Rise To The Crown- The Story of the Third-In-Line

*Thirty-Four (2010.05)

Mr. Samuel Collins, Adelaide's English teacher (as aforementioned), is led into Delly's room by her parents.

After the couple exited, Mr. Collins asked how Delly's week went, "How are you?"

"Good."

"Alright, let's get started. This is a one-to-one tutoring class, so what I teach is entirely dependent on what you want to learn. What do you want to learn Adelaide?"

"I want to read this My Little Pony!" Delly hands Mr. Collins her book.

"Why do you want to read My Little Pony? What's so fascinating about it?"

"What do you mean," Delly interrogated, looking up at Mr. Collins with her big shiny blue eyes, "It's horses."

"So you like horses, Adelaide, all horses, not just My Little Ponies."

"Yes——"

"——then let's learn about horses. "

 Delly immediately regretted agreeing. He was not going to read her the book. 

"Horses are a symbol of wealth. Back in the days when everyone had to farm or do hard labor, only the rich has leisure time to do horse-back-riding or bet on horses. Also, a horse, especially the good horses rich people like, are expensive."

"I have a horse. Does that mean I'm rich?"

"That does. You are rich. Your family is the richest family in our country. That is because a long time ago, a King conquered this land. Adelaide, what happens in history affects how things are now. It is my job to teach you, our future queen, the history of our country. I get paid for this, believe it or not."

"I believe you :) But mummy said you are my English teacher. Do you read stories to me like Ms. Day?"

"I am your English teacher. But I am not going to read you the stories your teacher from school does. I'm assuming Ms. Day is your school teacher. Those stories, My Little Pony, Spiderman, whatever you kids read nowadays, are, I'll say, nonnutritious. They are barren. They have little meaning when savored. Whether or not Spiderman wins the Dark Lord (he got himself mixed up with Harry Potter), does not matter. But the stories I will read you, the stories about the American Civil War, War of the Roses, Fight for Civil Rights, shaped the world we live in fundamentally."

Delly listened, there were some words she didn't understand. But she made a mental note that this class was not going to be fun.

"As an English teacher, I will also teach you English. I will teach you how to talk, read, and write properly. Adelaide, do you remember what you answered when I asked you how are you at the very beginning?"

"I said good."

"And that is wrong."

"But I AM good."

"I know you feel good. But it is not grammatically correct to say 'good' in response to the question 'how are you'. Adelaide, do you know what grammar means?"

"No."

"That's what I am going to teach you. In order for you to understand English fully, we need to start with poetry, the essence of language—— not novels, not books yet, and definitely not My Little Pony. Adelaide, what is a poem?"

"It's like a song, but you don't sing it."

"Close, a poem is a rhythmic piece of literature. Teachers at schools nowadays teach kids novels before poems. What a mistake. We will start with poems, it gives you an idea of the rhythm of the English language."

Mr. Collins proceeded to talk about Abraham Lincoln, and they read the poem O Captain My Captain by Walt Whitman, which was dedicated to Lincoln after his assassination. It was one of the most famous poems of all time. 

When talking about Lincoln, Mr. Collins talked about slavery. Adelaide was confused about why anyone would do such things to others. Mr. Collins went on to accuse her family of it. 

Mr.  Collins is a young liberal-minded man. He took the opportunity of tutoring Adelaide to further what he believes in. He believes that by changing the view of the future queen, he is doing black people a favor.

He is not. 

_

After English class, the young and impressionable Adelaide felt enlightened. She liked the idea that the rich were evil and the whites were sinful. But, more than that, she loved the feeling of knowing things that the others didn't know. After just one English class, she can brag to her friends about Lincoln, "white privilege", and "how to combat white supremacy". So, Mr. Collins succeeded, he convinced a five-year-old that she is sinful because she is white and rich. Good job, good job. 

After Mr. Collins's speech about horses, Delly became very resistant to the idea of carriage riding with her great-grandpa Philip. When he proposed the idea of a little riding trip, Delly always refused. She sometimes jumped up in the air and became very upset when Philip insisted as if rejecting to ride horses was equivalent psychically to this denial and distancing from the idea of being born rich. Adelaide's parents thought that maybe Delly was upset because she was sick, sleepy, or had a grudge against someone at school. Never in a million years would they suspect that the English teacher that they themselves have invited into their daughter's life will be the catalyst for such a big conflict within their daughter's psyche.

Adelaide being convinced by Mr. Collins to be a radical leftist will play a part in the conflict with the institution that will happen later on in her teenage years. This was just the start of it all.

_

To clarify, I, the author, am a woman (or a girl) of color, and I have no problem with LGBTQIA + community at all. BUT, I am not okay with the indoctrination of children under 18 into doubting their gender (saying that being gay is bad or superior is both not okay), or their race (whatever it is, convincing the whites are superior or whites are sinful are both not okay). I think it is disgusting. Whatever problem our society has, shall be addressed by adults, let kids be kids. When you have to drag kids into this conversation as your political bargaining tool, I believe you have already lost the argument.

I hope you understand my view. :)

Thanks,

Irey ♡