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X-Men Question #speakgeek
Sep. 12th, 2011 11:45 amSomeone asked a question of me some time ago, and I repeat it here. What would I teach, at Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Children?
I had a long think about it. And I came up with an idea that perhaps I could probably sub for the other tutors: ethics while Emma Frost is away, and mathematics and formal logic if, well, whoever teaches that is away - probably Hank McCoy.
Perhaps a little philosophy - focusing on practice, rather than theory. Show them the precepts of Stoicism, Taoism and Buddhism, not as religions but as philosophies to practice in day-to-day life; a way of looking out on a world of intolerance and hatred, and not become consumed themselves by intolerance and hatred.
Why? Because as well as training them in their powers, it's necessary to teach the students, as well, to be fully-rounded human beings. Or, at least, fully-rounded citizens of the universe.
However, when it comes to teaching my own subject, rather than subbing for others, I think I'd have to teach the students just one thing.
Training their intelligence.
Genius-level intellect is not a mutant power. It takes practice, and the willingness to acquire tools that, perhaps, you look down upon; but everyone can be smart.
It requires shedding a lifetime of prejudice against the truly creative, and preconceptions about what genius-level intellects actually do, and embracing the fact that every human brain can do the things that the acknowledged geniuses of the world can do.
Sure, your minds might not expand to the extent of the geniuses in fiction - Sage from The X-Men; Ozymandias from Watchmen; The Doctor; but here's a clue that might surprise you, yet not, if you think about it.
Those geniuses are not real.
When a smart character - Sherlock Holmes, Barry Ween, Ozymandias, Sage, Hank McCoy, Juliet Street from Earth: Final Conflict - appears in fiction, they are not really "smart people;" more like conduits for the storyteller to use to bring an idea into the story that the author could otherwise not introduce.
By having the character "think hard" about a problem, and come up with a solution, you're just seeing the storyteller using the puppet to introduce a plot device, imposing change upon the universe he is creating by shifting the scenes around and making it appear, to the audience, that the people within the story are doing this by themselves.
How often do you see the "smart person" in the story come up with an idea, but the solution to the problem comes from the meathead protagonist blasting away at it until the problem is solved or the person behind it dies?
And then look at what happened when the smart person - Ozymandias - actually won. Hardly a winning move, burning the chessboard.
So I think I'd teach the lessons of how to use your brains in this school for gifted children, not to turn out snobbish, privileged preppies with a stick up their behinds and a false sense of entitlement, but to turn out compassionate, smart, eager, lean people willing to set aside prejudices and work for the betterment of the human race, normals and mutants, together.
But you would hate my exams ...
I had a long think about it. And I came up with an idea that perhaps I could probably sub for the other tutors: ethics while Emma Frost is away, and mathematics and formal logic if, well, whoever teaches that is away - probably Hank McCoy.
Perhaps a little philosophy - focusing on practice, rather than theory. Show them the precepts of Stoicism, Taoism and Buddhism, not as religions but as philosophies to practice in day-to-day life; a way of looking out on a world of intolerance and hatred, and not become consumed themselves by intolerance and hatred.
Why? Because as well as training them in their powers, it's necessary to teach the students, as well, to be fully-rounded human beings. Or, at least, fully-rounded citizens of the universe.
However, when it comes to teaching my own subject, rather than subbing for others, I think I'd have to teach the students just one thing.
Training their intelligence.
Genius-level intellect is not a mutant power. It takes practice, and the willingness to acquire tools that, perhaps, you look down upon; but everyone can be smart.
It requires shedding a lifetime of prejudice against the truly creative, and preconceptions about what genius-level intellects actually do, and embracing the fact that every human brain can do the things that the acknowledged geniuses of the world can do.
Sure, your minds might not expand to the extent of the geniuses in fiction - Sage from The X-Men; Ozymandias from Watchmen; The Doctor; but here's a clue that might surprise you, yet not, if you think about it.
Those geniuses are not real.
When a smart character - Sherlock Holmes, Barry Ween, Ozymandias, Sage, Hank McCoy, Juliet Street from Earth: Final Conflict - appears in fiction, they are not really "smart people;" more like conduits for the storyteller to use to bring an idea into the story that the author could otherwise not introduce.
By having the character "think hard" about a problem, and come up with a solution, you're just seeing the storyteller using the puppet to introduce a plot device, imposing change upon the universe he is creating by shifting the scenes around and making it appear, to the audience, that the people within the story are doing this by themselves.
How often do you see the "smart person" in the story come up with an idea, but the solution to the problem comes from the meathead protagonist blasting away at it until the problem is solved or the person behind it dies?
And then look at what happened when the smart person - Ozymandias - actually won. Hardly a winning move, burning the chessboard.
So I think I'd teach the lessons of how to use your brains in this school for gifted children, not to turn out snobbish, privileged preppies with a stick up their behinds and a false sense of entitlement, but to turn out compassionate, smart, eager, lean people willing to set aside prejudices and work for the betterment of the human race, normals and mutants, together.
But you would hate my exams ...
