#the school system needs all the good teachers it can get

[venuslcver]

WITHIN SCHOOL WALLS ⋆

pairing: academicweapon!jj x rival!reader

synopsis: a rivalry between two classmates, jayj and you, seemed to be just a miscommunication.

tw: banter, profanity, rivalry, miscommunication trope, feminine described character, enemies to lovers? (no use of y/n)

any type of interaction including likes, comments, and reblogs is appreciated! but ultimately not necessary. let me know if im missing any warnings!

strutting up the stairs of your school, you waved pleasantly at an acquaintance, who happily held the heavily weighted door open for you.

jesus it's cold

grasping at your school-issued blaze, sliding the sleeves down to cover your, now, cold hands. for you going to a private school, that your parents paid a shit ton of money for you to attend— they never seemed to splurge on warm air being spread throughout the school.

making your way over to the designated locker you had for years, you began grabbing a couple notebooks from the far left of it. opening up one of the notebooks, in particular, you scanned the notes that you wrote the day before in class.

you liked to be prepared for even the simplest of assignments you were given. so naturally when it came to exams you tend to panic a little. just a little though. but with the system that you put in place— it left very little space for anything to go awry.

god that makes you sound like a loser... i-i swear you're not a loser. at least from what i know...

eyes squinted, face deep in focus, finger gliding against the grain of the notebook— which was filled with every single thing that left the teacher's mouth. you were never one to miss something that could be detrimental to your learning curve.

just as you went to close the notebook, "no notes allowed during the exam", a hand momentarily stopped the closure of it, a large stanced figure loomed over your body from behind. said figure fully opening your notes back up, their head now resting on your shoulder.

"wait — i missed that last part. ahh, i got it now... you can close it"

slamming it closed— you slightly turned, sticking your palm against his face, pushing his heavy-ass head off of your shoulder. why did the school have to stick your locker beside the one person that you actively didn't want to interact with on a daily basis?

jayj was quick to bounce back towards you after you pushed him rearward with force. him, yet again, invading all of your personal space. though, from the front, now.

"have you heard of personal space — like ever?" you said sharply.

"what can i not read a fellow classmate's notes? i mean, i thought you were a good team playe-"

swiftly cutting his statement off, "i am a good team player— just not towards you""-who was willing to share her wisdom with others"

hearing his compliment, you veered away from the attitude that you previously had with jayj, "y-you think i have... wisdom?"

"well i would've— until about two minutes ago, you made'a mistake in your notes."

realizing that he only gave you a compliment to point out a flaw in your note-taking abilities, which, with no doubt you didn't make. switchin up, yet again, "ohh shut up", you said before taking the closed notebook, forcing it to make contact with his head.

left unfazed by the physical assault that you just gave him, even slightly turned on— "let's hope that you're right about this", he said walking backward, towards the classroom that was directly across from y'all's lockers.

rolling your eyes, having to follow his movements, considering the fact that this was your shared class that he was walking towards.

"are you followin' me?" jayj said just trying to get under your skin, again.

"n-no — were in the same class" annoyed that you even feel the need to explain yourself to him of all people.

"i don't know... feelin' like you're just using that as an excuse to follow me around like'a lost puppy"

"i'm not following you around like a lost dog" you explained, simultaneously letting off a judgy face. though that didn't stop you from still walking through the doorway when jayj opened it for you.

of course, he felt the need to sit directly beside you when he saw the desk wasn't occupied.

"it seems like you are the one following me around now…" you said spinning around to face him, while scrunching your shoulders together.

after your last class of the day, you made your way to your locker, and from there, jayj began following you around. even when you left the close vicinity of your and jj's lockers.

ignoring most of what you had said, jayj crept closer to you before he spoke, “so you were followin’ me?”

you don’t even know why you try. your face, now, dropping— every ounce of cockiness that was previously written on your face, completely erased, “that— that is what you take from what i said? really?”

to which jayj nodded his head while letting off an eat-shit smile. when still didn’t give a clear reason for why he was following you around, you pushed further, “no— like seriously. why are you following me around?”

"i don't know — got nothing better to do" jayj spoke, following your movements, jumping at the chance to open the library door for you.

letting out a quiet "thanks", you sat in a seat by an empty table. noticing that jayj was about to start yammering on, "you do realize that i came in here to study, right?"

"well... yeah but"

when he didn't continue his statement like you thought he would, you realized that he wasn't actually following you around for no reason.

"w-what is it? come'on out with it..."

now, taking a moment to observe the movements that jayj was making, you saw how jittery he currently was in the seat beside you.

"i-i was just you'know... wondering if you would want to go out to dinner sometime soon?"

huh. you thought he would be asking something stupid out of you. not asking you out. on a date. the only conversations that you and jj seemed to hold were tiffs. usually insulting each other in every way imaginable. personality, intelligence, and appearance-wise. well... now that you really think about it, the only one that attacked appearance-wise was you.

jayj had always thoroughly enjoyed the banter that he had with you, usually played into. feining for the day that you drop the act and admit that you enjoyed the jabs that y’all made at each other. even pushing each other to excel further academically in an attempt to not catch the other slipping.

thought it is to be said that he, just like the gentleman he always has been, never crossed the boundary of being truly hateful to you. not that it stopped you from making every hateful comment that you could think of.

he didn’t mind though, at least most of the time. the majority of the time he found it hot. forcing him to be unimaginably turned-on. occasionally indulging himself, keeping the banter going for as long as possible before taking the chance to palm himself when not another soul was around.

“s-sure?”

jayj looked at you when you showed a lack of enthusiasm, “you’know you can say no, right?”

“huh? what do you mean?”

“you seem a little — actually like’a lot unsure about going on’a date”

“yeah — well, do you really think it’s a good idea to go on a date? i mean, we don’t particularly get along… like at all”

hearing that your reasoning for not going on a date was it not being a good idea, instead of the latter, of you not being attracted to him was, rather, a relief to jayj.

a sudden surge of energy rushed through jayj, along with becoming visible, “yeah — no don’t worry about that… it will be amazing. a-and i will be a complete and utter gentleman. oh — and my friend, pope, his dad has this fancy ass restaurant that i can take you to. bet i could get us in for free, cause ya'know his dad is a motherfuck'n g"

hearing jayj at least attempt to clear up the problem that you presented him with, you felt like it was adequate enough to say yes to his offer, with confidence.

“sounds good! but… w-will you let me actually began studying?”

“oh, yeah, sure”, flustered, jayj stood up from his seat, skipping off, but not before laying a kiss on your cheek.

#jj obx imagine #outer banks #obx #jj maybank #jj maybank x reader #jj obx #jj outer banks #jayj maybank #pope obx #pope heyward #heyward #⋆ jj maybank fic ⋆ #academicweapon!jj

[luck-of-the-drawings]

[<==PREV PAGES] [NEXT PAGE==>(not out yet.wait a year.or maybe more.imagine.]

saw alot of comments on prev pages; saying 'i HATE that mean teacher! im gonna FIGHT HIM!!' & i LOVE the energy!! it WOULD be nice. to have that catharsis. but the story of young tidestrider is Not one of catharsis. it is a story of being so small and so special and sucking so bad.

#jrwi fanart #jrwi show #jrwi riptide #gillion tidestrider #GONNA START FORMATTING MY COMICS BETTER. W THE PROPER 'PREV' 'NEXT' LINKS #REALLY DIDNT EXPECT TO CONTINUE THIS SERIES BUT AAAUUUHH MY BRRAAAIN MY BRAIN IS SO IDEASSS. I HAVE 3 OTHER PAGES SKETCHED OUT #NO PROMISES ILL FINISH EM ANY TIME SOON OR EVER. MY WHIMS ARE THEIR OWN BEAST AND I ONLY DRAW ON MY WHIMS #THAT BEING SAID IF U COMMISSIONED ME ILL GEEETT TO YOUUU IM SORRYYYY. ART IS AN EMOTIONAL RELEASE FOR ME N BABY I HAVE EMOTIONS. #ESPECIALLY ABOUT GILLION TIDESTRIDER CHAMPION OF THE UNDERSEA HERO OF THE DEEP.for the desc here i put smth that i typed up in the tags of #another thing i made. i gotta make a proper Baby Gillion tag or smth. eventually.. eventually...I LOVE DRAWIN THIS LIL BABY GUY.. #i also LOVE depicting the teachers as just being so fuckin mean. ofc theres variation in that. just like in all things.like the teacher her #idk if itll be mentioned but the octo lady is named Ms Octburn.an octopus pun based off the name of an actual councilor i had #when i was in elementary school i got bullied alot but teachers never did anything. i hated adults and didnt trust them. #but this councilor o mine was so genuinely sweet. i remember spending alot of time w her. she doesnt work there anymore. #but that one school adult that actually earns ur trust and is there for you when they can be.its SO important for a child i think #i hope she knows how much she helped me.youll see in the next page that ms octburn isnt perfect either.but she tries. they all try.somehow. #ALL these comics are gonna be inspired by somesorta experience o mine in the school system. school is so fucked up u ever thing abt that #AND GILLIOOOOONNN IN THE MOST FUCKED UP LITTLE SCHOOL OF ALL. MAINTAINED BY A CULT. CENTERED AROUND HIM. OUR CHOSEN ONE #I IMAGINE ALOT BANKS ON HIS SUCCESS. THIS IS THE WORLD. THE WHOLE WORLD. THE PROPHECY IS GOING TO COME TRUE N UR TELLIN ME #THAT ITS THIS LITTLE IDIOT THATS GONNA BE SAVING US? WHAT IF HE FAILS. IF HE CANT GET THIS RIGHT THEN HE WILL FAIL AND WE WILL DIE #WE NEED TO TRAIN HIM. WE NEED HIM TO LEARN. AND TO SUCCEED. OR ELSE WE'RE DEAD. WE'RE ALL FUCKING DEAD. I IMAGINE THAT MUST BE STRESSFUL #in other news i hope ppl actually giggle when they read these. they ARE intended to be comical. dark humor or whatever. like its also sad #this is intended to be a sad comic series. but a funny one too. does that make sense? god i hope so.saw some1 say they had flashbacks- #-reading this. like YES!! THE INTENDED EFFECT!! YOU GET ME!! i love seeing ppl get upset on this lil baby boys behalf. i LOVE seeing ppl- #-wail n weep n cry in the comments. i LOOOVE seeing ppl RELATE to baby gillion. and i love letting u all know that this wont be a happycomi #gillion gets his happiness arc in the actual show. this series is one of unfortunate events. teehehehe. do u guys remember that show #i keep listening to the lil songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events for inspiration. GOOD STUFF!! #anyway uuhh uhh thats all i got in my brain. for now. feed me ur comments give me ur input i NNEEEEEDD THHEEEMMMM

[sweetface-the-dollbaby]

oh btw I’m fairly sure I have a chance to retake my one test that I got a 5 out of 17 on and can you guess what I’m gonna do? CAN YOU GUESS WHAT I’M GONNA DO? CAN YOU GUESS WHAT I’M GONNA DO? CAN YOU GUESS WHAT I’M GONNA DO? CAN YOU FUCKING GUESS WHAT I’M GONNA DO?

#I’m gonna cheat #I’ve never cheated on a test in my whole life until yesterday #And look how far that got me #It’s not like I’m studying to be a brain surgeon I don’t need to actually know this shit #Math is so fucking insignificant compared to the other shit that I’m learning that’ll actually get me far in life #besides it’ll get my dad off my ass for once #I made a cheat sheet using the answers the teacher went over after the test #and my friend who did really good’s answers that she let me copy down #I have all the answers and they’re all correct #I’m gonna make my brilliant cheating device during lunch #I’ll copy the answers onto my eraser #I know how to do the work I think #I’ve bullshitted my way through school before without cheating before I can do it again #I just have to make the work seem right enough for plausible deniability #That shouldn’t be so hard #this will certainly get my f to at least like a c or b #Cuz tests are like a huge part of the grade #so just one perfect score on this will defo get me out of the red #…look what the American school system has done to me bro… #Look what I’ve fucking become #I sure hope this doesn’t become tax evasion int the future #Oh well

[pocketramblr]

like to make a metaphor of comparison,

Shouta- Has not heard of learner types

Toshi- Has heard of learner types and is over enthusiastic in using them

Torino- Has heard of learner types and is aware they are debunked especially with secondary ed age students. would not use them even if they weren’t but now he’s smug about it

#i will not turn the tags into a rant about the learner types myth used as a distraction to avoid responsiblity for differentiation INSTEAD #i will use the tags to hope the teacher humor actually like came across in this post #unlike my substitute teacher post... which was widely misinterpreted to be 'ah so this validates my opinion that this teacher is the best' #when in fact. the humor was that. there is no good option #and teachers will waste worry on how sub lessons go when its impossible for them to work in any reliable sense #in the current system of use at least in the american school system #and what i assume is many others #the real answer to 'how do sub lesson' by the way is #have a second teacher or ta or aide who does all lessons with you #and if need be on rare occasion they can just. cover without you #but anyway we're not here to talk about facets of educational institutions antithetical to supporting students or teachers #we're here to muse on these characters for ninty more seconds before i get distracted with something else #or fall asleep

[tasmanianstripes]

Absolutely hate it when language classes aren't split into two groups only because there aren't enough people in class

Literally curb stomping people's education and skill growth for some arbitrary number

#thylacines can talk #ONE person left our classroom and suddenly we had to be put back into one group and english went from one of my favourite classes to #the most boring one we had. fucking ONE person. and advanced group was a lot smaller than the other group anyway and the person that left #wasnt even from our group!! literally what the fuck!!!!!!!!! #we went from fun engaging class to being done with our assigments in the first few minutes and then sitting around doing nothing while the #teacher focused on the other students. which for the record im not mad about. itd be WAY shittier if she focused on us and left the other #students in the dust. what i AM mad about though is the fact they ~had to~ put our groups together because of some idiotic number in the #system when we were literally ONE FUCKIG PERSON SHORT FROM BEING ALLOWED TO SPLIT INTO GROUPS #this is bullshit. just. why in the fuck would you do yhat? even if you had to couldnt you just let classes so close to the minimum #requirement be split up anyways??? im honestly not at all surprised. the school system doesnt give a fuck about its students. #its a good thing our english teacher was normal and reasonable because she COULD focus on the advanced group and let the other students #fend for themselves but she didnt. unlike our math teacher who only focused on the best students and didnt bother to help the others. #a good majority of our class had to get tutors for math. and when my grades went up and i finally started doing work in class because #i finally knew how to the bitch took the credit. 'see what happens when you pay attention in class' GOD I WANTED TO SLAP HER SO BAD AT THAT #MOMENT. she was such a bad teacher and the school didn't do shit about it even when we complained. #this has turned into a general school rant huh #anyway fuck the school system it doesnt give a fuck about its students. doesnt punish horrible teachers and if you have a different style #of learning or any kind of neurodevelopmental or learning disability WELL GOOD FUCKING LUCK THEN coz youre gonna need it #the school system absolutely fucked me over and for a long time i thught that i was just lazy but no i sctually love learning and i do #wonderfully when i get appriopriate accessibility. who would have thought. the fact that the only accessibility feature they give is 5-15 #more minutes on tests is a fucking joke. #man why is it always the math teachers that suck so fucking much #both my middle school and technicial institute (is it what its called in english???) math teachers SUCKED. i always thought i hated math #but after dropping out and doing math in my free time through educational videos and shit i realised on this is actually very fun #provided your teacher doesnt fucking suck

[spiritmoon23]

standardized testing scores should allocate funding in the opposite way that they do

schools with worse scores should get more funding because they are the ones that are obviously struggling in some capacity and something needs to be addressed in those places

#like im not saying that standardized tests should determine government funding bc it shouldnt this system is fucking awful and only works #to reward either people who already have money or punish schools that are poor/students who are struggling/students that are chronically #absent/etc #but as it stands #schools with chronically worse scores are the ones that need funding for more teachers/specialized staff and student support programs and #extracurriculars and all that #if a school is doing really well it means that they are good on their level of funding for now and more resources could be allocated to tho #those that need it #sorry had an epiphany while i was doing hw #this would also help combat the school to prison pipeline bc then #these students can have somewhere/someone else to turn to than the streets esp if they or their family are struggling to get by or whatever #but this country is ruled by capital so yknow

[inkskinned]

it is totally okay to be hurt and tired and fed up with the american schooling system but i need you to understand that we need to be better about loudly and routinely defending public education.

yes, many teachers suck, many schools utterly suck. i also got bullied and was absolutely not given the right support for my needs. i am not defending public education because it was kind to me. i am defending it because it needs to exist.

right-wing republicans do not want an educated population. they want kids to be homeschooled or in private school. there is a huge religious undertone to this.

the most common argument is that despite high costs, the "result" is not "good" enough. they point to failing schools as proof that public education is just never going to work out. there will be arguments made here that you actually agree with: that teachers can be bullies, that we taught online for 2 years and still charged the same amount of tuition, that we have no recourse for students to actually have agency or a voice, and that schools are now unsafe for kids due to risk of illness and gun violence.

these are all placing the blame in a fraudulent way, one intended to get your parents to homeschool you. the less kids in a school, the less federally-awarded funding for that school, the less any school succeeds. they will not mention the fact it is their legislation that takes away important funding opportunities, that teachers are living at or below the poverty line, that buildings are not kept up to code, that administration is overpaid and forces specific curriculums, that corporations like (my personal enemy) Pearson Education control certain classroom goals because teachers can't afford other options. they pretend to be ignorant of the gun violence and say "oh just get a gun" - but these are the same people who will be sending their child to a private school with a bulletproof backpack. they don't care if your kid dies, though. they "don't believe" in covid, but they did get their kid vaccinated, because of course they did.

it is a closed loop. conservative parents hear the fearmongering and remove children from the system. frequently these parents are also deeply religious. the kids are raised without access to other media & learn to parrot their parents. you have now created a new generation of conservatives. additionally, one of the parents/caregivers must stay home and homeschool the children, usually for free. i will give you 1 guess which parent tends to stay home to homeschool the children. these parents are encouraged to have many, many children. those children are most likely not getting access to safe sex ed.

we might laugh at fox news suggesting teachers are forcing children to use kitty litter but: first of all, there is kitty litter in the classroom. it's part of an emergency kit in case children are locked in due to a shooter. so that's fucking dystopian, and the fact they've completely reimagined the scenario to somehow make the teachers look bad when it's instead a fucking huge symbol of our failure as a country to protect our children.... it feels a little intentional.

secondly: don't just dismiss the situation. because, yeah, obviously, no teacher is encouraging kids to be a catboy. but the actual undertone that fox news is trying to sew is an outright distrust of teachers and of public education. they rely on the dehumanization of trans people as a common touchstone to hide the fact they're pushing two agendas at once. (which is ironic. because the thing they accuse teachers of. is pushing. an agenda.)

whenever someone tells you they want you to read less, you should be suspicious of that. when someone tries to separate you and your education, you should be suspicious of that. i don't even like incel rhetoric nor would i want my kids exposed to it - but i would not take away my child's (age-appropriate) access to the internet. i would just provide more educational materials, not less. the difference here is that i believe we can resolve ignorance with knowledge; whereas conservatives believe that ignorance is bliss.

they misappropriate funding and demonize teachers. they pull the same trick each time - the same thing we are seeing with anti-trans rhetoric. they do not want you to have access to safe sex ed, so they act horrified, claim sex ed teaches you how to thrust deep, claim that we have no idea what "age-appropriate" means. since the mid-nineties, the united states has spent at least 2 billion dollars on abstinence-only education, even though to quote the above link: "a preponderance of studies has found no effect of abstinence education at reducing adolescent pregnancy". conservatives want you to think less of any person struggling with addiction so they can continue their racist "war on drugs", so they spend up to $750 million dollars a year on the DARE program which has absolutely no effect. acting like teachers "must" be "grooming" children is just the same thing - so they can demand that funding either goes to their causes or the funding doesn't "exist" ("i'm not paying for our kids to learn that thing!")

and they want you to feel uncaring about this. they are aware that you will hate some parts of your school experience. pretty much everyone does. they want to lean into the parts that you hate so that you don't put up a fight about it when they take it away for not being "good enough."

i know i maybe sound like a conspiracy theorist. but truly. truly. it is beneficial for conservatives to reduce your faith in the american public schooling system.

one of the explicitly stated campaign promises of the conservative party: to axe the Department of Education in 2024.

i know we are all tired and burnt out and there is so much else wrong with their entire platform. but maybe just - pay attention to this one.

#i can't believe i have to say this #the conservative party is legit like ''is it anything good? okay we hate it.'' #''lets kill lgbt people and ummmmm school children shouldnt be able to read they should be at home watching jordan peterson :)" #the fact that it's like all related is. wild. #like it's wild bc if u start being like. actually making it impossible to afford housing is part of how they keep the nuclear family..... #it's just like lines connecting to lines. EXCEPT ITS OBVIOUS? #what's wild to me about most conspiracy theorists is that they're like . ohhhh the govt is hiding shit!!!!!!! they don't want u to know!!! #and im like. this old man literally got up on stage and said he hates public education and will let our kids die before taking away ak-47s #and ppl are like: lol thats just bob's sense of humor he didn't mean it literally uwu

[bunni-v1]

Could I ask for your headcanons on how the staff would take care of/look after the reader? I’m a sucker for the fics where they take a parental role

How The Staff Takes Care of You

TW: None!

Info: Crowley, Crewel, Trein, Vargas and Sam x Reader (Platonic)

🍓This one is short but sweet. I’ve spent a lot of time on the event, but I want to start on other requests outside of it too. This one looked fun and easy so I got it out within about an hour or so. I hope you enjoy!

Tags: @kitsun369 @bloomstruck

Crowley

-Lets get one thing straight, Crowley does not take care of you

-It’s hard to even say that Crowley cares for you. It’s hard to say he cares for anyone other than himself.

-Still… he does do some things correctly.

-He gives you a place to live (which he threatened to take away), food (which he threatened to take away), and funding (which he… threatened to take away).

-He DOES come to ACTUALLY care for you, just… not in the traditional sense, I suppose. 

-He has frequent check ins with you to ensure that you are doing well.

-Occasionally he stops by ramshackle just to chat with you and ensure you have company.

-Believe it or not, he set up a lot of the things you do specifically so that he can ensure you are getting along with other students and have a support system here.

-He lets you keep grim around — even though he has cause countless issues for student and staff alike.

-He’s like your weird uncle. You hardly ever actually see Crowley around, but you know that he is looking out for you in his own way. 

-Thats all that matters, right?

Crewel

-Crewel is also anther oddball when it comes to how he shows that he cares.

-He is… aware that Crowley does not do a very good job at caring for you, and he’s a bit easier on you because of that.

-He’s probably harder on you homework-wise than most other students though.

-He wants to see you excel and succeed in his class.

-It would be the biggest fuck you to Crowley ever, so he works hard to make sure that you prove yourself to everyone.

-He makes sure that you’re sleeping and eating well, and if he sees that you are not, he makes you stay ofter class to talk to him so you both can find a way to solve this issue.

-If it’s money issues keeping you from eating, don’t worry. He’s now making you a lunch — or at least he gives you some money to eat.

-The nicest thing he does for you, however, is he gets you clothes.

-Your uniform is pretty… bad, and he feels bad for you.

-So, he takes matters into his own hands and gets you a nice new one that actually fits you.

-He and Trein have a rivalry over who treats you better and who you like more. (Trein is winning by like one point and it drives Crewel crazy).

-Crewel very much is the one to tell you “Boys are stupid, don’t date — especially not the ones here.” Lol

-Again, more like a very ambitious uncle who just really loves his family but never wants kids of his own.

-Oh, also, his dogs love you. So that’s a plus.

Trein

-He has two girls of his own, and he really does love kids, he’s just… jaded from years of being a teacher for snotty kids like Ace.

-You though? He likes you a lot.

-You’re a troublemaker, sure, but you always try your best in classes and have been making the best of your situation.

-Speaking of, Trein hates the way Crowley is so lackadaisical about your position and treatment.

-You are a living person? How could he just leave you to almost starve or freeze in your rickety old dorm?

-Trein visits your dorm frequently after his school day is done, just to ensure you have food and are able to stay warm/cool in the respective seasons.

-If he finds that you do not have enough food or cannot afford it, he talks to both Sam and Crowley and scolds them into lowering prices for you and raising your passive income.

-He still buys you things with his own money.

-If you fall asleep in class and you look like you need it, he won’t bother you. 

-Tells you that you can always come to him if you’re having trouble with anyone, and he will most definitely deal with them.

-Do you need extra help with homework, he’ll stay late just to ensure you’re understanding the material. 

-Seriously the number one dad at NRC, and he’s really happy to have you around since you remind him so much of his girls.

Vargas

-The resident promoter of a healthy lifestyle and great workout routine at NRC.

-You don’t really spend that much time around Vargas, so you two aren’t close, but he knows about you through the other members of staff.

-He knows how Crowley treats you, and while he isn’t one to play favorites… he can make an exception.

-Especially since he knows you aren’y always eating enough thanks to your limited budget.

-The last thing he needs is a student passing out in his class.

-He still pushes you to work out and participate, but if you’re looking like a ghost when you walk into class he’s going to make you go change and get some rest.

-He’s a gym nut, not a monster.

-He’s good with dieting though, so he’s able to tell Trein and Crewel and Same what would be best for you to eat in your condition.

-So yeah, he’s likely the least involved in your life, but he does help you from behind the scenes.

-It’s better than Crowley, so that’s a win in his books.

Sam

-Other than Trein, Sam probably sees you the most frequently out of everyone.

-You come into his shop at least once a day for something.

-At first he treated you the same as every other student, charing you ridiculously hight prices for typically cheap stuff.

-Then one day you came in looking for something to eat, cause you’d run out of what little Crowley gave you, but you didn’t have enough money.

-He nearly cried at how heartbroken you looked when you realized you couldn’t get anything.

-He gave you the whole meal for free, didn’t even ask for what you had.

-Trein is also on his ass about how high his prices are, so he purposefully has a “discount” every time you’re there to buy something.

-He also gets to know you through your shopping and makes and effort to talk to you to feel out where you are physically and mentally.

-He reports what he notices back to Trein and Crowley, just to make sure someone who has the power to is taking care of you.

-You’ve got a friend in Sam, that’s for sure.

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #x reader #bunni's treats 🧁 #mozus trein #trein x reader #crewel x reader #divus crewel #crowley x reader #dire crowley #twst sam #sam x reader #vargas x reader #twst vargas

[fursasaida]

Hi! Just wanted to ask. How can I give my students assignments that are chat-gpt proof? Or that they won't just copy the answer without at least doing some editing?

Hi! So, I don't think anything is ChatGPT-proof. You fundamentally cannot stop people from using it to take a shortcut. You can't even stop them from copying the answer without editing it. However, I think you can work with this reality. So, you can do three things:

Don't be a cop about it.

If you make your objective "stop the children from using the thing to cheat," you are focusing on the wrong thing. You will be constantly scrutinizing every submission with suspicion, you will be accusing people of cheating--and some of them will not have cheated, and they will remember this forever--and you will be aiming at enforcement (which is trying to hold back the sea) instead of on inviting and supporting learning whenever and wherever possible. (I'll come back to this under item 2.)

Regarding why enforcement is holding back the sea: It is fundamentally rational for them to do this. We, who "love learning" (i.e. are good at what our academic system sees as learning, for various reasons have built our lives around that, happen to enjoy these activities), see everything they might cheat themselves of by doing it, because we know what we got out of doing this type of work. Many students, however--especially at the kind of school I teach at--are there to get the piece of paper that might, if they're lucky, allow them access to a relatively livable and stable income. The things that are wrong with this fact are structural and nothing to do with students' failings as people, or (tfuh) laziness, or whatever. We cannot make this not true (we can certainly try to push against it in certain ways, but that only goes so far). More pragmatically, chatgpt and similar are going to keep getting better, and detecting them is going to get harder, and your relationships with your students will be further and further damaged as you are forced to hound them more, suspect them more, falsely accuse more people, while also looking like an idiot because plenty of them will get away with it. A productive classroom requires trust. The trust goes both ways. Being a cop about this will destroy it in both directions.

So the first thing you have to do is really, truly accept that some of them are going to use it and you are not always going to know when they do. And when I say accept this, I mean you actually need to be ok with it. I find it helps to remember that the fact that a bot can produce writing to a standard that makes teachers worry means we have been teaching people to be shitty writers. I don't know that so much is lost if we devalue the 5-paragraph SAT essay and its brethren.

So the reason my policy is to say it's ok to use chatgpt or similar as long as you tell me so and give me some thinking about what you got from using it is that a) I am dropping the charade that we don't all know what's going on and thereby making it (pedagogical term) chill; b) I am modeling/suggesting that if you use it, it's a good idea to be critical about what it tells you (which I desperately want everyone to know in general, not just my students in a classroom); c) I am providing an invitation to learn from using chatgpt, rather than avoid learning by using it. Plenty of them won't take me up on that. That's fine (see item 3 below).

So ok, we have at least established the goal of coming at it from acceptance. Then what do you do at that point?

Think about what is unique to your class and your students and build assignments around that.

Assignments, of course, don't have to be simply "what did Author mean by Term" or "list the significant thingies." A prof I used to TA under gave students the option of interviewing a family member or friend about their experiences with public housing in the week we taught public housing. Someone I know who teaches a college biology class has an illustration-based assignment to draw in the artsier students who are in her class against their will. I used to have an extra-credit question that asked them to pick anything in the city that they thought might be some kind of clue about the past in that place, do some research about it, and tell me what they found out and how. (And that's how I learned how Canal St. got its name! Learning something you didn't know from a student's work is one of the greatest feelings there is.) One prompt I intend to use in this class will be something to the effect of, "Do you own anything--a t-shirt, a mug, a phone case--that has the outline of your city, state, or country on it? Why? How did you get it, and what does having this item with this symbol on it mean to you? Whether you personally have one or not, why do you think so many people own items like this?" (This is for political geography week, if anyone's wondering.)

These are all things that target students' personal interests and capabilities, the environments they live in, and their relationships within their communities. Chatgpt can fake that stuff, but not very well. My advisor intends to use prompts that refer directly to things he said in class or conversations that were had in class, rather than to a given reading, in hopes that that will also make it harder for chatgpt to fake well because it won't have the context. The more your class is designed around the specific institution you teach at and student body you serve, the easier that is to do. (Obviously, how possible that is is going to vary based on what you're teaching. When I taught Urban Studies using the city we all lived in as the example all through the semester, it was so easy to make everything very tailored to the students I had in that class that semester. That's not the same--or it doesn't work the same way--if you're teaching Shakespeare. But I know someone who performs monologues from the plays in class and has his students direct him and give him notes as a way of drawing them into the speech and its niceties of meaning. Chatgpt is never going to know what stage directions were given in that room. There are possibilities.) This is all, I guess, a long way of saying that you'll have a better time constructing assignments chatgpt will be bad at if you view your class as a particular situation, occurring only once (these people, this year), which is a situation that has the purpose of encouraging thought--rather than as an information-transfer mechanism. Of course information transfer happens, but that is not what I and my students are doing together here.

Now, they absolutely can plug this type of prompt into chatgpt. I've tried it myself. I asked it to give me a personal essay about the political geography prompt and a critical personal essay about the same thing. (I recommend doing this with your own prospective assignments! See what they'd get and whether it's something you'd grade highly. If it is, then change either the goal of the assignment or at least the prompt.) Both of them were decent if you are grading the miserable 5-paragraph essay. Both of them were garbage if you are looking for evidence of a person turning their attention for the first time to something they have taken for granted all their lives. Chatgpt has neither personality nor experiences, so it makes incredibly vague, general statements in the first person that are dull as dishwater and simply do not engage with what the prompt is really asking for. I already graded on "tell me what you think of this/how this relates to your life" in addition to "did you understand the reading," because what I care about is whether they're thinking. So students absolutely can and will plug that prompt into chatgpt and simply c/p the output. They just won't get high marks for it.

If they're fine with not getting high marks, then okay. For a lot of them this is an elective they're taking essentially at random to get that piece of paper; I'm not gonna knock the hustle, and (see item 1) I couldn't stop them if I wanted to. What I can do is try to make class time engaging, build relationships with them that make them feel good about telling me their thoughts, and present them with a variety of assignments that create opportunities for different strengths, points of interest, and ways into the material, in hopes of hooking as many different people in as many different ways as I can.

This brings me back to what I said about inviting learning. Because I have never yet in my life taught a course that was for people majoring in the subject, I long ago accepted that I cannot get everyone to engage with every concept, subject, or idea (or even most of them). All I can do is invite them to get interested in the thing at hand in every class, in every assignment, in every choice of reading, in every question I ask them. How frequently each person accepts these invitations (and which ones) is going to vary hugely. But I also accept that people often need to be invited more than once, and even if they don't want to go through the door I'm holding open for them right now, the fact that they were invited this time might make it more likely for them to go through it the next time it comes up, or the time after that. I'll never know what will come of all of these invitations, and that's great, actually. I don't want to make them care about everything I care about, or know everything I know. All I want is to offer them new ways to be curious.

Therefore: if they use chatgpt to refuse an invitation this week, fine. That would probably have happened anyway in a lot of cases even without chatgpt. But, just as before, I can snag some of those people's attention on one part of this module in class tomorrow. Some of them I'll get next time with a different type of assignment. Some of them I'll hook for a moment with a joke. I don't take the times that doesn't happen as failures. But the times that it does are all wins that are not diminished by the times it doesn't.

Actually try to think of ways to use chatgpt to promote learning.

I DREAM of the day I'm teaching something where it makes sense to have students edit an AI-written text. Editing is an incredible way to get better at writing. I could generate one in class and we could do it all together. I could give them a prompt, ask them to feed it into chatgpt, and ask them to turn in both what they got and some notes on how they think it could be better. I could give them a pretty traditional "In Text, Author says Thing. What did Author mean by that?" prompt, have them get an answer from chatgpt, and then ask them to fact-check it. Etc. All of these get them thinking about written communication and, incidentally, demonstrate the tool's limitations.

I'm sure there are and will be tons of much more creative ideas for how to incorporate chatgpt rather than fight it. (Once upon a time, the idea of letting students use calculators in math class was also scandalous to many teachers.) I have some geography-specific ideas for how to use image generation as well. When it comes specifically to teaching, I think it's a waste of time for us to be handwringing instead of applying ourselves to this question. I am well aware of the political and ethical problems with chatgpt, and that's something to discuss with, probably, more advanced students in a seminar setting. But we won't (per item 1) get very far simply insisting that Thing Bad and Thing Stupid. So how do we use it to invite learning? That's the question I'm interested in.

Finally, because tangential to your question: I think there's nothing wrong with bringing back more in-class writing and even oral exams (along with take-home assignments that appeal to strengths and interests other than expository writing as mentioned above). These assessments play to different strengths than written take-homes. For some students, that means they'll be harder or scarier; by the same token, for other students they'll be easier and more confidence-building. (Plus, "being able to think on your feet" is also a very good ~real-world skill~ to teach.) In the spirit of trying to offer as many ways in as possible, I think that kind of diversification in assignments is a perfectly good idea.

#teaching #chatgpt #posting this on my first teaching day of the semester! #this is probably a lot longer than what you asked for but it is the answer i know how to give. hope something in it helps!

[vanillaberrychills]

Nyquil nap presents:

Delinquent! König x prim! reader

— You were a good girl, straight A's, never out of uniform, bookworm with all the right friends. The kind of girl who had a future in some career that took way too long to get a career but paid very well. Someone who made their parents proud and had their life planned out and put together together.

At least, that was what you presented yourself as. A prim girl in her final year of highschool; that awkward stage of being an adult trapped with the overbearing authority of people still dictating your choices. Realistically, you weren't the perfect prim. As you pretended to shove your nose in a book, ignoring the sounds of students you sat next to, ate with, or even walked by, you were unruly. Or you wanted to be, and you found yourself searching for that in others. People who you shouldn't admire, you did. Because they were free.

König was a well known student for this simple stereotype, not necessarily a class clown or anything, but he didn't care about societal pressure forcing him to be some goody-goody. You'd heard the rumors, he was bullied for being a bit chubby as a kid. But he grew into and became this absolutely massive guy, you imagined just how much his family spent on feeding the damn semi-truck.

Regardless, you knew König's story, he was bullied, he worked out, he got his looks together, and the delinquent group immediately took a liking to him. Taking him in and helping him enjoy his life freely, whether it be by means of ditching and fighting, or gym and half-assed hangouts. And fuck, you were so jealous, because he was the example of a good ending; an ending where the protagonist finds his people. Sure, maybe he was still shy, so painfully fucking shy that he threatened to crush all strangers that even contemplated walking up to harrass him with some sly comment about his past. But at least he had a back bone.

Unlike you. You who.. had a painfully similar past, minus the good ending.

But that was the past! Here you are now, just two months away from graduation! Exams coming up, an easy ace for someone like you; there should be no hindrance for a smart girl like you!

Right?

"I'm sorry, Miss (L/N), I know it's very close to finals week, but This student needs your help. If you don't help him he may not even graduate. I'm sure a good student like you wouldn't want your peers to suffer, right?" Remember that backbone thing you didn't have? Well, your teachers, counselors, and principal did. All gathered up in one room with those sorry ass smiles. Signs they all knew their school system was beyond fucked up for students. It left no consideration for their personal lives to take place; and conveniently, you didn't have a personal life.

You gave your signature fake smile, that sappy shit you gave your parents when you were too exhausted to hear about their divorce. With a practiced tone you replied, "I completely understand, which student is it that needs help?"

All the teachers sighed in relief, glad they didn't have to sacrifice their practice break times, lunches, and after school hours to focus on a troublesome student. But at your question, they seemed to lock up a bit. Collectively, their gazes drew back to the principal, who sighed deeply.

You bug the inside of your cheek subtly, praying to yourself it wasn't some fucking dunce.

— You wanted to slam your head between your locker and the locker door until you successfully knocked yourself stupid; there was just no way your luck was this fucking twisted. Before you stood every single member of that stupid delinquent friend group who you secretly think are the coolest people ever.

You're forced to stare at them with your signature blank stare and arms behind your back, regretting all your life choices and decisions as you spoke your next words, "K, König, can I speak with you?"

A guy, who wasn't even König, scoffed while looking at you up and down; his fingers crushing a cigarette against the hard concrete wall.

"What do you want with him? Think you can fix him? Fucking dork."

He is absolutely perfect the way he is

Was what you wanted to say, but you fought it back with a mental gut punch, "N..no, it's about graduation."

This seemed to catch König's attention for once, the guy, a fucking beast of am 18 year old, leaned forward. His pretty blue eyes stared you up and down very slowly (albeit eyes never meeting yours) before he took a few steps forward, hands shoved deeper in his pockets. He didn't even bother to wear the uniform, just wearing a random jacket and some scuffed shoes.

"Hnm, I'll be back." König glanced at his friends momentarily before walking off, a silent gesture for you to follow. Now that you thought of it, this was your first time hearing König's voice properly. It was surprisingly..unique, an unexpected pitch and wild rasp to it that gave the impression that he was still just a punk ass kid like you, despite being so massive.

Eventually the two of you had gone to the benches, usually reserved for lunch or after school studying. His hand scratched at his jaw, some acne scars there, fading slowly but surely. König's eyes still didn't meet yours, locked on to the passing clouds, "They told me I couldn't graduate."

He spoke so suddenly it snapped your out of your observant daze. You cleared your throat, nodding slightly. His eyes narrowed, not toward you, but toward something else. "What do you think?"

You pursued your lips slightly, a low hum resonating from within your throat as you watched the same cloues he did, "You have three C's, English, maths, and Language Lab and two A's in German and P.E."

Your voice was soft as you spoke, much softer than the rough voices of the delinquents König was typically around. It caught him off guard slightly, forcing his eyes to slowly meet yours through his peripheral, relieved that you weren't looking at him.

"It will be rough, but I can help you." You finally spoke with a smile, the reflection of clouds bubbled in your eyes, a small smile that defeated your usual fake one popping through.

König leaned off the bench with a sudden huff, "Ja, okay, I understand. Danke."

You smirked very slightly, knowing he wasn't looking at you, you could see the tips of his ears turn red. So he really was shy.

"So," You cleared your throat, following his lean off the bench, "When do we start?"

"Tonight, my place." He would dryly state, "Give me your number."

— It was hours later, you were starving. By the time you got home and cleaned up, your parents were still fighting; an obvious sign that dinner was not happening tonight. Nothing different from the usual, you would just eat an early breakfast tomorrow. Tonight, you had to tutor König.

He surprisingly didn't live very far from you, a small house right next to a corner convenience store you frequented. Upon knocking on the door you immediately noticed all the lights were off, no cars in the drive way, almost as if it was empty. You rubbed your hands together hoping you didn't get the wrong house.

After a few seconds you went to knock again only for the door to swing open, in front of you stood König, his hair slightly damp as he was dressed in some casual clothes his eyes not meeting yours as he held the foor open for you. "Hallo."

Your brows raised briefly and you moved under his arm to get inside, "Hello."

Being around a person so comfortable with himself made you forget how to be a prim girl, how to be proper and polite. You could tell he was picking up on that as he lead you to the living room. Both of you seating at the coffee table, butts to the carpeted ground.

You took out your bag and spread your books out, Math, English, and Language Lab. Your brows furrowed a bit, Language Lab was an extension of english, so you could just focus on only two subjects to not overwhelm him.

Instinctively, you brought your thumb to your lips to nimble on while you considered this option. Your reaction causing him to pause and chuckle, "You have bad habits."

A statement that made your hand shove into your pocket, "O- oh, sorry about that."

König shook his head, his back leaning against the couch lazily, "No, I am just surprised. They say you are miss perfect."

You scoffed through your nose slightly, shoving the language lab book back into your bag, "No such thing as perfect."

Except you

The thought came across your mind so mischievously you couldn't help but snicker slightly. You then opened up the first English page, "So, because you have two English classes, we will do that first."

As the evening went on with your careful instructions and reassurance directed toward him, König couldn't help but notice your cautious smile. Your pretty smile, your nails that were carefully manicured, all aside from that one thumb that was slightly bitten from your terrible habit.

You were..pretty. The insecure bits of König couldn't help but feel a throb in his chest, remembering the chubby kid he used to be and how much that kid deserved a pretty girl in his life. A girl who was not only pretty, but smart.

Unlike a teacher, everything you explained to him made sense; it wasn't some regurgitated bullshit, but things you made examples of from his every day life. You showed him the literary devices that took place before him and he recognized it. König always knew he wasn't dumb, he cried often thinking about how the school system made him feel dumb. But having the very things he struggled with illustrated so clearly for him, it was like a godsend.

Before the two of you knew it, three hours had gone by, and it was time for you to go home. By now, your fake smile was completely faded as he walked you to the door, replaced by something much sweeter and gentler.

"Danke." König blurted as you stepped out.

You smiled again, your eyes finally meething his, and vice versa, "For what?"

"I don't think that.. anyone else could've taught me like you did. I hope we do this often." König seemed at ease with you, not the pent up punk ass who liked to punch walls and eat expired pop rocks with his friends in the parking lot.

You very shyly nodded after a long stare between you two, "Uhm..I..hope so too."

Another long stare before you shyly scampered home like a shy cat. As he watched your fading form, König leaned against the door frame with crossed arms. A sigh rolling out of him as a hand rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Haa..mein herz.."

It seemed he found himself a little reason to study.

— "You know, I never thought König was the type to like prim girls. Always thought he hated stuck up people."

Weeks had gone by since the first study "date". Emphasis on the date, because these definitely were dates. At least to König, who sat with his dumbass friends and watched you from afar. Eyes locked to any guy who would even consider approaching you. He made it a personal promise that he would curbstomp any person within a five meter radius of you, you were just that pretty to him. Only for him.

Not only did his grades take A massive jump to A's and B's within the first two weeks, but so did his reputation. People were often bewildered by the sight of you two walking around together. Some teachers even approached you, genuinely worried he was threatening you. Offering some bullshit on how they would help you if you needed it.

As if.

You were completely smitten. Learning bits and pieces of his life throughout various daily study dates. How his dad left, and his mom works overtime to support him and herself. How König struggles in school because of his ADHD.

He was so interesting, a kaleidoscope of perspective and rapid thoughts that you had gradually learned to acceptand show interest in. And your study methods?

Well to be fair, studying 5 days a week is a little intense. Even for an honors student like you. It could be..suggested that not all of your study sessions were.. just studying.

What can you say?

You're an active, "hands-on" learner.

#konig cod #konig call of duty #konig mw2 #konig x reader #yandere konig #könig #könig x reader #könig mw2 #könig call of duty #könig cod #yankī #delinquent #delinquent! könig #prim! reader #one shot #drabble #vanillaberrychills❗

[mostlysignssomeportents]

American education has all the downsides of standardization, none of the upsides

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

We moved to America in 2015, in time for my kid to start third grade. Now she's a year away from graduating high school (!) and I've had a front-row seat for the US K-12 system in a district rated as one of the best in the country. There were ups and downs, but high school has been a monster.

We're a decade and a half into the "common core" experiment in educational standardization. The majority of the country has now signed up to a standardized and rigid curriculum that treats overworked teachers as untrustworthy slackers who need to be disciplined by measuring their output through standard lessons and evaluations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core

This system is rigid enough, but it gets even worse at the secondary level, especially when combined with the Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which adds another layer of inflexible benchmarks to the highest-stakes, most anxiety-provoking classes in the system:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement

It is a system singularly lacking in grace. Ironically, this unforgiving system was sold as a way of correcting the injustice at the heart of the US public education system, which funds schools based on local taxation. That means that rich neighborhoods have better funded schools. Rather than equalizing public educational funding, the standardizers promised to ensure the quality of instruction at the worst-funded schools by measuring the educational outcomes with standard tools.

But the joke's on the middle-class families who backed standardized instruction over standardized funding. Their own kids need slack as much as anyone's, and a system that promises to put the nation's kids through the same benchmarks on the same timetable is bad for everyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/28/give-me-slack-2/

Undoing this is above my pay-grade. I've already got more causes to crusade on than I have time for. But there is a piece of tantalyzingly low-hanging fruit that is dangling right there, and even though I'm not gonna pick it, I can't get it out of my head, so I figured I'd write about it and hope I can lazyweb it into existence.

The thing is, there's a reason that standardization takes hold in so many domains. Agreeing on a common standard enables collaboration by many entities without any need for explicit agreements or coordination. The existence of the ANSI/SAE J563 standard automobile auxiliary power outlet (AKA "car cigarette lighter") didn't just allow many manufacturers to make replacement lighter plugs. The existence of a standardized receptacle delivering standardized voltage to standardized contacts let all kinds of gadgets be designed to fit in that socket.

Standards crystallize the space of all possible ways of solving a problem into a range of solutions. This inevitably has a downside, because the standardized range might not be optimal for all applications. Think of the EU's requirement for USB-C charger tips on all devices. There's a lot of reasons that manufacturers prefer different charger tips for different gadgets. Some of those reasons are bad (gouging you on replacement chargers), but some are good (unique form-factor, specific smart-charging needs). USB-C is a very flexible standard (indeed, it's so flexible that some people complain that it's not a standard at all!) but there are some applications where the optimal solution is outside its parameters.

And still, I think that the standardization on USB-C is a force for good. I have drawers full of gadgets that need proprietary charger tips, and other drawers full of chargers with proprietary tips, and damned if I can make half of them match up. We've continued our pandemic lockdown tradition of my wife cutting my hair in the back yard, and just tracking the three different charger tips for the three clippers she uses is an ongoing source of frustration. I'd happily trade slightly sub-optimal charging for just being able to plug any of those clippers into the same cable I charge my headphones, phone, tablet and laptop on.

The standardization of American education has produced all the downsides of standardization – a rigid, often suboptimal, one-size-fits-all system – without the benefits. With teachers across America teaching in lockstep, often from the same set texts (especially in the AP courses), there's a massive opportunity for a commons to go with the common core.

For example, the AP English and History classes my kid takes use standard texts that are often centuries old and hard to puzzle out. I watched my kid struggle with texts for learning about "persuasive rhetoric" like 17th century pamphlets that inspired anti-indigenous pogroms with fictional accounts of "Indian atrocities."

It's good for American schoolkids to learn about the use of these blood libels to excuse genocide, but these pamphlets are a slog. Even with glossaries in the textbooks, it's a slow, word-by-word matter to parse these out. I can't imagine anyone learning a single thing about how speech persuades people just by reading that text.

But there's nothing in the standardized curriculum that prevents teachers from adding more texts to the unit. We live in an unfortunate golden age for persuasive texts that inspire terrible deeds – for example, kids could also read core Pizzagate texts and connect the guy who shot up the pizza parlor to the racists who formed a 17th century lynchmob.

But teachers are incredibly time-constrained. For one thing, at least a third of the AP classroom time seems to be taken up with detailed instructions for writing stilted, stylized "essays" for the AP tests (these are terrible writing, but they're easy to grade in a standardized way).

That's where standardization could actually deliver some benefits. If just one teacher could produce some supplemental materials and accompanying curriculum, the existence of standards means that every other teacher could use it. What's more, any adaptations that teachers make to that unit to make them suited to their kids would also work for the other teachers in the USA. And because the instruction is so rigidly standardized, all of these materials could be keyed to metadata that precisely identified the units they belonged to.

The closest thing we have to this are "marketplaces" where teachers can sell each other their supplementary materials. As far as I can tell, the only people making real money from these marketplaces are the grifters who built them and convinced teachers to paywall the instructional materials that could otherwise form a commons.

Like I said, I've got a completely overfull plate, but if I found myself at loose ends, trying to find a project to devote the rest of my life to, I'd be pitching funders on building a national, open access portal to build an educational commons.

It may be a lot to expect teachers to master the intricacies of peer-based co-production tools like Git, but there's already a system like this that K-8 teachers across the country have mastered: Scratch. Scratch is a graphic programming environment for kids, and starting with 2019's Scratch 3.0, the primary way to access it is via an in-browser version that's hosted at scratch.mit.edu.

Scratch's online version is basically a kid- (and teacher-)friendly version of Github. Find a project you like, make a copy in your own workspace, and then mod it to suit your own needs. The system keeps track of the lineage of different projects and makes it easy for Scratch users to find, adapt, and share their own projects. The wild popularity of this system tells us that this model for a managed digital commons for an educational audience is eminently achievable.

So when students are being asked to study the rhythm of text by counting the numbers of words in the sentences of important speeches, they could supplement that very boring exercise by listening to and analyzing contemporary election speeches, or rap lyrics, or viral influencer videos. Different teachers could fork these units to swap in locally appropriate comparitors – and so could students!

Students could be given extra credit for identifying additional materials that slot into existing curricular projects – Tiktok videos, new chart-topping songs, passages from hot YA novels. These, too, could go into the commons.

This would enlist students in developing and thinking critically about their curriculum, whereas today, these activities are often off-limits to students. For example, my kid's math teachers don't hand back their quizzes after they're graded. The teachers only have one set of quizzes per unit, and letting the kids hold onto them would leak an answer-key for the next batch of test-takers.

I can't imagine learning math this way. "You got three questions wrong but I won't let you see them" is no way to help a student focus on the right areas to improve their understanding.

But there's no reason that math teachers in a commons built around the (unfortunately) rigid procession of concepts and testing couldn't generate procedural quizzes, specified with a simple programming language. These tests could even be automatically graded, and produce classroom stats on which concepts the whole class is struggling with. Each quiz would be different, but cover the same ground.

When I help my kid with her homework, we often find disorganized and scattered elements of this system – a teacher might post extensive notes on teaching a specific unit. A publisher might produce a classroom guide that connects a book to specific parts of the common core. But these are scattered across the web, and they aren't keyed to the specific, standard components of common core and AP.

This is a standardized system that is all costs, no benefits. It has no "architecture of participation" that lets teachers, students, parents, practitioners and even commercial publishers collaborate to produce a commons that all may share and improve upon.

In an ideal world, we'd get rid of standardization in education, pay teachers well, give them the additional time they needed to prepare exciting and relevant curriculum, and fund all our schools based on need, not parents' income.

But in the meanwhile, we could be making lemonade of out lemons. If we're going to have standardization, we should at least have the collaboration standards enable.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/16/flexibility-in-the-margins/#a-commons

#pluralistic #education #common core #commons #set texts #pedagogy #scratch #edtech

[lowkeyremi]

OK HEAR ME OUT! Reader who is a single mother of one of Aizawa’s students X Aizawa???? PLEASE I need it!

IM IN LOVE WITH YOU YES OMG I NEED THIS anon im giving you kisses rn

Aizawa x fem!reader (also your denki's mom bc why not)

A small sigh escapes your lips as you pull into the parking lot of your son's school, it's still early in the year and his teacher has requested to meet with you.

He doesn't even have to explain why you're here because you already have a good idea: Denki's grades.

You smooth out your skirt and double check that your blouse is buttoned all the way. Security stopped you at the gate which took around ten minutes to defuse, they honestly thought you looked too young to be anyone's mother.

Thirty-two is a bit young to have a fifteen year old but you know how it goes: unprotected sex = baby. It's the same old story, your boyfriend freaked out and dipped on you.

It made you proud Denki got into a school like this, your goal is for him to further his education... something you never got the chance to do.

Finding his classroom was a whole other situation. UA is HUGE. So poor you is walking around every corner looking for class "1-A".

"Are you lost?" A voice loud and energetic asked, it caused you to jump in your skin. When you turn your head you see blond hair sticking upward toward the ceiling and a pair of goofy shades. He notices your giggle and quirks an eyebrow.

"Are you a new student?!" The blond questions, his face is full of energy and excitement.

"No.. do I really look that young?" You ask, smile bright.

"You do look pretty young." As soon as he says that it dawns on him that you might be a younger mother.

"Ah- sorry! I just-"

"Don't worry about it. I was actually looking for class 1-A, my son's teacher requested to meet with me." His eyes widen.

"Don't you worry, I can take you to Eraserhead's class!" With that you follow him down a flight of stairs and you guys turn like four corners. Well damn, you were way off.

You had been too caught up into your thoughts to realize he stopped, you bumped right into him.

"Sorry." He gives you a soft smile, "It's nothing!"

He knocks loudly, "Oh, Eraser! You have a visitor!" The blond doesn't even wait for a response to open the door, he just bursts in.

"Well I've gotta go now! Take care Miss..."

"L/n, the name's L/n." A thumbs up is sent your way before the loud blond man leaves.

A deep voice causes your brain to stir, "Thank you for coming on such a short notice, Miss L/n."

And what the fuck because Denki's teacher has beautiful long black hair, stubble, and a little scar under his right eye. He must be married you assume, because no way a handsome man like him is single.

You respond with confidence in your voice, "Of course, I apologize for keeping you waiting. I got lost."

His face softens as he motions for you to sit on the chair he's placed by his desk.

"Understandable, UA is not small. Let's get down to business, shall we?" He sits at his desk, organizing some papers before handing you a few. You feared the worst, Denki always strived to do his best so you shouldn't have anything to even fear.

"My students have been under attack a few times by villians, we've spoke to the board about the situation, because parents are worried about their children." You were relieved this had nothing to do with his grades but it scared you that villians were out for high schoolers.

"I thought the attacks stopped." Aizawa nods at you.

"They have for the time being but we fear they won't completely stop, which is why UA is building a dormitory system to keep students safe. What I've handed you is the consent form for your son to live on campus. It's not manditory but it is highly suggested." He explains to you and you read the pages.

"How do I know Denki will be in good hands?" You ask biting your lip, it doesn't go unnoticed by Aizawa because his eyes flicker to your lips then back up to your face.

"I understand what it's like to lose someone close to you, which is why I put so much effort and care into my students, they may say and think otherwise but they don't see what happens behind the scenes." You could tell his words were sincere, it wasn't convincing enough though. You worry too much about him and just the mere thought of losing him is enough to scare you.

Aizawa leans in to place a hand on yours, it feels tingly.

"I know all you have is my word to go off of, but I promise you I will protect your son and all my other students with my life." His eyes burn into yours. You get lost in those beautiful black eyes.

"Uh- hah. I'll look over the papers."

In the end you sign the papers.

"Mom you have to tell me who's taking you to dinner!" Denki says for the millionth time over the phone. You call him almost every night to check in on him.

"It's none of your business, young man." You'd tell him when you were ready. Just... not now. He'd freak out if he knew you were going out to dinner with his teacher.

Before you left that day, Aizawa asked for your number. You happily gave it to him, there was no way in hell you'd miss out on a chance like that.

After a month of just talking (and flirting) he asked you out for dinner, you agreed of course.

"But mommmmmm why nottttttt?" Denki whined.

"I'll tell you when we're ready. Anyways I have to go. Take care, sweetheart." He sighs but tells you he loves you. "I love you too, Denki." He hangs up, leaving you to finish your makeup.

The plan was originally to meet at dinner, but Aizawa was not letting up until you agreed that he could pick you up.

Your hands were starting to sweat again. It's normal to be this nervous, right? Dating hadn't really been in your line of vision while raising a child. It seemed to be the same process: go out with someone, get along nicely, start developing real feelings, they find out you have a son, they leave.

It seemed refreshing to finally go out with someone who knew you were raising a young man. Waiting it out seems to have been the right choice. Aizawa is a mature man.

The door bell rings and you shoot up out of your seat like a rocket.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck, I look okay right?" It felt weird to ask your reflection, but self love is everything these days.

Your burgundy v cut dress was a bit on the short side, it hugged your body which made you a little insecure. You'd heard some women say pregnancy made them glow. You were convinced otherwise, it took you some time to finally feel beautiful.

Your walk to the door was dreadful, what if he takes it all back? Upon opening the door he was standing there in all his beauty. His raven colored hair was put up in a messy bun, his stubble cleaned up some, and he looked a little less tired. Your eyes inched down his body, he's wearing a white button up and black slacks.

"You're beautiful." The two of you say at the same time. Your eyes widen.

"Thank you, I was actually kind of nervous." His face softens at your words. The hero holds his hand out so you can take it. Just like the last time his hand was warm and made you feel tingly. You chuckled at how dumb that sounded, definitely sounds like something from a cheesy romance novel.

Dinner was a little awkward but beyond amazing. A waitress spilled wine on you, she apologized like a million times. You weren't mad though, having a son meant many messes were made... especially on you. The wine didn't stain that bad because of your dress color.

Aizawa offered you the jacket he kept in his car. Accepting it was a no brainer. He held it out for you and you gave him a confused look.

"I'll put it on you, come here." His voice was low and seductive. He noticed your smile. "You're so cute." He whispers as you put your arms in the jacket sleeves.

"Only cute?" Your question was followed by your signature smirk. The food was paid for, his hand wrapped around your waist and he walked you two to his car.

"Sexy, funny, chatty.... I could go on." He says with a smug smile.

"Oh stop it, I'm not sexy-" You don't get to finish your sentence, Aizawa twirls you around so you guys are facing each other. His hands rest on your hips for a second and in a flash he's cupping your face.

Your heart started beating a mile per minute... no second. He slowly pulls you in, those lazy eyes looking into yours. His lips look so kissable.

You pucker your lips and he presses his lips to yours, there weren't any fireworks or sparks like in Disney movies, it felt like he was one with you. Your body was connected to his in a way.

When the kiss is over he's staring at you, "you are sexy, I don't know who's lied to you."

__________

When he pulls into your driveway, you realize this date is almost over. Hopefully he'll agree to going out again. He seemed to enjoy the night as much as you did.

He walked you up to your door, eyes trained on you.

Your feet stop on your doormat. It felt like you were stuck in cement.

"Will I be seeing you again, Aizawa?"

"Call me Shota, and yes, I'll be seeing you again." He faces you and kisses you again. A sigh of relief escapes your lips.

"Call me." You say and he hums in acknowledgement.

Maybe... trying again at dating won't hurt you.

Hiii anon, I hope you like this!! I don't think this has been my best work but I think it shouldn't be that bad? Lol imagine how Denki would react when he finds out you're with his teacher. Love you guys, working on Teacher's Assistant ch. 1

#bnha #mha #aizawa #aizawa shōta #aizawa shouta #aizawa x reader #shota aizawa x reader #aizawa shota x reader #shouta aizawa #mha aizawa #shota aizawa #aizawa shouta x reader

[let-me-sleep-or-die]

”yay Riz is so good at Stealth and IInvestigation!”

Riz can hide like no one else. He can basically become shadow the bitch can’t get lower than a 23 if he wants to disappear, he can. He doesn’t have to go away entirely, he can hide parts of himself away leaving the rest visible. He hides how stressed he is. He hides his fears, his sexuality, He hides how close he is to falling apart and almost (ALMOST) no one notices.

Riz is also naturally very good at finding g things. He can find people, find out secrets, he can figure out Mysteries a millennia old. He can knows how to find what people want hidden. Kristen’s not over Tracker, she’s not doing well, she’s worried about her god. He knows this and he’s trying to find a way to make it better, he’s running her campaign telling everyone he meets about ibis amazing friend Kristen who he knows is capable. Fig from taking no classes to three, she’s more stressed than she’s ever been, mostly because she’s actually trying for the first time so if she fails this time it might just mean she can’t do it. He knows that, he helps her with homework and lets her come with him to hunt down clues when they both need a distraction.

Gorgug is tearing himself apart, he’s trying to be two things and the world keeps telling him he’s not good enough for either. He’s doing four years of school in one term and the administration couldn’t care less. He is realizing his parents have parts of their lives he didn’t know about, His teacher doesn’t take him seriously and He’s still listening to his Girlfriends Exgirlfrinds playlist what, 6 months after they broke up? Riz knows this, he sees it. He helps Gorgug study, he makes sure he knows that Riz finds their friendship valuable, they have a joint birthday party, he takes his friend seriously.

Adaine is flat broke, she’s got a crappy job and an unfair schooling system. Her sister is only half taking care of herself, she can’t quite find the right answers. Riz sees it. He will always be there to help her research, always offer a second opinion. He knows how to make money stretch, he’s lived paycheck to paycheck. He can help her all she’s gotta do is ask.

Fabian is alone. He has his doors open all the time hoping someone will walk in and stay. He’s the captain of a team, Star of the school and subject to his fathers legacy. Riz has lived most of his life hoping to make a dad father proud, he knows the feeling. If the doors open, Riz will come, he will sit in a corner and work but he will be there. Any time Fabian feels like he may not be enough Riz is there to tell him he is the most amazing person he knows, and he means it.

Riz is watching is friends struggle, and streaching himself thin, taking on everything he can to maybe for just a second lessen their load. He can easily figure out when somethings wrong so when he does he puts his own life on the back burner. He’s mapped out every one of his friend’s academics. He’s managing a campaign, acting as a personal tutor, a member of every club in the school, a Star student and a damn good detective.

Hes burning himself alive and he’s so good at hiding, (almost) no one notices. If he takes on too much stress, it will literally kill him. I wonder if anyone would even know how much he was struggling.

“Oh Riz is really good at Deception and investigation, FUCK!”

#dimension twenty #dimension 20 #dimension20 #d20 #fantasy high #d20 fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #brennan lee mulligan #d20 fhjy #riz gukgak the man that you are #riz gukgak #riz the ball gukgak #the bad kids mean everything to me #the bad kids #intrepid heroes #fhjr spoilers #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #dimension 20 fhjy

[lamprophonia]

》 [ yandere!Jock. ] 《

masterlist.

yan!jock x gn!reader: introduction. 1273 words. reader referred to as 'you'. cw for general yandere behavior.

DO NOT USE OR REPOST MY WRITING ANYWHERE.

elijah steele is the best goddamn actor in your school.

the theatre kids could learn from him, honestly, because there is no way in hell anyone else could have convincingly pulled off what he did: pose as the nicest, most helpful and kind student in the entirety of the sorry shithole that is eastview high for four years straight.

to literally everyone, elijah is so sweet it's almost vomit inducing. the school's golden boy — smart, nice, strong. best player on the football team, co-captain of the swim team, and part of the basketball team for good measure, helpful, always cheery, and he got good grades.

even amongst his peers, he was always considered the most straight-edge one; still, he was pretty much universally liked. he was genuinely friends with everyone, never judging or turning anyone away.

what's not to love?

well, probably the fact that all of that is a lie, an ever on-going act. a carefully crafted persona, custom made to hide the fact elijah steele is a colossal prick.

it's honestly almost too easy for him. help teachers out here and there, talk to the right people, go to the right parties, and play on some teams, and boom, the entirety of eastview wrapped around your finger. he's made high school a game for himself, and he has been winning for four years straight.

elijah's obsession with you didn't kick in right away. he saw you and was... eh, rather neutral. he decided you were pretty enough, and homecoming or some other stupid dance he didn't actually care about was coming up, so he needed a date to look good. you were just a pawn, after all, no different from anyone else. an accessory — good-looking and non-threatening enough.

no, the obsession started when you rejected him.

worse than reject him: you saw through the finely crafted veil he's always putting on — through the smile that's as fake as it is charming, the tone of voice that's almost a bit too nice — you saw through it all, and didn't hesitate to let him know.

and oh.

it hurt.

with a few words and an unimpressed look, without even realizing it, you broke elijah's game. you weren't playing along. and hey, he might be a prick, but he's a prick with feelings. a lot of very conflicting feelings, as it turns out; he's dealt with rejection before, but never when it came to relationships.

he probably should have seen the hurt he felt when you rejected him as a sign of what was coming, that being the growing obsession he can practically feel developing. you made him feel something other than smug superiority and mild annoyance. it wasn't anything pleasant, sure, but it was new. the week after that little encounter of yours, you were literally the only thing he could think about.

at first, it was a mixed bag. elijah was confused, weirdly hurt — he discovered he didn't like feeling either of those much — and angry. mostly angry. that was the only emotion he was really familiar with of those three, so he thought he would be able to use it pretty easily. he does football after all, he'd just tackle whatever poor sods that were unfortunate enough to be going up against him in practice and get it all out of his system. easy, right?

it wasn't easy.

he nearly dislocated a guy's shoulder before realizing that his usual method for dealing with his feelings — channeling them into brute force — wasn't working, which only made him more confused, which in turn only made him angrier. so used to being in control, elijah didn't know what to do with himself for the first few days.

fortunately for him and the rest of the eastview football players, his anger, hurt, and confusion subsided after maybe a week and a half, giving way to another unfamiliar, but much more welcome emotion: fascination.

you still occupied his thoughts constantly, but he finally got a break from the all-consuming contempt he felt. instead, he regarded you with intrigue, a curiosity. it was then he decided he had to learn more; you were an obstacle, a challenge. another part of the game.

he just had to figure out how to beat you.

in some strange way, elijah was excited. this was going to be hard, sure, but his mind was already hard at work, and he was sure it would eventually be rewarding.

and hey, most importantly, this was new! his rage turned to pure goddamn delight at the idea of someone who finally isn't drooling all over him. it's so fun! like a specimen for him to study, aren't you, darling? finally, he has to work for someone's favour.

once elijah comes to this... decision? realization? he gets started pretty much immediately. he knows now that the overly sugarcoated golden boy persona isn't going to work for you. he's going to need a new strategy, and he's giddy to get to work on it.

with negative hesitation, he starts stalking you. honestly, he probably starts stalking you before he actually buckles down and starts trying to win you over; at some point in the bafflement that comes with you not immediately falling for him, he just starts to follow you around from a distance, almost absent-mindedly making notes on your schedule, your friends, class mates, teachers... he decides to double down after that, though, deciding that if he's serious about beating you, he's going to have to up his game.

that's when he starts actually following you home, taking note of your family and your behavior outside of school.

the second thing he starts doing is shadowing you outside of stalking. that meaning, he starts sitting with you at lunch, making friends with your friends, switches classes to have them with you, and joins your extracurriculars; and he does so with the most smug, shit-eating grin on his face.

he starts talking to you as if you were one of his friends, and even though you knew that elijah was probably less nice than he seemed at first glance, you didn't realize just how starkly different his real personality is from the persona he puts on.

elijah starts to treat you more genuinely, in a way. he talks shit about his friends to you, bitches freely about all his classes and coaches. it's a distinction that would feel sweet, if not for the cognitive dissonance that comes with watching him be all smiles with someone right after he told you he hates them.

because here's the thing — now that elijah knows you're not fooled by the overly sweet and helpful guy he pretends to be, that his polite golden boy act won't work on you like it does with everyone else; now, he can stop pretending.

it's freeing. hell, it's almost more fun that way.

he wants to win with all of his cards out on the table. every nice, kind he does to make you like him will be colored by that tension, that dissonance, that confusion.

of course, elijah would never admit it, but slowly, as he makes friends with you, his obsession with you turns romantic. his intrigue turns to sincere care and affection. he doesn't realize it until he sees someone flirting with you — or worse, you flirting with someone — and jealousy hits him like a fucking brick.

he's left to collect himself, once again feeling hurt, angry, and confused at his own thoughts. he didn't even like you. you were supposed to be just a game, a challenge, an obstacle.

what the fuck was happening?

#🏅 // e. steele #writing #yandere x reader #yandere x darling #yandere x y/n #yandere x you #yandere oc

[ddejavvu]

could you do a spencer x daughter reader comfort for grade stress? my grades are a lot lower than normal and i feel awful :(

you’re an amazing writer much love <3

'$20 and a completely unabridged gossip session about my love life if you can hack into my school's system and change my grades...'

'Baby genius!' Penelope scolds, in response to what you personally believe was a very fair and enticing offer, 'I can't! I don't do bad hacking anymore, I only do the good kind :)'

'It would be good for me to not have these grades.' You type back, smearing an exasperated hand over your face. You swear you nearly drag your skin right off, and you consider attempting to do so, maybe you wouldn't have to go to school anymore if you were just a skeleton-face.

'I'm sure you're freaking out over nothing, wonder baby,' Penelope responds, full of all of her usual optimism that sickens you now, 'You of all people don't need to be worrying about your grades.'

She's wrong. Now you do, now your grades have inexplicably taken a nosedive, dropping into uncharted territory. With a father that attended college at the ripe age of twelve, you feel severely disappointing. You're not following in his footsteps, you've lost the outline of his sneakers and you're traipsing through mud trying to locate them aagin.

You don't bother responding; you're not even sure what you'd say. You don't even consider the ramifications of her saying no to your scheme, being that the world's biggest gossip knows you're upset about your grades and she's not bound to confidentiality by any suspicious illegal activity.

Which means that when your dad gets home, he heads straight for your room.

"Hi, angel," Spencer leans down to hug you over the back of your desk chair, dropping a kiss to the crown of your head. It's the same kiss he's planted on you every day since you came into the world, "Penelope said you're having school trouble?"

Your stomach drops and you groan, "That snitch."

"Hey!' Spencer scoffs, "She's the one that always spoils your birthday presents 'cause you give her puppy eyes. You use her poor secret-keeping abilities to your benefit just as much as the rest of us."

"It's nothing," You're still glancing blankly at your homework, keeping your eyes away from your dad so that you don't have to see his face. You try to brush him off before he directly asks what your grades are, "I'm just having a bad week or something."

"A bad week doesn't impact your grades that much," Spencer hums suspiciously, "And your teacher doesn't even put in grades until the week after you submit assignments, so this week being bad wouldn't have changed your grade yet. What's really going on?"

"I don't know," You confess, and you're glad he understands it's the truth and not another half-hearted excuse. He catches the wavering in your voice and knows you're being honest with him, and he can practically feel the cartoonish crack running down his heart, splitting it in two.

"Alright," He soothes, setting a hand on your shoulder and squeezing at its tense muscles lightly, "We'll figure it out. I'll help you, okay?"

"I don't want your help," You lament, tears stinging painfully at your eyes, "You- you know everything, and I don't want to hear how many times you have to correct me. I don't want to see what I should be while being reminded that I'm not."

There's a long bout of silence where your dad's hand lingers on your shoulder, the only reminder that he's still there. It's like he's stopped breathing altogether, air caught in his throat as his brain tries coming up with a solution.

"I don't want you to be like me." He confesses, and the tears stay in place at the corners of your eyes, waiting for a cue to fall.

"I'm... It was hard growing up and being different. It's hard now being different. Morgan still scoffs whenever I talk too much, and we've been friends for years. JJ cuts me off every time I go on a tangent. People aren't nice to anyone who's different."

"But that doesn't matter," You whimper, hands flying to your face to push against your eyelids like you could squeeze your tears back inside, "You aced classes, you got into college super young, you got a high profile job, you're successful, and-"

"-and if I had to choose one thing about my life to carry over into the next, none of those would be it." Your dad cuts you off, moving to pry your hands away from your eyes. He smooths his thumbs over your eyelids, softening the sting from your aggressive touches.

"Y/N," He starts, honey-colored eyes dripping with love as he stares at you from his spot perched on your bed, "All the knowledge in the world doesn't make you happy. Knowing what chemicals are attributed to love doesn't mean you feel it. Knowing what poets have written about love doesn't mean you get to experience it for yourself. I don't want you to know everything," He explains, drying a tear with the cuff of his shirt sleeve, "I want you to be happy, to be loved. And you are smart," He promises, "-just because you don't understand the material you're getting, or you aren't doing your homework, or you're overloaded with assignments so that your grades drop doesn't mean you're not smart."

"Dad," Your face crumples, your eyes squeezing shut tight as tears drip from their corners. He guides you into his embrace with a hand on the back of your head and you let him control where your weight lands, slumping into his stomach pitifully.

He rubs down your back with his free hand, letting the one shelter your face against his button-up.

"I love you," He murmurs, and you can feel the vibrations of his voice through his chest. You press your ear into it, so your brain soaks up the words, "Even if you're having trouble memorizing the..." He peers down at your paper, "-amendments to the Constitution. Okay, well, you really should know those. We'll work on it, honey."

"Okay," You can't help the weak laugh that shakes your shoulders at his reaction, and he smiles sweetly down at you when you break away, not an ounce of judgement in his eyes that are twinkling with fondness instead.

"Now," He pats your back, straightening up from where he'd been slightly hunched over to rub soothing circles into the fabric of your shirt, "Let's talk about how you're encouraging Penelope to commit cyber crimes for you."

"Uh," You grimace, glancing back quickly at your revision sheet, "I plead the... fifth?"

"That's-" Spencer looks away, biting his lip to conceal his laugh, "That's good. That's bad, don't do that. But that's good. You know number five. That's a start."

#spencer reid x daughter!reader #reid!reader #spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid scenario #spencer reid oneshot #spencer reid one-shot #spencer reid one shot #spencer reid headcanons #spencer reid headcanon #spencer reid hc #spencer reid hcs #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fic #spencer reid blurb #spencer reid drabble #spencer reid dialogue #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid x reader fanfiction #spencer reid x teen!reader #spencer reid x reid!reader

[inkskinned]

one of the things about having an unstable parent is that it can so easily ruin your future. you want to get out, but getting out takes having agency. it takes the resume and the grades and the stellar community service history.

but you have to choose your battles. you know if you sign up for an after-school activity, it'll be okay for a while, so long as the activity is parent-approved and god-fearing. over time, like all things, it will become an argument (i can't keep carting your ass to these things) or a weapon (talk to me like that again, see if you get to go to practice). sometimes, if you love the thing, it's worth it. but you also know better than to love something: that's how they get you. if you ever actually want something, it will always be the center of their attention. they will never stop threatening you with it. telling you of course i'm a good parent, i came to all of those stupid events.

you learn to balance yourself perfectly. you can either have a social life or you can have hobbies. both of these things will be under constant scrutiny. you spend too much time with her, you should be at home with family is equally paired with you're acting like this because you're addicted to what's on that goddamn screen. you cannot ever actually win, so everything falls within a barter system that you calculate before entering: do you want to learn how to drive? if so, you'll need to give up asking for a new laptop, even though yours died. maybe you can work on a computer at the library. of course, that would mean you'd be allowed to go to the library, which would mean something else has to bleed. nothing ever actually comes free.

and that bitter, horrible irony: you could be literally following their orders and it still isn't pretty. they tell you to get a job; they hate that your job keeps you late and gives you access to actual money. they tell you to do better in school; they say no child of mine needs a tutor. they want you to stop being so morose, don't you know there are people who are really suffering - but they revile the idea you might actually need therapy.

you didn't survive that fall the way other people would. you've seen other people scramble and get their way out, however they could. maybe you were made too-soft: the answer didn't come to you easily. it wasn't quick. it was brutal and nasty. some people even asked you why didn't you just work hard and escape during school? and you felt your head spinning. why didn't you? (they control your financial aid. they control your loan status. they love having that kind of thing). maybe in another life you got diagnosed sooner and got the meds you needed to actually focus and got attention from the right teachers who helped you clear hurdles to get up out of here - but for now? here?

the effort of trying. the effort of not-dying. that kind of effort was absolutely agonizing.

#writeblr #btw i got out #even though i felt this way #i was undiagnosed and was in a particularly fucked up situation #(it's complicated lol) #i had no money and no way out #no car no license . i still had a curfew at 22 years old #and still. i got out. #you can get out too. #i wasn't allowed to literally do anything after school we were pretty much only allowed 1 hobby #and STILL i got out. #it wasn't bc i was particularly smart or capable or clever. it's that 1. i got lucky & 2. #i knew there had to be The Rest of The World #and I wanted to at least VAGUELY get to the Rest of the World before i gave up trying #sometimes it's the spite that gets u thru it. that sense - fuck u #FUCK YOU ACTUALLY. #im gonna make my own life u stupid bitch. since u seem so convinced i could never REALLY do it. #whenever ppl are like <3 just cut out ur parents <3 im like <3 have u never been poor lol <3 #<3 i needed them to sign my loans <3 #<3 bestie not every person who is struggling is going to be able to make the grades and hero status to get a free ride. #and guess what baby!! we still deserve to get out and have a good life.