Field Guide to the American Teenager: A Parent's Companion

Going out into the fields of learning, We shake the dew from the grasses. All is new.

-- JOSEPHINE MILES, "PATHS"

Most people are motivated to justify their own actions, beliefs, and feelings. When a person does something, he or she will try, if at all possible, to convince himself or herself (and others) that it was a logical, reasonable thing to do.

-- ELIOT ARONSON, THE SOCIAL ANIMAL

At last school was out for the summer. The mood in the administration building was slow and lazy, and the June sky was blue and clear. As anyone would expect, there were few students on campus these days. Danny was one of them, and he was sitting in the dean's office, as no one would have expected. Nobody who was required to meet with the dean at this time of year was there to chat about summer jobs and vacation plans.

Danny was a student who had received (from this dean, in fact) numerous academic awards in the spring assembly. His grade point average placed him at the top of his freshman class. But now he was in trouble.

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