"Well, how do you handle that?" I asked. "How do you punish them? And why do they want to kill you in the first place?"
"To answer your last question first, they hate us for living so differently from them," she replied. "As for punishing them, of course, we don't. We're careful, therefore, to let only those who have attained at least second-level awareness visit Micro Island, and even they are protected by telepathic communication with a level nine or ten."
"You said it had been three years since anyone died in the 7th triad. Was that last death here or on Micro Island?" I asked.
"On Micro Island," she responded. "It does happen occasionally, but more often than not, it happens to the older students who ask not to be protected."
"Good God!" I exclaimed. "Why would they do that?"
"For the same reason that the great Macro philosopher tutor, Jesus, permitted himself to be crucified-to show micro man that the soul of man transcends his body," was her explanation.
I shook my head. "I never could see that bit about getting killed or crucified just to show others you aren't afraid of death."
"I think there's more to it than that," Carol said, "but right now we'd better give our attention to finding your younger brother and sister."
As we walked the short distance to the recreation learning area of triads three and four I wondered about the necessity of assigning older students to supply the caring relationship of a special brother and sister to each younger child.
Carol picked up my thoughts. "It probably isn't as important now since we would provide this relationship even if we weren't assigned it. But when the Macro society began there were not as many highly evolved souls who could telepathically tune in to the needs of others so, in order not to miss anyone, elder brothers and sisters were assigned to all students. Then, as our Personal Evolution tutoring system developed, elder brothers and sisters were assigned only to the first four triads."
"Speaking of tutoring," I said, "how does it work? What's the difference between that and teaching?"
"First of all," Carol replied, "we here in 2150 do not believe in the ancient concept of teaching where students passively absorbed or blocked out what a teacher was desperately trying to give them. We, therefore, have no teachers.
"We believe learning to be an active process where one person reaches out and takes knowledge stimulated by his interaction with a resource person."
"So you feel knowledge can only be taken, not given," I summarized.
"Yes. Now, to answer your question, resource persons are specialists in learning areas such as agriculture, ecology, or bio-physics, for example, while Personal Evolution tutors deal with all learning and all human problems."
"It sounds like you think resource people know all about something and your P.E. tutors know all about everything. Do you really believe that's possible?" I asked.
Carol was amused by my skepticism. "It depends on what you mean by, 'know all about everything.' To the extent that our tutors have attained moments of total Macro contact awareness, they do know everything. But knowing the answers to all questions and living these answers are two different things.
"Even a Macro person cannot live a perfectly balanced Macro life," she added. "We just haven't evolved to a state of constant Macro awareness yet. When we reach that state of evolution we will have outgrown our need for a physical body-even a Macro one!"
"All right," I said, "what you're saying, then, is that you have tutors who can supply all the answers, but that the real problem is not finding the answers but putting these answers into practice in your daily life living them. The same age-old problem."
I went on, "If you only have 127 level tens and 3,306 level nines, and since they serve as your leaders, this must leave you with a real shortage of tutors."
"Oh, no," Carol assured me, "there's no shortage, because all persons in levels six and above function as P.E. tutors. This includes thirty million sixes and three million sevens as well as the thirty-nine hundred eights." (See C.I. Data Excerpts.)
I did some quick mental arithmetic. "That makes 33,003,900 tutors, so there are less than ten pupils per tutor. Still, if everyone saw a Personal Evolution tutor every day there would be no time at all for the level sixes, sevens, and eights to do anything but tutor. That doesn't sound like much of a life. Don't they get tired of all that?"
"I can see where that would be a tiresome existence," she answered. "Fortunately, it's not that bad at all. You see, only students see a tutor every day, and even that isn't required. The vast majority of our Macro society doesn't visit with a P.E. tutor more than once a week."
As she finished speaking we entered the thousand-square-yard recreation learning area of the 3rd and 4th triads. I was impressed by the tremendous activity going on for as far as I could see. There were at least thirty tennis courts, three football and soccer fields, and all kinds of gym equipment. There were also tracks and swimming pools with meets in progress in each area. I turned to Carol and commented, "It seems to me there are a lot more triads out there than just the 3rd and 4th."
"That's because the 5th and 7th triads are assigned to the 3rd triad, and the 6th is assigned to the 4th," she explained.
"Oh, that's right, the older brother and sister system," I replied. "But why are two triads assigned to the 3rd? Do they need extra attention for some reason?"
"Actually," Carol answered, "It's the first two triads that get the most attention. We use the 3rd and 4th triads for the 5th and 6th and 7th triads to practice developing their skill at maintaining a helping relationship with someone younger."
"It seems that helping someone is the most highly honored achievement in the Macro society," I observed.
Carol nodded, saying, "That's why our P.E. tutors occupy our most respected social positions and provide our top leadership."
"In the 20th century," I said, "we valued the entertainment profession more than any other, I guess, for we gave our most valuable rewards-money and fame-to entertainers like movie or TV celebrities or sports stars."
"That's because micro man's life is so miserable that he uses any sort of entertainment to escape," Carol explained, "so, naturally, entertainers would be paid more than anyone else."
"You know," I reflected, "that doesn't say much for the value we placed on education, does it? Teaching was one of our lowest-paid professions."
"That's true, Jon," Carol ' responded. "Micro man placed very little importance on education. Your schools, therefore, were often filled with inadequately prepared teachers who were expected to teach their students how to memorize facts and detail instead of how to think creatively. Much time was spent on subjects which were of little use to the average person, such as foreign languages, algebra, and higher mathematics, while most learning programs gave little or no attention to the most important subject of all-human behavior and life philosophy. I group these two together because man's behavior is always the result of his beliefs, that is, his philosophy of life."
As she completed this observation a boy and girl ran up to her and wrapped their arms around her. They looked strong and healthy and, like all other Macro society children, they possessed great physical beauty. I was thinking that they must have had about 10 years when I received Carol's telepathic message that they were both just 7. She telepathically teased me about having already begun to think in 2150 terms, then introduced me as her new Alpha mate and, therefore, their new brother.