Page 16 of Kranow (Brides of the Mylos #4)
Commander Gundar wasted no time in arranging for Marley to meet in person with Charlotte. Shortly after lunch the next day, she found herself in a conference room sitting across from the teacher.
“ Ideally, I should have met with you during your arbitration meeting or soon after, ” Charlotte said with a look of regret, “ but I was back Earthside. It was my parents ’ twenty-fifth anniversary and my sisters, brother, and I threw them a bash. My brother Kieran is the landlord for a pub so we made good use of it. ”
“ Oh, well, that ’ s a big one. Anniversary, I mean. You definitely should have been there rather than here, ” Marley reassured her. “ So, where about is the pub located? In England, I presume. ” Marley thought that a reasonable guess, given that Charlotte had an English accent and used the word pub instead of bar.
“ In Camden Town. That ’ s an area of London, ” Charlotte replied, smoothing down her tunic. “ Quite famous for punks, Goths, and the market, plus it ’ s a pretty trendy area to live these days. It ’ s a gastro-pub serving fancy hand-made burgers and micro-brewed ales. He gets a lot of locals in as well as tourists. ”
“ Wow. That sounds so cool. ”
Charlotte smiled at her. “ Now, I asked if you could start straightaway as this term will be the first one in the new schoolrooms here onboard. The class will be small, there ’ re only six children currently enrolled for our Kindergarten. I read your CV and I know you taught at an American elementary school, but I doubt it was anything like what we ’ ll be doing here. We will be teaching children aged four to seven. Three of the children are siblings and along with one other child, live here aboard this vessel with their Mylos families. ”
“ And the other two children? ”
Charlotte smiled. “ They are the children of two families recently separated from the military. They will be arriving later this week. One family will be coming here from Arizona and the other California. The family from Arizona was Army and the one from California was Navy, from what I understand. I thought we could incorporate some things from the lives of the children into our classroom decorations by doing a bulletin board of methods of transport. Cars, ships, planes, helicopters, ships, trains, Mylos shuttle craft, and so on. ”
“ With the helicopters and ships being military craft. ”
“ And some not. I am thinking of a mural sized installation. I call it a bulletin board but that ’ s not really accurate. Commander Gundar had a large section of two walls recovered so we could use the wall itself as a bulletin board. ”
Marley stared. “ Wow, when the commander goes, he goes large. ”
Charlotte nodded vigorously, her gold hoops swaying. “ He certainly does. ”
Marley shifted in her seat. “ With the spread of ages that we ’ ll have, how are we going to handle reading and math? Are we going to split them off into smaller groups? ”
Charlotte leaned forward excitedly. “ Oh, no. That ’ s not how the Mylos do things at all. It ’ s all rather exciting! It ’ s sort of a mash up of different styles and more than a little old school. ” She clapped her hands together. “ It ’ s all hands on learning. Oh, there will be counting games and such and story time and the children are free to pick up picture books to look at by themselves, but for the most part, it ’ s guided play. We concentrate on citizenship ideals, such as helping, getting to know the roles of adults in society, such as the commander, security, and so on. Finger painting, building with blocks, playing with clay, exploring the habitat zones with magnifying glasses, that sort of thing. ”
“ So, no phonics? ” Marley asked faintly.
“ The ABC song and there will be an hour after lunch for rest. The children will be read a story and encouraged to nap. For those who cannot sleep, the parents elected to have Xero play Sesame Street and Mr. Roger ’ s recordings, in original broadcast date order. Tuesdays and Thursdays are set aside for Mylos language instruction. On those days, focus will be on Mylos culture and language specifically. ”
“ You speak Mylos? ” Marley was in awe.
Charlotte shook her head. “ Sadly no. But Xero does, and we will be learning some basic words and phrases alongside the children. The children ’ s programming on those days will be dubbed in Mylos as well. The commander is also having the ships ’ AIs create dubbed versions of Scooby Doo and the most requested children ’ s films. It ’ s all part of the licensing deal the Fleet has, so is all above board. Anyway, ” she continued, “ three months into the school year, the children will be given the dubbed only versions, to help immerse themselves, and those with Mylos parents are being asked to speak to them in Mylos. Lunch and breakfast on those days will feature meals from the Mylos worlds, including different areas of Earth. ”
Yikes. That sounds intense, but then, the kids will probably pick the language up faster that way and most of them are citizens of Mylos so they really should learn the language and culture.
Charlotte stood up. “ Would you like to see our classrooms? ” Marley jumped up from her seat.
“ I ’ d love to! ”
“ Come on then, let ’ s go give them a good look over together and get started on firming up our design ideas for the walls. ” Marley eagerly followed the other woman out the door.