This Shared Dream (28 page)

The ubiquitous Bill Anderson—though on what departmental pretense he’d invited himself, she couldn’t imagine—stepped into the room and took a seat. He smiled at Jill and she responded with a brief nod, turning to greet representatives from several large philanthropic foundations.

With everyone seated, she thanked them for coming. “This project has required extraordinary cooperation among all of you, as well as years of hard work. You have united unique contributions from many disciplines. The learning environments you have created will bring cheap, effective, science-based education to many underserved children of the world.

“We have already processed loans for five thousand schools, worldwide. Many more are in the queue, and Ms. Danvers”—she nodded toward Clarissa—“is supervising that process. Her department is streamlining the process, due to the huge demand. Once more schools are up and running, we anticipate many more requests. I wish to thank Pacifico Akbay, from Manila, for his work in developing an excellent network to get this information out. We’ve had articles on Q and in all the major newspapers, worldwide, for over six months, as well as a very well-translated pod special.”

“What about the private sector?” asked Hoshi Katsu. “If you’ve seen my memo from last week, you’ll see that we are dealing with several different developments. We’ve had requests from Sydney, Kyoto, Beijing, London, and so on, for these schools. Generally, they don’t fit the parameters for determination of need.”

Jill said, “Dr. Lahaoud?”

Dr. Lahaoud stood and said, “The CEO of the nonprofit handling detailed coordination of development and distribution was delayed by weather in France, but should be here just as soon as the meeting is over.” Laughter. “However, we’re developing a sliding scale, so that those who can pay will, for the prefab school, or the plans, if they wish to give work to local manufacturers. The bookkeeping is rather complicated, but I can safely say that it looks as if we may not have to make as many loans as originally projected. Peripheral problems are arising in more urban environments regarding teachers’ unions—although there aren’t many unions serving preschool teachers—and schools already in business, which aren’t pleased about this competition. These are not our problems, but I just wanted to bring them to your attention.”

“I have a question about pedagogy,” said a slim young woman at one end of the table. “If this holographic technology is so powerful, how can we keep totalitarian, religious fundamentalists, or any party with a political agenda from using these schools for indoctrination?”

Jill responded, “I don’t believe we can. This is not a new idea, and no one can regulate the uses of technology. However, the holographic children are simply there to give children nonverbal cues about how the materials are to be used. The materials themselves are the compelling aspect of the environment, and they, by themselves, keep small children occupied and concentrating for hours on end. I’m not sure that most youngsters would sit around and listen to a holographic child talking about religion. But it’s an open question, a possibility. Yes?”

A woman from Tasmania said, “Lately there have been studies linking video games containing violence to increased actual violent actions by children and teens, and some of that income is being used to support the schools. Isn’t this a possible public relations problem?”

Jill said, “The Bank has not underwritten nor developed this visual technology. We’re merely licensed to use it, and we will use it only as it is laid out in the plans. I’ll let our Hollywood representative have a word.”

Jan, the holographic developer, wore a simple jacket over a black T-shirt. “We appreciate this latest research.” He nodded, and sat down.

The woman said, “Could anyone reprogram this?”

The young man said, “Not just anyone, but there are hackers everywhere. But what’s the worst they could do—make the holographic children throw things? Show them hitting other children? Kids see that every day.”

The woman frowned.

The man said, “I think what you’re worried about is the potency of these visual technologies. It’s very true that they carry a lot of import in the developing brain, from what I’ve learned while working on this project. But this technology is simply not limited to schools. It’s in arcades. Possibly, even, training camps for soldiers. This is just an innovative and positive use of it. We appreciate the opportunity to give back to the community in a positive way.”

After all the questions were answered, at least for the time being, Jill continued, “Your Q packet includes all the visualizations I will show, evaluation forms concerning performance of your own developmental modules and how well they are, in your opinion, interfacing with the other modules, a mechanism to provide critiques and feedback and discuss incorporation of the feedback into the 1.3 module currently in use, and, just as important, feedback from the thirty communities that have, in the past month, completed setup and have children in the schools. Tomorrow we will have workshops to go over the results and decide where to go from there.”

Dr. Lahaoud took the floor. “I want to congratulate all of you on a job well done. We have had an enthusiastic response to the schools, and very few problems with assembly in any of the communities. In your packet is a list of the questions and problems presented to the remote consultants. I’d like all of you to review your area in detail as to why the problems might have occurred, and propose solutions.”

Jill moved on to her favorite part: the visuals of the geodesic schools.

“Our first school was set up in Kathmandu. Already, the country is asking for more. In Nepal, the population is scattered and sparse; a village might consist of only a few families. If we can get our costs down, it would be nice to be able to have smaller versions in these communities.

“You see how easily the foundation is assembled by this crew of ten, in just one day. The rest of the building took another two weeks to finish, but that included all electrical and plumbing connections as well as installation of the holographic projection panels.

“Our team has, in the past six months, trained thirty ‘ambassadors,’ one of whom flew to Kathmandu and introduced the school, the theory, and how it functions to community leaders, adults who wished to work in the school, and the parents and children. She was there for a week. She evaluated the learning style of each perspective teacher or aide and gave them appropriate orientation and learning modules, which included written material, theory, videos, interactive material, and holographic training situations. Most applicants competently completed self-administered tests and were then able to improve their performance. She spent four days in the classroom with the children and the adults. She introduced them to the concept of the holographic children. The developmental feedback included in every piece of equipment, coded to each individual child in the environment, seemed to work particularly well.”

The Montessori consultant from Tanzania asked, “Can the children now turn off the holographic child when they no longer need it?”

Jan said, “Yes, we added a small red square on the shelf in front of each piece of equipment, so the child can do that herself.”

The Tanzanian professor said, “We will continue to monitor, through videos, how well the materials record, how long they are used, which children are using them, and how well the materials are doing in helping children refine a particular motor or sensory skill. This will also help pinpoint learning styles and learning problems, such as dyslexia or more subtle problems, including mental health issues and areas of giftedness.” She smiled. “Several grad students are doing very well in devising evaluative protocol as they monitor and compare.”

The WHO doctor said, “How did the parents and children respond to the vaccinations and the blood and urine tests?”

Jill skipped to the physical exam portion of the video. “There were plenty of technicians and nurses in Kathmandu who volunteered to help, and we gave parents the option of going through the steps themselves with their child. The children didn’t seem to mind the blood prick on their finger or the vaccinations; I guess the technology has done away with any pain. Most of the children found the vision and hearing tests quite attractive. The toilets in the schools, of course, collect information constantly and Q remarkable or anomalous results to your centers.”

Her molecular engineering expert from India, who had worked on using the latest developments in nanotechnology, impatiently tapped her pen on the table. Jill smiled and invited her to give her Q-School presentation. She hoped it might put a bug in people’s minds; it was actually, in her own mind, the next phase of her project, but the most controversial one, because nanotechnology, strictly and exhaustively defined in legal jargon, was a hot-button issue, along with genetic engineering, in most of the world.

“Hello. I am Dr. Singh.” Her long black hair reflected the glow of the visual projections.

“Please understand, first, that what may seem a radical vision to you is simply my contribution to a peace think tank I’m currently involved in. While it is respectful of children, who now have an internationally agreed-upon right to education, it is not respectful of the propensity of governments, municipalities, religions, or individuals to control, as they still can and do, the intellectual and emotional growth of their citizens, whether by design, ignorance, unwillingness to fund education, or fear. I think of this as being one component, and perhaps the most powerful, of a campaign against war itself, which feeds on ignorance, poverty, slavery, and individual powerlessness.

“Imagine a seed, about the size of a soybean, stuffed with artificial DNA”— in quick succession she showed slides of the composition of the “seeds,” with sidebars about how each stage of growth worked, adding that they were all in the Q—“shipped to any place of need in the world. Where necessary, all applicable property rights will have been procured.”

Jill thought that there would be a lot of questions about how the activists who now dropped classbooks all over the world might well get hold of these seeds, but everyone was absorbed by the presentation.

Dr. Singh showed a time-lapse video of the seed actually growing, which, she said with a smile, had been filmed in an undisclosed location. “Once exposed to sun, or rain, or cold, or heat—for it will be equipped to respond and thrive in all kinds of conditions, depending on what it encounters, much like we are—it will begin to grow. It will put down supporting roots, which draw building nutrients from the soil, adhere to solid rock or concrete and grow using solar energy, or elevate the ground floor above an area prone to seasonal flooding.

“Through the conversion of solar energy into sugars, it produces the carbon nanotubes that will, in a matter of weeks, turn into a classroom in Afghanistan, in Darfur, or in any American inner city, small town, or rural community. They are merely an extension of the present international Montessori network, but they will reach into hard-to-serve areas.

“Parents will like them, because they’ll keep children occupied. I would like to think that governments will welcome them, for there are no politics involved in learning the correct scientific names of the plants, insects, and animals in your environment, or learning the signs for the phonemes, which make up one’s language and using hand-eye coordination exercises to activate the neuronal pathways of memory.

“Certainly, I can imagine armies hacking at such disturbing manifestations. But my schools will be very difficult to destroy. They will grow back quickly. They will know how close other classrooms are, and how many are needed for the local population, so there will not be too many, or too few. They are, actually bulletproof, and their irising doors shut when stimulated by the pheromones of rage or fear, keeping out those who might seek to kidnap or rape the children inside, at which time Q alerts the necessary authorities. At the same time, the community will have access to information about the schools, and the panels are transparent so that no one need fear that anything untoward is happening to their child inside. Each of you has a copy of this presentation in your packet to peruse at your convenience; an open-source forum is also up and running so that we can incorporate innovations. For instance, we’ve had a lot of questions about toileting, and you can see the present provisions for help and supervision.

“We can also set up inexpensive self-teaching modules that afford literacy, mathematics, and Internet access to vast portions of the world, and help them understand that the possibilities and opportunities that we take for granted are available. If temporary brain plasticity for adults is eventually developed, so much the better. Mindful evolution seems a far better alternative than mindless conflict.”

She sat down to applause, although Jill noticed that some attendees looked pensive.

Jan, the virtual designer, said, “I can think of places in this country that need these schools. For instance, Los Angeles.”

Jill said, “Thank you, Dr. Singh. There is an open forum on our website for discussion of issues raised by this concept. There are many hurdles to its creation, if that ever occurs, and many refinements after that, I’m sure.”

The meeting ended on a high note, Dr. Lahaoud congratulated her on a job well done, and Bill Anderson slipped from the room like a ghost.

With Several Characters

June 1

I
T WAS SATURDAY MORNING
, early.

Like a loosed arrow, Whens ran up the stairs, lodging his bare feet into hollows worn in the wood stairs. “Mama,” he shouted, when he reached the landing, and shoved open her door, which stuck, with both hands and all his might.

She was a small lump on a huge bed, a distant, flower-covered mountain ridge, and she did not move.

He took off like a rocket—he
was
a rocket—and landed on top of her, clinging, now a small crab, arms and legs clasped tight. “MOM!”

She pushed her arms from beneath the sheet, grabbed him around the waist. “Get in here! Where are your clothes?”