"C M Kornbluth - Theory Of Rocketry" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

The teacher hardly knew what he meant. "Enrichment? Well, we haven't been doing that lately, Foster. I
suppose it's still in the optional curriculum—"



"Yes, sir, Form Sixty-eight, English, Paragraph Forty-five, Section Seven. 'Opportunities shall be
afforded to students believed qualified by advisers to undertake projects equivalent to College Freshman
English term papers, and the grades therefor shall be entered on the students' records and weighed as
evidence in assigning students' positions in the graduating class."



Mr. Edel had found Foster's card by then and was studying it. The boy's schedule was brutal, but his
grade average was somewhere between B-plus and A. "Foster," he told him, "there's such a thing as a
breaking point. I—I understand you want very much to go to Colorado Springs." (Poor Fuqua! What
had become of . . . ?)



"Very much, sir. They expect the best—they have a right to expect the best. I'm not complaining, Mr.
Edel, but there are girls with straight-A averages who aren't working as hard as I am. Well, I've just got
to beat them at their own game."



Mr. Edel understood. It wasn't just girls, though mostly it was. There was a type of student who was no
trouble, who did the work, every smidgen of it, who read every word of every assigned page, who
turned in accurate, curiously dead, echoless, unresonant papers which you could not in decency fault
though you wanted to tear them up and throw them in their authors' bland faces. You had a curious
certainty that the adeptly memorized data they reeled back on demand vanished forever once the need
for a grade was gone, that it never by any chance became bone of their bone to strengthen them against
future trials. Often enough when you asked them what they hoped to be they smilingly said, "I am going
to teach."



Foster, now. A boy who fought with the material and whipped it. He said, "Why so strong, Foster?
What's it about?"



The boy said, "Space, partly. And my father. Two big challenges, Mr. Edel. I think I'm a very lucky
fellow. Here I am with a new frontier opening up, but there are lot's of fellows my age who don't see it. I
see it because of my father. It's wonderful to have a challenge like that: Can I be the man he is? Can I
learn even more, be a better leader, a better engineer?"



Mr. Edel was moved deeply. "Your father just missed space flight, is that it?"