The director cleared his throat and looked down at the pages. “Well, you see, Pools lead the averag—scores in testing, so the Administrators decided Pools knows the best way to teach.”
Mahrree squinted hard. “The best way to teach is to teach individuals, not crowds!”
“I know that as well as you do,” he whispered back and looked around nervously, the same way Perrin sometimes did.
Must be a condition of having lived in Idumea, Mahrree considered. He’s likely worried that around the corner may be a man in a red jacket listening in.
“But to help our numbers improve, a group of teachers at Pools has sent each school . . . help.” Then he held his breath.
Mahrree knew why, as soon as she read the words on the paper. She had purposely looked for the heading “Estimates.” She couldn’t help but read out loud what followed.
“‘Good morning [or afternoon, as the case may be] students. Please take your seats. Today, students, the objective of our lesson is to understand, manipulate, and use estimates.’”
Mr. Hegek was cringing when Mahrree looked up, her eyes smoldering in fury. “This must be a joke. Please tell me this is a joke.”
Mr. Hegek swallowed hard. “I never once remember laughing in Idumea.”
“They’ve SCRIPTED what each teacher is supposed to say?!” Mahrree exploded.
Her toddlers dropped their apples, surprised at their mother’s volume.
Several of her students did as well.
“Every grade, every subject, every minute,” Hegek droned gloomily.
“I’m still TIMING you!” she bellowed at the boys who were staring at them, and they obediently continued picking.
Mahrree’s toddlers tried to steal each other’s apples, and succeeded.
Mr. Hegek cleared his throat and attempted to carefully take the paper out of her clenched fist. “I’m sorry. Perhaps this isn’t the best—”
“Isn’t it bad enough that we can’t decide what to teach our children—” Mahrree didn’t relinquish her control of the pages crinkling in her grip, but snarled quietly, “—now we can’t even decide how?!”
Quietly, but not calmly.
Mr. Hegek stopped trying to retrieve his documents and instead rubbed his chin anxiously as Mahrree crushed the script as if it were the Administrator of Education’s writing hand.
“They’re going to dictate everything from Idumea?!” she screeched in a whisper. “Can you imagine someone standing in front of those boys and stating, in all seriousness, ‘Today our objective will be the discussion of estimates.’ Outrageous! They don’t even need teachers with this nonsense! Only script readers! Is that what they’re trying to do? Eliminate all possibility of adults having intelligent discussions with children!?”
She finally regained enough of herself to focus on Hegek’s eyes, and she stopped when she noticed how miserable he looked. None of this was his fault, but his eyes were turning red and his chin was close to trembling.
“This wasn’t my idea, Mrs. Shin,” he said in a low, dejected voice. “But if I don’t implement it, I’ll be reported.”
A light went on in Mahrree’s head, and to Mr. Hegek’s surprise she suddenly began to smile. She shoved the vile script into his hands.
“Think about it, Mr. Hegek: who will report you, and to whom?”
Hegek gulped, his eyes darted around, and then the light came on for him as well. “I don’t know who would bother to report me, but . . .” A smile forced its way on to his mouth. “I would be reported to Major Shin!”
Mahrree burst into a grin. “Take these papers, Mr. Hegek, and the other crates, and hide them as far away as possible. I’m thinking the fort might be a safe place. My husband may have an idea or two of where to heave them,” she winked and Hegek beamed. “I’ll do my best to get these boys’ scores even higher than last time—or maybe we should let the scores drop, so the scripts seem to have caused more problems than they cured? In any case, Idumea will never know what we did or didn’t do. They really don’t care about what happens in Edge anyway.”
Now Hegek’s chin was trembling, but happily. “See why I need you, Mrs. Shin?!”
Mahrree’s grin remained as she remembered her idea from earlier, before the arrival of the wretched papers.
“Mr. Hegek, there’s only so much I can do with this small group of boys. There are other after school care programs like mine, and if you spoke with their instructors, I’m sure they’d be willing to help us avoid this ‘help’ as well. In fact, may I recommend that you begin first with my friend who’s working with the girls near here?”