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=Gray Curiculum Structure= (By Sam)(ael) (Return to Teachings)


 * Gray Curriculum Structure **

Being a Gray Jedi is a way of life. It is not just a philosophy or theory about life but an actual method of living. It's methods are not limited by anyone but yourself. It's application is the only way to advance. It is important that character and skill is tested at EVERY stage or there is no value to the way of living.

The training I underwent in order to get where I did would be considered harsh. I am going to try to impart a softer version you can administer to everyone for their benefit. If I were to teach the way I was taught you would get a student that could pass rarely and your council would dissolve.

Points of Emphasis -Personal Character -Challenge -Understanding -Skill -Will power

I will outline the desired results for the five Gray Traits and then discuss Teaching methods and tests.

__**Personal Character**__ Personal Character is CONSTANTLY tested. This has to do with your actual beliefs and morals and how you actually apply them. Gray Jedi learn the ways of the Sith, The ways of Jedi, the ways of monks. Anything that helps them to understand better and gain the skills needed to succeed. This is only possible if they are careful (and I mean VERY careful) not to depart from their own guiding morals or ethics. MANY Gray Jedi fall and never come back. By falling I mean they depart from all morals and become truely evil. This happens because once you learn how to cut all of the false beliefs from your ideology you will be good enough to disregard ALL of them if you like. This is a dangerous knife-edge to walk on. More challenging than either the Sith or the Jedi's most scary challenges, but it is a form of perfection with great benefits also, if you can maintain it. So Instructors are very careful to test character at every level and at every chance. Often what you believe about the situation holds more value and danger than the actual circumstances.

__**Challenge**__ Grays TRADEMARK move is to dash headlong into what they fear to undertake. This form of insanity in necessary. Only someone willing and INTERESTED in suffering in such great amounts can undertake this path. Only those people will be able to gain the strength needful to progress.

__**Understanding**__ Grays believe that knowlege is power, but Understanding is ten times as valuable. A Gray is also sometimes Trademarked by observing a situation for even days before entering. Observation is an art for Gray Jedi and it allows them to develop a very good understanding of people and the various institutions in our society. This understanding grants Gray Jedi the ability to be smooth and sure in nearly all circumstances. Such Subtle observation leads them to develop perfect timing, and punctuality when it comes to stepping in at just the right time or providing a perfect solution, or answer. Grays will often survive and thrive like a James bond Character but in real life because they have watched how society works in many situations and leared every crack and cranny. This also lends then great insight and wisdom into philosophy and themselves.

__**Skill**__ Grays are not all devilish charm and self exploration. They are DRIVEN to the highest levels of skill. Usually the skills are basic and very applicable. Language, martial arts, business, and leadership but this is not always the case. The true art is in learning to master various things and pick up skills. To this end much of the daily training is devoted. Gray Students usually form what is called an 'Eight-list' or in what I think became common slang 'Late list' because it is characteristic for Students always to be told they are late for the next part of training which inevitably is one of their eight skills. This is a list of eight skills they choose to focus on during their own training from Student to Knight. Three skills to master, Five to specialize in. It should also be noted that Masters and knights who are training Apprentices learn the skills their apprentice selects so that they can teach them. This develops very rounded teachers and keeps training interesting for both though after the third apprentice apparently no skill is hard to pick up for a teacher.

__**Will Power**__ The last part of the training is will power. Grays believe in a very deadly serious way that determination overcomes all obstacles. Even the impossible. They have been known to bend what we know of reality with the application of this idea. Unfortunately the huge benefits also have a downside. Because of the Harsh tone training takes in order to exercise and test willpower at every moment few students pass. In seeking to compensate for this or sometimes when it is overused it tends to drive students off the deep end. I myself have lost students by not properly applying these standards and the results are often radical and very empowered monsters who know no bounds.

__**Teaching Methods and tests**__: Now as you can see, most of the training is skill-based teaching the five basic points in conjunction with skill building of high quality.

Please note that training is very freeform as it was done with me. Grays of my kind are very rare and I have only met three besides my master and some were brief. Less than a handshake. There are no really specific tasks required. Everything is up to the teacher and apprentice. This also seems a characteristic point I should mention.

This teaching style is punctuated by projects and tests.

__Projects__: A Project is something designed to teach a valuable lesson and increase the student's Understanding. Such assignments are usually given in response to specific problems and include some element of Will Power. I used to have a minor phobia of swimming in the sea. I always imagined what was down there. My Master drove me to the sea and made me swim for six days straight with breaks for quick food and four hours of sleep. I swam during the night and during the day while he participated in beach activities like an old family member of a new family each day. I floated for the last three days but I had to stay in and float as deep out as I could stay. He seriously threatened to find me a tank to swim with sharks in whether people were ment to or not. Another time he made me observe a store daily for a week and give me 30 employee's names and various information about them. I now know more about how a Walmart functions than some of their employees I am sure and I have a few friends there still. He made me ice-burn myself (a very painful process that leaves an open sore wound and blisters and pus cracking skin and blood for weeks) Because I said I was opposed to tattoos and then absently thought it might be cool to get one. Ice burns leave permanent pigmentation where you burn yourself so I now have a brown scarred patch on my abs that I wouldn't trade for the world. There was also a time when I was required to flirt obscenely with every girl I thought was out of my class because I was scared of doing it. Phone numbers! I also got strange project tasks out of the blue. I was told to pick a fight that I was pretty sure I wouldn't win and then get out of it in five words of less. I picked a fight with some gangbangers (I lived next to drug dealers at the time in a minor Ghetto portion of Tucson), really had them pissed off, then when the moment of truth came I very seriously told them I was a lesbian. Suddenly I had gang-banger friends and I learned the value of humor in a tight situation.

__Tests__: A Tests is designed to test something and they are constantly being implemented between and even during skill practices and projects. These tend to be just as harsh as some of the projects and carry added pressure. Usually with a test something is on the line. It teaches how to cope with pressure. When I wanted to become Master Orid's apprentice I was instructed to bring him my most valued possession. This was hard because I didn't have much back then and at that age. I ended up going to and appologizing for not finding anything. He wouldn't train me. I finally came back for the fourth time after trying three things that I really did think I valued most and he accepted me as His apprentice, but he took what I had given him. The next day he smashed the heck out of it. It had sentimental value because it was from my Grandmother. He gave me a brand new exact replica of the item (I am not going to say what) and we talked about people being like those items and what is right and wrong to people being like what my grandmother's gift meant to me and made the original better than the copy no matter how perfect. Another time I got tests of character when he told me to do things that were impossible and I was not allowed to give up until he told me. Sometimes I achieved what I had previously thought was impossible. Sometimes it would have taken years if ever to have a shot. Sometimes I was given knowlege tests. Sometimes I was given questions to come back with the best answer in the world. I was grilled mercilessly sometimes when my answers didn't sound perfect and deeply meaningful. Sometimes there were rewards. Once I showed up and was told I could appreciate the day to myself and I had a hundred dollar bill in a hiding spot somewhere in the Yard. Once I had found the bill I got to enjoy the day and the bill with only a light lesson in search and find. Needless to say my Master and I were very close after about five years of this type of training.

In closing, I highly recommend that training be given an apprentice-based curriculum here and that the Masters are taught very, very carefully how to do this type of mentoring. The best situation I can think of is that the People take apprentices in the real world and replicate a lighter version of this training after being put through this training by each other online.

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