Posted March 2, 2020, 4:43 p.m. by Civilian Alexander Michael Knowles (Head of Education and Culture) (Russell Watt)
Alexander entered the staff room alongside the Rabbitus Memorial School Principal and sat in a chair to the Principal’s left. He was here to meet the staff of the school and to introduce himself to them. Some of the staff were there already chatting in small groups, others were arriving, and some were completing duties following the school day.
The staff were drawn from species from across the Federation and beyond. A pair of bynars, in charge of IT systems were sitting together, and nearby a klingon, who by his attire could only be a gym teacher was involved in an animated discussion with the Cardassian female next to him. A Vulcan, her hair perfectly in place and her uniform pristine, unlike those of her colleagues sat alone, a padd in front of her, and it looked to Alexander that she was ready for the meeting.
More beings entered the staff room, and then eventually the principal, an Andorian rose to his feet. The chatter died down to a brief murmur and then the final teachers also fell silent and every set of eyes, including the three eyed Trimax and the teacher who had one eye covered with an eye patch, and to Alexander looked like he could be a pirate, fell on the principal.
“Teachers,” thank you for coming, began the Andorian, “a few notes from me before handing things over to our guest. 0100101 and 1011010 advise me that some of you have yet to update to the latest security protocols for workstations in your rooms. This must be done in the next two weeks, or the system won’t recognise you any more. Shalis and Valexa,” that was the Vulcan teacher that Alexander had noticed earlier and a Romulan that Alexander now saw was sitting alongside her, “your combined class’ choir presenting a selection of Romulan and Vulcan Opera Classics was impressive and enjoyed by all. Considering you teach lower middle score, that is impressive. Well done. You would all be aware that the cross country races is next week. Duty assignments for the day are posted for all of you on the subspace message system. Klagh and the rest of his staff in PE have been working hard on this, so be where you need to be ahead of your appointed time. “
The Andorian paused and looked at his padd, “that’s it from me. Adrianna, Jevro, anything from either of you?” A portly, middle aged human woman sitting to the other side of the Bolian and a male Trill sitting next to her shook their heads in turn, and the Principal said, “well, in that case, let’s move on. We are joined by the colony’s Head of Education and Culture, Alexander Knowles. He is working on PhD studies at the moment and is here to study all of us and our working relationship. He studied at Griffith University on Earth, having completed Educational and Organisational Management in the areas of both pedagogy and andragogy at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level. His current study is being supervised by Dr Solark of Vulcan and is a mouthful to pronounce, so I’ll let him tell you about it. Mr Knowles, I yield the floor to you.”
Alexander rose to his feet and thanked the principal. He then looked around at those assembled, and said, “good afternoon colleagues. I am still a teacher at heart and I know at the end of the day you are probably all exhausted, so I won’t keep you long. My wife Razza and myself are happy to be here. Karlos is our 13 year old son, and is rather moody, as is the case with all at that age of their development. Whether he is happy or not to be here depends on how he’s feeling at any given time.”
That was met with a slight chuckle from some in the room
“My study, as Principal Bohrahr announced, is what brought me here. The vacancy as your Education and Culture head means I can do something more useful than just study while I’m here. My thesis is a mouthful and titled ‘Longitudinal Studies across Cohorts of Xenological and other Cross Cultural Students in the Development of a Theory of Ethnomethodological Approach to Andragogical and Pedagogical approach to Education’, which basically means I look at how different groups of students learn as children and as adults and the practices and norms they exhibit while learning. Oed V is a good place for such a research project because Oed V is a melting pot of species of the alpha and beta quadrants as exhibited by the diversity of the staff in this room.”
“I look forward to meeting with you all as time and your workloads permit and to learning from yourselves and your students. Now, I know that some of you at least must be sick of this meeting and be wanting to return to your homes so you can plan future days and mark assessments, so, I will let you go. Thank you for your attendance and for paying attention.” Alexander said.
Within moments the room was emptied, until there was just Alexander, Bohrahr, Adrianna and Jevro remaining.
“You didn’t tell them the other news,” Bohrahr noted to Alexander.
“I didn’t want to scare them too early,” Alexander explained, “I want them to know me before I announce that, it might lessen the shock.”
“It didn’t for us, Mr Knowles,” Adrianna retorted.
Bohrahr, Adrianna and Jevro left, leaving Alexander alone with his thoughts.
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