The next day, after Schiller finishes his class, as usual, he collects the assignments on time. Today, he notices that all 32 assignments are handed in and, judging by their thickness, it seems like they have written enough words.
He finds this somewhat strange. Although he has been pushing them to submit their assignments, there would usually be one or two students who don't turn them in. Among the students who hand, many of them are simply trying to deceive him by writing just two pages with a bunch of blank papers in between, or by copying some random article.
But this time, as he stands at the podium and skims through the assignments, he discovers that everyone has actually written their essays seriously. Although some are not well-written and clearly have never written an essay before, they are at least making an effort to stick to the topic. Even though their wording resembles a desperate illiterate, they are trying their best to stay on topic.
The students hold their breath as they see him going through the assignments. Usually, at this moment, when class is about to end, students start packing up. But now, no one makes a move and everyone obediently stays in their seats, waiting for Schiller's orders.
The reason for this situation is simple. Last night, the whole class known that Schiller had gone directly to Gotham's underground king, Falcone, to retrieve the assignments from Evans.
In the era before Batman, let's call it the "pre-Batman era" for now, the one with the most influence and power in Gotham is Falcone, along with his twelve mafia families under his rule.
How big is the influence of these mafia families? Sal Maroni, who rules the East District, is just a lapdog for the Lauren family. And the Lauren family ranks near the bottom of the twelve .
At the top is the Falcone family, and the old Godfather Falcone has the final say among the twelve families.
In this era, you might not know who the mayor is or even who Bruce Wayne is, but you have to know Falcone and the surnames of the other twelve mafia families. Otherwise, you won't survive one night in Gotham.
Since the news that Schiller had gone to the Godfather's house to retrieve the assignments spread, it is believed that the process of making up last night was quite thrilling for all the students.
Rarely,Schiller is happy. He speaks with a cheerful tone, "The situation with the assignments looks optimistic this time. It seems like everyone has written them quite seriously. After I finish grading these, I will add ten extra points to everyone's regular score. For those who have written particularly well, if you have the intention to pursue postgraduate studies, I'm pleasure to see you in my office to discuss recommendation letters..."
As a result, enthusiastic applause suddenly erupts in the classroom, whether it is for the rewards Schiller mentioned or for their own lucky escape.
And all of this is witnessed by Sheldon.
Sheldon is a persistent person, or in other words, inflexible. If he has targeted someone, he will find ways to trip them up. Although Schiller's firm attitude prevents him from taking immediate action, he has been looking for an opportunity.
As the president, Sheldon has access to the surveillance cameras in all the classrooms of Gotham University, allowing him to observe teachers during their lectures. This feature becomes Sheldon's best method of monitoring Schiller.
In the following days, all the students in Schiller's class remain as quiet docile as lambs. Evans takes over the role of class monitor, collecting, submitting, and distributing assignments every day, maintaining classroom discipline. The teaching environment is orderly, with no faults to be found.
This leads Sheldon to a misunderstanding.
Back when he worked in the academic affairs office at Princeton, most students were at this level. After coming to Gotham University, he has been busy gain a firm foothold and hasn't taken the initiative to get to know the students. In his view, doing homework is students' bounden duty. Although Gotham University's ranking is not as high as Princeton's, it seems like the students' quality isn't that bad either.
At least, that is the case in Schiller's class.
Sheldon only focuses on observing Schiller's class, and in his class, all the students are quiet, and they complete their study tasks quite well, which makes Schiller's teaching arrangements go smoothly.
So Sheldon has a new idea.
It is well known that his campus prohibition on alcohol has reached an awkward position.
Currently, most of the people willing to follow this plan have already turned in their alcohol. But those who are not willing are the stubborn ones. This group would rather resist with guns than let the school interfere with their right to drink.
Students can resist with guns. But Sheldon, as the president, can't force the students not to drink with a gun. He is not a local, and his thinking is still in a civilized society. So this plan reaches a quite awkward position and can't continue to be implemented.
Realizing that they don't respond to stick, Sheldon wants to offer them carrot.
Before being appointed as an administrator, Sheldon is also a professor. He graduates from Oxford University with a major in modern literature and has taught at the University of California and Metropolitan University.
Sheldon believes,in order to control Gotham University, he has to get along well with the students. Just like Harvey, who is welcomed by everyone, it is also a good approach.
Therefore, he wants to teach a course himself.
Coincidentally, Gotham University has almost no humanities departments, only one teacher for basic literature courses. Literature and philosophy have not been recruited for many years. This cursed place really has no fertile ground for them.
Revive the literature department and lead the revival of humanities. If he can recruit a group of students taught by himself, then he will have his own faction at this school. That is Sheldon's plan.
And Sheldon sees Schiller as capable, so he believes that he can do it too.
Although he is a university professor, the teaching process is not much different from that of elementary school. Sheldon is like the one watching game videos, looking at Schiller giving lectures through the surveillance cameras, feeling easy and thinking he can do better.
Schiller's classroom procedure is nothing more than entering the classroom, waiting for the students to sit down, and then taking out the textbook to start the lesson. There will be one or two discussion sessions in between. After the discussion, either Schiller will ask questions or representatives from the groups will speak. After the speeches, he will summarize and then talk about something else. When it is almost time to end the class, he will collect the homework. The beginning of the next class will include a discussion of the homework.
This is how university classes are in the 20th century, without any fancy PowerPoint. Most teachers stick to the script, especially for subjects like psychology that require a lot of memorization. Without thoroughly explaining the textbook, there is no hope of understanding anything.
This process seems quite easy in the video of the class. With the students' cooperation, they can even finish the learning objectives ahead of time. When it is almost time to end the class, they can even chat for a while.
After the students start to become unusually obedient, Schiller is willing to chat with them about the notorious murderers he has encountered in the past, although he can't remember many details due to his amnesia. However, this legendary experience still fascinates these young students. They find that this strict professor indeed has his remarkable side.
When the establishment of the literature department is announced, Sheldon fires the teacher of the basic literature course and takes the place to start teaching himself.
Like most players only watching game videos, he feels that he can do it too while watching the videos, judging and giving orders in god's perspective. However, once he actually enters the game, he will mostly be killed repeatedly, prompting him to quit and ask for a refund at most three seconds.
Sheldon is no exception.
After starting to teach, he realizes that Schiller's classroom is completely an illusion. There aren't any obedient students here. Basic literature courses are similar to basic psychology courses in that they require a lot of memorization and writing essays.
During the first assignment, out of dozens of students in the class, only two hand in their work, and one of them only writes half of the required word count.
Sheldon takes on his tough politician style and vehemently condemns this behavior of not submitting assignments. So during the second time, no one hands in their work.
If the science subjects like mathematics and physics,have some students inherently interested in them.For basic literature course,there wouldn't be any Gotham University students who would actually pay attention to , which is really tedious and boring.
Students do whatever they want in class. Sleeping is already considered a relatively good hobby, eating snacks, chatting loudly, pressing game controller noisily, and even taking drugs in public.
No matter how Sheldon shouts, no one pays him any attention. Even if he gets so frustrated that he storms out of the classroom, it only turns the class into a disorderly self-study.
Sheldon similarly doesn't understand Gotham. If he does, he will know that the students are already doing well enough. The people who can attend university in this city already have a high-enough level of quality.
In this city, there are no students threatening classmates with guns, no physical bombings of schools, no kidnapping of teachers and professors. The students in Gotham are already worthy citizens of this city.
But Sheldon is quickly getting infuriated by them.
Especially since many students know that Sheldon is the one who implements the damn alcohol prohibition, they begin to protest in his classes. Someone brings a whole box of champagne, opens it at the front row, and sprays Sheldon with it, drenching him in alcohol. They even organize drinking parties in class.
Sheldon shouts that he will deduct their grades and expel them. But this group of people don't care any more. Sheldon expels two students, and the remaining students become even more unruly. The result is that on a dark night, while walking on campus, Sheldon is hit on the head by two bottles thrown from the bushes and ends up in the hospital.
He doesn't understand why the students in Schiller's class, who behave like meek chicks, turn into crazy extremists in his class.
Perhaps he just hasn't heard Schiller say a sentence here: "Only criminals can deal with criminals."