Echo Posted March 7, 2015 Posted March 7, 2015 Seriously though, how cool would this be? Imagine gym class. If you could burn pewter you wouldn't have to deal with lousy hand-eye coordination or tripping over your own feet! Plus you could push or pull metals and bounce around the entire gym. Another bonus: if you were an Archivist Ferring and you had a test coming up, you wouldn't even have to bother with studying. I don't know about you, but I think this would make the whole school experience a lot better. 4
Lord Tavash Shar Posted March 7, 2015 Posted March 7, 2015 Just imagine. They know you have these abilities so they make even Harder Tests just for you and others like you that are even more difficult to pass.
Echo Posted March 7, 2015 Author Posted March 7, 2015 Yeah, but at least then you would still be challenged with the additional bonus of being a misting/ferring. 2
Oudeis he/him Posted March 7, 2015 Posted March 7, 2015 If you don't like being challenged to come up with hand-eye coordination when you're at basic human levels, why would you enjoy being challenged at super-human levels? Wouldn't it all be a relative wash? Wouldn't you only like being superhuman if it meant you could do all the normal human stuff super easy? If, instead of making free-throws from the free-throw line, they made you throw from the opposite free-throw line, so you had to work just as hard as the non-Thug kids to get the coordination and strength correct, wouldn't that be as much effort and failure as just being a normal person making normal free throws? 2
skaa he/him Posted March 7, 2015 Posted March 7, 2015 (edited) Well, to be fair, school is supposed to train children, not let gifted children get a free pass from hard work. A Metallic Arts school should give each student the appropriate tests and exercises to let him utilize his particular set of powers to the fullest. This means some sort of segregation of students by power, with each "House" having its own curriculum. I suppose there should also be classes common to all students so that teamwork, tolerance, and open-mindedness can also be taught. Imagine a Hogwarts with 30+ Houses! Of course, underage Hemalurgy should be banned. (No Slytherin House in this Hogwarts!) Also, I wonder if Gnats ought to be sent to "normal" school instead... Edited March 7, 2015 by skaa 2
Echo Posted March 7, 2015 Author Posted March 7, 2015 And just like Hogwarts, it would be more fun than regular school even though there are more challanges.
Kobold King he/him Posted March 7, 2015 Posted March 7, 2015 Serious question. Wouldn't a specialized school for Metalborn children encourage classism in society? Students who are reared in an environment so devoid of "normal" peers could very well develop contempt towards those who are less gifted. After a few generations, this could result in a culture that assigns a higher inherent value to its Metalborn than to its less Invested citizens. Metalborn obviously require special considerations, but segregation is a system of great risks and dubious rewards. 2
Edgedancer he/him Posted March 7, 2015 Posted March 7, 2015 (edited) Apart from gym class and maybe specialized magic classes I don't think it would be all that different. They would maybe take away Metalminds from Archevists and Sparkers plus leaching Sliders before tests to keep them fair, but apart from that it's not like most of the Metalic arts help with studying. Edited March 7, 2015 by Edgedancer
Echo Posted March 7, 2015 Author Posted March 7, 2015 I can see how segregation would occur, so what if because being a misting/ferring is so rare everyone would still be in the same school? I see how there would have to be certain precautions against testing and carrying pewter or burning pewter in gym. You would still have superhuman powers, but they would be restricted for home or special after school classes. 2
skaa he/him Posted March 8, 2015 Posted March 8, 2015 (edited) Serious question. Wouldn't a specialized school for Metalborn children encourage classism in society? Students who are reared in an environment so devoid of "normal" peers could very well develop contempt towards those who are less gifted. After a few generations, this could result in a culture that assigns a higher inherent value to its Metalborn than to its less Invested citizens. Metalborn obviously require special considerations, but segregation is a system of great risks and dubious rewards. Eh, I always hear sob stories from highly intelligent but highly arrogant acquaintances who attended normal schools, saying they either got bullied by other kids, or shackled by stupid school restrictions, or both. This made them hate "normal" people more, instead of less, so the goal of preventing an "us-versus-them" mentality was clearly not met by integrating gifted kids like them with normal kids. I myself studied in a school for supposedly gifted children (Ha! Fooled them, didn't I?) so I can't really say whether or not I'd be more egalitarian if I'd studied in a regular school instead. All I know is I don't have traumatic memories of being "oppressed by stupid people" as a kid, and my teachers taught me well about the importance of equality. Maybe that's why I'm not elitist. Now, imagine being a young Metalborn studying in a normal school and having to submit yourself to regular Leeching, metal-detection, and possibly even full body searches before you're allowed to partake in certain class activities. Imagine having an achievement scrutinized and doubted because you "could have cheated" with your powers. Imagine being an teenaged Archivist with a decent collection of knowledge stored in a coppermind that was forcibly taken from you by some misguided educator who wants to deprive you of your own knowledge "in the spirit of fairness". If that doesn't make you hate the "skaa-blooded inferiors", I don't know what will. Sure, Gnats, Lurchers, Seekers, and a few other Metalborn might integrate well with normal kids in a mixed school setting where everyone wears aluminum-lined uniforms and hats, but I still think a Scadrian educational system is better off divided into separate curricula for "advantaged" Metalborn like Cognitive Feruchemists, Bendalloy Allomancers, and Pewter-users. You don't want them dominating over other students, but you also don't want them being shackled and end up badly-trained or resentful, so might as well let them learn separately from the others when such an advantage exists. Of course, when no advantage exists (e.g. a Brute in Math class, an Archivist in gym class, etc.), then feel free to mix them with the others. Edited March 8, 2015 by skaa 2
Fatebreaker he/him Posted March 8, 2015 Posted March 8, 2015 Hrm, hrm Yeah, that sounds like a cool idea, hrm hrm http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/13732-cosmere-university/#entry162928 2
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