"Fascinating reading, isn't it?" Urd asked with a smile.
"Uh, yeah," Ami admitted embarrassedly closing the book and replaced it on its stack. "Are all the textbooks written from such a unique perspective?"
"Actually history classes are still rather mundane by comparison. Many of our classes are outside the normal range of subjects offered at most other schools," the headmistress explained. "We have courses in subjects that aren't taught anywhere else in Japan and the choices of textbooks will reflect that."
"I would not think that there are many books out there that would be specifically geared for teaching students how to be better magical girls," Ami objected remembering having looked futilely for something just like that when she was younger.
"Oh, there are such books. It is just that most of them are very rare and obscure or get miscategorized as fiction if they are more available. Take for example this reference work that is being considered as a textbook for our demonology course," Urd said retrieving a large leather-bound tome from beneath the stack of books. "We have our librarian to thank for excavating this particular gem from a private collection that was donated to us."
"Demonology?" Ami asked intrigued; neither the title nor the name of the author that was only given as K. Higurashi rang any bells.
"An important subject for those students who might go on to specialize in random demon slaying. The book is a really well researched encyclopedia of the various species of supernatural creatures native to Japan including their traditional customs and social behavior as well as weaknesses in combat. It must have been a lot of work to study them in such detail as most of the demons living in Japan today have assimilated into the human culture to keep a low profile. Some of the species described are very rare and others thought to be extinct. Unfortunately its near exclusive focus on traditional Japanese magical creatures while ignoring some more recent immigrants as well as potentially more dangerous foreign creatures and extraplanar beings means that we can't use it as a sole textbook for the class," Urd explained.
"It still sounds like it is going to be an invaluable resource for magical girls in training. Even if they don't learn anything about some potential enemies from such a book, it should still prepare future heroines by helping them to identify indigenous and endemic creatures that are mostly harmless and not in need of being slain on sight," Ami pointed out.
On the rare occasion that the she and her friends had encountered beings like kitsune or tanuki who covertly lived among humans they had to rely on half-remembered mytholgy and Rei's or the cats' feeling about them to find out if they were truly evil or just playful. A systematic approach sounded much better to her.
"You are right of course," Urd agreed. "And this is exactly why we have been trying to find and contact the author to offer them a teaching position. It is a shame he or she appears to have dropped of the face of the earth. I am glad to see that you understand and seem to have given some thought to the sort of problems magical girls face. Which makes me hopeful that you will be the sort of person we are looking for. If you are hired you will likely be forced to write your own materials as well since we have been unable to find much that would be accessible to young girls on the subject."
"And what subject would that be?" Ami asked curiously. "So far nobody has told me what exactly I might teach here. I have done work and published papers in a number of fields, but I somehow really don't see you hiring somebody to lecture on say theories at the cutting edge of theoretical physics if your target group are teenage girls."
"Actually it was your work in that general area that first brought you to our attention. Some of your insights into the similarities between mathematics used to describe quantum physics and ancient numerology has been especially intriguing. You even managed to get published in some of the journals traditionally more concerned with the magical side of things," the headmistress revealed holding up a copy of Arithmancy Quaterly that Ami recognized as having printed one of her letters. "I really was impressed with your analogy of reality as a computer simulation with magic spells as programs running in accordance with natural laws. That was very good. This openness to acknowledge the existence of magic while retaining the scepticism to analyse it sceptically is exactly what we are looking for in a Professor of Magical Theory here at Pretty Heart."
Professor Mizuno, teacher of magical theory sounded nice, Ami had to admit as she replied, "Won't that be far to hard and complicated for most 15 year old girls? And it is not like anybody really understands how and why magic and the universe works when you get right down to it."
"That is true nobody really has all the answers to life, the universe and everything," the headmistress agreed and than paused to add something under her breath about her father being tight-lipped and the number forty-two that Ami could not quite make out but figured was some sort of private in joke. "But we are not expecting you to give them. What we are looking for is someone who can bring some rationality and logic into a subject that is normally filled with rote-learning, instinctual understanding and superstitional mysticism. Many magical girls appear to hamper themselves with unnecessary rituals and limits that are only in their heads. I want you to give our students the ability to critical analyze themselves and their magic so that they can use their powers to the true level of their capabilities."
Ami thought that she understood. She had experience with the intuitive approach herself. A black cat telling her to say the phrase that came to her mind and then doing what came naturally. Granted she had the benefit of at least subconsciously remembering having done things like that in a previous life, but it was still not a very scientific way to go about things.
Later when she was older she had self-experimented a bit with the magic trigger words and general choreography to find out which parts where optional, helpful and necessary. The results had been surprising and unexpected but had made her feel better about a lot of the shouting, posing and introducing she had made in over the years. For all she knew even Usagi's silly speeches had some sort of positive effect — magic was strange like that.
"And you wouldn't begin with teaching 15-year-olds,"the headmistress continued referring to Ami's earlier objection. "Our classes start with the seventh grade and cover the equivalent of middle and high school so you would be teaching mostly 12-year-olds during the first year."
It made sense starting early she guessed as many magical girls seemed to start their careers when they were even younger than she had been when she first got involved in that sort of thing.
"Only 12-year-olds?" She still asked somewhat curious.
"Yes, we have decided to start things slowly," Urd informed her. "Many older girls are already active and our curriculum will be very different from schools they might visit so instead of transferring six years worth of students directly to the school we will begin with only first years and then add another year to our curriculum every year as the first class advances. It should give us time to hammer, I mean iron the bugs out of the process. We are considering offering remedial courses and evening classes for older girls."
"The teachers will certainly have the time to teach them if they only have to teach classes from a single year," Ami observed.
"There are probably only going to be very few students in our first year too," the headmistress added. "That is why some of our teachers will only be hired on a part-time basis at first like our broom riding instructor, who by the way is in no way related to me. Others will be doing multiple tasks around the academy. I hoped that you would be able to take on additional duties as an instructor of ordinary math at first since there would be quite an overlap anyway. There are also provisions for the theoretical magic professor to have time for original research in addition to lecturing. Some teachers might also be asked to act as special mentors for students in a house system we are currently thinking of implementing. So you see, you won't have to fear being bored and with too much copious free time on your hands. That is all of course, if you are actually hired."
"Setsuna seemed to imply that you have had some problems finding enough qualified teachers," Ami said a bit boldly.
"She means well," Urd admitted. "I just wish that she hadn't undermined my negotiation position like that, but I guess it is true enough that at this point we can ill afford to turn anyone away who is even remotely qualified. As the start of term approaches we will probably be forced to hire anyone interested who is not a complete and obvious fraud, otherwise criminally incompetent or secretly plotting to kill one of our students."
Some time later after a few more questions and some tough negotiations Ami left with a confident feelings that she had just landed the job. Urd had cautioned that she would have to get approval of the board of supervisors before anything was final, but she doubted that there would be any problems.
Now she had to decide what to do next. Pretty heart was an interesting place and if it was to be her future workplace she should definitely try to learn a bit more about it. She already knew where some important places where thanks to Ranma but there was still the entire rest of the amusement park turned campus left to visit.
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(Posted Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:34)
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