Just about every Wilbraham & Monson Academy student who has ever taken Advanced Placement U.S. History with Mr. Gary Cook would likely say the course was challenging.
How's this for a challenge – try reading 1,200 essays in seven days.
For at least the sixth year in a row, Mr. Cook served as a reader for the College Board's AP U.S. History National Exam, where he read ... yup ... 1,200 essays, including 216 in one day.
"It's grueling, but it has its rewards," said Mr. Cook, who volunteered to be a table leader for the second straight year. The 2017 essays were read in Tampa, Fla., in early June.
The grueling part is the time and effort. Starting on June 3, for nine hours a day, with a one-hour break, Gary and the other readers examined roughly 500,000 essays.
"The mandate is to give every student a fair read, and that's the biggest challenge," Mr. Cook explained. "On Day Five when you're gassed at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, can you give that essay a fair read? That's the challenge.
"I think by and large you do it. You get well trained on the rubric, and as you get more familiar with the essays and what the students will be writing, you get into the zone and can crank out essays. But there's lots of caffeine and lots of candy."
Mr. Cook said the opportunity to meet other people who share a passion for U.S. History, as well as the chance to bring relevant information back to his WMA students, is too much for him to pass up and worth the week's monumental effort.
"I'm sitting at a table with people much more experienced than I am," Mr. Cook said. "We had people from nine different states at the table. I was surrounded by people who love U.S. History.
"But I think the most important reason is I get to bring it back to the students here and it reaffirms a lot of the work I do here with them. I think I've always had a sense of what makes a good historical essay, but this reinforces what I want the students to do, and I pick up a couple tweaks here and there that will benefit them."
While in Florida, Mr. Cook also had dinner with former WMA Boys' Soccer Coach Mike Parsons, who preceded Mr. Cook's 35 seasons as coach.