Professor Sandra Suarez opened a file folder and put her elbows on her desk. "Your academic record is exceptional, Rebecca. You're a good candidate for the Amnesty program. You understand that this is an experiment, correct?"
Rebecca shifted in her seat across from Professor Suarez. She had kept her backpack on her lap, and she found it awkward, but she thought it would be awkward to put it on the floor at this point too. "Yes," she said, "but I don't really know much about it- what do I have to do?"
"You're going to be working with a partner, and I'll explain more about that when he comes in- I'm expecting him any minute."
Rebecca wrinkled her nose. "I don't like working with partners. I always end up pulling their weight. Is there any way I can just do this myself?"
Professor Suarez grinned. "I can certainly understand your concern, but the nature of the experiment demands cooperation, and aside from that," she steepled her fingers under her chin, "We've done some background research and I don't think that's going to be a problem with this particular partner."
There was a soft rap on the door and a grey-haired professor entered, followed by a black-haired boy with a faded red backpack over his shoulder.
"Rebecca, this is Professor Danton from the Psychology department. He's going to be running the program with me. And if you agree to participate in the program, this will be your partner, Jason Kitchener."
Jason slipped his backpack to the floor and stuck his hand out. Rebecca shook it briefly. She thought if he were wearing a bomber jacket he'd look just like a World War II pilot. He didn't smile.
"Look," he said, slumping into his chair, "I don't mean to offend you or anything, but I don't like group projects, so if you're not going to pull your weight, you should probably find something else to do with your time."
Rebecca stared at him, open mouthed, then turned to Professor Suarez. She was staring back at Rebecca with a smile playing around the corners of her mouth.
Rebecca straightened her back and squared her shoulders. "I think he might do okay after all, professor."
"That's what I thought," Professor Suarez said, allowing herself a smile. "Professor Denton, why don't you introduce the project and I'll fill them in on the details as needed."
"Sure, Sandra." Professor Denton put his hands in the pockets of his blazer. "In our experience, we find that many exceptional students do very well academically, but we also find that there is a high intangible cost for high performing students to maintain the sort of academic records you are maintaining. Students need socialization, and they need to learn to trust others, especially since most high-performing jobs require teamwork. The goals of education are ultimately to prepare you for life, but there are very few real-world careers that require your level of effort, at least over any extended period of time. We can see that you have all the determination it takes to accomplish anything you set your minds to, but we also see high rates of anxiety and depression in high performing students, and in some cases we see the use of illegal stimulants and most sadly, suicide. It would be an understatement to say that these side effects of our best students are undesirable in the workplace, so this is an experiment to see if there are ways to mitigate these side effects without significantly compromising education."
Jason clenched a fist. "You're saying we're unbalanced."
Professor Suarez smiled. "To put it bluntly, yes. If you honestly feel that your academic life is in no way interfering with your social life, your emotional life, then you probably don't need this. Do you feel like you're balanced?"
Jason let his hand relax, but he furrowed his brow. "No, I guess not." He looked at Rebecca. She shook her head.
Professor Suarez nodded. "Let me give you an example. You have probably done a lot of extra credit. That credit is worth maybe two percent of your grade on any particular project, but it typically adds an extra twenty percent to the time needed to complete that project. In other words, extra effort in the typical educational environment results in diminishing returns, but you feel compelled by the competitive nature of the classroom to scrounge every point you can."
"Here's how the project will help you. Because you are both freshmen already working at junior and senior levels, we are giving you amnesty on your grades. We expect that participation may affect your day-to-day grades initially, but as long as your point average in your classes stays above the C level, we have arranged with all of your professors to record your grades as As."
Rebecca sucked in her breath. Jason exhaled.
Professor Suarez looked at them searchingly. "How does that sound?"
Jason smiled. "That sounds fantastic. It's..."
"...too good to be true." Rebecca said. "But I want it to be true. Is there a catch? What do we have to do?"
Professor Denton smiled. "An excellent question. There are tasks you will be required to complete, and you will fill out a daily online journal. It will be private to you, Professor Suarez and myself. The exercises are not practically difficult, but you may find them stretching or uncomfortable in other ways. The completeness and honesty of your journal is essential for us to tailor follow up tasks to build upon your progress. You always have the option to refuse a task, but if we feel that your number of refusals is hampering the experiment, we will drop you from the program with the result that your grading will go back to the conventional style. Would you like to continue?"
Rebecca said it first. "I'm in."
Jason nodded. "Me too. What's today's task?"
Professor Denton smiled. "Excellent! Meet me and Professor Suarez in an hour in Room 102 in the Psychology building. You're going to do a trust exercise and I want to talk to Professor Suarez about it. In the meantime, why don't you two go get some coffee and spend a little time getting to know each other."
----
Jason sat across from Rebecca, a steaming cup of horrible coffee cradled in his hands. Now that he was really looking at her, he was surprised to find that she was beautiful. She had brown, shoulder-length hair that she had an endearing habit of tucking behind her ear. She was wearing a sweater over crisp white long-sleeved shirt and new jeans. She had faint freckles on her cheekbones and brown eyes that were, at the moment, eyeing him with suspicion.
"I don't like to be sized up," Rebecca said.
"Okay then. Tell me about yourself so I don't have to guess."
Rebecca didn't seem to like this either, but she looked down at her hot chocolate and shrugged. "I'm not from here. I'm from Springfield."
"Do you live in the dorms?"
"No, I got an apartment with a journalism major. I almost never see her though. Where do you live?"
"I'm at my parents' house- just a few blocks away." It was Jason's turn to shrug. "Not very exciting. It gets worse. I was home schooled."
Rebecca smiled for the first time. "I could kind of tell. I was too. My parents wanted me to go to the Junior College, but I decided to move here and go to the university. They don't think I can excel here."
Jason grinned and pointed at a student trying to pry old gum off the bottom of a cafeteria table. "I guess they haven't seen your competition."
Rebecca laughed. "What do you think they're going to make us do this afternoon? Professor Denton kind of has me freaked out."
"I don't know. Those two look like they have something going on. I don't really care. I'm in it for the free grades."
Rebecca finished her hot chocolate. "I think we're going to have to earn them anyway."
________________
Professor Suarez stole a glance at Professor Dalton and grinned. "Today we are going to have you do two trust exercises. You need to hold hands for one hour, and during that time, you each need to confess something to the other that you don't want anyone else to know."
Rebecca saw the blood drain from Jason's face, and she got a knot in her stomach. "We have to hold hands? Why do we have to do that? I don't even know him."
"Hand-holding is a technique to fast-track trust." Professor Dalton explained, "It makes vulnerability much easier to attain. Similar effects can be achieved with the moderate use of alcohol, but of course, we can't recommend that in view of your age."
"I guess I can suffer through it." Rebecca still felt queasy, but at least Jason was good looking and didn't look like he'd drool all over her.
"I can do anything you can do." Jason said, the color beginning to come back into his face.
