Marked troubles

If Jacob had expected anyone during his office hours, he would have expected a student and he would have expected knocking. However, as he was going over some tests and quizzes, Jacob was instead treated to pounding and... Well, actually he was finding it difficult to tell if the person on the other side of the door was a student or teacher or parent or whatever. What he DID know was that they were not in a good mood. So he girded himself and got up from his desk to cross his office to the door.

His office was not quite as decorated as some other teachers, and he was definitely not the kind to litter it with knick knacks for no reason. But he did have a few accouterments. He had some of his swimming trophies from when he was a lad on a shelf, a few letters from his old students before he came to the Academy, and a picture of his daughter on his desk. The newest addition to his office was his new sword, which leaned against the wall in the corner.

Just before he opened the door, he took a deep breathe and prepared himself. A nice smile and an appropriate tone of voice would be the polite thing to give. He doubted that coming off hostile would not only be unprofessional, but only make the situation worse.

"Hello. What can I help you wi-Oh. Miss Lancaster. Is something the matter?"

Turns out the person was a teacher. The (relatively) new physics teacher. He had yet to get to know her and he would have preferred be under better circumstances. She was a lovely lady, even if she barely came above his shoulders and spoke with a rather harsh tone.

"Explain.... What exactly?"

It was immediately evident to Jacob that Joyce's insides might not have matched her lovely outsides. She was pushy, intrusive, and demanding. Granted, Joyce might have been a perfectly fine lady when she was not in a rush or upset about something, but her handling of the situation when she WAS upset could use tuning and tweaking. Jacob was glad he took the moment to collect himself before he open the door.

Picking up the folder, Jacob flipped through the contents to maybe figure out what was making Joyce so distressed. What he saw were some graded tests and, at first, nothing seemed too off about them as he listened to her passive-aggressively question his teaching ability. Then he saw it: the lost points were due to mostly math-related errors. But the questions were outrageous!

"Woah. Woah. Woah. Joyce. Excuse me, but my kids are getting all the tutelage they could want. YOU are asking things are way beyond the scope of what they would have covered up to this point."

Jacob found teaching at the Academy much more rewarding than teaching at other schools he worked at. No offense to the other schools. The Academy had generally smaller class sizes due to the smaller student body, so he could find more time to give each student more personalized attention. All of his students got some of the best teaching there could be, but there was no way he could blamed for things that they were simply NOT taught.

"Is this discrete math? Kids don't even get that option until they get into their second or third year of college!"

Jacob slapped the folder shut and raised an eyebrow at Joyce.

"Slovenia? Who said anything about them?"

He circled around so he could look her in her very annoyed eyes with his own, which showed a mix of confusion and indignation. Joyce was bringing up what seemed like the weirdest comparisons and he wished he could understand where she was coming from. But then she simplified the issue by continuing to put down his job and teaching style.

"I didn't say we shouldn't put them to excel. I just don't think we should push them farther than their capable of handling. What's the point in forcing them to learn somethin' they can't grasp or fully utilize? Then we're just makin' half-assed citizens out of 'em."

This was the first time Jacob had gotten into any kind of scuffle or disagreement with another teacher at the Academy, but it hardly differed from arguments with teachers elsewhere. It was another case of clashing ideals in the field of teaching and mentoring. For the record, Jacob erred on the side of solidifying a student's current knowledge while encouraging them to experiment beyond their scope to get a feel for the world, and NOT to simply force them higher and higher where the chances of them failing and losing a love of learning were greater.

"If the students WANTS to learn more than I'm teaching? Fine. I'll give it to them. But I ain't gonna simply assume they'll get everything in time for whatever assessment is coming up. Learnin' ain't a competition, Joyce. It's for the student's benefit, not our prestige."

Joyce was not the only one who could put on an intimidating look. Not that he needed to look angry or menacing in front of a woman he was a head taller than. He just needed to stand tall and close to her.

"Devil's Lettuce...? Wha-Oh! Oh. That. Do kids really call it that...?"

He had to shake the confusion from his head and get back to the matter at hand.

"But we're not leaders, Joyce. We're guides and mentors. Meant to walk beside them on the difficult path to growth, not ahead of them. We show them the paths and landmarks and pitfalls that we know about, to better steer them on the right path and to avoid others."

Jacob did not think he would be getting into a philosophical argument about the nature of teaching and the place of teachers that day. But there he was, waxing philosophical with a steadily-reddening woman.

"And then if they want to smoke weed or have sex, I CAN'T stop them completely. I mean we've been tryin' that since teenagers were invented. But I can advise them to do it safely and in a way that's actually formative instead of destructive. God knows I have waaay too much experience in the latter to NOT impart some wisdom..."

But then she kept insulting his students, as if they were the worst stereotypes of the lazy teenager, and Jacob would not have that. He too was starting to get a little angry.

"MY students will do fine in the world because they know how to apply their knowledge properly, not because they can recite numbers from memory. And as much as I hate to sound Randian, but the cultivation of the individual WILL benefit society.

Not all of them will be world-changing scientists or artists, but I can give them all the chance to be one. And finally, we're not even public education, hon! We only take certain kinds of kids, which is the exact opposite of public!"

He found himself taking a long breath after his little diatribe, still staring intensely downward at Joyce. Jacob had to adjust his vest to give himself a chance to calm down and not look so menacing at her. His students were his pride, and he had to defend them.

"Apologies for that."

"Wait a second, little missy."

Before Joyce could smugly march out in the hallway, satisfied with her apparent victory, Jacob swung around and blocked her path. Seemingly summoning a shred of his new swordmaster abilities, he glided right into the threshold of the door and stood between Joyce and her exit with such speed she risked running into him. He even went so far as to put an arm up on the door frame and leaning towards her.

"I was apologizing for my tone back there, not admitting defeat."

He leaned even closer to her, bringing his face nearly down to her level.

"YOU still need to pull back on the advanced materials you ask of my students. At least a little. MAYBE I'm not pushing my kids hard enough, but YOU are just being unreasonable here."

To emphasize his point, he pointed at Joyce, nearly booping her on the nose.