The Good Teacher

366  "Scholarly" Conflict

Seven teens sat awkwardly in a line with their heads lowered and hands placed squarely on their laps. Their appearance was haggard, as though they had just come out of a tussle.

"I cannot believe I'm forced to have this conversation," Guy's steely voice boomed as the door to the room swung open, and he strode in with forceful steps. "A fisticuff within the True World Sect - I thought I taught you all to be more civilised than this!"

He positioned himself against the desk before the seven and leaned against it, tapping his foot as his gaze scanned over the seven guilty miscreants.

"Well? There better be an explanation for why this happened!" Guy bellowed, causing the seven to flinch instinctively.

After a five-second pause, Casey raised her head - her face showing a wronged expression - and jabbed a finger in the direction of the three teens on the opposite end of the line, "They started it!"

"Are you kidding me?" The girl on the far end - Luce - darted off her seat and shot back a glare in retaliation. "You're the one who swatted away Krane's hand!"

"It's because it was right up against my face!" Casey snapped. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Take a step back, duh!" The boy next to Luce - Krane - interjected.

"You're the one who invaded her personal space, why must she be the one to retreat?" Lacey joined in.

"The only reason he did it was because you weren't willing to listen!" The third girl from the other end - Norris - said with a low murmur.

"That's only because your argument makes no sense!" Kevan interjected. "Why waste time listening to nonsense?!"

"Yeah! And where do you get off casting disapproval at our work?" Revian chimed in.

At this point, the silence was quickly replaced with a heated argument which was going nowhere. Just before it reached the point of insults being tossed around willy-nilly, Guy stepped forward and snapped, "Enough!"

"Look at you lot! Acting like a bunch of immature children," Guy chided.

"But Sect Leader-"

"No 'buts'!" Guy interrupted. "I'm disappointed in your behaviour! Now, it is clear that this disagreement is between two groups. So I want one person from each group to step forward and explain everything."

The teen exchanged glances before Kevan and Luce stepped forward from either side of the line. "Decide amongst yourselves who will go first. And while one person is talking, I don't want anyone to interrupt."

A silent war transpired between the two teens as all manners of weapons were ejected from their shared glare. Ultimately, Kevan lost the staring contest and Luce, after revealing a gloating smirk, cleared her throat and spoke up.

"The argument started because Krane, Norris and I believe that Kevan and his team's method to define a unit of mana was wasteful and that ours was better," Luce evoked. "But they just aren't ready to listen to any criticism. And when we tried to get them to understand, the twins over there started getting physical."

At that moment, Kevan raised his hands and tapped his feet impatiently. Seeing as Luce had nothing more to add, Guy nudged his head in Kevan's direction.

"Those three never explained why our method was wasteful. All they did was berate our methodology and results. And Krane over there started to get up close and personal with us. They started the confrontation," Kevan said angrily.

Guy nodded contemplatively before gesturing for the two to sit back in their seats. He then walked around and sat behind the desk.

"I want to start by reiterating that physical disputes between Sect members unless officially sanctioned by the Sect, are forbidden. According to the rules, there should be a 'one strike out' policy towards infractions like these," Guy emphasised, causing the metaphorical temperature of the room to drop by a few degrees. "However, there is an exception if the victim and the aggressor can come to terms - the latter apologises to the former sincerely and the former accepts the apology."

He then alternated his gaze between all the teens present, the message was clear and was received by the seven almost immediately. A light groan exited their lips simultaneously before the two groups stood and faced each other.

"""""""I'm sorry...""""""" they mumbled in unison.

"Now shake hands," Guy added, causing seven rigid hands to extend outwards. "Promise each other that you won't repeat this again- EVER!"

"""""""It won't happen again...""""""" they mumbled once again.

"After listening to both sides of the argument, I can tell you with all honesty that both sides are at fault. Kevan and the three of you, it is clear that it was you who initiated the physical aspect of your disagreement. Even if someone is instigating you and pushing you against the corner, as long as they are maintaining a verbal separation you must never raise your arms against them. Because the person who raises their hands first, loses the argument, since it proves that their perspective cannot hold any water, and they need to resort to violence to make it stick."

After seeing the four nodding in acceptance, he turned to the other three and continued, "As for you three. There is a civilised process through which we voice our disagreements and organise our criticisms. No one likes to be told that they are wrong. Doing so is the fast track to aggravating them and initiating a fight. So we need to follow a less confrontational procedure, with a lot less insults, finger-pointing, and invasion of personal space, and a lot more evidence and fact-based discussion. In your insistence to prove that you are correct, you ended up antagonising your colleagues here which is what resulted in the fight."

The other three nodded in understanding as well. "Do you understand what you did wrong?"

Once again, they all nodded in unison, to which Guy revealed a faint smile.

"Good," Guy affirmed. "Since you recognise your mistakes, I want each of you to write a letter of apology. It needs to be finished within the day itself. You will then read it out loud in front of everyone tomorrow morning."

Guy realised that such a punishment wouldn't place him in a positive light amongst the seven here. To read one's apology in public was humiliating. An apology, when sincere, is something drawn in from the deepest parts of one's emotions, as it is the active opposition of one's ego - to go against the insistence of the mind that it is correct and everyone else is wrong. But Guy had a reason for such drastic measures - he wanted to make an example out of them. As the Sect would grow in the future, there would inevitably be more such disagreements and confrontations that would end with flesh colliding against flesh. At that point, enforcing order would be much more difficult compared to now.

"Is that a problem?" Guy asked rhetorically. To that, he heard a faint chorus of, "No, sir..."

"I can't hear you!"

"""""""No, sir!"""""""

"Good!" Guy affirmed. He then brought his hands together and tapped his fingers against each other. "But this is only a stop-gap solution," he said.

"The crux of the argument still remains unresolved," Guy expounded. Then, an excited glint bloomed in his eyes as he continued, "However, we cannot reach an agreement through an unstructured approach. As scholars and civilised individuals, we need to apply structure to resolving any intellectual disagreement."

The kids exchanged confused gazes as they noticed a rise in Guy's enthusiasm the more he spoke.

"What we need, is an intellectual spar- a combat of consciousness- a proper fight where each side has a fair chance to place their perspective out into the open and allow a forum of diverse and informed audience make an objective decision on which side is right and which side is wrong, OR which side is more right and which side is less right, OR which side is wrong and which side is more wrong."

Guy sucked in a loud mouthful of air as he nearly ran out of breath by the end of that long-winded sentence. He then noticed his Sect members growing antsy, as they realised he was nearing a conclusion.

"What we need..." he paused for dramatic effect, "is a Structured Debate!"

debate, we have our panel of judges-"

09:28

"""""""Huh?"""""""

____

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for joining us on this glorious day which marks the very first, the True World Sect sanctioned, official, 'Unearthing the Truth!' - the first structured debate of its kind!" Guy orated excitedly. His voice echoed across the large classroom, where he stood up front by a podium at the centre of a raised stage. To the right and to the left, were two diagonal rows occupied by the two opposing sides.

In front of the platform, there were multiple rows of seats filled with audience members from the Sect.

"Today, on Unearthing the Truth, we have two sides clashing on the point of defining the Mana Unit. To my right-" he said as he extended his arm to his right, "We have Kevan, Revian, Casey and Lacey. Who stands behind their published definition: The amount of mana required when displacing one cubic centimetre of distilled water to raise the temperature of one-hundredth cubic centimetre of alchemically pure Enthermis Fluid by one Kelvin using the |Firestarter| spell. From this point onwards, their stance shall be in favour of Definition 1."

"And to my left-" he extended his arm to the left, "We have Luce, Krane and Norris supporting the definition derived from their 'under consideration' report: The amount of mana required to produce one cubic-centimetre of pure, distilled water using the |Water Spout| spell under standard temperature and pressure (STP). From this point onwards, their stance shall be in favour of Definition 2."

"I shall be the unbiased moderator of this debate," Guy said while tapping his chest. "To assess the debate, we have our panel of judges-"

At the front of the crowd, in a long row, sat Markus, Marie, Shuri and Krish. The teen stood up and gave a perfunctory bow to the audience, while the older man tilted his head back and cast a glance at the audience.

"Of course. The verdict cast by the judges isn't the only deciding factor, as the vote from you - the audience - holds a fractional one-thirtieth weightage."

Guy let the situation stew for a minute before clearing his throat.

"Without further ado, let us begin this debate with the first member from my right introducing their stance!"

Amidst light applause, Kevan anxiously stood up, corrected his clothes and approached the vacated podium with a sheet of paper in his hand.

Word Count: 1796

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