First Class

[[Barbara Gordon]]

"Class, we will have a new teacher for Ethics and Psychology from today." The dean said pointing towards the door. 

All of us already knew that we would be getting a new professor, so it wasn't a surprise for us. But the person himself… was definitely a surprise.

The moment, the new professor walked inside the room, everyone's jaw dropped. 

Now, I will divide their reactions into four categories. 

The first one were the students who were awestruck. He is extremely good looking so most of the girls were blushing after looking at him. 

The second were the jealous bunch. Quite a lot of boys… and girls were jealous that the man that just entered the room was getting so much attention.

The third one was neutral. These people were the minority, they didn't show any reaction.

And the fourth and final one… I was a part of this category… was the one with students who were awestruck not because of his look, but because of the way in which he carried himself. 

He was well-built and he seemed professional with neatly combed hair and a perfectly tailored suit. But this was not what made me interested in him. 

It was his 'aura'... if you want to call it that. He looked like someone who had experience in fighting… a lot of fighting. But this also makes me wonder, how did a person like him end up becoming a professor?

"Class, meet Mr. Blake Hardy." The man stood next to the dean. "He was one of the top students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

Technology? Didn't he apply for Ethics and Psychology?

"Would you like to take the stage, Mr. Hardy?" The dean asked.

The man… Blake Hardy nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Smith." 

He walked up the stage and then looked at us. "As Mr. Smith already said, my name is Blake Hardy and I will be your new Ethics and Psychology professor." He smiled. "I applied for the Computer Science professor post… but unfortunately I was late and the position was already taken. So, I applied for Ethics one." 

He looked up… did he look at me? No, I must be imagining things. 

"But, I am happy with my current position. By the way, feel free to ask me whatever you like." He barely said anything about himself.

One of the students raised her hand. "Yes?"

"How old were you, when you graduated, Mr. Hardy?" I want to know the answer as well. He appears to be in his early twenties.

"Let's just say that I was young… younger than you would imagine." He didn't give a proper answer. "Anything else?" 

The girl shook her head but this time a boy raised his hand. "Yes, young man?" 

I rolled my eyes at the way he addressed the guy. He isn't that much older than us, yet he referred to him as 'young man.'

"Why did you decide to become a professor? With your qualifications, you could have easily gotten any job that you wanted." Mr. Hardy puts on a regretful face.

His expressions change fast.

"Let's just say that as a teenager, I made a lot of mistakes. Despite having the degrees, I barely had any plans for my future. And I kind of screwed up." He sighed. "I can still get other jobs, but I don't want others to make the same mistake as I did. So, I decided to take the job of an Ethics and Psychology professor. I studied these two subjects along with Computer Science. So, you don't have to worry about my qualifications."

Interesting.

"Anyone else?" Everyone shook their heads. Even if most of us were curious, very few people bothered to ask.

As for me, the questions that I want to ask might not be appropriate for now.

These are the questions that Batgirl should ask, and not Barbara.

"You can take the class from here." Dean said and patted Mr. Hardy on the shoulder. "Students, don't create any trouble for him." 

I felt someone tucking my shirt. Turning around, I found Kara leaning towards my ear. "Told you that the new professor would be hot."

"Oh shut up." I rolled my eyes.

…

…

"So." He picked up the book from the table. "What was the last thing that was taught?" 

I raised my hand. 

"Yes, Miss…"

"Barbara, Barbara Gordon." He nodded.

"Alright, Miss Gordon, so where did your previous professor leave?" He flipped the pages of the book.

"The last thing we were taught was about 'post-traumatic stress disorder' and we were supposed to learn about criminal psychology in this class." He smiled at my answer.

"Thank you, Miss Gordon. You may take your seat." He kept the book on the table. "I don't need this."

He doesn't need the book?

"So, criminal psychology eh?" He looked around. "So does anyone know what it means?" 

Again, I raised my hand. "Yes, Miss Gordon." 

"Criminal psychology deals with the psychological factors that lead a person to become a criminal. We figure out the reason for such an action, their motives, how their actions are planned, and many more." 

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

"Good, at least you know the basics. So, that's good." He walked towards the board and wrote down two words. Criminal and Evil and put an equal sign in between the words.

"Now, how many of you think that these two words are the same… or at least interlinked." Again, I raised my hand and the majority of the class did as well.

He sighed and shook his head. "That's where the current society makes the mistake." He slashed the equal sign in half. "Being a criminal doesn't necessarily mean evil." 

"A normal person might have a million reasons to end up as a criminal but an evil person does not require a reason to do the same." I didn't interrupt. "This might be a little confusing for some, so let me explain by giving you all a few examples."

He looked around. "I know that most of your definitions of the terms would be wrong. So, I will directly go to the explanation."

That kind of offended me but arguing with a teacher only gets you in trouble.

"I will start with the term 'Criminal' as it is easier to explain." He circled the word on the board. "Now, explaining what a criminal is, is really simple. A criminal is a person who broke the laws and gets charged accordingly for them."

He smiled. "Now this is where things get both interesting and complicated." He made two columns and wrote down two terms, 'minor criminal' and 'major criminal.' 

"Most criminals can be classified within one of these two columns." He looked at the side with minor criminal written in it. "A person who steals or robs without causing much harm to a person is classified as a minor criminal." He then turns to look at us. "How many of you consider a minor criminal to be evil."

Everyone looked at each other but none of them answered, this made him smile. "A thief can steal for two reasons… or three in some cases." He divided the minor criminal column into three further sections. "In the first case, he is poor, doesn't have any other skills to make a living or suffered from the evil schemes of the government… and yeah, this does happen and it is quite common." 

He wrote 'not evil' inside the first sub-column. "In this case, he is not evil. He was forced to become a criminal by the system, by circumstances… the person had no other choice. To survive he must steal… And survival is not a crime." 

Everyone remained silent. 

"Now onto the second case." He wrote down the word 'forced' in the second column. Looking at the confused faces all around, he chuckled. "You all must be confused as to what I mean by "forced." Everyone nodded. "Let me explain."

He drew a stick figure and below it, he drew three smaller stick figures. "This is what I mean by forced crime." He drew three arrows going from the top figure to the three bottom ones.

"This is the scenario where people are forced to do crimes by a higher authoritative figure. Now, let me give you the simplest example of this." He looked at us. "How many of you have seen thieves who are kids." Almost most of the class raised their hands. "That is the example."

He sighed. The sadness on his face seemed genuine. "They are kidnapped and forced into becoming criminals by the one with the higher authority. They have no other choice but to follow his other or they will be beaten… and in the worst-case scenario, killed." 

I felt my stomach churning and fist-clenching on their own. I have seen such cases… and they are quite frequent. 

"Now, do you think that those kids are evil." Unlike previously, everyone shook their heads. "Indeed, they are not evil… they are not the villains but instead they are the victims." He wrote down 'not evil' again.

He clenched his face. "The one who forced them to commit crimes, is the one who is actually evil… and that brings us to the final one from this category." 

He wrote down 'Psychopaths'  on the board.

"People with mental disorders are not the type of psychopaths that I am talking about. I am talking about the ones who commit crimes because they enjoy it. They get a sense of joy and achievement whenever they succeed in a crime. They are mentally unstable in the way that they achieve pleasure from the pain of others… they are sadists."

He wrote down evil. "These are the ones who are actually evil. They commit these crimes because they 'enjoy' it." He frowned. "Now there are times when even these people cannot be considered "evil." He emphasized the word 'evil.'

"But those are under circumstances which I will teach you all later." Now, I am interested. "It will take way too long to explain 'evil' so I will try to make it as short as possibl-"

*Rinnnnng!* 

He chuckled and dropped the marker on the table. "Looks like that's all the time we have for today." He looked at us and smirked. "Now, I will ask you a question, which you will have to answer by next Wednesday." He laughed after looking at everyone's faces. "Don't look so sad. It's not mandatory, but I would like it if you could answer it." 

He walked down the little stage and started walking towards the door. "The question is-" He paused. "Are we all evil?"

And with that, he walked out of the room. 

"What… does that mean?" Kara asked from behind. 

"I don't know… I truly don't."