Today's session was the best to date. I started by returning Will's graded Chapter 9 quiz (30/30) and went over it with him, prasing him on his outstanding performance. He made the perceptive point that one of his essay responses had been rather brief because there was only so much material in the book chapter on the subject matter of the question. Yes, exactly! That means he did the reading and absorbed it! For me, this was very gratifying. I could tell that Will was proud of himself, as he had a right to be. Next, I informed him that I had resigned from the school and would be teaching him only for the next three weeks, unless Judie replaces me sooner. But I said that we should make these next three weeks the best yet in our class. He replied that he was sure they would be. Thereafter, we commenced consideration of Chapter 10. We focused on the mid-nineteenth-century waves of immigration, primarily of Irish, Germans, English, and other northern Europeans, with the Irish outnumbering the Germans two-to-one. Name changes as part of the process of assimilation was raised, and Will made a solid contribution on this issue. As luck would have it, one of Will's other teachers, Walt Breede, stuck his head in and added substantively to our discussion by describing the name change of one of his ancestors. Finally, we discussed the nativist reaction against immigrants, including the formation of the American Party, popularly known as the Know-Nothing Party. Will readily drew the connection to the anti-immigrant animus among some Americans in today's world. A superb session.