Dick Grayson walked into his first hour History class. He was really tired. You see, Dick Grayson had a secret life. He was also known as Robin, the Boy Wonder, partner to Gotham's Dark Knight, Batman, and in being Batman's partner, there were times that he didn't get a lot of sleep. These past two weeks were a clear example of that. He had done many training sessions with his team, Young Justice, patrolled and fought many villains in Gotham City, been kidnapped for almost a week, spent four days on an undercover mission, all while trying to keep up his grades in school and keeping people from getting suspicious about his alter ego.

Gotham Academy was a private high school for rich kids, and being the son of Billionaire Bruce Wayne, it was no surprise that he went there. Now being adopted into the life of a rich kid, Dick wasn't like most of the kids in his school, snobby and materialistic. In fact, he was kind and considerate, and very smart because he was in high school at age thirteen, but that wasn't always a good thing for him.

As Dick walked into the class room, a wade of paper hit his head. "Oh please, please, Orphan Boy, don't sue me," Randy, one of the school bullies, begged sarcastically, "I was just trying to hit the garbage... oh wait, I did." Randy and a couple of his friends started laughing at his bad joke as Dick just rolled his eyes and sat down at a desk as far away from them as possible.

Just as he sat down, a tall blonde, about twenty-seven, walked into the room. "Good morning, class," she said as she sat down at her desk. Dick overheard a couple of the boys next to him whispering to each other about how good her butt looked. All the boys in the class, including Dick, thought that Miss Selma looked hot, but that's teenage boys for you.

After a few more minutes, the bell rang and the students started getting out their books. "Alright, class, I want you all to come up and hand in your history paper," Miss Selma said.

'Crap, I knew I was forgetting something,' Dick thought as he finally realized that he didn't do his history paper. 'Bruce is gonna kill me.' He slowly sank into his chair hoping the teacher wouldn't realize that he didn't bring a paper up.

Once all the students brought their papers up and sat back down, Miss Selma looked through the papers then looked around the room and stopped her gaze on Dick. "Mr. Grayson, would you come up here please."

Dick nervously got out of his seat and walked slowly to the front of the class. Everybody in the room stared at him as he walked down the aisle, making him feel like he was walking down death row, and it didn't help that Randy was humming the death march quietly as he went by. Dick gave him the best bat glare he could muster.

When he finally made it to the teacher's desk, he stood there, shifting from one foot to the other nervously, not making eye contact with her. "Y-yes, Miss Selma?"

Miss Selma smiled kindly. "Dick, I've noticed that you didn't bring your paper up. Do you have it with you?"

Dick finally made eye contact with her. "Well... I...Uhhh..." He wasn't sure how to explain why he didn't have his paper without revealing his secret. "I thought you said we could do an oral report if we wanted to."

Miss Selma sighed. "No, I said a five page paper that was due today." She thought for a minute before continuing, looking at Dick's pleading face. "However, I'll give you a chance, but I'm going to have to knock it down a letter grade."

Dick relaxed his shoulders and sighed in relief. "Thank you, Miss Selma."

Miss Selma grabbed a notebook out of her desk and then stood beside Dick. "Class, Dick is going to give his report as an oral report. I want you all to pay attention." She then walked to the back of the room and sat at Dick's desk. "Whenever you're ready," she said once she was settled in.

Dick took a deep breath and closed his eyes. 'Well, here goes everything.' When he opened them again, he looked over at his teacher then down on his desk and realized that he needed to get his book so he didn't completely fail. "Uhhh... may I grab my book? I left my notes in them." It was a small white lie, but if he didn't have it he wasn't sure if he'd be able to pull this off.

Miss Selma nodded and Dick walked back to his desk, grabbed the book, and then went back to the front of the room. He opened the book and found the assignment tucked inside. He gave a sigh of relief because he couldn't completely remember what the assignment was about. Once he read through the three questions he was supposed to discuss, he looked up.

"'Should America be an imperialist power?' In my opinion, I think this question is basically asking, 'Should America be the top dog? The main rulers of the world?' Well, if I was living in 1916, this would be my answer, no. You see, I think of imperialism as trying to gain power, and why should America try to rule the world when we have problems here in America? First off, we just got out of a war between ourselves, the Civil War. That war lasted about four or five years against our own people. We couldn't agree with each other on if the slaves should be free or continue to be our slaves. If we couldn't agree on something as small as that, what makes you think we should be telling people around the world what to do? We start wars with our own kind and then we go and complain because someone's not like us. If I was a foreign leader from China or someplace overseas, I wouldn't listen to us. Even though we figured out most of the stuff concerning the Civil War, that doesn't mean that we treat people that aren't like us with respect. We totally disregarded the Native Americans. We pushed them away from their land and stole their resources, and we didn't care at all, and what about those blacks? After the Civil War, people still weren't warmed up to the idea that black people were 'people.' There was a part in here," he said as he opened the book to look through it. After a couple of seconds, he found the right page, "Yes, it talks about how four African-American army regiments, that happened to make up about one-fourth of the invasion force that went to Cuba, were ordered to Florida and as they went eastward by train, crowds cheered until they got to the south. One of the sergeants wrote, 'We were 'niggers' as they called us and treated us with contempt.'" He sat the book down behind him on the teacher's desk with the book still open so he wouldn't lose his spot. 'Man, it's a good thing I remembered where that was.' "Even though they were in our country, we still didn't treat them right.

"But the Civil War and the way we treat people that don't look like us aren't the only things that makes me think that we Americans shouldn't try to be the top dog of the world. I've learned that there were many depressions here in the US, and there was one around 1893 as well. First we get out of a war then we go into a deep depression? He picked his history book and searched for a few seconds until he found the page that talked about the depression of 1893. "Editors of Railroad Age even commented on this depression, 'It is probably safe to say, that in no civilized country in this century has society been so disorganized as it was in the United States during the first half of 1894.'" He placed the book back down on the desk, again with the book open. "Even they thought America was messed up." He got a few laughs from some of the students, but continued. "Because of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad going bankrupt in the spring of 1893, a chain reaction of several more railroads going bankrupt happened. This caused several businesses to go out of business, which made people lose their jobs. I mean, yeah I understand that it wasn't our fault that these railroads went bankrupt and businesses shut down, but we had things that we couldn't handle here. We don't need to go out and get involved in other problems when we can't even help ourselves. So I say we need to stay in our own country and try to fix the problems we have here before we even think about getting into other country's problems, and definitely not try to be an imperialist power."

Dick looked over to his teacher, but she was busy writing something on her notebook, so he decided to go on to the next question. He picked up the sheet with the assignment on it. "Now, 'should the United States be isolationist or internationalist?' By July of 1941, World War 2 was going on. Now, a lot of us wanted to stay out of the war, and I can see what they mean. Just like I said about becoming an imperialist, we shouldn't get involved in other people's business. I mean, after World War 1 you would think that we would get tired of all the fighting. That and the soldiers brought a deadly influenza epidemic back with them." He picked up his book again and looked through the pages until he found the right page. "'About 20 million Americans fell ill during the winter of 1918-1919; over half a million died.' Half a million, all because our men brought a sickness with them from overseas." This time he just put his finger in the book and closed it then lowered the book to his side. "How many of you would want to worry about whether or not our friends and family brought back something that could kill you?" He waited for a second for their response, and all he got was a "humph" from Randy. He then looked toward Randy. "So you're telling me that if your father went overseas and came back and gave you a deadly disease that we have no idea how to cure, you'd be fine with that?" Randy slowly sunk into his seat and avoided both the question and eye contact. Dick just smiled and returned his gaze to the rest of the class. "I know I sure wouldn't. Plus, like I said before, people didn't want to get involved in another war." He pulled the book up to him and again flipped through the pages. "'Struggling with the economic depression and conscious of the slaughter of World War 1, Americans had little interest in the international experimentation.'" He lowered the book once again.

"See up to this point, the US had been in the Great Depression. People were without work, their wages got cut back, and the people who couldn't pay rents or mortgages were left homeless unless someone was generous enough to help them. A lot of people went to soup kitchens just to get their next meal. People just wanted to stay away from the war and try to get their own lives back in order.

"However, I wouldn't say that we should be pure isolationist. I mean, if we didn't get involved in the war, they probably would've come after us eventually. To me, it sounds like Japan wanted to take over the world, and if that is true, then whether we enter the war or not, Japan was going to come after us. Yes, if we just stay out of it and stay in our little corner of the world we might be fine, but we don't know that. Myself I'd rather stay out of it and only fight if it's absolutely necessary, like I said, I can see good and bad point about being isolationists and internationalists. 'Should the United States be isolationist or internationalist?' Truthfully, I say isolationist. We need to focus on the problems we're having here in the US. I say if we want to get involved in something, get involved with America first."

Dick looked over to his teacher again, hoping that he could find some trace of if he was doing well on his report, but again all he saw was her writing something in her notebook. Dick took a deep breath and proceeded. "The last question I want to touch on is this, 'should the US be the Policeman of the World?'* For us the answer is simple, we don't need to because we have the Justice League. We don't have to worry about what's going on in China or Russia, 'cause the League takes care of it. But what if we didn't have them? What if there was no Justice League to save our butts twenty-four seven? Should we still try to be the world's protector? The world's Policemen? Personally, I say no. No one can solve the problems of the world. Sure if you're Superman it'd be easy," this got some laughter from some of the students, "but we're not Superman. We can't stop a meteor from hitting the earth. We can't stop a volcano from destroying a village. We can't cure common diseases like cancer or Lou Gehrig's disease, but yet we still try. We try to keep people from dying, but it's out of our hands. Not even Superman can save everyone." One of the girls raised her hand. Dick looked at her a bit confused and surprised that she did. "Uhhh... yes?"

"It's just like Batman. He managed to save a lot of people, but he couldn't save my mom from the fire a couple weeks ago."

Dick looked at her sadly. He remembered that night. Bruce came home feeling terrible. "Yeah, even though we think we can protect everyone and save every life, there's just no possible way. The police can send cops to guard someone who's been threatened, but there is no guarantee that the cops won't be killed themselves. So just because we send soldiers over to a war, that doesn't mean those soldiers won't get killed. And what if our side of a war, that we shouldn't have even got involved in, didn't win, all those lives that were lost, they died for nothing. What would we accomplish by doing that? Greif. Telling a parent that their son or daughter will never come home. Telling a child that their mom or dad is gone forever. Telling a husband or wife that their spouse will never be able to hold them again. Yeah, if we need to be in the war 'cause that war could determine if we survived or not, then by all means, let's fight, but to just send people into a war because that country looks like they could use the help? Take the Vietnam War, the government claimed that we could go over there and win the war, but all we did was get good men and women killed." He once again opened the book and flipped until he came across the Vietnam section. "'The young men who fought in Vietnam bore the brunt of a confused mission in an inhospitable environment that defied America's military superiority, while Americans at home questioned the war's importance to U.S. global interest.'" Again he closed the book, making sure to mark it with his finger, and lowered the book to his side. "They sent them over for, what sounds like to me, just because we were cocky and wanted to prove how powerful we were. Well you know what, that war cost us several men's lives and we didn't even win the war." Again one of the students, this time a boy, raised their hand. "Yes, Jimmy?"

"My grandpa was in that war. He came back, but I don't like to think that he could've died for nothing."*

Dick nodded his head. "I'm glad he came back alive, but most families didn't have that pleasure. However," he again opened his book and flipped a few pages, "'many youths from middle-class families used a liberal student deferment policy to avoid the draft.'" He closed the book again. "The people that were normally drafted ranged around nineteen, but some of them didn't want to go to war 'cause they knew that we shouldn't have gotten into it. And what's worse, they had to deal with diseases like malaria, blackwater fever, and dysentery, and I don't have to tell you that those are some pretty nasty diseases.

"Also, to make another point, look at the justice system here in Gotham, our police force. Now I'm not judging them or saying that they aren't doing their job, but how many times has Batman and Robin bailed the commissioner and his team out of something so simple."

"Yeah, just last week Batman had to chase down that lunatic that stole the new dollar bills from the train. The police should've handled that. The guy that took the money was just some common thief, not worth Batman's time, but noooo, they had to call Batman 'cause someone stepped on their toes," James, another boy in the class, remarked.

"Yeah, Batman could've been tracking down the Joker who had escaped a few days prior, but that's exactly what I'm talking about," Dick agreed. "Our justice system here in Gotham has gotten so dependent on Batman, but if we didn't have Batman, Superman, or any of the other Leaguers, we would be stronger, more dependent on ourselves, and that's exactly what I think was going through the government's head, that we are strong enough to take on the world. We're clearly not and we shouldn't think of ourselves as the policemen of the world.

"So to some it all up, in the time of 1916, no, we shouldn't be an imperialist power, in the time of July of 1941, I think we should be isolationists unless absolutely necessary, and in the time after World War 2, the US should not be the Policemen of the world."

The entire class clapped for his presentation as the Miss Selma walked back up front. "Very good report, Dick, although next time you better get the actual report done."

Dick blushed a little. "Yes, Miss Selma." He then went and sat back down at his desk. Dick let out a long breath. 'Well, at least she bought that I knew what I was doing.'

"Alright class, now I want you to open your books to page 1203."

YJYJYJYJYJYJYJYJ

Dick walked into the front door of the Wayne Mansion, walked over to the couch, flopped down on the couch, and closed his eyes. Bruce was sitting in the arm chair reading the newspaper since he didn't get a chance to during breakfast. He lowered the paper so he could see Dick. "How was school?"

Dick looked at Bruce. "Great, except for the fact that I didn't turn in my five page paper that was due today in history."

"Dick," Bruce said not too happily.

"It's ok, I gave an oral report on it anyway and she said I did pretty well."

"And why didn't you get the paper done?" Bruce asked as he folded and set the paper down on the coffee table.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault. I had training, missions, and I was kidnapped for about a week. What was I supposed to do, tell the kidnappers to just let me go 'cause I had a history paper to work on?"

Bruce sighed. "Alright, but you're grounded from patrol until you find out what your grade is."

Dick smiled. "I figured you'd say something like that. Wanna help me on my Math homework?"

Bruce smiled then moved over to the couch as Dick pulled out his Math book and notebook.

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*My grandpa really did serve in Vietnam and came back alive and is still alive today

*I loved this question

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