all must mean someone doesnât quite have positive feelings about you, but they definitely donât suspect you.â
âIs that so?â
âItâs like that,â Kunugi tied up. He made a weird face and sipped more tea.
âMmm, this tea is good,â he said, very deliberately.
It tastes the same everywhere.
It was just something that came out of a dispenser.
Because so many people sued for cases of dysosmia and hypergeusia, food products of late had enhanced flavors and smells. It was all a little acidic for Shizueâs taste.
After a brief silence, Kunugi asked, âYou were really that opposed to this?â
âWhat do you mean âthat opposedâ?â
âWell, you just said you thought the police doubted you because you were so opposed to their plan. Is that a way of saying youâre tired of doubting your own pupils?â
âNo, itâ¦isnât.â
Shizue immediately regretted having answered such an off-kilter question so earnestly.
âIâm just a counselor.â
She went on. âThere are no longer such things as educators. Proctors help with specialized subjects, and supervisors are responsible for teaching basic social mores and rules. There are staff for running communication courses, but Iâm sure that will be phased out soon.â
âSo youâre telling me there are no more educators.â
âIâm saying the word âeducationâ no longer connotes teaching and fostering. It has negative connotations of discipline and organization. Looking at past data it seems the word had a broader meaning before, but even so, by the end of the twentieth century it was no longer clear what was being taught, regardless of the methodologies used.â
âI wasnât taught how to live either,â Kunugi said. âI certainly didnât like my teachers. I donât know about before my time, though.â
âWith no one learning anything, using the word âstudentâ was silly too. âTeacherâ is a weird word too. I donât think âteacherâ originally signified the primacy of older age, but thatâs the meaning it took on. Thereâs nothing guaranteeing an older person is inherently superior.â
âI guess thatâs a form of age discrimination.â
Well, yes.
âFor about ten years, all kinds of contradictions erupted, and these arcane educational pedagogical systems collapsed. Concurrently, the term âeducationâ was banned. Today, minors are all childrenâthey are only recognized as such by the different rights and responsibilities they bear.â
âI donât really understand. Well, Iâm the one always lectured on profession-based human rights issues, but clearly things are different from the past. When I was young, there were laws protecting young people, butâ¦â Kunugi paused. âWhat am I trying to say here? W-wellâ¦â The policeman stammered.
âYouâre confusing the issue,â Shizue said. âI know what you are trying to say. Iâm no youth rights revivalist. There is no clear delineation between children and adults, so itâs no oneâs right to make them up. Whether you have knowledge or experience or superior physical function isnât determined by age or gender, so to create arbitrarily separate groups based purely on age is problematic. I realize this will seem like a gross exaggeration, but to say a minor canât have a criminal record is in principle the same as denying a womanâs right to vote.
Youâre having to protect and shelter both, but beyond just protecting basic human rights lies responsibility.â
âSo what donât you like about all this?â Kunugi asked. âI mean, what is so important to oppose now, to the extent that you hate the police?â
âWhy are you asking such questions of me?â
âHmmâ¦â
Kunugi put his empty