Question Jadis and Malachi

I ran into a bit of an inconsistency regarding Jadis and Malachi (and consequently, Ayla and Tansy)'s childhoods.

Bear with me:
- Ayla mentions having studied at (in order) Westchester Montessori, Benjamin Franklin Academy and Chilton before Whateley.
- It's known that there was a bit of a scandal when the newspapers revealed that Dr. Diabolik's kids were studying at the same school as Trevor.
- In "Parents' Day", Diane states (via Gracie) that when the scandal happened the Diabolik kids were studying third and fourth grade at the Montessori school.
- However, in "Ayla and the Networks", Diane states (via Ayla) that the scandal involved the Benjamin Franklin academy.
- Somewhere (I don't know exactly where) it's said that Trevor finished third grade at Franklin.
- Malachi is in Trevor/Ayla's class; Jadis is one year ahead, Tansy is two years ahead.

I think the prevalent theory used to be that the scandal happened at Westchester, and Trevor was transferred from Westchester to Franklin during third grade due to the scandal. Diane might even have stated so in the old forums, but I have no proof of that. But that would contradict "Ayla and the Networks."
I can come up with an alternative explanation that seems to fit all the known facts -- namely, that kids were transferred from Westchester to Franklin at the end of 2nd grade, and that Franklin is also a Montessori school -- but it doesn't feel as satisfying. It sorta assumes that an elite school like W.M. only offers half of the elementary cycle, which does not make a lot of sense.
A third possible theory is that W.M. and B.F. are two names for the same school, which also does not make a lot of sense.
So... maybe Ayla misspoke in "Networks," and he said "Franklin" when he actually meant "Westchester"? Not very much in character for Ayla, but he was rather upset at the time...

Sir Lee wrote: I can come up with an alternative explanation that seems to fit all the known facts -- namely, that kids were transferred from Westchester to Franklin at the end of 2nd grade, and that Franklin is also a Montessori school -- but it doesn't feel as satisfying. It sorta assumes that an elite school like W.M. only offers half of the elementary cycle, which does not make a lot of sense.

Franklin could have hired a new principle or added new facilities, giving the three families a positive incentive to enroll their children there. There also could have been some incident at Westchester that gave them reason to rethink their school choice. For example, the children of a well-known mutant hero (and opponent of Dr. Dad) could have been first enrolled that year.

Another possibility is that the real name is the Ben Franklin Montessori School in Westchester County NY. As opposed to the Thomas Jefferson Montessori School in Queens County NY, or the Alexander Hamilton Montessori School in Kings County NY, and so on.

So he just isn't consistent in how he names it.

Edit: It being a private school it is also possible that it was bought and the name changed.

Valentine wrote: Another possibility is that the real name is the Ben Franklin Montessori School in Westchester County NY. As opposed to the Thomas Jefferson Montessori School in Queens County NY, or the Alexander Hamilton Montessori School in Kings County NY, and so on.

So he just isn't consistent in how he names it.

And we have a WINNER!

a gen-u-wine vintage 1967 NO-PRIZE! Originally awarded for guessing Janet Van Dynes' original hair color!

Bek D Corbin wrote:

Valentine wrote: Another possibility is that the real name is the Ben Franklin Montessori School in Westchester County NY. As opposed to the Thomas Jefferson Montessori School in Queens County NY, or the Alexander Hamilton Montessori School in Kings County NY, and so on.

So he just isn't consistent in how he names it.

And we have a WINNER!

a gen-u-wine vintage 1967 NO-PRIZE! Originally awarded for guessing Janet Van Dynes' original hair color!

Please send the prize to 1602 Pennsylvania Ave Washington DC.

Bek D Corbin wrote:

Valentine wrote: Another possibility is that the real name is the Ben Franklin Montessori School in Westchester County NY. As opposed to the Thomas Jefferson Montessori School in Queens County NY, or the Alexander Hamilton Montessori School in Kings County NY, and so on.

So he just isn't consistent in how he names it.

And we have a WINNER!

a gen-u-wine vintage 1967 NO-PRIZE! Originally awarded for guessing Janet Van Dynes' original hair color!

Ehhh... I would love that to be the answer, but I don't see how the phrasing in Ayla and the Networks would make sense, if they weren't two separate schools?

Or it's an acknowledgement that he uses both names?? ... Meh.

I thought it over for a second, and a simple solution presented itself. “Wait, you all know I’ve babbled on and on more than once about Franklin Academy and Westchester Montessori. Right?”

“Right.”

“Way too often,” supplied a smart-ass in a hammock.

“Thanks Toni, I love you too,” I replied. “Chou? Pull up your laptop, go to the web archives of the New York Times, and search for stories with the keywords ‘Diabolik’ and ‘Benjamin Franklin Academy’. When we were little kids, someone ratted them out and they were all over the newspapers for a week.”

Malady wrote: Ehhh... I would love that to be the answer, but I don't see how the phrasing in Ayla and the Networks would make sense, if they weren't two separate schools?

Or it's an acknowledgement that he uses both names?? ... Meh.

I considered the "it's the same school" as a third possibility in my original post, but rejected for exactly the same reason. Both explanations presume that Ayla misspoke in some way in "Networks", but the "one school" hypotheses presumes a far less likely mistake. I mean, one thing is to say the name of wrong school as a momentary slip of the tongue, but to talk of a single school as if it were two is kinda pushing it.

null0trooper wrote: Franklin could have hired a new principle or added new facilities, giving the three families a positive incentive to enroll their children there. There also could have been some incident at Westchester that gave them reason to rethink their school choice. For example, the children of a well-known mutant hero (and opponent of Dr. Dad) could have been first enrolled that year.

Well, we know that the Havocs sent Melody and their other kids there...

Maybe some "thing" knew that and sent something after the Havocs, causing the shutdown of the school for repairs... That somehow took years or something?

Or just once you switch, you don't go back.

Well, it's a mess of contradictions. I went searching for Franklin Academy mentions. In Kayda 11, "Intervention", Tansy revisits her past in the spirit world, with this description:

The blonde exemplar grimaced and tried to turn away from the spectacle unfolding in the classroom of Franklin Academy, the school to which she and many of her classmates had transferred after the debacle with the Diabliku kids.

...which appears to support the "scandal at WM, transfer to Franklin" hypothesis.
But then, in Odds and Ends, Jadis mentions Franklin, which she never went to by the above hypothesis.
Worse, in "Ayla and the New School", Ayla recognizes Malachi... from a memory of third grade in Franklin, and wonders about the reasons why Jadis and Malachi had to leave Franklin.

I was going to suggest the possibility that they were two separate schools that got merged together into one. I had that happen in real life; my elementary school was closed down and replaced with a (much nicer) elementary wing added onto the high school, and the structure was renamed with a combination of the two schools' names. That would have explained the inconsistencies in how they refer to it and why it sometimes is treated as two separate schools. But that doesn't cover Tansy being transferred to Franklin.

Maybe Tansy misspoke, and she meant to say "the school from which," not "the school to which".

EDIT: Maybe there were originally the two schools, but the students of Westchester got temporarily displaced into Franklin while Westchester was remodeled. In that scenario, they all started as Westchester students, the Diabliku incident happened while they were at Franklin, and the parents decided to just make their attendance at Franklin permanent when Westchester was reopened.

I put this whole issue into the category of "Which Dr. Tenent are you referencing?"

It is sort of in the "who cares and why would it matter?" category....

I put the issue into the category of a shared universe without an overarching editor who read each story and kept them consistent as to what was told by whom. Even to the point that Ayla was inconsistent internally in some of the stories which were told from his perspective... Now that is not a complaint, it just is a fact. We must work around it now, the best we can say is that perhaps at some point the schools merged and while Ayla is anal about keeping track of such things he probably also had the whole Tansy is tormenting me thing going on which has caused him to sort of create a fuzzy memory that is not entirely accurate of the time.

Katssun wrote: I put this whole issue into the category of "Which Dr. Tenent are you referencing?"

It is sort of in the "who cares and why would it matter?" category....

It matters because the huge interconnected setting is a big part of what people enjoy about the WU. That only works because people put in the effort to keep it all straight. It's easy to ignore minor errors here and there, because shit happens. But unchecked errors can start to snowball when different stories base their assumptions off of different versions of events, and then other stories base theirs off those, and so on. Resolving a continuity issue when it's still in the stage of meaningless trivia is greatly preferable to having to retcon actual plot-relevant stuff down the road after that detail becomes a key element in a story. So, it's useful to politely bring them up and look for solutions beyond throwing your hands in the air and just not caring.

Additionally, speculating about possible convoluted solutions that avoid recognizing them as mistakes at all can be an amusing diversion. The wait for the next Whateley installment must be passed somehow, and one can only stare at CornHub for so long.

Exactly what Kettlekorn said. That is that it behooves us (or the TINCC) to come up with a consistent explanation and post it to the Wiki so that future stories (even fan fic) can be consistent with other stories in the universe.

Let's see if I can pull a Pablo Hidalgo here. Bek has said it's the same school, so that is now canon. I understand there are some lingering issues so let's go with this.

There is one school, but two campuses.

The original school, Ben Franklin Academy was located in Westchester and is a Montessori style school. However the campus was extremely cramped and the school was a victim of its own success and over crowded. Attempts to buy land around the campus to expand were fruitless, so the school had to move closer to New York to get a better facility. In the kids minds, as there were two separate places they became distinct, even though the school, Ben Franklin Academy didn't change.