Marcia began to wonder if that was the reason why Laura stopped going to college when Laura said, "They have probably already started serving. We better get going. Mistress Jennifer is having an introduction dinner for the girls she has just now taken on for initiation. I'm already a maiden, but I've been gone for nine months, so she wanted me to attend also."
They quickly threw on their dresses, and hurried down the hallway and a few flight of stairs. While Laura led the way, she asked, "I'm sure you have had a few dinners at the Lord and Lady's manor?"
"Yes. My family has had many dinners here." As Marcia replied, she recalled the large dining hall that her family always ate in. It was often filled with up to a hundred people or more. The meals were always fantastic, and there was always a constant roar from all of the conversations going on at the same time.
Laura then led her into a room of the manor she had never been in before. It was a much smaller dining room that could probably only seat about ten people. "This is their casual dining room where they eat when they are not entertaining."
The table was full of people having conversations, and it appeared that the salad course had already been served. Only two chairs were open over by Lord Jacob, who was sitting at one end, with Lady Jennifer sitting at the other. They quickly made their way over to those chairs. This put them at Lord Jacob's left, with Laura next to him.
Marcia's total focus as she came into the room and sat down, was on Lord Jacob, and who could blame any woman for it. He was Lady Jennifer's perfect complement. He was just as attractive, but with a dark complexion, and jet-black hair. He looked like an Arabian Knight to Lady Jennifer's Viking Goddess. He was dressed in what appeared to be a navy blue silk robe, and matching pajamas, much like how Hugh Heffner would appear.
Eventually she took her eyes off of him, and looked around the table. She saw that everyone else at the table were young women like Laura and her. They were similarly dressed too, in the white dresses. All of them must be maidens like she was hoping to be, though she did not recognize any of them.
Lady Jennifer spoke to everyone, quieting the other conversations. "Girls, the new person amongst us is Marcia. She is the daughter of a long-standing couple of the kingdom. Her father is even a squad leader.
"Marcia, I'm sure you are now well acquainted with Laura. She is the only one besides you here that was raised within the kingdom. Everyone else has just completed our 'boot camp' within the past week. To your left is Lisa Green." Marcia saw a petite, thin girl with straight black hair. She had a nice smile for Marcia, but appeared rather shy.
"Followed by Alyson Frazier, whom you can call Ally." She was a blond surfer-girl with a deep tan.
"You can call her Ally, because on my left is another Allison, Allison Lilly…" She had the looks of a librarian, with tight curly auburn hair that bordered on actual red.
"… Sandra Nelson …" Another blond, but with a Rubenesque figure, though not overweight at all.
"… Becky Phadt …" She appeared Middle-Eastern with a dark complexion, much like Lord Jacob. Marcia thought her name didn't match her appearance. Maybe her parents named her Rebecca, but she preferred to be called Becky.
"… and lastly, Evellyn Robinson." She stood out from this group of girls. Not just because of her clear African ancestry, but because she had an appearance of royalty. The best description for her was Nubian Princess, with long, straight hair that looked like it had been pressed that way
"So, Mistress Jennifer, let me see if I got this right," said Marcia. While pointing at each girl she said "Lisa, Ally, Allison, Sandra, Becky and Evellyn."
"Very good Marcia." This compliment came from Lord Jacob. "It's nice to know you are good with names." Marcia loved to hear his voice. It had a slight middle-eastern accent that was always deep and powerful.
He then spoke to Laura, "So Laura, how was your freshman year in college? Are you looking forward to spending your summer vacation here?"
"It was a breeze after what my parents put me through, Master Jacob. There was no challenge to it at all. As for the summer, it feels great living back among people I can 'let my hair down' with."
The question by Lord Jacob, and Laura's response, caught Marcia off guard. She also caught on that she was supposed to address Lord Jacob similarly as Lady Jennifer. "Master Jacob, I thought members of the kingdom didn't go to college. I know my parents had nothing but contempt for it."
"I can understand how you might have gotten that impression," Lord Jacob replied. "Considering how we expect the children of our kingdom to have the equivalent of a college education by the time they are eighteen, it would seem to be pointless to send any of them off to college. The problem is that if we want any doctors or lawyers in this kingdom to be recognized by the society at large, we have to go through the motions and send some of our young people there. Laura, in this case, is going to be a doctor."
Lady Jennifer spoke again with the intention of getting everyone's attention. "OK girls. We have a lot to cover this evening, so we better get started. Up till now, each of you has received individual instruction in some of the ways of this kingdom. What we now have to cover is best done as a group, and that is why you have all been brought together here.
"Marcia?" said Lady Jennifer, so that she could get her attention. "Throughout this dinner I'm going to ask some questions that may seem like I'm insulting your intelligence, but you and Laura are the only ones that have been raised in the kingdom. These other young ladies have not been so fortunate. So these questions are more for their benefit than they are a test for you. Is that OK with you?"
"Yes, Mistress Jennifer."
"Very well. What did your parents tell you tell you when they had you do extra studies that your classmates at school never had to do?"
"Mistress Jennifer, they said that adults made decisions that increased the number of future decisions for them, while children made decisions that decreased their future decisions."
"And what does that mean to you?"
"Mistress Jennifer, it means that mature people did things like study and exercise, so that they could do more things, while childish people got lazy and fat, which limited what they could do later."
"That's a fair enough description," she said to Marcia, then turned her attention to the other girls. "I would say that children always want to do whatever they want to do, and adults are always considering what is really in their best interest. We never expect you to always choose work over play, which is how many people misinterpret this. What we say is that you must establish reasonable and realistic goals for your life, and then do the work required to achieve it."
She then turned her attention back to Marcia. "I'm sure your parents told you to do something when you would have rather watch some television show, but did your parents ever tell you couldn't watch TV?"
"Not that I can think of, Mistress Jennifer," replied Marcia.
Back to the other girls, "You see, we don't think that TV is bad, or playing is bad, we are just very firm that you achieve certain goals, and if so, then you can play.
"Now let's get back to how she got the impression that we have nothing but contempt for college. There is obviously an important role for colleges in our society, but how they are mostly being used today is quite destructive. A hundred years ago it could be reasonable to believe that you could spend four years in a university, and learned what you needed to make it through a career for your whole life, but not now. Learning must be life long, and the sooner you learn that, the better off you will be.
"If you think about it, every teacher you had in High School not only had a college education, but they probably believed that you needed one to be successful in life. So if that is what they truly believed, then what exactly is their motivation to prepare you for life while you are in High School? They have no expectation for you to be adults when you graduate, and that is what guides them as they teach their lessons.
"From as young as we can, we teach our children what knowledge really is, and how to acquire it without formal institutions. Those institutions will not always be there for you, so to rely on them is ludicrous."
Lord Jacob then stepped in, "As my lovely wife said, we do consider Universities as having an important role in our society. They are an excellent place to expand our society's knowledge, but as a place to monopolize that knowledge, they are quite destructive. Most of our children should not be raised as if they must go there, and in fact, colleges will never achieve their maximum benefit to our society until it is assumed that only adults should attend them, certainly not children seeking to become adults. Everyone who attends should be in full control of what they will learn, and not be viewed as targets of indoctrination as they are now."
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/2pu21a/next_generation_christian_kingdom_ch03_marcia