Superman vs Batman -- A Debate on the Nature of Magic

During "end of the year" cleaning yesterday, Harrington Founder William H's essay "How I could destroy this game without using magic." bobbed up to the surface of a pile of papers. William and Jai, during that first year of Harrington, hadn't really had much interaction, so what transpired was, to me, the proof of this pudding.

William, a sci fi fantasy fanatic, had asked me how for he could go in creating his suburban village -- the city was getting intense, and there was still plenty of unexplored hinterlands, so I suggested that anyone who was interested should start a suburb. I advised William to go for it -- use his imagination, of course. William's scenario started something like:

"In a secluded meadow, a couple of miles outside of Harrington City, the ground began to glow a strange purple, and out of the ground, rose up in a circle, a dozen darkly hooded and cloaked figures of ancient age. One of them began to speak: 'After eons it is now time for us to reveal ourselves to the rest of the world, and so we will create a village and disguise ourselves as humans and mix with them.'

When William distributed this scenario to the rest of the class, it caused quite a stir, especially with Jai, who was on his way to becoming the first Harrington billionaire. "You can't do that! He can't do that! He can't use magic! There's no such thing as magic and Harrington is all about being real! Magic isn't real! Whatever we create in this game has to be real!"

I really had to step back here. I had committed to a real doozy of a problem: the rule was "anything goes, as long as it's real." However, I had also commited to "imagination: is the key." I didn't want to tell Willam he couldn't implement his obviouly fertile imagination, but then, Jai certainly had a point: magic isn't much help in the concrete world. I'll tell you, I thought these kids had found the fatal flaw! However, luckily, I was working with teenagers! "We need to debate this!"

Jai first: "If he uses magic, all he has to do is go back in time and kill my grandparents, then I don't exist anymore!"

William: "I wouldn't do that! That would destroy the game! I don't need magic to destroy the game! All I need to do is to engineer a virus in my drug company and let it loose. I would never do that! Nobody would do that!"

Jai: "Ok, that would be evil but anybody can deal with evil if it's real! (Jai goes to the blackboard and draws a Batman symbol and a Superman symbol!)The problem is the differnce between Batman and Superman.

(At this point, you would need the perspectve of the academic and behavioral history of these two students -- just picture a string of detentions, suspensions, and not-so-great grades for who knows how far back in their school lives!)

William: "I see what you're getting at."

Me: "What are you getting at?"

Jai: "I can deal with an evil Batman because he only has his utility belt. He's just some guy who is good with his fists. I can just shoot him or something. But I can't deal with an evil Superman. If Superman is evil, he's unstoppable. Bullets bounce off him. We can't have magic."

William: "I have to agree."

At this point, I could have given them their high school diplomas, and sent them on their ways, but that was just the first layer of the cake! The rest of the class actually huddled in a discussion. I kept out of it, because I was ruminating how I had led William astray in encouraging his imagination. But the huddle broke up, and, I forget who was the spokesman, but they all lent their voices: they, as a class had decided to allow magic in Harringon. However, if they chose not to believe what the magic had done, then they didn't have to, and they just carried on. If they believed in the magic that Willam's creatures did, ok. If they didn't, it wouldn't matter. William had his strange little suburban town, and Jai went on to become Harrington's first billionaire.

The Long Cold WInter...

...has not slowed things down in Harrington City. In fact, committee work has resulted in the development of laws -- I was just looking over the shoulder of a Harrington Citizen who had been doing extensive research into the kinds of civil laws that are at the heart of every municipality -- "We're not really interested in what the national thing is, yet," he told me. "We have to get our community organized first, so things run smoothly close to home." Granting business licenses, marriage licenses, parking regulations, sales and property tax rules, some minor criminal law..."Who are going to be the judges, and how does a municipal court function, and what's the role the police department? Elections! Appointments! Politics!"

Our Resident Novelist announced that she is writing a novel, working with a professor at Bryn Mawr College for her Senior Project -- that is, the final hurdle for high school students in our school district, before they graduate. Seniors choose a field experience and do research and seek an outside facilitator. Our Resident Novelist had decided, in December, after starting up the Harrington Community Center, that she wanted to retire to her mansion and work on her novel. Since anything constructive goes in Harrington, that is what she did. I wish I could convey the high-speed, 180 degree turn involved in this outcome of high school for this particular young lady. I believe it has something to do being able to address one's heart's desire.

Governance 2

Committees have formed around civic problems: public helath and safety, streets and sidewalks, etc. The debates actually began last week when one committee put forth the proposition for Harrington City to "go green". That committee presented the proposition to only a special interest group: a committee that is studying the street and sidewalk problem and who has already purchased dump trucks that are not "green". They argue that "green" dump trucks would cost $1 million apiece. The "Greening Harrington" committee become discouraged.

However today, this morning, 7:30 to 8:17 am first period, on the last Monday before Winter break, an entrepreneur who is starting a casino, put forth the proposition to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. He has written out his proposition, made enough copies for each memeber of the class to sign, and now, a general debate as begun about how to decide if the proposition should be passed. A list of pros and cons has started at the front black board, (pros: other countries don't have limits, help the economy, the true adult vs the adult "label"; cons: more deaths related to the teen population, 18-21 don't know limits, more crime, more bige drinking). The debate results in a compromise: limit the hours of under-21 drinking, and monitor this for a year, then change or add to the ordinance.

What transpired during this discussion included: parliamentary law review, debate protocol, and no heads down on desks. One student, who asked to go to the breakfast table in the lobby, forgot to go, instead joining in the debate. In fact, this student suggested that this scenario could be written up as a year or two in the future, and the results determine how the ordinance would be decided.

The "Greening of Harrington" committee has asked to present during the next class with a new strategy.

What does this have to do with "literature"? My answer this morning is: they are writing their own literature.

Governance

Today, the class reached the "governance" stage: two of the young men wrote on a piece of paper in pencil proclamation that they were the rulers of the city and that they were going to be in charge. They ceremoniously taped their proclamation the black board at the front of the classroom. There immediatley arose a clamour from another student -- a young woman -- who loudly voiced her opinion that "they can't just do that!" This alerted others who were going about their business. "Can they just do that?"

My explanation was that no one had made any laws, there was no government in place. The two class mates had gotten together and made something happen. Now, they had to consider one of Harrington's two "Prime Directives": No crime may be instigated. Was there a crime instigated? To decide, I advised them to take a look the history of how governments came into being. One member of the class immediately respnded: "Divine Right!"

I hope their social studies teachers take note.

Starting the Buzz

Last week, just before Thanksgiving, the most recent class seemed to have reached a plateau -- they had some print outs of pictures of their buildings, and began pen and pencil lists of retail store inventories, service business equipment, some furniture, some rudimentary job descriptions. They didn't automatically word process descriptions, nor had they automatically entered into the realm of the "scenario".

A "scenario" is the term I use to describe the "story" behind the object: How did you decide on that building? What kind of person would you hire for that job, and what would you pay them? Benefits? The scenario is the descriptive narrative that rounds out the inventory of objects that constitute the virtual existence of a participant in a virtual world. The more real the details of the scenario, the more roundedness, the more value in the experience.

The value of research...talking up the choices of details, this began a buzz in the class -- the students were making inquiries and choices that made sense to them, that were of value to them. Instead of waiting around for the last bell to sound and go home to turkey and tv, they were making plans for the future.

Blogs and the Virtual High School

Social networking:
http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=social%20networking&x=&y=

Social Networking Site
http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=socialnetworkingsite

Collaborative software
http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=collaborativesoftware

Sock puppet
http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=sock+puppet

Welcome to Virtuality High School!

Up and running in Cyberspace (c), finally!

I started a virtual high school role-play community for college and career exploration in 1998, named Harrington City. It was just after Winter Break, and those young men and women in my standard level senior English class were not about to start the last months of public school by reading another novel! I had taught shop on and off for six years, and was much inspired all along by Eliot Wigginton and his Foxfire (c) project in Red Gap, Georgia: my interpretation was: have your students make a study of their immediate world, following their God-given hearts' desires, and their drive to acquire adult vocational competencies, and the curriculum will be served. I will describe this source and the many others that were the inspiration for this, in forth-coming entries. The results have been -- without exception -- spectacular, awesome.

In the coming times, I shall attempt to blog the progress of the efforts of my Harrington Project classes. The Founders Class, that first group of restless, hungry teenagers, are now out there, somewhere. One young man suddenly appeared in front of my desk, one afternoon, two years ago.

"Remember me?"
He had been particularly troubled, from a tragic childhood, and had struggled to just barely fit in to American public high school -- he had an accent, and felt the pull of returning to the European country of his childhood, as soon as he came of age and could get away from his father. He hated being in America, but really hadn't figured out who he was. He was one of the students who was going to make that Spring semester insufferable -- he particularly enjoyed quarreling with spoiled Americans. Back then, when I asked him what he enjoyed doing most, he replied: "I want to sail my sailboat."

And here he was, five years later, telling me he had to come back to thank me.

"You saved my life. I had to come back and tell you and thank you. I just got back with my college debate team from a tour of Europe. I am the captain, and we won more competitions than ever in the history of the university. I also had to tell you that I just won a gold metal in single shell rowing at the Dad Vail Regatta. I'm graduating in a month with a bachelor's in economics, and I going back to Europe to a job that my father and I found together. I'm planning on grad school because the company will pay for it. I was going out of my mind in high school, and then we started playing that game in your class. And I built my marina. I saw that I could sail my boat and make a living. You saved my life, and I wanted to come back and tell you and to thank you."