Chapter 3068: Mercury Chronicles (18)

Reporting on the progress and approach of the faculty next was chaotic, as these individuals truly treated the classroom teaching system as a slightly larger apprenticeship, predominately unregulated, teaching whatever came to mind at the moment.

Diana said that next would be continued physical training, followed by teaching them some basic combat skills. As for how far the physical training would go and in what order the fighting skills would be taught, and how the results would be tested after teaching, there was essentially no clue.

Oliver's teaching progress and approach were summed up in one word—"discussion," as if he weren't a teacher but rather a debate host, who had only learned that "truth becomes clearer through debate."

Clark had thought of organizing group discussions, but he hadn't decided on what specifically to discuss. He'd even forgotten the basics like simulating the United Nations until Schiller reminded him, recalling that he had once participated in such activities while at university.

Arthur found teaching biology challenging; he suggested that perhaps he should merge his biology with the mathematics Nora was teaching and simply assist her. Nora did not refuse, but Schiller felt that he should first finish teaching the fundamental biology, otherwise the sudden change in instructors might cause discontent among the students.

Bruce's forensic science was a major subject too. He had just finished teaching the basic concepts of forensic science and wanted to move on to real cases. Schiller felt that he should first complete the teaching of the subject-specific concepts.

The discussion lasted until past two in the morning, at which point they finally came up with a statute.

The physical education class would start with two weeks of physical training; Diana's main task next week would be to observe the physical limitations of various races and then set an exam standard.

After the exams, they would start teaching skills. After a week of skills classes, they would have a skills test, followed by group competitions.

Later, some field trips back to Earth could be interspersed to gain practical experience. Schiller also proposed internships within Amanda's Federation Shield, though that would be much later.

On Clark's side, there were group discussion reports, followed by simulations of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, and then each group could approve a budget for business practices, essentially for starting businesses.

Oliver's military classes would follow a similar procedure, and the education systems of Victor and Nora, who taught the sciences, were already well established. They didn't expect to really produce any Nobel laureates, but having scientific capabilities was essential.

Later stages would also include Bruce teaching engineering, so he needed to accelerate his forensic science schedule; content that would usually take 20–30 class hours at a normal university was compressed into fewer than ten class hours, likely leaving Bruce swamped with lesson planning later.

At the end of the meeting, Schiller said, "If you all just plan to train this batch of people, it wouldn't need to be so complicated, but what you want is to establish a training base that can operate sustainably, and for that, standardized teaching is essential."

"Moreover, you should spend some effort to notice the standouts among the students, particularly those who are good at teaching others and organizing. They will be the most important teaching resource for this school in the future, and it might be necessary to pay them extra attention."

"Also, it is crucial to minimize racial biases during the teaching process. Don't let it end up causing chaos among ourselves…"

By the time Schiller returned to his dormitory, it was already morning, and he had a class in two hours. He was so exhausted that he nearly went into hibernation and barely recovered a bit after a long time under the light.

However, the emergency symposium held by Schiller was evidently highly effective; the teaching order at this youth training school was drastically improved, and the students immediately felt their instructors were more professional.

Classes finally started distributing handouts and initiating group discussion activities. Most importantly, it seemed as if the teachers felt more confident, able to assert authority over the students.

It wasn't that they were insecure during the first few days; mainly, when some students asked about the upcoming teaching arrangements, most people were vague and couldn't specify anything. Now, with a clear plan, the top students also knew what to prepare for next.

The advantage of modern education is just that, the teachers stay one step ahead of the students through lesson plans, thereby serving a guiding role. If it were done in a style of teaching whatever comes to mind, the teachers would only know what to teach a few minutes before the students, not only making it inefficient but also likely weakening the strong and further weakening the weak.

As for potential racial issues in group activities, Schiller had also taken precautions by identifying the influential leaders within each race during the symposium from the other teachers.

Next came the much-anticipated conversation sessions.

Speaking to teachers is itself an art, especially in a European and American environment, where saying too much or too little is wrong.

But Schiller was quite experienced in this regard, for some reason his sect always produced rebels; apart from Bruce, there were at least Sleeping Dragon and Rising Phoenix, Young Dragon Concealing Tiger, Blade and Spear, Axe and Halberd...

Schiller rarely initiated conversations with them; mostly, these rebels wanted to prove that behavioral science was greater than the Psychoanalysis Method, thus coming to Schiller seeking reprimand.

Schiller called each of the leaders of the races, and after a sincere conversation, they all assured they would not cause trouble for Professor Rodriguez.

Of course, Shiller had already spotted a few individuals among the group who tended to be dissenters, who wouldn't speak without demanding evidence and would question if there was any difference between psychoanalysis and theology.

However, they kept to their word. During the next day's class grouping, aside from Shiller emphasizing again the importance of not clustering by race, they echoed the sentiment below, suggesting that others adapt to Earth's living environment and not always form teams with acquaintances.

It took less than half a class for the groups to be almost established. When they came up to register, Shiller took a glance and noticed that the racial distribution in each group was relatively even, achieving roughly one of each race per group and generally not exceeding one.

What surprised Shiller was that no one was left out alone. At Gotham University, there were always a few stragglers, some ostracized, others independent and unwilling to team up with others.

But this group of students seemed more cautious. No one was willing to stand out or reveal their personality momentarily, nor did they dare to engage in exclusion, resulting in fairly complete teams, with the smallest comprising three members.

Next, Shiller assigned the discussion topic, which was quite simple—select a psychological theory you believe is most common in daily life and analyze it with real-life examples from around you.

The discussion lasted about two class periods, which was roughly a day, followed by an individual essay and a PowerPoint presentation.

Similar simple group discussions usually lasted about two weeks, with one day dedicated to completion and another to presentation.

This was followed by large group debates, social surveys of 50–100 people, and, by the end of the term, a theatrical performance on the life and works of a psychology master, marking the end of the semester.

Some might ask why theoretical knowledge wasn't taught because psychology is a relatively young subject with not much content in textbooks. If one were to teach it intensively for four years, it could be finished in about two years, so many activity-based lessons were interspersed.

The end-of-term performance mainly aimed to satisfy the school authorities; Gotham University's tradition involved incorporating art into everything, and nearly every subject had to perform a similar drama.

While other disciplines could manage, those in physics might perform about Einstein or Madam Curie, classical literature about Shakespeare, history about Emperor Caesar, and engineering could cover the evolution of automobiles or lives of famous bridge architects.

But for psychology, someone was to perform Schiller Rodriguez.

Approaching the end of term, Shiller's inbox started to ding relentlessly with students' emails, all asking if they could perform as him, to the point where the 'n' and 'o' keys on his keyboard were worn colorless.

Shiller thought to himself that it wasn't just his past life's experiences that were hard to perform, but even those of his current life, which, even without adding fantasy elements, couldn't explain what he was up to during those years in Moscow. Barely had the performance ended when the National Intelligence Bureau showed up.

Shiller had a premonition that there would definitely be students who couldn't let go of the idea, especially since the news about the play needed to be announced soon because there was no way to complete a play in one month during finals; they had to start using spare time from now.

Though the idea might seem absurd, it actually was very beneficial for practicing students' abilities; how to manage spare time, coordinate with others, find venues, purchase props, set up the scene, and assign roles were all a test of their comprehensive skills.

When Shiller announced this news, other professors thought it was a good idea—novel and challenging yet fun, so they also followed suit, telling their students about performing a subject-related play at the end of the semester.

Other subjects aside, Shiller was indeed curious about what those teachers teaching Agent skills planned for their students to perform. "FBI open the door"?

Since the establishment of the new educational order, Bruce could barely sleep four hours a day; he was busy all the time. The courses were so overly condensed that drafting lessons alone almost caused him tendonitis, particularly since Jenna had developed an interest in behavioral analysis.

The young girl thought being a detective was cool, and hearing that Bruce was the strongest detective, she started pestering him daily, hoping to get the bible of behavioral analysis from him.

Logically, being studious was good, but the problem was, though she claimed to love behavioral analysis, her body was more honest, operating on the psychoanalysis method—often sensing the answer through psychoanalysis, then looking for evidence to back it up.

Although her essays were disorganized, she insisted on writing them and always had Bruce check where she went wrong.

It wasn't about finding ten details anymore; she could point out fifty from a single photo, but none was genuinely discovered. It was all about finding nails with a hammer, seeing everyone as evidence.

Moreover, possibly because Jenna was an alien, her energy was more vigorous than that of the ordinary Earthlings, running non-stop for 24 hours a day.

Eventually, Bruce, overwhelmed, neither took her calls nor replied to her emails. Jenna could still use her superpower to transform into an animal and slip through the door crack.

This wasn't like playing the lute to a cow; this was like an old water buffalo charging out of the field, chasing the lutenist for two blocks, knocking the person over, and then stomping on them a couple more times.