A Learning Experience 2: Hard Lessons by Christopher G. Nuttall Read Free Book Online

rather than physical prowess ...
     
    “You’re thinking,” Dennis said.  “I can tell.”
     
    Martin sighed.  He’d never really grasped just how ignorant he was until he’d arrived on Sparta.  Being unable to handle himself in space was one thing – he knew he was ignorant of even basic safety precautions – but his reading and writing were definitely sub-par.  The Sergeant had even told him that he would have to spend time learning to read properly, if he wanted to progress rapidly.  Martin had hated the thought, even though Yolanda had offered to help him with it.  He didn't want to delay his training just to learn how to read.
     
    “It’s a bad habit,” he said, although he knew that wasn't true.  Some of the tests the Sergeants had set him could only be solved through careful thought, rather than brute force.  “And we'd better get moving.”
     
    He dropped the empty plate into the fresher, then walked down towards the lecture hall, where they’d been told to go at 1900, Sparta Time.  Yolanda was waiting outside, looking nervous; she brightened up when she saw him.  Martin smiled at her, then followed her into the giant compartment.  It was easily large enough to handle two or three hundred recruits, rather than one single company.  But Martin had long since stopped wondering why the facility seemed to be much larger than it needed to be.  No doubt, like everything else, there was a reason for it.
     
    “Please, be seated,” an elderly voice said.  “I am Professor Fritz Scudder.”
     
    Martin took a seat and studied the elderly man.  He was the first citizen of the Solar Union he’d met who actually looked old , with dark skin and white hair.  Appearances could be deceiving, he knew, but he would have happily placed the Professor at being well over eighty years old.  His granddad – and he had been a real man - hadn't looked much younger when he’d shuffled off the mortal coil.  There were days when Martin still missed him, bitterly.  It was easy to imagine his life would have been better if he’d had a strong male figure to look up to, while he’d been a kid.
     
    “There is one compulsory class in the Solar Union, taught in every school,” Scudder said.  He spoke in a calm, completely composed manner, as if he’d seen too much to be scared of anything less than the end of the universe.  “That class is History and Moral Philosophy.  If you happened to be born in the Solar Union, you would have taken the class between fourteen and sixteen years of age.  But, as none of you were born in the Solar Union, it is necessary for us to offer you the chance to take the course now.
     
    “Unlike most of my students, you have the opportunity to decline.  You’re adults; we cannot force you to take the class.  It isn't part of your training, so failing to take the class won’t be counted against you.  However, you may find that taking the class will help you to understand the Solar Union and become one of our citizens.  If any of you want to leave now, please do so.  Or you can stay to the end and then decide not to come back.  Either one is fine, as long as you let me know.”
     
    He stopped and waited.
     
    Martin looked at Yolanda.  “I think we should stay,” she said.  “It might be interesting.”
     
    “It might,” Martin agreed.  He would have stayed for a truly boring talk if she’d wanted to stay with him.  “Let us see what happens.”
     
    “Thank you,” Scudder said, after five minutes.  “I hope I can make this course interesting enough to keep you coming back.”
     
    He smiled at them, then settled back in his chair.
     
    “Schooling in the Solar Union, as most of you may dimly realise, is fundamentally different from schooling on Earth,” he said.  “Schooling on Earth requires you, the students, to absorb and recite by rote vast amounts of data.  You are not taught to actually think , let alone how to obtain data for yourself and