Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Into the Tides Book Bonus: Mechany's

In Into the Tides, Kelly often refers to her old school, Mechany's School for the Magically Disabled. As a woman with the genes for music magic, being tone-deaf meant she couldn't use her magic as intended. As Kelly puts it:
The school courtyard might look something like this. It's a
very nice place, as the staff and students have to reside
there 24-7 during the school year, and as it does have
private corporate donors who can afford to make it
a desirable place to go.
Dad had tried to tutor me, at first, but not even he could fix the fact that I’d inherited Mom’s complete tone deafness. So while Trax had been taking full advantage of his lack of Powers to do what Dad never could, selling his first record at 17, I had been getting shuttled off to Mechany's, a super-intensive school for “fixing” magical learning disabilities in students of all ages. I wasn't powerful enough to be dangerous, but I was powerful enough that I could have been useful—if I could use my magic.
While Mechany's, located in the South, became trapped in a bubble of magic with the rest of region three years before the start of the novel, Kelly spent much of her young adulthood there. Magic tends to develop with puberty, and so although Kelly describes the school as "all ages," mostly it's grades 6-college, with many of the college courses open to students of all ability levels, including non-magical students. Courses in grades 6-high school include standard maths, literature, history, and science; but there is also a great focus on magic theory, and magic practicums are required for every student. The school day is 8 hours, but this includes activity time, study time, and meal breaks.

While, like with learning disabilities, magic disabilities cannot actually be "cured," students can learn to use their magic fluently. The focus of the school is finding ways to allow students whose magic functions abnormally to achieve normal, near-normal, or alternatively functional* magic usage.
(*Magic abilities are determined by genetics. Each type of magic is called a Power. Frequently variations are minor and specific to the individual. Occasionally, significant variations that are highly unrelated to the parent Power may occur. If the individual exceeds a certain strength of magic [is third class or above], and/or if the capabilities are fully passed on to descendants, the new abilities are considered to be a new type of Power. The regeneration Power, which allows for healing wounds, for example, originally branched off from strength Power, which increases the rate at which muscle develops and causes muscles to heal more quickly.)
Students with unusual impairments may (and usually do) agree to be paired with tutor-researchers, who study magic developmental abnormalities and magic in general. These tutor-researchers give them one-on-one aid, and in return collect data on the abnormality that is shared with the college and eventually with the scientific community as a whole (through papers in peer-reviewed journals). The process by which students' issues are resolved are shared freely among the tutor-researchers and among similar schools across the world, although as much of the student's personal information and the researcher's conclusions and data as possible are kept private.

Students with common magical disabilities for which there are known or effective methods of solving, or students whose magical disabilities seem easily resolved and who are in particularly large classes, may not have their own tutors. They get their aid solely through the magical practicum courses, which often involve up to fifteen students in one-hour courses each day. The teachers are highly experienced, with new teachers serving as apprentices for several years with more experienced teachers. In addition, larger classes usually a teacher aide, and students in the college studying magic often spend semesters helping out in the classroom. Because the school is privately funded, teachers and aides are paid far more than the national average teacher salary.

Students in lower grades are either students who develop magic early, physically develop early, or are the children of school staff. Since the school is a boarding school, sometimes children with normal-functioning magic or no magic at all will accompany their siblings. These classes tend to be very small.

Mechany's College is a private college dedicated the study of cognitive sciences and magic, including the majors magic (general), magic development, magic research methods, magical abnormalities, and other magic-related majors; as well as majors in standard cognitive sciences such as developmental and education psychology. Students without magical abnormalities are encouraged to apply for full tuition (minus whatever student aid they can get, of course). Former Mechany's students who have mastered their abilities and returned to regular high schools (or graduated from Mechany's, in the case of those who mastered their abilities but elected to pay full boarding school tuition instead of transferring) may enter the college for half in-state tuition. Current Mechany's students who have not fully mastered their magic by the completion of high school are encouraged (or in cases of public safety, required) to attend the college free of charge until they and their professors are confident of ability mastery. In some cases, this may include graduate and post-graduate courses.

A very few individuals with particularly unstable abilities have been extended "lifelong fellowships," and are given positions in the schools, where researchers continue to try to help them achieve control while allowing them the dignity of full-time employment and keeping them in a location prepared for and capable of dealing with magical mishaps.

The major types of common magical disabilities, and some strategies for overcoming them:

Mismagica ("Magical dysgraphia"): a student attempts to use one magical ability, but uses a different one instead.
  •  Some treatments: holding a different 3D shape when using each ability, so as to physically give shape to ability. Practicing thinking of each ability as a different color, and "casting colors" instead of using the separate abilities. Using gestures specific to each ability. Say the name of the ability to be used.
Misaccuria ("Magical inaccuracy"): Student attempts to use magic on one subject, but uses it on an unintended subject instead.
  • Some treatments: Implementing a target-identification routine, where student gets in the habit of consciously verifying the target before using magic. Adding visual markers to targets. Encouraging targets to give audible markers. Saying the name of the target. Establishing physical contact with desired subject (for some abilities wherein distance is a factor in determining ability level, this method causes the individual to receive a lower class designation). 
Misquantia ("Magical dyscalculia"): Student attempts to use magic at a certain strength, but actual amount of magic used is different from the amount intended (i.e., planning to light a candle and setting the desk on fire instead, or planning to float a stack of books but only picks up one instead, or fails entirely despite total weight being within technical capabilities)
  • Some treatments: Exceptional levels of practice. Using visual reminders or hand signals (e.g., pinching fingers for smaller amounts of magic and holding them further apart for more magic). Practicing regular meditation. Only using magic while meditating. If linked to emotions, practicing emotional control. Listening to classical music or music with strong, regular beats when using magic. Removing distractions and using magic only in distraction-free environments. 
Mislexia ("Magical dyslexia"): (Specific to physical sense-enhancing abilities) Student senses incorrect data through magic (e.g., travel Power senses a tree a foot further away than it is and runs into it; a telekenetic Power senses a book to the right when it is really to the left; a music Power hears notes in a song in the incorrect order)
  • Some treatments: Avoid relying on single sensory input from magic (open eyes and look around when moving; look at object being moved, or stop using magic for 5 seconds and then re-verify location of objects; record music and listen to three times). Extend senses slower and focus for longer (students may experience sensation of objects "shifting" into actual place under extended focus). Hold breath when using magic. Listen to repetitive beat when extending senses. Tap a beat when using sensing ability.
Physical-based impairments (such as a tone-deaf student with music magic, or a blind student with illusion magic): These students' magic normally takes a slightly different than usual form to compensate for the physical handicap (the physical handicap must be present at onset of abilities for this to occur). The magic differences may or may not be genetic, but 90% do not show up in descendants without the physical handicap, and those abilities that do often fade within 2-4 generations.
While the magic adjusts to the student's physical form, the adjustment is not always perfect. Many students are only be able to make partial use of their abilities, and are designated as a lower class level based on the skills they can use.
Other students are incapable of some standard abilities for their technical class level, but those they can perform are much stronger than usual; the student may therefore be classed higher than their technical level. It is also not uncommon for a student to actually fully develop a higher or lower level of magic than would be expected based on family history (e.g., a telekinetic Power with motor impairment and two parents of fourth class developing into a second class telekinetic Power). However, individuals in the former situation, once their abilities are fully tested, are considered stable and would visit an institution such as Mechany's only for identification of available abilities and strengths of those abilities. Individuals in the latter situation are not considered to have a magical disability, and would not attend Mechany's for specialized instruction or testing at all.
  • Treatment: Helping the student discover the alternative form and realize how to access it, and best use it. This may take a long time of trial and error, or may be intuitive. Treatments and strategies vary per student and usually depend on student's Power type and physical disability.
Powered individuals with certain cognitive-affecting disorders, such as individuals with autism, brain injuries, Down Syndrome, or limited cognitive development, are also served at Mechany's, even if their abilities are normal for the Power type, especially if the traditional school systems' services and the local Power Licensing office's services are insufficient for the student's abilities. Students with special needs are included in normal class settings to the greatest extent possible. If needed, staff may train the entire family in helping the affected family member control and deal with magic. Usually this is sufficient and in most cases, the family returns home to implement these strategies, staying with contact from local Power Licensing offices if they need additional minor assistance.
In some cases, complete control may not be possible, and (as with students with uncontrollable abilities), the family members interested in doing so and (if capable) the individual may be offered full-time employment as possible. However, the government also has several programs to help families in this situation, and many elect to take advantage of those instead, as those are frequently closer to home.

Being tone deaf, Kelly always considered her music magic useless. But when her neighbor Derik invites her on a salvage mission in the magic-devastated American South, she discovers she can hear the voices of the people lost.

Now, hoping to save the family she lost, she'll seek out a way to collapse the bubble of magic drowning most of the region. But Derik and her only surviving relative--her twin brother--aren't about to let her face being trapped forever in the magic herself, or death by its monsters.

Trying to get back everyone she's lost might just cost her everyone she has left.

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