Degrees

Norman Narcissus was happy and did not know quite what to do. It was an unusual sensation which made him uneasy. Something was likely to happen to ruin it then he would feel life was normal. He lay beneath his covers waiting for that moment to happen.

He had argued the night before with his mother who was insisting he go back to school. She was worried about his future. How could he get a good job? He couldn’t stay home with his mother. Why, he had said, would he want to.

“You’re just like them.” he had told her, “Trying to tell me what to do.”

Then he had shouted her down with words that he knew would get to her. He had called her all sorts of names. The yelling and words were cathartic as was watching his mother cave in. She had finally offered him money and said that he could use the car.

“As long as you go to the program.” she had insisted.

“Program!” he had screamed, “Is this that shrink thing again? That guy just wanted to change me. Why can’t you leave me alone!!”

She had curled up onto the sofa exhausted. She had looked at him and said,

“It’s just school. It’s a new program for students like you. You drive there and do what you have to and then come home to get your reward.”

“How much?” he had demanded.

“As planned, for your graduation, five-hundred dollars for every year of school.”

He thought about what he could buy with that.  He agreed, and he felt happy.

 

The “program” was a part of the ‘More than One Opportunity to Learn Act” of 2021, or MOOLA, which amended the Education Act by giving students who had been disenfranchised by the system an opportunity to “catch up on school”. Using technology and pedagogical methods that took advantage of multiple learning styles and data based research students could “fast track their learning”. Scores of research had been paid for to support the program and money had been dedicated to build the facilities. Eligible students would have to be eighteen, or turning eighteen within months of their participation in the program, but some exceptions were made in designated special cases. They had to have proven records that demonstrated their inability to attend the “traditional system” such as: poor attendance, numerous suspensions, demonstration of problems with authority, and possible evidence of potentially criminal lives. On this last point, there was a lot of research proving that young people who have a diploma were less likely to get into crime or less likely to add to the cost of incarceration because they were more likely not to get caught. The Minister of Education, Leonard Windumb, came out with the announcement and the applications came rolling in. The program was called Motion Principle Learning Achievement Recovery.

The public had been well prepared. A report on Motion Principle Learning by Dr. Polly Anne Inoe was released at the start of the school year in 2020. The Ministry engaged various public interest groups in online discussions and town hall meetings in which they extolled the virtues of Motion Principle Learning citing several boards that had taken it on in pilot projects with almost immediate success. It was said to be an exquisite blend of research regarding physical activity and learning with everything that was known about differentiating instruction and learning readiness development. Many young teachers, promoted through willingness to take a leadership role in Motion Principle Learning, and a desperate need to be employed, spoke enthusiastically about M.P.L. on web casts, at Principal Conferences in exotic places, and to parent advocate groups. That the Ministry acted quickly on the heels of all this positive research, initiated by the Ministry, was seen as a bold and proactive move.