[Video]

[shining_beacon]

[When the feed starts, Ozpin can be seen sipping coffee at a table belonging to a cafe in the central city looking curious.]

Because I've seen several of our newer residents talk about the educational facilities in their worlds, I've decided to make a casual inquiry. Call it professional curiosity. I am curious as to how the schools in each of your respective worlds operate. As an educator myself, I know how vital these systems can be in shaping and guiding our next generations, and am always looking out for ideas or methods that could better improve the situations at my own school. So please, consider this an open dialogue for the subject.

Comments

[melonsaregreat]

There are plenty of differences according to locality and the purpose of the school, but most children undergo compulsory education in what are considered either necessary skills for the majority of the population or foundational skills for specialized learning, at schools maintained by the state to ensure a supply of skilled labor. A smaller number attend larger institutions staffed by experts to develop specialized skills or knowledge, conduct research, learn a trade, learn magic, or attain an officer's commission or knighthood.

Twenty to fifty years ago during the second space race the reach and quality of mass education was probably the best its been in the history of the old world. But if you want to talk about educational policies they were still different for every country. A primary school in the old world and a military academy in the new world have little in common.

I just taught in a little rural school. Nothing special. And I've had a few private apprentices over the years.

[She's also a celebrated teacher in the school of hard knocks.]

[shining_beacon]

It is fascinating that your world has had the luxury of turning your attention skyward twice, if my assumption of your meaning was correct.

Still, do not downplay the importance of your role. I have been a teacher long enough to see that there is no such thing as "just" teaching. Some of the best students to come through my school have been from backgrounds that others would have written them off for. Farmers, refugees, aristocrats, it really makes no difference. Some of the minds you've helped mold and mature may very well shape the world for the better, thanks to the lessons you passed on.

[melonsaregreat]

Both of those efforts were part of enormous upheavals in the political order of the world with all the death and suffering that attends such times. The price of greatness.

[She just. Can't help but smile ruefully at his second comment.]

Well, it's true that I've had a few students who went on to great things, but I have my doubts about the current crop.

[shining_beacon]

Still, that you enjoyed the relative peace necessary to devote those resources to such a goal is comforting to me, at least.

Oh, I have no doubt of that. After all, there are always a handful that are troublemakers by nature. However, we may be shaped by our origins, but we are not defined by them. All you can do is provide an example by which each individual must decide whether to follow or deviate from. There are students in my school that I have similar fears for, but we cannot give up on them. I've found that for some of those, their teachers are often the only ones that do believe in them.

[melonsaregreat]

I'll spare you the history lesson, but peace had nothing to do with it. Advancement comes from adversity. The same goes for my students. If they're like me, they've failed and so have I. The young and inexperienced should be struggling to come to grips with the world.

[shining_beacon]

Perhaps a bit of context is needed. In my world, there are monsters that we have come to call the Creatures of Grimm. These are soulless beasts with the single goal of sending humans and faunus alike back to the emptiness of the void. In the past, they almost succeeded, and to this day we combat their advance on a daily basis. Couple that with political pressures that seem to be common regardless of world, and it is all we can do to survive. That is why I am impressed.

[He takes a sip of his coffee, reminded of the talk he had with Ruby on the first day of classes.]

You don't have that luxury as a teacher to think that way. You have been given a very special and important role in guiding and leading. Obviously someone had to have faith in you, to place you in such a position. I would not so easily doubt myself if I were in your position.

[melonsaregreat]

You're presuming too much. But even if that were true I'd say the same. I don't come from the same place as most of my students. It's impossible for them to follow after me, and if they could it wouldn't make them happy. Those who have tried haven't gone unscathed.

Sometimes our example is a warning. I'm sure at the very least you've made mistakes you don't want your students repeating.

[shining_beacon]

Oh, believe me, I have made more mistakes than most. However, as an educator and a leader, those mistakes are left in the past. The examples we provide have nothing to do with who we were, only with what we currently are.

Do what you feel is right, and your students will have the best example they can have. What they choose to do with that is up to them.

[melonsaregreat]

Not everyone needs an example to chase after. For the ones who already have goals, what they need is methods, skills, the pressure to continuously improve. I can provide all that.

But this is the second and last time I'll say it, if they follow my example they'll only hurt themselves. It's better for me to be the opposition, the thing they test themselves against.

[shining_beacon]

That in itself is an example to follow. Simply by teaching, you provide the examples necessary to improve.

I cannot say I agree with that sentiment, but I won't pursue the topic further.