Jaytsy climbed out of the wagon and claimed an apple dropped by a careless 11-year-old. Peto wailed to join her, and Mahrree set him out on the brown grass as well. Another boy purposefully dropped an apple near him, and Mahrree pretended it didn’t bounce and bruise before Peto picked up the shiny red ball to gnaw.
Mr. Hegek winced a little, but didn’t comment. “So the purpose of this activity today is . . .?”
“Take a look at their slates,” Mahrree suggested.
He squinted as he tried to make out their scribbles and numbers. “Looks like . . . bets? You’re teaching them betting?”
Mahrree shook her head. “While some fathers might approve of that, what we’re really doing is estimates,” she whispered the last word.
Mr. Hegek frowned. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing. They are supposed to be learning about estimating right now. The objective—”
“Shhh!” she hushed him, and pulled him out of earshot of the boys. “Don’t say ‘objective’ in front of them! They don’t know this is a lesson,” she hissed.
“I don’t understand.”
Mahrree smiled. “Nothing kills a lesson faster than thinking you have to learn something from it, Mr. Hegek. Look, they’ve made guesses—bets, if you want to go that far—about how many baskets each of them can fill, and how quickly. There are rewards for the boys who fill the most, have the most accurate estimates, and who demonstrated the most thought in arriving at his guess. Bet. Estimate.”
Hegek nodded thoughtfully. “Interesting, interesting . . . what’s the reward?”
“The winning boys get to ride with Corporal Zenos along the forest’s edge at dusk.”
Hegek’s mouth dropped open. “That sounds terrifying!”
Mahrree shrugged. “That’s what they’re hoping. Don’t worry—there’ll be several other soldiers, full of scary stories—and all of the parents have already given permission. I think a couple of fathers are hoping to go along as well.”
Hegek chuckled and shook his head. “So how is this teaching estimating?”
“When we get back to my house later, with our counts completed, then we’ll discuss how some estimates were way off, and why others were more accurate. Timing, loads, effort—none of that’s important to them right now, but later? When they see who wins? That’s when the boys will really be interested to know how to better estimate next time. That’s when they’ll learn the lesson, and quite quickly.”
Mr. Hegek grinned. “That’s slightly brilliant, isn’t it?”
“What, applying principles to actual activities? That’s not brilliant; that’s simply life,” she declared.
“So what are the girls doing? Don’t you have an associate taking care of girls?”
Mahrree nodded. “Miss Alrick. Right now my mother’s over at her place teaching the girls the secrets of her cake recipe.”
“The, uh . . . the cake at the Strongest Soldier Race?” Hegek almost seemed to drool the words.
Mahrree hid her smirk. “Yes, it is! The girls will each make a number of smaller versions, then bring them to the market tomorrow and make guesses as to whose will be most successful, who will sell more, who will bring home the biggest profit—”
“Wait,” the director of schools said, alarmed, “that’s basic business practices. They won’t be learning that for another moon or two, and the objective—”
“Would you please stop using that word?” she snapped pleasantly. “And so what if they learn concepts out of order? That ‘order’ is randomly decided anyway. Everything in the world connects, Mr. Hegek. Like the spokes on a massive wheel. You can’t see one spoke properly without seeing how it connects to the wheel, so why pretend it’s not part of it? They’ll still understand it all. Really.”
Mr. Hegek tilted his head and pondered that. “I suppose . . . I suppose you’re right.”
“Of course I’m right,” she said dismissively. “And by the way—the key to working with females is to show them they’re appreciated. My husband’s already planning to send a couple of soldiers to the girls’ cake stand tomorrow to buy out whatever doesn’t sell until the end. Girls this age need to feel success in order to realize they can be much more than merely something pretty to look at. And soldiers will buy and eat just about anything, especially if their commander’s given them the silver for it.”
Mr. Hegek laughed. “Both of you are brilliant.”
He was about to say something else when Mahrree shouted, “Oy! No bruises, remember? On the apples OR each other! Sticks DOWN!” Then she held up one finger, remarkably threatening.