Malik Greatly Disapproves. Again.

[loyalrebel]

[It's been a while since Malik's spoken up on the network but this is something drastic to him and it needs addressing.]

It has been recently brought to my attention that the education system of modern times is sorely lacking in a number of regards.

I was told that beyond the basics of reading and mathematics anything else was not important and was not even taught, and this desperately needs to be rectified.

We may be learning magic and other such things from our overlays, but there are areas that are horrifically left by the wayside in this arms race we have entered in to.

I may not know much about history as it is from most of your perspectives but there has to be educators among us or at least those who will be willing to step up and help the children among us not return home uneducated louts who respond to the idea of mathematics or reading with "why should I care?" or "it is too difficult".

[He's not sorry Phillip. This is probably your fault kid.]

Comments

[haveabiscuit]

The children here aren't being educated? That won't do at all.

[She's new and hasn't had time to discover the true extent of that oversight]

I was deputy headmistress of a school at home.

[Probably going to be headmistress now, but there's hardly been a chance to formalize that]

[thornsofmalkav]

Oh good. You can be our school principal if this happens.

[haveabiscuit]

I do know a great deal about keeping a school running even under trying circumstances.

[professorwolf]

What sort of school do you work at? What do you teach?

[Hello fellow teacher. He is interested in this. He is not aware she is a magic teacher just yet...]

[haveabiscuit]

[There's a moment's hesitation. But everyone else is quite open about magic. She's well out of any jurisdiction where the Statute of Secrecy applies, especially given that it's normal here for Muggles to acquire magic.]

It's a school for young wizards and witches. I teach Transfiguration. Obviously that's not relevant here, but the underlying mathematical principles can be taught.

[professorwolf]

[Oh. Huh. That's... not what he was expecting.]

What type of mathematics is involved in transfiguration? Is it algebraic?

[He's not doubting you that there is math involved, Minerva, he just isn't familiar with the subject enough to know if it's the same math.]

[haveabiscuit]

Yes, there are a number of factors that have to be considered when transforming an object. If students can't solve for factors like their own wand and the mass of the object, it would go quite poorly.

[professorwolf]

Very good, then. I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with the subject to know what's involved, so thank you.

Randolph Lyall, by the way. Biology and health teacher. Also a werewolf.

[Yes, he's very open about that. Might surprise Minerva a bit....]

[haveabiscuit]

Minerva McGonagall.

[She is rather surprised to hear that]

A werewolf. That's... unusual to mention so quickly.

[professorwolf]

[Minerva... wait, isn't that a character from a book? It's been a long time since Lyall read Harry Potter, but between the "magic school" and the name, it does ring some bells. He is, however, smarter than to actually mention it.]

Ah, well. In the version of London I come from originally, werewolves, vampires, and ghosts are in fact part of society, integrated in and registered properly. And I don't really see any reason to hide the fact, here, when knowing could help someone, and not knowing could hurt someone. I'm mostly not dangerous, so if you see a tawny wolf wandering around liminal space, you don't have to worry. Because of this handy psychic network, I can even still communicate in that form.

[happyhalloween]

They have schools for witches?

[Color Maria intrigued.]

Uu~! I wanna go to the school! I wanna learn Transfiguration!

[haveabiscuit]

They do. Hogwarts is one of the best there is.

[Not that she's biased or anything]

Do you have magical ability?

[happyhalloween]

Uu! Yes! I'm a witch! I didn't know there were schools for us! I just learned with Beatrice!

[loyalrebel]

It is, admittedly, a bit difficult when half of us are usually not ourselves for long stretches of time.

That is not an excuse, only a challenge to be overcome.

[professorwolf]

There also were not always this many children about... the number of young people seems to have exploded when I wasn't looking.

[There were always a lot of teenagers, but presumably most of them have had most of their education already... right?]

[loyalrebel]

There have been a disconcerting number of them for a while, really.

[professorwolf]

Well, there's been a lot of adolescents. But most of them have already been through the bulk of their schooling, so I'll admit I never worried as much about them. It's all the children younger than that showing up lately that's newer. Phillip was the only one under fourteen for a long time, I think.

[haveabiscuit]

I've taught classes through countless outside disruptions. We can't allow the Trumps to deprive the children of a proper education.

[loyalrebel]

Exactly, they deprive us of enough as it is and if we give them many more inches they will be miles away.