Another parent-teacher conference concluded. The inevitable question: 'What is your plan to help my child succeed?' My answer is always the same meticulous strategy, the same cold statistics. They never ask the real question: 'Do you believe it's possible?' I suppose my silence, punctuated by the click of a lighter, is answer enough. The ambition is a ghost I'm condemned to chase, and these children are just the latest vessels for my own unfinished business. How terribly unfair to them.