James Connor

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Name: James Connor
Position: History and Humanities Teacher
Gender: M
Age: 68

Appearance: James Connor stands at an even six feet tall, and his slight frame of 145 pounds makes him seem rather thin. In spite of this, he carries himself straight and tall as though always paying attention to posture, and his bony figure is filled out some by a brown three-piece suit that he always wears to his classes. His hair is topped with a nearly full head of grayish-white hair that goes well with his pale skin, only giving way to a small bald spot in the back of his head that would be tricky to see unless you were much taller than him or he bent down. His gaunt, aged face is lined with wrinkles that display his age clearly, but also seem to curl at his lips and give him a permanent smirk. His generally narrow face is adorned by a pair of large-lens glasses which, when combined with his dark blue eyes, can give him an almost fatherly look.

Biography/Personality: James Connor has been teaching at Aurora High for over thirty years, all of which has been within the human sciences department. He is usually one of, if not the most senior faculty member present at meetings and holds a high degree of respect for Principal Freeman and her accomplishments. He is of a soft-spoken manner both to his colleagues and to his students; while his voice is that of a deep baritone, he never raises it beyond a calm, meticulous speaking volume. He uses this to his advantage, never trying to talk over his students. Instead, Mr. Connor prefers to keep his voice soft, and if his students begin speaking as well, that just makes him harder to hear, and nobody can take notes. If nobody can take notes, then most people have trouble passing due to the tough-but-fair nature of Mr. Connor's grading. As a result, his students generally stay quiet.

An anecdote has spread around Aurora from student to student, especially from older siblings to younger siblings that might have to take one of Mr. Connor's classes, about how the venerable teacher is practically unbeatable in arguments. After posing a current issue or other relevant event as a matter of discussion, Mr. Connor tends to let the class taker over and engage in discussion that he allows to persist as long as it stays on-topic and orderly, as well as respectful. The only times he will intervere are if any of those requirements are broken, or one of his students has hit upon an interesting point that he himself would like to press further. It is said that Mr. Connor has used his silver tongue to trick the most patriotic student into agreeing with the values of communism, the most liberal student to identifying with conservative values, and vice-versa. If somebody tries to make a point, he'll play devil's advocate and argue against them just to see if they have the reasoning to back up their views.

It's not about winning or losing an argument to him. He simply wants to entreat his students to new ways of thinking.