“Class, my question for you is does the moon exist if we have never been there?” Professor Rock asked dismissing his class.
This was their assignment, but something more was going on in the minds of the students at Moon University. Rob, a chemistry major started specializing in rebellious studies. He became so obsessed with finding ways to get the human mind to rebel that he started using his classmates as subjects. Rob’s plan was to create real world problems by exposing how the university was spending its money and once he got ahold of a camera and a website his work began to take shape. His first story released was a report on how there were so many students struggling to make ends meet and he also reported data of how many graduates had no jobs after college. Every week Rob would report real campus stories on his website and he remained anonymous.
“Good day class, today our project will be focusing on a mission to the moon,” Professor Rock said noticing chatter among his students.
“Is there a problem?” He asked politely.
Sharon, who read Rob’s articles almost daily couldn’t help but question her professor.
“If time on earth is different then time on the moon should we be wasting our time trying to achieve your goals or ours Sir?”
This caused an uproar in Professor Rock’s class.
“It is my job to teach, I have no alternative goal. May I ask what has sparked your question?” Professor Rock responded.
“I bring up my theory of opportunity cost. If I am in your class every day at a price couldn’t I spend my own time building my own spaceship to the moon?” Sharon said causing a stir in the class.
“What is your name?”
“Sharon, Sir.”
She got Professor Rock’s full attention.
“What is knowledge to you Sharon? Why do we call you all students?” Professor Rock asked.
“Is that a trick question Sir?” Sharon responded.
“Sharon, no one forced you to sign up for Moon University did they? You came here to learn, you’re using your time wisely. If you want to live in a world with no education the door is open. Go and try to reach the depths of space on your own. I’m not forcing you to do anything. I’m not forcing any of you.”
After Professor Rock made his point a number of students walked out with Sharon to protest for student jobs while Professor Rock continued to teach.
“Now class, I must make this point, some of you will make it out of here with your degree and some of you will be like Sharon trying to spend the rest of your life proving people like me wrong. It’s your choice.” He explained continuing his lesson.
Shortly after, a burning rock came flying through his classroom window while Sharon and her rebellious classmates began to riot and protest, witnessing the outrage, Professor Rock and his class fled to safety.
Chaos soon filled the campus and riot police were everywhere trying to calm students down.
Rob’s website soon became filled with information and his master plan to inflict the student body with news that would give the students leverage over the university began to take shape and Rob was yet to reveal his identity. Sharon, who was now a product of Rob’s social experiment took to the bullhorn.
“My fellow classmates of Moon University. We will be the students who demand payment for our hard work. We will not starve while learning like other university students. I have been informed that once we get what we want, we will rebuild this university with our paid labor that we fought for.” At this moment Sharon began to lay out her plan for the entire student body, but some students got violent and started dragging other students out of their classrooms to make sure that nothing on campus could be accomplished without the students. This caused the National Guard to be called because people were now in danger and Sharon’s protest was not considered peaceful.
Rob on the other hand began to record everything and post campus footage on his website. The entire college riot began to spread across other universities causing a wave of protests. Even as students began to get hurt Rob never thought that his experiment was getting out of hand until he got hit with a flying bat trying to interview a student faculty member.
The riots caused so much damage that Moon University had to shutdown and no one could afford to clean up the mess but the government. Taxpayers soon demanded a return on their investment and Sharon and her followers never got what they demanded. In the end, most of the faculty at Moon University found themselves unemployed and had to find jobs somewhere else. After Rob got hit with the bat and spent about a year in recovery nothing more got published on his website because his brain damage was so severe that he could no longer use his hands.
Professor Rock never saw the product of his class goals at Moon University, but he did publish a book about his experience at the school. The first chapter of his book showed a picture of him on the moon with another class from another university explaining how they pulled it off and for some odd reason he never mentioned anything about the class that failed. The booked was a best seller focusing on constructive thinking and how if rebellious thinkers used their energy to build up instead of tearing down then the world would be able to reach its fullest potential. Professor Rock used the proceeds from his book to rebuild Moon University and at the end of his journey he found Sharon to adhere to her demands. His first sentence when he saw her was, “Together we can use our time to make the world better, apart we can use our time to divide it. It is God who gives us that choice.”
Now living in poverty with an enormous amount of bills and debt, Sharon and Professor Rock began to rebuild. It took her 30 years to learn Professor Rock’s first lesson, just imagine if she hadn’t wasted the time trying to prove him wrong. The lesson was learned and now a new chapter of Moon University began.
Moon University
