Governor Tarkin: ”The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.”
General Tagge: ”But that’s impossible. How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?”
Governor Tarkin: ”The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.”
Star Wars IV: A New Hope
Padawan Learner had his first day of the public school classes he’s taking, and the day went pretty well. He had an early snafu as the city bus was 15 minutes late (so much for running every 10 minutes!) and he arrived at class 2 minutes late. He has decided to leave an extra five minutes early in order to increase his chances of making the earlier bus on school days. His Environmental Sustainability teacher was very laid-back about it (hey, he’s taking public transportation to class and not getting driven to school in a private automobile, right?!?) and just waved him into his seat without making a fuss.
One of PL’s main lessons was that not everyone wants to be in class. Several of the students made their apathy and lack of interest in the subject well-known during the three hours of class. Well, that’s a good lesson to learn because working with people who just don’t give a damn is a sad fact of life. As this is the first year of ES, there is still a fair amount of work to be done converting the classrooms from a fashion design focus to a study of energy systems and within the curriculum itself. PL was put to work moving desks and other heavy objects. The teacher also discussed the year’s curriculum focus, out-of-classroom activities, and planned learning modules. The end of the period was spent watching the first part of the Planet Earth series from The Discovery Channel.
Beginning Italian was a whole different story. The instructor for this class runs a very tight ship and spent the bulk of the 1.5 hour class period going over a list of around 30 classroom rules. In a nutshell: no talking, touching or moving without permission. PL came home with a copy of this same list for both PL and me to sign. It’s due back to the instructor by the second class period. No exceptions. While this instructor is certainly no push-over, he also sounds like a fun instructor when he’s actually teaching. He believes strongly in the educational use of games and interactive activities rather than lots of book work. He also values family life and, therefore, rarely assigns homework. (My hero.) His idea is that he’d rather his students learn Italian from him – and learn it well - than try to learn it – with questionable success – on his own after school is out for the day.
The students seemed to be more interested in being there, too. I think the fact that the more popular language classes (i.e., Spanish and French) are available in all the feeder high schools, makes the extra effort required for the advanced academics at – not to mention getting to – the Academy building unlikely for seriously apathetic students.
Wow…PL is already learning SO much…about learning and about life in general. Kudos to him (and you, of course!)
Sounds great! The first few days are always “frisky” so if he made it through those, then it should be smooth sailing from here on out. It helps that he actually WANTS to be in class. Have him just ignore those who don’t want to be there, believe me, it will be reflected in their grades . . . not that they care, LOL.
At the begining of day two, one of the students straight up asked the instructor, “What do I have to do to get a C?” PL was appalled.