Dawn: Oh yes, I vaguely remember hearing about this...*sighs* That mammal just refuses to let go of the maligned dream of somehow restoring his former political prominence. Between the release of his personal memoirs, which I might add he had to publish himself because his attitude and general stubbornness about editing drove every publisher willing to work with him away, and now this, I really can't imagine what he's thinking anymore...His therapist must be tearing her hair out...
Vernon: Oh yeah, his...ahem 'audio' book that he released. I remember that...Teeth to Tails, the things that mammal said, the things he could have edited out and didn't...
Dawn: *Giggles* It's a wonder he managed to compile all of his recordings together at all considering editing seems to be beyond his grasp entirely.
Vernon: At least that tagline "The mammal behind the mane" held true fer that book.
Dawn: Yes, I'd say everyone who listened got a little bit of a taste of what it was like for me working with that lion behind closed doors...especially the one 'chapter' where half of it is him arguing with a publisher on speakerphone, or that other chapter where he's absolutely berating his editor before firing him....*Shudders* that brought back some memories.
That said, yes he has always been like that behind closed doors. That's what Lionheart looks like without his 'politics face' on. While I'll admit I had my prejudices against predators thanks to my upbringing as well as abuse, Leodore's own prejudices were as bad, if not worse than my own. Especially toward the 'simple-minded grazer folk' as he used to call them. The only difference between then and now is that I'm no longer acting as his filter...couple that with his previous stint and jail and his absolute desperation to climb back to the top of the heap and...well, I imagine it's not as easy to maintain the same 'charismatic and tolerant leader' facade he used to be so good at.
That said, I think both Vernon and myself agree with Cretinhunter113's sentiment, and would formerly like to apologize on behalf of all Zootopian's for his behavior.
Vernon: *Chuckles* Yeah, rest assured, most Zootopians don't share his colorful opinions.
Dawn: As for your second question, while I don't really know the nitty-gritty of Singapurr's educational system, I can say that we definitely take a lighter paw with schooling than our neighbors in the NMU. For instance, the allotted amount of school days and hours are significantly decreased here compared to those next door. While North Mammalia regularly sees a four hours a day, five day a week school session, in Zootopia our lambs go to school for three hours a day, three days a week. That is, at least until high school, when they add an extra day in order to prep lambs for college and really try and steer them into just what kind of job they want to do. The shorter time serves two purposes. One is to ease lambs into regiments slowly while allowing them plenty of time to enjoy their lambhood and explore their own interests without too much pressure. The second is that it allows families to spend more time together, strengthening family bonds.
Vernon: A lot of our early education is basic and surface-level stuff. History, Animanglish, basic math, that sorta thing. Arts and exercises and stuff er' part of outside schoolin' that's generally left fer parents and pups to pick out based on what kinda interests the pup shows. Once y'all get closer to high school, the focus turns to practical stuff fer self-sufficiency, like how to do yer taxes, er cook fer yerself and stuff. That's at least half the curriculum. The other half is elective technical courses that y'all get to pick out based on what kinda work y'all are fixing to want to do in life, and those classes help start y'all toward college er' technical schools iffin' y'all choose to go.
Dawn: As for testing, I mean all testing is related to that sort of low-pressure curriculum, and it scales with the grading. We don't go too hard with tests in our school systems because internal studies have shown that overwhelming students with tests actually hurts retention rather than helps it. Essentially after the tests are over, the students forget everything. That said, I've heard in some countries testing can be..unnecessarily aggressive, and I worry they suffer the same sort of problems those studies pointed to.
Vernon: I think the NMU really wants to switch to our system, I know some of the regional states have. But they haven't made it national because...I dunno...tradition...?
Dawn: That, and they have to get the Mexicat and Canidean states to agree, who are also holding on to the old way of doing things more than likely due to tradition... it's like how it took thirty years to get every nation in the NMU to agree to do away with daylight savings. It should have been done within a few years of electric lighting was widespread, as it became archaic and caused more chaos than anything by outliving its usefulness.
Vernon: I still have memories of the last few years of daylight savin's from when I was a pup....it made me love fall, but mam' did I hate spring. *Chuckles*
(WT: Thank you so much for your ask, and the extra trouble you went through making up those nice supplementary images. And thank you for the well wishes. I hope you liked this answer!)
woah, i didn't think you'll actually answer! thank you so much!! it definitely took some time to edit those pictures
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