“You heard the Quack,” Wetherby said. It wasn’t a question.
“Too much vibrato on the intro-grunt, Simmons!” the woman yelled. “You sound like a stressed coot. Again!” duckquackprep
“They’re learning metacognitive uncertainty mapping ,” Wetherby corrected, offended. “When a human child mimics the Hesitant Feed , their anterior cingulate cortex lights up like a Christmas tree. It’ches the same neural groove that later lets them solve multivariable calculus while acknowledging the inherent limits of their own knowledge. Hence, no Dunning-Kruger effect. Our graduates know exactly what they don’t know. It’s revolutionary.” “You heard the Quack,” Wetherby said
He pointed. “What’s that one?”
Eloise looked up, mud dripping from her braids, and gave Carter a slow, deliberate wink. “You sound like a stressed coot
“You’re saying these kids are learning to quack snail coordinates.”
Just then, a small girl with braids and mud up to her knees broke formation. She waded to the edge of the pond, looked Carter dead in the eye, and performed a single, perfect sound: “QUAAA-HA-HA-HACK.”