The next day, after Schiller finished his class, he collected homework on time as usual. But today, he found that all 32 assignments from the class were submitted neatly, and judging by their thickness, they all seemed to have met the word count.
He was a bit surprised. Usually, even though he pushed for homework very hard, there would always be one or two people who didn't submit it. Among those who did, many were just fooling around, writing only two pages and sandwiching a bunch of white paper in between, or simply copying some random articles.
But this time, standing at the podium, he quickly flipped through them and found that everyone had actually written their papers seriously. Although some weren't very well written, clearly indicating they had never written a paper before, they at least tried to stick to the topic. While their phrasing resembled that of a desperate illiterate, they at least made an effort not to stray from the subject.
The students watched him flip through the assignments, not daring to breathe. Usually, by this time, with class almost over, students would be packing up. But now, not a single person moved; they all sat quietly in their seats, waiting for Schiller to speak.
The reason for this situation was simple: just last night, the entire class learned that Schiller, in pursuit of Evans's homework, had gone directly to Falcone, the King of Gotham's underworld.
In an era without Batman, which we shall tentatively call the "Pre-Batman Era," the most influential figures in Gotham were Falcone and the twelve gangster families under his rule.
Just how powerful were these gangster families? Sal Maroni, a notorious figure in the East End, was merely a dog of the Lauren Family, and the Lauren Family ranked among the last of the twelve gangster families.
The Falcone Family ranked first, and Old Godfather Falcone had absolute authority over the twelve families.
In this era, you might not know who the mayor of Gotham City was, or even who Bruce Wayne was, but you absolutely had to know Falcone and the surnames of the other twelve gangster families, otherwise, you couldn't survive in Gotham.
Ever since they learned that Schiller had chased homework all the way to the Godfather of Gotham, all the students' late-night homework sessions had been quite thrilling.
Schiller was uncharacteristically pleased, so he said, "The situation with this assignment looks very optimistic. It seems everyone completed it quite seriously. After I grade these assignments, I will give everyone an additional ten points for their participation grade. For those who wrote particularly well, if you don't intend to pursue graduate studies, you can come to my office to discuss recommendation letters..."
As a result, enthusiastic applause suddenly erupted in the classroom. It was unclear whether it was for the rewards Schiller mentioned or for themselves, having survived a harrowing experience.
And all of this was observed by Principal Sheldon.
Sheldon, to put it nicely, was persistent; to put it less nicely, he was stubborn. Once he set his sights on someone, he would try every possible way to take them down. Although Schiller's firm stance made it impossible for him to act immediately, he was constantly looking for an opportunity.
The principal could access all surveillance cameras in Gotham University classrooms and observe teachers' lectures, a function that became Sheldon's best method for monitoring Schiller.
In the following days, in Schiller's class, all the students were as quiet as mice. Evans automatically took on the role of class monitor, collecting, submitting, and distributing homework daily, and organizing classroom discipline. The entire teaching situation was orderly, and no one could find any fault with it.
This gave Sheldon a misconception.
Originally, when he worked in the academic affairs office at Princeton, most students were basically at this level. After coming to Gotham University, he was busy establishing himself and did not actively try to understand the students' level. In his opinion, doing homework was a student's duty. Although Gotham University's ranking was not as high as Princeton's, it seemed the students' quality wasn't that far off.
At least, that was the case in Schiller's class.
Sheldon was only focused on observing Schiller's class, and in Schiller's class, all the students were very quiet, completing their learning tasks very well, which made Schiller's teaching arrangements proceed very smoothly.
So Sheldon had other ideas.
As is well known, the campus alcohol ban he promoted was stuck in an awkward position.
Currently, most of those willing to follow the plan had already turned in their alcohol, but those unwilling were the hardliners among them. These people would rather resist with guns than allow the school to interfere with their right to drink.
Students could resist with guns, but Sheldon, as principal, couldn't force students not to drink with a gun. He wasn't a native of Gotham and his mindset was still stuck in a civilized society, so this plan was stuck in a very awkward position and couldn't be pushed forward.
Discovering that they wouldn't accept punishment, Sheldon now wanted to try persuasion.
Before taking on administrative work, Sheldon was also a Professor. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Modern Literature and had taught at the University of California and Metropolis University.
Sheldon felt that to control Gotham University, he also had to get along with the students, just like Harvey, who was popular with everyone, which was also a good approach.
Therefore, he wanted to teach a class himself.
Coincidentally, Gotham University's Literature Department was almost nonexistent, with only one teacher teaching basic courses. Literature and Philosophy majors had not admitted students for many years, after all, this damned place truly had no fertile ground for literature and philosophy.
To revitalize the Literature Department and lead the revival of Literature as a major, if he could recruit a group of Literature students taught by himself, then he would have his own direct lineage within the school, Sheldon planned.
And it seemed that Schiller's class was very relaxed, and his teaching objectives were progressing well. All in all, the sky had cleared, the rain had stopped, and Sheldon felt confident again.
Although he was a university Professor, the teaching process wasn't much different from teaching elementary school. Sheldon was like a cloud gamer watching a video, observing Schiller's class through the monitor and finding it very easy.
Schiller's teaching process was simply walking into the classroom, waiting for the students to sit down, then taking out the textbook and beginning to lecture. There would be one or two discussion sessions in between. After the discussion, either Schiller would ask questions or a group would send someone to speak. After the Speech, Schiller would summarize, then teach a bit more content, collect homework when class was almost over, and have a homework review session at the beginning of the next class.
University classrooms in the 20th century were like this; there were no fancy slides, and most teachers lectured directly from the textbook. This was especially true for subjects like Psychology, which required extensive memorization of theoretical knowledge. If you didn't explain the book thoroughly, you wouldn't learn anything clearly.
This process, when viewed in the classroom video, indeed seemed to have no difficulty. If the students cooperated, they could even finish the teaching objectives early and chat for a while when class was almost over.
Since the students began to be particularly obedient, Schiller was also willing to talk to them about the crazy murderers he had encountered. Although Schiller, due to amnesia, could no longer remember many details, these legendary experiences still fascinated these young men. They found that this exceptionally strict Professor indeed had his extraordinary qualities.
When announcing the establishment of the College of Literature, Sheldon fired the basic literature course teacher and then took over the teaching himself.
Just like most cloud gamers watching game videos, when watching the video, they feel they can do it themselves, constantly pointing fingers from a god's-eye view. But when they actually get into the game, they are usually slaughtered, then quit, delete the game, and refund in one smooth motion.
Sheldon was no exception.
Once he actually started teaching, he realized that Schiller's classroom was completely an illusion; there wasn't a single obedient student there. Basic literature courses and basic Psychology courses were similar in some ways: they both required extensive memorization and writing papers.
The first time homework was due, out of dozens of assignments in the entire class, only two were submitted, and one of them was only half-written.
Sheldon adopted his strong politician's style, severely criticizing the failure to submit homework in class. As a result, the second time homework was due, not a single one was turned in.
If science courses like Mathematics and Physics still had some people who were naturally interested, then tedious and boring courses like basic literature would not have any Gotham University student listening attentively.
Students did everything imaginable in class: sleeping was considered a relatively good hobby, eating, loudly chatting, pressing game controllers with loud clicks, and even openly smoking marijuana.
No matter how much Sheldon yelled, no one paid attention to him. Even if he stormed out of the room in a rage, it only meant that the class turned into an equally chaotic self-study session.
Sheldon also didn't understand Gotham. If he did, he would know that the students were already good enough; the quality of people who could attend university in this City was already quite high.
In this City, there was no threatening classmates with guns, no physical bombing of the school, and no kidnapping of teachers and Professors. Gotham's students could already be considered the City's model citizens.
But Sheldon was still almost driven to death by them.
Especially since many students knew that the damned alcohol ban was Sheldon's doing, they began to protest in Sheldon's class. Someone brought a whole case of champagne, uncorked it in the front row, and sprayed Sheldon wildly, drenching him in alcohol, and even organized drinking parties in class.
Sheldon shouted that he would deduct credits and expel them, but these people didn't care. Sheldon expelled two students, and the remaining students became even crazier. As a result, one dark night, Sheldon was walking in the school when two wine bottles, thrown from who knows where in the bushes, hit him on the head, breaking it, and he ended up in the hospital.
He couldn't understand why the students who were as well-behaved as quails in Schiller's class turned into crazy extremists when they came to his.
Perhaps he just hadn't heard Schiller say one thing: here, only criminals can deal with criminals.