Few professions are as dangerous as teaching.
The smallest of mistakes – whether a misconception spoken aloud, a topic dispassionately delivered, a wrong comment made at the wrong time – could possibly lead to a lifetime of confusion, indifference or even hatred on the student’s part. Though it was true that most often students didn’t care enough about what their teachers said, let alone their blunders, for it to make a lasting impact on their lives, a teacher never knew when a particular comment, question or gesture would have the power to tear apart the reinforced walls of indifference and reach the very core of a youngster’s soul. When what reached the other side was an understanding, an enlightening – then and only then true education could be said to have taken place. When it was the mistake that landed on the foreign soil, on the other hand – well, the consequences, as always, were unforeseeable. And not at all positive.
Elijah was well aware of this great responsibility and the fearsome duality it entailed: the chance to empower, or to ruin. His ultimate goal as a teacher was not to ruin the best minds in his class.
Fortunately, though conscious of the fact that he was far from infallible, he felt himself up to the gargantuan task. And a truly gargantuan task it was. If teaching, whenever properly done, was always a challenge of enormous proportions, then carrying it out in Elijah’s particular context was nothing short of epic.
As he surveyed each of the twelve young kids sitting around him before starting his class, he again marveled at the unbridled potential within them, and came to realize yet again how right he had been to accept the mantle of teacher.
“Is everything alright, prof? Are you sure that taking sixty seconds to start the class won’t bring us permanent damage?” Sebastian jested. As always, his tone was both arrogant and flippant, sarcastic yet betraying an underlying sense of respect. The fact that he tended to be right made him a student hard to handle. He was Elijah’s favorite.
And, of course, he was right this time as well, hence the joke: it was highly unusual for Elijah to waste a single second of his class. Very often he started introducing a topic even before students had scarcely had time to enter the classroom and sit down. Today, however, he was feeling melancholic, and his contemplations had distracted him – though no longer than a minute, as Sebastian had accurately pointed out – from launching right away.
He decided to delay the lesson no longer. The kids were not going to allow him much more time for his mental digressions, either. These were, after all, some of the brightest young boys and girls alive in the world right now – though still unruly, still impatient, still overconfident – still children. “All right,” he said, in the casual but still slightly commanding tone he used for this facet of his. “Today is Final Task Day – my favorite day, as you very well know. The day in which the teacher just sits back and enjoys the fruits of his labor.”
“Of our labor, you mean!” Gene jested. Other teachers may have considered this retort disrespectful, but Elijah knew the kid meant well, and that he was smart enough not to go too far with his jokes. It would have been hard to get angry with Gene, anyway. His lighthearted cheerfulness was contagious. And it was now his turn to perform his Final Task, which meant that they were all surely going to have a nice time.
He solemnly stood up and proceeded to the front of the class, with Alicia, his partner, following close behind. Alicia was highly intelligent, highly introspective, and hardly talkative. No doubt she had contributed a lot to whatever the pair had prepared (a play, most likely), but Elijah was sure she would let Gene handle the largest part of the public performance.
Gene wouldn’t have preferred it any other way, another reason why they worked so well together. His life was the stage – and even if he was not on one, he had the tendency to talk as if he were constantly being interviewed for television. If he ever happened to get hold of a microphone, he just wouldn’t let go.
Even before he started providing context (as Elijah had well taught them all to do,) everybody had guessed that he had chosen to perform, yet again, a play. No problem with that, though – their work had always been amusing so far.
“Yes, yes, it is indeed a play.” Gene addressed the audience like a pro. “For a second we thought of doing something different, but just couldn’t find it in our hearts to disappoint our eager audience.”
Laughter and a few rather informal comments followed from Sebastian and some of the others, but not for long enough to be considered an interruption.
“Our task was to portray university education at the beginning of the 21st century,” Gene went on. “For this purpose, we are going to perform a short scene in which I’ll be the teacher, Miss Understanding, and Alicia here will play the part of my student.”
A few more informal comments were inevitable, but after some seconds everybody was ready to watch. Gene, as always, had prepared a rudimentary but effective “costume” of sorts: a pair of glasses, a fake mustache, an unruly wig. Alicia, on the other hand, just looked like herself. Since she was playing a student, she had the perfect excuse not to show off.
“Good morning, students!” Gene started bellowing in the highest pitch he could possibly reach. It would have been hilarious if he hadn’t used this exact same voice whenever he had to portray a female character (a choice which he tended to favor.) It still managed to draw a few sincere smiles from some students, and from Elijah himself.
“Good morning, Miss Understanding,” Alicia answered meekly.
“For today, you had to read 33 chapters from Away’s book. I wanted to know if anybody had any questions.”
Awkward silence. Alicia looked around at her imaginary early 21st century classmates, who apparently had no desire to participate in Miss Understanding’s lesson. “I didn’t really get the difference between harmful and harming, Miss Understanding,” she finally muttered.
“Ah! A most interesting and controversial topic, my dear!” Gene, or Miss Understanding, was in a roll this time. “According to Dr. Away, there is a fundamental difference between a harmful act and a harming one. Whenever we talk about a harmful act, we talk about an individual (or individuals) who have the intention to do harm and then effectively do so. For example, a Mr. John Doe wants to kill his wife for some reason, so he goes and strangles her. That’s a harmful act. Can anybody think of another example? It is very important to give examples, students. If you can’t provide an example, it means you don’t know the concept. Come on! Examples, examples!”
Awkward silence again. Alicia looked for some imaginary support, but again found none. Shyly, as if ashamed of pointing out the obvious, she finally said: “For example… a boy wants to hit another boy, so he… goes and hits him. Would that be all right?”
“Hmmmm.” It was obvious that it didn’t seem all right to Miss Understanding. “Yes, I can see your point… and it seems to fit the theory, but… there’s something not quite right about it. It’s just not the example I would have chosen. Anyway, we can’t stay on this item forever. Let’s discuss harming acts now. An act is said to be harming when harm is done but not intentionally. For example, a man wants to kiss his wife, but on his way he accidentally trips, falls over her, and kills her. Do you have any other examples? Examples, examples! Participate, participate!”
“Err mm… Miss Understanding, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Is that an example you have, my dear? We need examples. If you can’t provide an example, you haven’t learned.”
“No, it’s not an example, but…” Alicia pointed at a book-marked page in her manual. “But here, page 331, the author says: Whenever we talk about a harming act, we talk about an individual (or individuals) who have the intention to do harm and then effectively do. On the other hand, an act is said to be harmful when harm is done but not intentionally.”
“Isn’t that what I said?”
“Em… no, you said it was the other way around.”
“Must be a misprint then.”
“I’m… quite sure it’s not a misprint, Miss. It’s said several times.”
“Who exactly are you quoting?” Gene seemed to be on the verge of a rage attack. “We cannot know what we are talking about unless we quote the exact source!”
Alicia seemed a bit fearful but not wholly intimidated by the teacher. She pressed her point. “It’s Sticks & Stones, 2005, sir.”
“Ah! The penny drops! THE PENNY DROPS!” Gene was completely hysterical at his point. “Sticks & Stones provide an entirely different taxonomy. For them, a harming act is done intentionally while a harmful act isn’t. They challenge Away’s definition. Furthermore, they divide acts into two more categories: harmingful and harfulming acts. In harmingful acts, there is intention to harm but in the end no harm is done. For example: a man wants to kill his wife, so he shoots her, but misses. In harfulming acts, there is also intention to harm but the harm finally comes to an unintended subject. For example: a man wants to kill his wife, so he shoots her, but the bullet ends up hitting a bystander instead. Of course, in Away’s latest publication, it’s the other way around.”
“So what should I write in the exam?”
“Well, if you want to be really thorough, that means, if you want to pass, you should include both taxonomies and clarify which author you are talking about at each moment. In that way, no harm is done.”
“Would that be a harming, harmful, harfulming or harmingful act?”
To which Miss Understanding simply answered, “It depends on the author.”
The actors bowed. The audience applauded vigorously. When the clapping subsided, Elijah stood up to provide his feedback.
“That was an excellently satirical portrayal of your topic, Gene, Alicia. Marvelous work. But, kids, do not forget that, even though their approach was humorous, sadly many actual classes followed this pattern back then: a doubtful “intellectual” establishing a dichotomy out of nowhere, another one claiming it was the other way around, and everything amounting to nothing at all. Can you think of any other dichotomy, useless whether because it is false or because it serves no purpose at all?”
“Rock and Pop,” a sensitive, slightly Punkish girl called Sabrina giggled.
“Comics and graphic novels,” Gene contributed. Clearly he couldn’t survive long away from the spotlight.
“The Government and the Complex,” Sebastian said.
Everybody fell silent, Elijah included. Firm but respectful, he then asked him: “What do you mean, Sebastian?”
“The Complex is said to be an alternative to the Government. A refuge for those who don’t fit, or don’t want to fit, with the lifestyle they impose. Yet people from the Government know we exist, come here all the time, even live here occasionally. If we are an alternative to the Government but the Government approves of us, sanctions us, even makes demands of us, can we really say that The Complex is a separate entity? Or is just another name for what is deep down the same thing?”
Silence again. Elijah knew many of his students didn’t share Sebastian’s viewpoint, but they wouldn’t speak up. Not now. It was up to Elijah Masters, their teacher, their supposed role model, founder of The Complex and for many people synonymous with it, to defend himself and his project against these accusations. Accusations that they had already heard way before Sebastian uttered them, that’s for sure. Probably they could have come up with counter-arguments themselves, but they wanted to hear what Elijah had to say, so that he could set the record straight and wash away their fears once and for all.
But Elijah was at a loss for words. One thing was to have Catalina questioning him: she was intimate to the point that it was almost like having a conversation with an external aspect of himself. But to have these issues raised so explicitly in the open, and from the mouth of one of his students on top of all! Was the situation really that bad?
“Sebastian… it’s not like that. It’s much more complicated.” His response came off feeble and weak, because he lacked conviction. Was it really that complicated? Catalina’s words haunted him: Expel all government officials from The Complex. Cease dealing with Winning or any other bureaucrat. Cut off all ties between The Complex and outside society. Become a truly independent community. End of the problem. But he couldn’t. It was not that easy. Wasn’t it?
The bell, an archaic device that was still kept because of its usefulness, rang. With it, as always, came a sense of relief. No matter how interesting a class was, the bell always meant that the mental exertion was over, that now one could go on to other activities, or simply to relax and ponder. For Elijah, the relief was intense in this case.
But after relief came unrest. Something was wrong with him. It wasn’t like Elijah Masters to have a student questioning him so openly, on such basic issues, and be at a complete loss for words.
Something had to change. And maybe it was him.