Chapter 26: Educational Offer

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 (Continued)

Julia and I quickly showered the parts of us that most needed it, then dressed and went to join our parents in the living room. I had no idea what to expect. From Julia's comments it seemed that Prof and Vanessa were very happy to help me, but I didn't know what they were going to be telling my parents, or how Mom and Dad would react.

When we entered the living room I nervously looked at the four parents. They were smiling and relaxed, which eased my concern a great deal. I sat down and Julia curled up on my lap.

Mom led off, talking to me, "Andrew and Robert are entertaining Carol and Donna in the Guys' Room for a while, so Prof can make his offer to you. Your father and I have discussed it with him and we're in general agreement, but the decision is yours. I'll let Prof tell you himself."

Prof took over, "As you know, I'm a real Professor of Mathematics at OSU. My department and I are quite excited about your potential future in mathematics, and we want to help your education in that direction. What we're offering has several components. First, immediate access to our department's courses. You can audit whichever of those you want, you'll have access to our lecturers, library, computer labs, etc. All the usual accesses that a student would have, although the staff you deal with should give you more attention than is normal. When enrollments open, you can enroll in any Math courses free of charge and Vanessa and I will pay for any textbooks you need. We get those at the staff rate so they don't cost much. If you want to enroll in other departments, we'll try to get you special treatment but we can't guarantee that.

^-- "Second, my department will be providing you with a computer of your own with access to all our online materials. You can even order our library books online and I'll bring them back and forth, as that'll be more convenient for you. We're going to change our spare bedroom into a study for you because the Department wants me to supervise. We'll get a good desk, some bookshelves put up, some better lighting, and the usual study things. Anything you particularly want, just let us know. Julia will be happy to know that you'll be spending more time here, just make sure not all of it's with her. I doubt your grades would suffer much, but hers might." Prof gave a small grin, but he clearly meant what he'd said.

^-- "Third, these arrangements apply while you're at school, so the rest of this school year and all next year assuming you do 12th grade then. We'll reconsider your options after you graduate school. None of this binds you to OSU. If, when you're older, you want to do something other than Mathematics or go to a different college or university, that's fine with us. In fact, we'd probably be disappointed if you went to OSU, as there are better universities nationally and internationally for someone with your abilities."

Mom reacted to one word, "Internationally?"

Prof said, "Yes. As smart as Mark is, and presuming he does even better with access to these sorts of facilities, I expect there will be international competition for his attendance. In a couple of years he might be anywhere. Cambridge has a very good Math program, for example. Anything's possible. That's why I say it's not likely he'll end up going to OSU."

Mom said, "Oh, I hadn't realized that we might lose him in a year and a half. That's a shock."

"There's no knowing what will happen this early yet, Felicity. We've still got our boys home at 26, although they'll graduate soon and we expect one or both to move out not long after at. Mark will have many choices, and we don't know which he'll take. He'll still be young, so maybe he'll choose to stay at home for an extra year. Or maybe he'll do his undergraduate degree at OSU. That'd be great for us, as we'd certainly love to design a course for him."

"You'd design his own course?"

"That's not as impressive as it seems as college courses are quite flexible, but even if they weren't, they would be for Mark. There aren't enough mathematicians in the world as good as Mark has the potential to become. My department would be thrilled to help nurture one more. Or maybe he'll decide to be a professional 8-ball player? We just don't know what he'll do. We can guide, but it's his choice."

#1: <We're going to disappoint Prof. We aren't super-bright; it just looks that way. We are never going to be an impressive mathematician.>

I felt obliged to speak up, "Prof, your offer is very generous, but I'm afraid I'll be wasting it. I seriously doubt that I'll be as good a mathematician as you say."

Vanessa spoke up, "We're just putting opportunities in front of you. Which ones you accept, and how well you do at them is not the issue. We know you're smart, self-motivated to study well, and of good character. That's ALL we need to know. I cannot imagine you disappointing us regardless of which direction you end up going in. Prof would get a thrill out of your becoming a world-class mathematician, but despite his enthusiasm for math, we're mostly concerned just that you have good opportunities. If math doesn't attract you, don't worry about it, and don't feel pressured to go down that path just because Prof is a mathematician. That would disappoint us both."

"But what about the money that will be spent on me? I don't feel comfortable taking advantage of that and not being as good as you hope."

Vanessa answered again, "What 'we hope' is that you try. That's all we're asking. Don't worry about the money. You'd be surprised how little this will cost. If you end up world-class anything, OSU will recoup their investment thousands of times over from their marketing program about their involvement with you. They're spending a small amount of petty cash on the chance of getting themselves in the history books for recognizing and nurturing your abilities. As for the money Prof and I will spend, it'll be money we'll enjoy spending. We'll enjoy seeing what you can do and seeing our daughter happy."

Julia, who had just been lying on my lap, whispered in my ear, "Don't make it too hard. Just say 'Yes'."

I told the parents, "I'd like to say yes, but I still have some worries. What about how I split my time between here and home. How much time will I have to spend here?"

Vanessa responded again. "You won't 'have to' do anything, Mark. Come and go as you wish. We trust your self-motivation. We think you'll be able to study better here, with your own computer, three college graduate males to answer any questions you might have, and more access to OSU website, but it's up to you how you allocate your time."

Prof spoke up again. "One thing we've been thinking about is how to make it easier for you to go back and forth between your home and here. It's a pity Julia didn't get her license when she first could because the six months provisional period would be up already and she could drive you. We'll get her to go for her license soon, but that won't help you for six months. I'm going to try to get an exemption for you, so you can get a license immediately, hopefully an unrestricted one but even provisional would be better than nothing. I'll book some driving lessons for you, which will give us time to try to get the DMV side of things arranged."

#4: <Remember that #3 and I can drive. We even got our license using Dad's car, the same as he has now. Different dimension of course, but effectively the same car.>

#1: <Are the road rules the same as where you came from?>

#4: <We haven't noticed any differences and we have been paying attention because we expected this to come up later. It should be a piece of cake. Driving is mostly an exercise in coordination anyway, and if there's one thing we're good at now, it's that.>

#3: <As The Boys found out to their cost, haha.>

#2: <Let's tell Prof, to save him some money on lessons.>

"You won't need to book any lessons for me, Prof. I can already drive."

Dad thought that was interesting, "Really? When have you ever driven?"

#3: <Funnily enough I don't want to answer the truth on this one. What shall we say?>

#4: <I'll take it.>

"I've been watching you carefully. I have no doubt I can drive. Take me to a large parking lot on the way home and I'll drive around it to show you. I should flick through the Driver Manual just to make sure I know that side of things, but I don't expect any problems there either. I could probably take my practical test tomorrow if we needed to. The theory I'd need a few days to bone up on." (#3 and #4 had been amused to learn that the "Oregon Driver Manual" is called exactly that, they suspected because the author of it couldn't decide where to put the apostrophe in Drivers. It's very rare that I get to enjoy feeling superior over someone else because of my grammatical knowledge.)

Dad commented, "You're a constant surprise. Most kids sweat bullets worrying about getting their license, but you just wave your hand and say 'No problem'. But after your 8-ball demonstration I'm inclined to believe you. It might not matter though; Prof, how can you get a license for Mark at fifteen?"

Prof answered. "I don't know that I can, but I think that if the law allows it, then we have a good shot at it. Mark's only seven months away from his sixteenth birthday so if there's any flexibility in the system then we're not asking for much. I think I can get OSU's Dean onto the case, and he'll probably have enough pull." (Corvallis is a university town, with OSU contributing as much to the city's economy as all other employers combined.)

^-- "He'll emphasize Mark's academic potential, and how essential his being able to study effectively is. It doesn't sound like much, but the Dean can motivate the right politician by talking about an Einstein in the making that will make Corvallis world famous forever. That should provide enough grease. Especially as Mark's IQ score is higher than the estimates of Einstein's."

^

[[Because of how language is stored in human minds, it is less rigorously synchronized, allowing more than the usual degree of inter-dimensional inconsistency. In most w-dimensions, the job title of the number one boss of OSU is "President" not "Dean". "Dean" is the original English term for that position, but some time ago in most dimensions American universities decided to change the title to "President", exactly as most Americas changed from "knickers" to "panties", although university Presidents would probably object to being likened to panties. In this w-dimension they kept "Dean".

Language drift is especially common with trendy words, or those where the variations are subtle. For example, in all the dimensions encountered so far in my autobiography, Americans use "Mom", but across the entire W-Dimension most Americas use "Mum", and some dimensions even favor "Mam". When my 'immigrant' minds were speaking, they would occasionally use a word or phrase 'incorrectly' for the current dimension, causing a small amount of confusion. It was never more than a momentary nuisance, but I found it interesting and Prof's mentioning the Dean of OSU reminded me of it.]]

^

Dad, "Really?"

#3: <Our IQ's higher than Einstein's! How cool is that?>

#4: <Down boy. Our IQ score is a spurious result of the test's design flaw. When we got that score we were just two average minds. Do you think they could have grabbed two average Joes off the street and told them to invent the Theory of Relativity?>

#3: <Sorry, I got carried away.>

#4: <Especially because if we sat that test again, we'd probably get nearly 500, which is so absurd it's laughable. What worries me is that Prof is getting carried away. We're going to disappoint him as soon as we are called upon to do some serious thinking, rather than just drudging our way through schoolwork.>

#1: <I can't think of a way of pulling the plug on this. How can we convince them we're not that smart when we're screaming through school so easily? I don't want to give them impression that we're not willing to even try.>

#2: <I think we have to let it go ahead and do our best. It's going to be embarrassing when we start stumbling, but I can't think of an alternative. They keep saying our failing doesn't matter just so long as we try, so I think we have to let that happen and hope they mean what they say.>

Prof answered Dad, "Yes. History books might one day be written about Mark. If he's anything like another Einstein, a large number of them will be written, plus documentary programs filmed. It's easy to make that comparison to a politician, as even the dumbest politician has heard of Einstein. Politicos would love to be immortalized in history as someone who helped the next Einstein, and they'd hate to be immortalized as someone who hindered him. The Dean should easily be able to use their vanity."

Julia spoke up for the first time, "I'm tired of waiting. Is it official yet? Is Mark going to be spending more time here?"

Everyone looked at me. I looked at Mom and Dad, asking them, "It sounds good to me. Is it okay with you guys?"

Mom said, "There are still some issues, like your not getting out of your chores and being home often enough to spend time with us and your sisters, but other than those sorts of things, it's okay with us. In fact I'm relieved, as I was getting very worried about how to plan for your education."

Julia said, "Yippee!" and gave me a BIG kiss, tongue and all, in front of everyone. Females have no shame. Unfortunately I do, and my face went red yet again.

Mom said, "Yes, that's another thing we have to make sure is balanced properly. Homework first, recreation afterward."

Dad spoke up. "Mark, the bedroom rules won't be changing. You still won't be able to stay here overnight, sorry. At least, not until the trial is over."

"You keep saying the trial's relevant, but I don't understand what it's got to do with my staying here overnight?"

Mom answered, "That's to protect you and us. You've had reporters chase you, and soon the various defense lawyers will be looking for material to attack you with. It's a standard tactic of our justice system to besmirch the victim as much as possible to make the crime seem as if it was more deserved. If they could prove you stayed with Julia overnight, they'd find a way to use it to make you seem worse than the boys who attacked you. With the media's interest in the story, it'd be trumpeted loudly, and we could be in a lot of trouble.

^-- "We've taken a calculated risk letting you have sex in Julia's room because it's upstairs and can be closed off. That's why her drapes are permanently closed now." Now that Mom mentioned it, I had noticed they were always drawn shut, but I'd never bothered to ask about it.

Prof added, "Remember that we originally asked you to make sure Julia's stereo was on? That was before anyone knew how loud she is. No stereo could drown out someone having that much fun, so we're having to soundproof her room."

"How come you never explained the trial issue before?"

I'd been looking at Mom, but Prof answered, "It would've upset your enjoyment of each other. It doesn't matter now because her room will be soundproofed before you get back here again, and then you'll be safe from anything but an extreme level of snooping. I'm also getting a couple of motion sensors put up outside Julia's room, with a light that'll come on in the room to tell you to cool it. You should be fine after that."

"I never thought of any of this."

Dad said, "It's just the sort of crap we have to put up with because of how things get done these days."

Mom added, "That's why we haven't encouraged you to go out on public dates. Remember how your first date's restaurant booking was made in Julia's name? That was to reduce the chance of anyone seeing your name on the booking sheet and trying to earn a bit extra by tipping off a reporter that you would be there. I'm sure you didn't want reporters all over you on that date!

^-- "I thought we were being followed that night too, so I did some creative driving to make sure we weren't. Your date was only one day after those reporters bothered you at school, so we were paranoid, but better safe than sorry when it comes to the press."