Two years ago, seventh-grade students sat in six rows of five desks, alternately staring at their teachers, the clock and their work sheets.

But rather than dictating a list of books every seventh-grade student should read, she hopes to stir in her listeners a desire to read, and think.

One seventh-grade student, Nisaa Raheem, said "everyone was very upset" after the incident.

He recommended that all seventh-grade students take a yearlong introductory biology course.

"It felt real weird at first," said Paul Wilford, a 13-year-old seventh-grade student who was also a coach during the first class.

A seventh-grade student pays the tuition at a college with a current price of $8,200 a year.

To the Editor: I am a 13-year-old seventh-grade student who gets straight A's.

His seventh-grade students express it to him.

His district is in its second year of requiring seventh-grade and eighth-grade students to take a six-week class based on the World of Difference program.

"We have several seventh-grade students who are taller and of a larger build than this individual."