by Redemption
"I decided to make final assessments of the ideas and people in person on location. Xena would accompany and assist me. She lived for action, adrenaline and sex but had been deprived in recent times and was jaded. Her assistance was valuable and I hoped the trip would snap her out of it. She would have liked to restore fully our previous relationship, but that was not possible."
~
Christiana stops the film. "Time for a pause. What do you think so far?"
"It sounds logical on the one hand, but on the other I feel from time to time it's rather Quixotic. Running around the world tilting at windmills that nobody else seems too worried about. Crusading for causes that escape the attention of most. Searching for elixirs and ferreting for who-knows-what.
"Perhaps it's wishful thinking, but I guess if anybody can do it Kent in his new role might. And because there's a film and you're showing it to me to get my reactions then obviously something must have happened, for either good or bad. In the circumstances I'm inclined to the former, though my instincts and experience point me to the latter and the sort of results that Don Quixote obtained."
"We shall see," says Christiana cheerfully. "We are about to embark on 'The Quest'."
BOLD WAR 2020
Part II
JOURNEY
CHAPTER 10 Pals
"Education is buggered!" The voice was pitched just loud enough for the receptionist to hear, look startled and blush. An assistant in the corner visibly stiffened before continuing to pick at his computer keyboard. The speaker was Ed May, in his mid-forties, hair thinning and a gleam in his eye. He was in a group of four in the front office of the president of First State University, San Francisco.
"Can you please restrain your provocative comments until they are useful?" admonished Rick Standish, Kent's man on the West Coast.
"They're already half an hour late," protested Ed. "Plotting how best to torpedo my submission and be rid of it."
Kent and Xena said nothing. That morning Ed had given them a brief presentation of his project - a short intensive course designed to help students study more effectively and achieve better results in education and life.
"Universities are reasonable at teaching students what to learn, but hopeless in helping them how to learn," he had said. "If I tried to run a business without training my people in what they do I would have no business. Those kids are going to spend three to four thousand hours to study for a degree and they are going to do it the hard way, just as I did and my children after me.
"But it doesn't have to be so. There are ways to improve reading speed, memory training, time management and other study skills to shorten the time taken to get a degree, with less effort and better results."
"Sounds logical," said Kent. "Why hasn't it been done before?"
"Many reasons are offered in defence, none of which stand up to scrutiny. You will hear them trotted out at today's meeting. But, to continue. The other part of the course relates to attitude, in my belief an even more important determinant for success than study skills. It includes setting and reaching goals, handling stress, managing change and achieving in life. Hence my little name for the course: 'Pals' - Program for Attitudinal and Learning Skills."
"And you cover all this in forty hours?" asked Kent.
"All the foundation work. Thereafter it's a matter of using what they've learned as they continue their university work. This is particularly important. Too many courses teach the theory and forget the practice - virtually useless in the long term."
"I'm warming to your course more and more," said Xena. "A man after our own hearts, eh Kent?"
"Ye…e…s," murmured Kent, deep in thought.
Rick interposed: "Ed has worked with others to generate this course. Previously between them they had presented all the elements separately in a variety of situations. On a piecemeal basis each of the elements works well, this is the first time they have been integrated. The totality is exciting because the combination is more than the sum of the parts, can be learned quicker, and retained and used more effectively.
"Learning skills lift a student into second gear. Attitudinal enhancement moves the student further, into third and fourth gear. Learning skills help take-up of attitude enhancement, and vice-versa. The result is greater 'travel' at higher speed, less effort and higher efficiency."
"Sounds great," said Kent. "Refresh my memory as to the problem."
"The simple problem is that none of the tertiary education bodies I've approached will consider it seriously, let alone take it up," responded Ed. "They run a country mile. You'll see at first hand today."
"Why haven't you gone to the government for help?"
"Because they will at best appoint an 'expert committee' to look into it - mostly academics. They will study it to death and years later give all the negatives (carefully couched, of course), say there is no direct proof, some possibilities for it, need more money and a further year or two to check it out."
"But how well will it work?" asked Kent.
"There is much I could demonstrate," said Ed, but we don't have much time before the meeting."
~
Impatiently, Andrew dinks 'D'.
V
D: Memory:
"Allow me to demonstrate a morsel," said Ed, checking his watch. "We have ten minutes before leaving for the appointment. Name twenty items at random. By the time we walk out that door the three of you will be able to recall all twenty words in their exact sequence, or in reverse order for that matter."
"That'll be a minor miracle as far as I'm concerned," mused Kent.
As they chose the words Ed wrote them down. Aeroplane, student, pen, eye, yacht, plough, bullet, book, fire, bird, wind, number, cowboy, judge, mask, ticket, carrot, grub, dress and ring. "Make that a major miracle," said Kent when the list was finished. Ed laughed, and led them in constructing a story - elaborate, fanciful and exaggerated - using the words in sequence. Seriousness gave way to laughter as they participated in concocting the wild, contorted and deliberately improbable story.
A supersonic aeroplane was being piloted by a ten-year-old student, who had just gained his pilot's licence. As a present for graduating, his mother had given him a bright red pen. When he pulled it out of his shirt pocket to check his flight path, it slipped and hit him in the eye. He couldn't see the instruments for tears, and the plane fell out of the sky. He just managed to regain control as it skimmed low over a yacht. The skipper got such a fright that he ran the boat aground, leaving a great big plough mark in the sand, almost as big as the boat. The farmer was amazed - 'It would take a Klingon bullet to make a scar that big,' he said. He rushed inside to write a letter to the Guinness Book of Records, but fell asleep in front of a roaring fire. The letter slipped from his hand into the fire, onto the carpet and burned the house down. All that was left in the ruins was a charred picture of his favourite bird, the eagle. It was blown out of the door by a gale-force wind, and into the air to join thousands of real-life eagles. There were so many of them, the number became a wild-life record. Just then a cowboy came along in a pick-up truck and lassoed them all. But he was caught by a policeman for eagling out of season, and the judge sentenced him to wear a mask (in the shape of a butterfly) as his punishment. He also gave him a free ticket to the Garden Show, because he didn't like eagles either. At the Garden Show the cowboy tripped over a bunch of carrots, which he really loved, and started eating them. But he was shocked to find half a grub, and threw the carrot away. It landed down the front of a lady's dress, and she tore her dress trying to get it out. But nobody noticed as they were too busy looking at the exquisite and very expensive ring on her finger.
Kent thought they were wasting their time on a childish game, until, after repeating the story, each of them found they could nominate the twenty items without any difficulty
~
Andrew, interested and mildly sceptical, has been participating in parallel with the others. He too is surprised at being able to recall the words. H
e had heard reference to the technique before but never pursued it.
V
They walked out the door, buoyed by the brief example. "Good demonstration Ed," enthused Rick. "What about the rest of the course?"
"That was a simple but not untypical example," said Ed. "Incidentally that memory technique was used by Roman senators at the time of Julius Caesar to make long speeches in the Senate without using notes. So it's hardly new. My course is a mixture of established techniques and more recent research, combined in a package with new technology and follow-up that will produce extraordinary results. If you were impressed by that small example, just wait till you experience some of the others.
"By the way," he added as the car moved smoothly down the free way, "who can remember, say, the fifth and fourteenth words on that list?"
"Yacht and judge," chorused the three after a few seconds. Andrew nodded.
"That small exercise I call Jam - Journey Assisting Memory. If you repeat a brief Jam-session before you go to bed tonight you'll be able to recall the sequence for weeks," Ed added. "And I could show you how to remember it for the rest of your life."
=
They were ushered into the office of Professor Scriptus and seated at a table opposite three men and a woman, serious and dignified. After introductions the president spoke. "Mr Buchanan; our mutual acquaintance, who is one of our benefactors, suggested we get together. As we always look to interact with the community and improve what we do, we are only too happy to oblige, and have read Mr Fielder's submission with interest.
"I take this opportunity to remind you that our main role as a university is in the area of basic scholarship and research. We aim through intellectual enquiry to produce independent thinkers and scholars as our contribution to nourish and sustain civilisation But allow me to hand over to my colleagues for comment."
Professor Cummings, Vice-President, Academic, spoke. "Yes, interest is one term we could use. We receive submissions from time to time along similar lines. None of them have amounted to anything in the past, although I take this opportunity to compliment Mr Fielder on the breadth of his approach.
"Our reservations are in the following broad categories. Firstly, would it work, and, if so, how well? Past examples of marvellous special courses have turned out to be miserable failures. So, has it been proven anywhere else? We don't have time or money to be experimenting and running off on wild goose chases.
"Secondly, would it be worth our effort? It would mean squeezing into our already overcrowded curriculum at the expense of something else. We can all think of many items we prefer to add to the curriculum ahead of this. It would involve special training of lecturers and I know they are generally averse to this sort of thing.
"Thirdly, would it be worth the students' effort? How much better off would they really be? They wouldn't appreciate having the burden of extra learning thrust on them. They already have enough challenges without adding new ones.
"Fourthly, we don't see this type of thing as being part of traditional higher education. It's not our job. Even if it did work, it should be done in earlier schooling or outside the education sphere."
~
With the camera lingering on the professor's face, Andrew, having experience of academic meetings, decides to check some of their thoughts. He dinks the 'T' corner. The film freeze-frames on Professor Cummings' face.
~
T: Cummings:
"I wish Scriptus wouldn't keep calling me in on these awkward committees. There's probably something good in what this guy is saying but I don't want to be the bunny to get involved and try to make it work. Foolishly, I once tried something like this, except it was only a fraction as ambitious. And it took me half a lifetime to recover from the snickering, the ridicule, the back-stabbing. It was embarrassing, draining, and hurtful to my career. Never again.
"OK, so education is already overloaded (and outdated, under-resourced and demoralised as my deputy frequently reminds me). We can't keep up, let alone get ahead. The target is receding - but I'm not going to admit it. If 'Pals' is not being done elsewhere in the world it can't be that good, and we won't be the guinea pigs. These poor bastards should be put out of their misery quickly."
~
"Thank you Professor. Your response Mr Fielder?" asked the president with an inkling of a downward smile on his lips.
"I always appreciate positive remarks," said Ed. "Could we have the rest of them before I reply?"
"Yes. Trying to be positive, I think there may be possibilities here, on two provisos," said Professor Johnson, Dean of Women's Studies. "One is that it be proven before we become involved. We would need to apply for a government grant. The second proviso is that, if we do take it on board, we cater for it on the basis of an hour a week rather than forty hours in one stretch. We couldn't re-arrange curricula to squeeze in such a large lump and the students wouldn't be able to handle radical pressure like that.
"As a general comment, I do feel there is undue emphasis on 'achieving' and 'success' in life. Our primary concern is for the intellectual development of scholars and their contribution to the enrichment of the tapestry of society's cultural life."
~
T: Johnson:
"Why does Buchanan move about on the edge of his chair like that? I'm sure he doesn't appreciate I want my graduates to develop understanding and critical skills to enable them to act more reflectively in their future occupation and as members of society. Life is very difficult these days. With my funding cuts and extra administrative load, how could I possibly cope with this? I don't want to be jolted out of the world I've created through hard work into something undefined and, well, mysterious. And if I, with all my experience see it this way, imagine how the students, and especially the girls, would feel."
~
"Thank you Muriel, a positive contribution as always. Ken?" turning to Professor Hagger of the History Faculty.
"I'll be blunt as usual," he said aggressively. "There doesn't seem to be any reference to Mr Fielder's academic qualifications so we can assume they are of little import. We are the experts in matters academic and I think it highly impertinent to have this person telling us what will improve our modus operandi. The tradition of universities is a proud one, stretching back 1500 years. We have stood the test of time.
"We are engaged in the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, the cultivation of truth, pure learning and critical enquiry. The mumbo-jumbo you offer seems to me, to the extent I understand it, to be the antithesis of intellectual rigour and the Socratic role of social and moral criticism. In simple terms we doubt it will work and don't believe it has relevance. We are too busy, not interested and therefore not going to be involved."
~
T: Hagger:
"They must be mad to think I'd risk my ass on something as fanciful - and boring - as this. (Why does Buchanan keep fidgeting?) How can these intruding infidels appreciate that for dispassionate analysis and intellectual criticism it is vital for us to maintain our distance from political and cultural processes. It should be obvious the search for truth must be unencumbered by distractions from government or demands for relevance by business.
"Why can't they leave us alone to achieve our real purpose: to investigate, to enquire, to examine critically and with rigour the justification of beliefs, the foundations of culture. To make our own distinctive and indispensable contribution to the on-going debate at the heart of intellectual disciplines.
"And… , well, that Xena… , we don't get to have perks like that. I wouldn't mind…"
~
Ed rose to his feet and spoke without notes. "Thank you for your lucid remarks, I will respond to them in the order they were offered." He hoped they didn't notice the slight tremble in his hands. It wasn't because of nervousness (he had been through this many times before), or because the demeanour and phraseology had been pretentious and intimidating. It was anger at his taxes funding the familiar verbal diarrhoea that assaulted his efforts and
good intentions.
"As to your question about how well it works, Professor Cummings, the answer is that because of its newness as a composite 'package' there is no direct proof of its quality. However I can say that all the respective elements have been effective in private and commercial practice when presented properly and followed up. We have studies to prove this. When combined in the way we would like to outline further they will have outstanding success in making study easier and faster and better.
"Our proposal for you to minimise cost, effort and exposure is to run trials in conjunction with your staff - against control units and with monitoring of results - to prove it in practice with some of your students before embarking on large-scale involvement.
"Whether there is room in the curriculum? Conservatively, students will be at least twenty percent more efficient in their study. This may not be of concern to you but for students that represents a saving of more than six hundred hours in a typical degree. Not bad for an outlay of forty hours during the course and an equivalent time thereafter. Or perhaps you think I'm being too economically rationalistic there.
"So yes, there's no doubt in my mind it's worthwhile for the students. For the lecturers? Well, as students will be more focused and better at self-directed learning, the learning environment will improve and give more satisfaction to lecturers. There is also direct benefit available to lecturers within the content of the course if they wish to participate personally. The higher quality graduates that result will benefit employers, the community and the nation. Somewhere in there, I suggest, is considerable kudos for the university.
"Start it in schools? Certainly - in a perfect world. But in today's world it would be still-born because of its dispersion over such a wide front, the inertia it would experience and the opposition it would generate. In future generations when this way of learning is accepted and valued it will have percolated down to and be an integral part of all school programs. In the meantime the junction between secondary and tertiary education is the best place to introduce it because students at that level are at a watershed, it will more easily fit in with their new regime and… well, I had hoped educators at tertiary level would be open and forward-thinking.
