that already agree with us. The last few are very important, making sure we give ourselves enough time, have the money we need, and find ways to support our goal, either through the news to help us get the word out, or just other groups that agree with us for support. We could even try to find a friend on the board of education that could help us persuade the others. Once we get the outcome of our efforts, we can either celebrate or try to figure out where we need to improve."

Dick looked down at his notes then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'Ok, stay calm and just follow the notes.' "We learned in chapters two and three that our country found a way to live in peace and understanding through the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. By sitting down and discussing things, the leaders of our country came to an agreement on how the country should be run. It would be the same if the boards of education from each of the schools in the area do the same and come up with some way to have graduations at different times so that friends can have lasting friendships and families can remain close."

Dick quickly glanced at his notes then continued. "This also brings us to who we should bring this problem to. Chapter 4 talks about the different branches that our government has. Our politicians go to these different branches to get different bills and laws passed, and our local governments basically have the same thing. We may not have different branches, but we do have people that we can go to. As I mentioned before, the boards of education would be the best people to speak with about this because they are basically the heads of the school, or the people who decide what happens at a school, but we could also talk to the town mayors about it as well. Town mayors are supposed to hear the people's concerns and try to take care of them, so even if we can't get the board of education to hear us out, the mayor would at least get them to consider it. Plus, going to either one of these people is a good option because both of them can go to other school boards or other town mayors and ask for a meeting to talk about it."

"But what if we can't talk to the mayor or go to the board of education directly?" Tucker asked.

"Well, if we can't get to them, there is always the superintendent. The superintendent is pretty much the president of the school."

"What do you mean by that?" Miss Selma asked.

Dick turned slightly so he was facing Miss Selma, but also making sure his back wasn't to the other students. "In my mind I see the school as a form of government. We students are the citizens, the teachers are the congressmen, the principal is the Vice-President, the superintendent is the President, and the board of education is congress." Miss Selma nodded in understanding and Dick turned back toward the students. "So if we go to the superintendent and try to persuade him or her by showing them the evidence that we've already gathered and trying to make them see things our way, they could go to the board of education and they might be more inclined to listen to them."

"After we get the boards of education's attention, then we need to go out and find people to support us, or to put it another way, find our allies. I believe that some of our allies concerning the graduation problem would be parents, grandparents, friends, students, teachers, and principals. Many people may think that teachers and principals don't really count when it comes to graduations, but they may have friends graduating or past students that may have transferred schools and they promised to come to their graduation. Finding all the people we can, will help us in more ways than one. If we take polls on who wants to change graduation times and who doesn't, we can see who our supporters are and gain information that can help us win an argument with the board of education. I think that if I started a petition to change the times of the graduations, our allies would sign it and have our back the whole way. Then if I took the petition to the board of education, they would see how many people have a problem with this and want to do something to make people happier with the way the school is run."

"Why don't you start one?" Barbra asked.

Dick looked at her a little surprised then blushed a little from embarrassment and rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh... actually I... I didn't really think about it 'til now." Several of the girls giggled at his reaction.

Dick looked down at his notes. 'Thanks a lot, Babs.' "So, anyway, we have our research and know who to go to and who we can depend on. The next big thing is time and money. It takes time and money to do a lot of projects, and trying to convince someone to change something is a pretty big project. When trying to convince someone to change something, usually you have to have it done in a certain amount of time. If you don't, you will have to start all over and everything you've done so far has been a waste. The board of education is busy with everything the school has to do and doesn't have the time to waste on someone who doesn't have everything ready, which is why research and getting out there to find help is a big part."

"But you said money was a big part too," Miss Selma said.

Dick looked back at her then back to the students. "Yes, money is also a big part of it because if we want the support we have to advertise and get the word out somehow. Media is a great way to get our information out; we learned that in chapter twelve. Newspapers love a good story and so do reporters. Everyone knows the media is everywhere these days, and a lot of people try to convince people to choose their side or try something buy buying commercial space on channels. It may cost money to put an ad in the paper or on the TV, but people watch it, read it, and listen."

"If we can effectively convince the board of education to change the time of graduations for each school, and even if we can't, we must remember to always thank them for listening to us. We don't want to be rude about our problem or they may not want to even consider what we have to say. Also, we'll have to be cautious even if we do win. We don't want our victory to become the exact opposite of what we were aiming for. If we don't end up winning, we need to try and figure out where we need to improve our argument. Maybe we didn't get enough supporting evidence to convince them, or maybe there was something we overlooked that they thought of to keep it the same. We need to rethink our strategy and try again. Just because we didn't succeed this time doesn't mean we shouldn't try again. Just like the expression says, 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again.'"

Dick smiled then headed back to his seat while everyone started clapping. "Very good, Dick. Now, who would like to go next?"

Dick got back to his seat and looked back at Barbra. Barbra leaned forward. "Nice report."

"Thanks," Dick replied with a smile.

"So, you gonna do that petition?" Barbra then asked as the next student began their report.

Dick opened his notebook and wrote at the top of the page, "GRADUATION PETITION." He then raised it up to show her. "There. Happy?"

Barbra smiled and ripped it out of his hand then sat it down on her desk and signed her name to it. After that she handed it back to him. "That's one down. Now we just have to get our allies to sign it."

"How about you come over and we can figure out who else we can get to sign it," Dick said as he took it back from her.

"Well, make sure you get the rest of the class to sign it before you leave, and make sure to ask the students and teachers of your other classes, too. We can work on the others after school," Barbra said.

YJYJYJYJYJYJYJYJ

Six Months Later

Dick saw Barbra walking up the stairs to the front of the school and ran up to her. "Hey, Babs!"

"Oh, hey, Dick. So did you hear?" Barbra asked when he caught up to her.

"Yeah, it worked," Dick replied happily. "I took the petition to the board of education and proposed the change for the times of the graduations. It took a while, but they finally made their decision. Now I can go see Wally and Artemis graduate even though they go to completely different schools."

"Hello Dick, Barbra. I heard that you and the other students convinced the boards of education from the different schools to change the times of the graduations," Miss Selma said.

"Yeah, and I think a lot of people are happy that we did," Dick replied.

"So what do you think helped you the most?" Miss Selma asked.

"I think that getting all the signatures and finding other people that supported our goal was the main factor that helped us to win this battle," Dick replied.

"Yeah, Bethanie and Tucker put together the little protest that we had out in front of the school this summer. It got so big after a few days because the news got a hold of the story. Some of the students from the towns around Gotham even came to help. Soon even the bigger cities heard about it," Barbra said.

"How do you know that?" Miss Selma asked.

"Clark Kent is a reporter for the Daily Planet in Metropolis, and he and Bruce are really good friends. Clark came over to do a story on it for his paper. He said he was really impressed with how much we were putting into it," Dick said proudly.

"Wow," Miss Selma said in amazement. "I'm really proud of all of you. You worked so hard and accomplished your goal."

"Yeah, and if there are any other kinds of projects like this, I would definitely make sure to find good supporters that is willing to help you complete the goal," Dick said.

"Well, I've got some work to do before class starts," Miss Selma said.

"Bye, Miss Selma. See you third period," Barbra said as she and Dick walked off down the hall. She then looked over at Dick and saw a big grin on his face. "What?"

"Oh, nothing," Dick replied. "I'm just glad everything worked out like it did."

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Well this was another issue that I thought should be addressed. What do you think? Do you agree with me? Let me know in a comment.

Thanks for reading :D