fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Monday

Ender preferred to keep his classes outside when the weather allowed for it at all. As the temperatures were decent and it didn't look like it was going to rain just yet, he took the class outside to the dorm lawn where he sat down on the ground. "Sit down in a circle, please."

He had a bag of sandwiches and a bag of bottles of water with him, which he put in the middle of the circle.

"Welcome," he said. "My name is Andrew Wiggin. I'm an alumnus of this school; I graduated several years ago." That was all they needed to know, as far as he was concerned. "And you might be wondering what you signed on for."

"While 'philosophy' is in my class's title, we're not here primarily to talk about the philosophers of old or the specifics of particular lines of thought in philosophy. In this class, we try to put our own experiences into a greater perspective through conversation and debate. That means I expect some level of participation from all of you."

This was the part where he smiled, at least a little. "That doesn't mean you always need to speak up about yourself," he said. "No topics are everything to everyone. If that week's subject veers too close to something you want to keep private, be my guest - just try and pitch in when someone else speaks. Ask questions."

"Because that's the point of this class: to ask questions of ourselves and of the people around us. You can even ask questions of me, if you feel the need. And maybe together we can get to the core of our joint and individual experiences." His mouth quirked a bit more. "That doesn't mean we're always going to be lingering on the existential questions - or staring at our belly buttons. It just means we're going to try and dig and come to some understanding about each other, ourselves, and the world."

He picked up a bottle of water. "As for today, let's open a dialogue," he said. "For some of you, this is all new. How is it working for you? Are you elated? Annoyed? Don't want to be here? Achingly happy to be here? And for those of you who aren't - how has the past year treated you? Has there been anything that made you cry or made you think or made you wonder?"

"We can talk about that. Or you can bring up something else you feel is worth questioning. You can assume from here on in that I really don't know a thing; but maybe by educating me, you can find something worth educating yourself about."

He paused, then nodded at the surly tattooed youth also sitting in the circle. "That's your TA, by the way. His name is Cade."

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"That's quite a problem to have," Ender said lightly. "I imagine your differences with their approach aren't just philosophical."

"They aren't, but I like to think I'd see how wrong it was even if it didn't concern me personally," Anders said slowly.

"What's the rationale behind trapping your people?" Ender asked.

"We're a risk," Anders answered. "Of course, everyone is a risk -- you should see all the idiots wandering around with swords -- but the theory is that left unguarded, mages will try to take over."

He added, for the sake of balance, "To be fair, mages do need training, and the Circle's not bad for that. But that's the only good thing about it."

Anders made it seem fairly straightforward, but then the righteous usually did. "What would your alternative be?" Ender asked.

Anders took a moment to answer, trying to come up with something that didn't sound like he was going off half-cocked. (The righteousness, sadly, was inescapable.)

"Maybe require a few years of school, but once we're tested and found fit, let us go and live our lives like anyone else," he suggested. "If we hurt anyone, deal with it then. Don't assume we're all guilty ahead of time."

"Innocent unless proven guilty is one of the better ways to avoid systemic abuse," Ender agreed. "Though it's not unusual for fear to prompt people to leave that one behind in the dust."

"Not at all," Anders agreed unhappily. "There are places where mages are in charge. We're told things are terrible there and that's part of the reason we need the Circle, but I always wonder how much of that is just propaganda."

Tevinter didn't sound that bad, aside from the slavery and the blood magic.

Practical Philosophy, Monday

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