Calculus

WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- "People think of me as a nerd -- or a fanatic," says Remo Ciccone, 39, a teacher of calculus at Henderson Senior High School in West Chester, where he puts in an average of 70 hours a week.Having trouble with an equation or theorem? See Mr. Ciccone after school. Got a football practice or band rehearsal after school? No sweat. Drop by after your commitment or on your lunch hour or during study hall. The connoisseur of calc is always there, haunting the classrooms and hallways in a manner that suggests to students that they can run, but they can't hide.

To the uninitiated, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis appears as one of those last remaining bastions of dogma -- a stiff, lock-step place where up is up and down is down and if you think there's a middle ground then maybe you ought to think about transferring to one of those loosey-goosey colleges where they let you drift into class in shower clogs or a Bart Simpson T-shirt.Students come to the Naval Academy to be pressed into a rigid military mold, uncompromising in its reliance on structure and adherence to rules.