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.Yes, she had washed down the bay doors of the enormous barn that housed the Complex’s Seeder, Plowboy, and Harvester.And done a thorough job of cleaning the tracks on which the heavy equipment was shunted out of the yard and onto the various rails leading to the arable tracts.Turnips! If only Nick had blown the job with a high-priority vegetable, like carrots or beets.But turnips? They were nothing but subsistence-level food.Father cannily complied with Farm Directives and still managed to plant most of the Fenn lands to creditable crops like corn and beets.Fifty more acres of turnips this year might mean Nick would have that much less free credit at the university.Nora sighed.When Educational Advancements were posted, the suspense would be over, the pressure off the graduating students.Who’d go on to Applied or Academic in her class, she wondered? But there was no way of finding out short of stealing Counselor Fremmeng’s wrist recorder.You only got pass/fail decisions in elementary grades.An arbitrary percentile evaluation defeated the purpose of modern educational methods.Achievement must be measured by individual endeavor, not mean averages or sliding curves.Young citizens were taught to know that knowledge was required of contributing citizens.Computer-assisted drill constantly checked on comprehension of concept and use of basic skills.Educational Advancement, either Applied or Academic, depended as much on demonstrated diligence as inherent ability.Consequently, the slow student had every bit as much chance, and just as much right to education as the quick learner.Well, Nora told herself briskly, it doesn’t contribute anything to society to stand here daydreaming.You’ll know in a day or two.In the meantime.Nora went through the grape arbor toward the skimmer shed, near the far left compound wall.She had just turned in to the building when she felt the reverberation of rapid thudding through the linked plasti-cobbles.Then Nick came pounding around the side of the building.“Nora, lend me your skimmer?” he begged, unracking it as he spoke.“Mine’s still drying out from Saturday’s irrigating.”“But, Nick.Father.”Nick’s face darkened the way Father’s did when he met resistance.“Don’t give me any static, Nor.I gotta change state.”“Oh, Nick, why didn’t you wait until I could’ve checked you out?”Nick set his jaw, his eyes blinking rapidly.“You had to see Fremmeng, remember? And when I got home, the orders were waiting and I couldn’t.I’m due over at Felicity’s now.” Nick turned up the pressure gauge, filling the tanks of the skimmer.“Orders.Orders.That’s all I ever get from him.That and ‘Fenns are crop farmers,’ “ Nick snorted.“He thinks he can program kids like a computer.Well, I’m not a crop farmer.It switches me off.Off!”“Nick, please.Keep unity.Once you get to the university, you choose the courses you want.He can’t go against Educational Advancement.And if he tries, you can always claim sanctuary against parental coercion.There isn’t anyone in the Sector who wouldn’t support your claim.”Nick was staring at her incredulously, but suddenly the anger drained out of his face and was replaced by an exaggerated expression of tolerant forbearance.“Claim sanctuary? I haven’t lost all sense of unity, Nora,” he told her sternly.“Hey, what did Fremmeng want you for?”“Me? Oh, he had the absolutely more irrelevant questions! About how you and I get along, my opinions on family harmony and social contributions, and pairing off.”Nick regarded her with an intent, impersonal stare.“He did, huh? Look, Nor,” and her brother’s mood changed state completely, “I need to see Felicity.I gotta blow out of here!”Nora grabbed his arm as he inflated the skimmer.“Nick, what did you say to Father?”Nick gave her a sour look now.“I told him he’d better hold off making so many big plans for me to be the Fenn Complex’s Master Ruralist, until he sees the Educational Advancements.”“Nick, if you don’t get Advancement, Father will just.just.”“Abort and sulk!” Nick finished for her.“No, I’ll get Advancement, all right
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