New SCH questions (Please help)

[Cassandaria]

scholar is a complicated and fun job. You cannot think of playing scholar like playing white mage at all. Scholar is heavy on prehealing because of shields. Shields are a big part of the scholar toolkit. as for the fairies? which one you use depends on the competency of your party, your own confidence and your ability to adapt. Scholar can be easily more dps focus in content than white mage (minus places where holy spam can happen) because of abilities that allow you to dps without losing healing ability.
the most important thing for scholar is to use your astral flow stacks, use them, love them, learn them. All of the abilities that rely on them are handy in different situations and even include a heal that ignores cool down timers and your stats (healing 25% of the targets maxium is AWESOME!).
As for macros, there is a simple reason why they are handy. Combining your fairy abilities into your own makes your heals that much more powerful. A macroed physicks ability with embrace tied to it? That's a cure II from a white mage, all for one ability without interrupting much. You can also add in embrace with leeches to heal a target with a debuff and because the fairy did the heal, you aren't going to get your face eaten by a monster with a bad tank (though your fairy may wind up lunch dependent on how bad the tank is :P).
I wont claim to be a fantastic scholar, but at the very least I hope this advice gives you the right start. There are players FAR better at scholar than I am (I am more of a white mage to be honest) and I hope they also will chime in. The healer forum tends to be pretty awesome with support! good luck in your healing ventures!