From: kps@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Karthik P Sheka)
Subject: Re: Prof.X, his school, and higher education
Reply-To: kps@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Karthik P Sheka)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 19:44:21 GMT

In article <92232.131615ALWHC@CUNYVM.BITNET> <ALWHC@CUNYVM.BITNET> writes:
> A few amusing thoughts and questions:

	It's been a while since his origin's been mentioned, but I guess
I'll take a stab at it...

>   What is Professor Xavier's degree in, and which college did he attend?

	He probably has a degree in genetics, since in the X-Men graphic
novel, among other places, he is recognized as the leading person in that
field, and has definitely taught at Columbia University, at least part
time.  I don't think they mentioned which colleges he studied at.

>   Considering that the X-men's headquarters is supposed to be a school,
>   what is its goal and core cirriculum?

	The official name of the school is something like "Professor
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters".  The goal of the school is
(officially) to find gifted youngsters and let them excel in an environment
of their peers.  Unofficially, of course, it's to find mutants that are
just developping their powers, and help them control those powers.  Since
the school membership is extremely low and of varying age and education,
the cirriculum is individually designed around each student's apptitude,
and modified every semester based on achievement.

>     I remember years ago Xavier giving Kitty Pryde a private class in
>   learning the controls of the Blackbird and she said that fairytale
>   story to Illyana in Russian and the rest of the team were outside
>   gagging at the story,so they all learned Russian. At least there was
>   an effort made in showing the X-men as students, not just super heroes.

	That was back when the story mattered more than the art.

>     Interestingly, I had read in one of the Byrne issues that Magneto
>   had studied and done research into Physics and magnetism in order to
>   sharpen his mutant power. (He even bragged to himself that he could win
>   the Nobel prize and recieve critical acclaim in the science world if he
>   wanted to.) IMHO, that was a good attempt at giving him some dimension
>   in that he had to read up on magnetism.

	Makes sense...If I had a power like his, I'd do some research into
the subject, at least to know the limits of the power.

>     It seems that the smartest X-man is Hank McCoy (Beast).

	Most probably, but of course he can't actually show that, otherwise
why would he be going around battling super-villians?

>     Where did Xavier get all that money to own that huge estate let alone
>   to rebuild and maintain that huge mansion? What about the neighbors?

	He apparently made some investments some time ago which were good
enough to keep the school going after he disappeared in X-Men #200.  He
probably got the original capital from his mysterious father, who will
probably show up in the latest storylines...

>     I really wish that they could give the current characters more dimension
>   as they did in the past.

	Well, Claremont mentioned, I believe, that he wouldn't mind coming
back to the X-Men once they got rid of Bob Harras...

Karthik Sheka              | It's not an optical illusion.  It just looks like
kps@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu |    one.
karthik@cs.columbia.edu    | By "recursion" I mean "defined by recursion".