Chapter 143 Vocational Education in Gotham (Patreon)

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The staff cafeteria at Gotham University has a long history and is one of the oldest buildings on campus.

It still operates on the traditional club-style ordering system. When Schiller entered, he shook off the water droplets from his umbrella outside the door. Victor stepped aside and said, "Good thing you're here. Who would have thought it would rain halfway."

"That's Gotham for you. If you don't carry an umbrella with you, be prepared to be drenched like a wet chicken," Schiller replied.

He shook off the black umbrella, closed it, and secured it on the umbrella stand by the door. As Schiller entered the room, the warm air inside fogged up his glasses, so he took them off.

Victor turned to look at the umbrella and said, "Where did you buy this umbrella? It looks good in quality. I'll get one too."

"Do you know Greene Street? It's in the East District, right next to Living Hell. In the alley there, there's an umbrella craftsman."

"My goodness, you're so old-fashioned. In this day and age, you still go to an umbrella craftsman for handmade umbrellas?"

"But as you said, this umbrella looks good in quality."

As the two chatted, they found a round table by the window and sat down. After a while, a waiter came to take their orders. Victor said, "I'm not used to it. The cafeteria at Gotham University is too old-fashioned. When I was in California, the cafeterias there had counters."

"On the contrary, I don't like counters. The bacon piled up together with the unevenly cut bread slices..." Schiller took the menu from Victor and looked at it while speaking. "Seems like you guys have been busy again lately. Is there something going on at the School of Science?"

"Don't even mention it," Victor sighed as he took the menu handed to him by Schiller, pointed to the waiter, and said, "I'm busy like this, all thanks to you."

"But I heard that the recent cold chain project is nearing completion, and you should have some free time now, right?"

Victor showed a helpless expression and said, "You didn't know? The gang leaders are in desperate need of manpower recently!"

"They especially lack people with management abilities. Almost all the people who can manage in Gotham City are in Gotham University. When the gang came to borrow people, the principal could only agree."

"But how many staff members does Gotham University have? The positions that the gang lacks are probably far more than the number of people they can borrow, right?"

"That's the problem." Victor tapped the table with his fingers and said, "They can't borrow that many people, but without management personnel, the entire operation will be chaotic. So they had to go back and talk to Principal Sheldon again..."

At this moment, the food was just served, and Schiller asked while cutting the steak, "What do they want to do?"

"Just as you predicted before, they want to open a school."

Victor took a sip of his drink, the icy liquid made him click his tongue, and he said, "There are only three high schools in Gotham, and the admission rate is less than 10%. Most people who study books honestly don't want to take the exam for Gotham University, let alone stay in this city."

"They want to open their own school, a private school, and teach what they need."

"I remember there should be private schools in Gotham, right?" Schiller thought for a moment and said, "Where are they? It should be in the south, right? There are two private boarding schools..."

"As you said, it's in the south, it's the school in the wealthy area where rich people send their children. They don't teach anything useful there, just instruments, painting, and hockey. Do you expect the gang to use this knowledge to manage their business?"

"So, they want to open a vocational high school?" Schiller flipped the scrambled eggs with a fork and said.

"It can't even be called a middle school," Victor swallowed the food in his mouth, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and continued, "It can only be called a vocational school. Anyone can go, but the Gang should choose a group of people to go in, mainly to train the management."

"To be honest, they are a bit outrageous," Victor complained, "They asked me to go and repair the low-temperature warehouse for them, but after asking all the warehouse managers, not one of them could understand the reading table. They can't even read the most basic numbers, so how can they manage the warehouse?"

"So those Gang leaders plan to address this issue by training their own people?"

"Yes, and they can't find a teacher, so they can only borrow people from Gotham University," Victor shrugged and said, "I just hope I'm not the one they borrow, but I'm sure my name is on the list."

"Can't you choose not to go?" Schiller put down his knife and fork, took a sip of water, and continued, "Sheldon can't tie you up and force you to go."

"That's what you say, but in Gotham, if more than ten Gangs jointly invite you, would you dare not go?"

"It seems that you already understand the ecosystem here very well," Schiller smiled and said, "Welcome to Gotham, welcome to this big stage."

"And the price they offer is pretty good, several times more than my salary."

"Do you still need money now? Didn't you accept the commission from the Twelve Families to maintain and operate their cold chain industry? The reward should be enough, right?"

"But no one would complain about having too much money," Victor said very bluntly, "The operation work doesn't take up much time, and you know that the daily teaching at Gotham University...is basically non-existent. If they offer a reasonable price, I can also go and be a part-time teacher."

"And teaching them how to read the meter also benefits me. If they can maintain the warehouse by themselves, then I don't have to keep running back and forth."

Schiller nodded in agreement. Victor made a good point. He guessed that most teachers who agreed to work part-time at the vocational school also thought this way.

The professors more or less took on Gang's work. When they received a job, Gang offered a very tempting reward. However, when they arrived at the scene, most people were dumbfounded. The members of Gotham's Gang were skilled with guns and weapons, but when it came to technical problems, they were clueless.

Not knowing how to read a meter was just the tip of the iceberg. They couldn't even use slightly more complex switches, and if the professional words had more than five letters, they had to look them up in a dictionary. Even after asking the whole team, there were only a few who knew the entire operation process.

Essentially, because Gotham's Gang industry was too mature, most people were destined to make a living by rough and simple means from birth, and they did not consider learning any technology. When the industry began to upgrade, many people in the city suddenly realized that the role of guns became smaller, and the role of knowledge became more significant.

However, their thinking had already formed a qualitative approach, and they had also missed the best learning stage. Most people did not understand these things and were unwilling to learn complex technical issues.

But the rise of the logistics industry caused a drastic change in personnel requirements.

Originally, if they were only collecting protection fees, the small leader did not need to know much more than the thugs below. Maybe they only had to be experienced and able to count the money. But now it was different. The overall responsible person for a warehouse had to be proficient in all aspects, at least be able to read the meter, and constantly monitor temperature readings and product status. The other people below also had to pay attention to the inflow and outflow of goods.

Originally, these professional tasks could have been hired out to professionals, but everyone knows about Gotham's reputation - sane people wouldn't come here to risk their lives, and even the gangs couldn't afford to hire professional accountants. They could only do it themselves.

With a lack of professional knowledge and unwillingness to learn, coupled with a shortage of managerial talent everywhere, and the inability to hire external candidates, the gang leaders in Gotham had only one choice: to open a training school.

And because many professors at Gotham University had taken on side jobs from the gangs, the gang leaders were able to contact them easily and offer high prices to hire them as private school teachers.

Just like Victor had thought, many professors realized while working that the gang members were not competent in many tasks and only increased their workload. It would be better to teach them the basics first so that they could handle private jobs more easily in the future.

Of course, originally, Schiller had nothing to do with this. He was a psychology professor, and the gang members might need physics teachers, chemistry teachers, math teachers, and even Chinese teachers, but they definitely did not need a psychology teacher. The people of Gotham were open-minded about everything except psychology.

But the problem was the celebrity effect.

Previously, Falcone had opened a small private academy in his manor and invited Schiller to teach his family's children.

Schiller mainly taught basic knowledge of industry models, but the gangs in Gotham always looked up to Falcone. Even the old Godfather had hired Schiller. If you didn't invite him to your own school, wouldn't that be saying the old Godfather had no taste?

So, one afternoon in Gotham, Schiller received a joint invitation from a dozen major gangs.

The invitation didn't directly state the purpose, only saying that Schiller was invited to visit their newly established vocational school. But Schiller could guess that once he went there, he wouldn't be able to leave easily, and he would probably have to take on an honorary professorship.

Schiller approves of the Gangs' active efforts to promote education. After all, it is essential to elevate the academic atmosphere of Gotham City if one wishes to enter the Ivy League universities. Besides developing high-end research institutions, it is also necessary to establish a complete talent cultivation system.

Although Wayne Enterprises has been working on formal primary and secondary education, it has yet to produce immediate results. The Gangs' spontaneous establishment of vocational education schools is actually a good solution and is very suitable for Gotham's current situation.

In Gotham, where basic education is lacking, the city's operation relies mainly on experientialism. The Gangs operate on a family system, passing down knowledge from one generation to the next.

Perhaps this model was feasible in the past, but now it is somewhat inadequate. It is foreseeable that with the introduction of new industries and the gradual upgrading of existing industries, vocational education will flourish in Gotham and continue until the results of basic education are evident.

As a professor, Schiller is in a position to do his part. He does not mind pushing for the process, so he accepted the invitation and is prepared to see what the Gangs in Gotham can do with their vocational education schools this weekend.

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