005: Knife in the Back (Locked to the Adults.)

[tarnishedavenger]

[Yup. No teenagers allowed in this filter. Mac is only included after a very, very long and intense mental debate. The toys and the Easter Bunny, as odd as they are, are also in on it.]

So, I've been thinking. Jorgmund's doing a... job of getting everyone some sort of physical training, and there's some of us who don't mind getting a little bit of an extra hand. But we're going to be here for longer than I think any one of us anticipated.

One of the things Jorgmund isn't touching on, though, is education for anything that doesn't apply to missions. Some of these kids and, yes, some of the adults, have serious knowledge gaps.

This is going to be an unpopular idea for some of them, but I think they, and we, would benefit from setting up some sort of lesson plan, get some schooling going. Obviously not history or anything tied so closely to our worlds, but universal things like physics, math, computer skills, locksmithing, other things that could serve them later.

Any opinions? I should probably say that I'm not the most experienced when working with and educating young teens, my only experience is a few guest talks and 'field trips' with the kids at the Ravenswood Academy (I don't think Rowan's desire for secrecy there applies when there's no one from my world here) and Generation VIPER.

Comments

[cachedout]

Well.

I can give you a hearty clap on the back and wish you good luck?

[ Helping. He's helping. ]

[heterochrocatic]

who cares? they'll be fine

it's bad enough to be stuck here, i didn't sign up to babysit, too.

[walkingballpit]

If they have more life skills, they’ll bother you less.

Teach a kid to fish.

[heterochrocatic]

if you want to waste your time, go ahead. just don't expect other people to do the lifting for you

[walkingballpit]

Helping people isn’t a waste of time. Even if they don’t want your help, it’s still worth the effort. You should try it sometime. It really amps up serotonin production.

And no. That’s not my way of getting you to do the lifting for me. You look like you weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet.

[walkingballpit]

I am going to regret this.

[ He sighs and scrubs his face. ]

I may have experience as a teacher. With... slightly abrasive super kids who could theoretically been called a “handful.”

[tarnishedavenger]

What kind of teacher?

I don't mean any offense, but when it comes to superkids, there's a difference between "This is how you find the area of a cylinder" and "This is how you stop a bus." I don't know which one you fit in under.

[walkingballpit]

None taken, but stopping a bus is harder than it looks. I co-taught Superhuman Ethics, and we all ran PE or powers training sessions, whatever you want to call it.

It’s not as handy as physics, but when do you ever need the volume of a cylinder - don’t at me, math nerds. I’d probably be better as a substitute teacher or basic computer skills. “How to deal with future tech when they think you’re a barbarian for liking water-based showers.”

Pretty sure teaching real ethics is a violation.

[tarnishedavenger]

Back home, I've stopped one. It hurt for a little bit afterwards, but it beat the alternative.

You need the volume of a cylinder to get a gold sticker. We should pass those out, I think kids respond well to those. Stacia did, at least.

We don't need to bog the kids down with ethics. No need to make working at Jorgmund more stressful for them than it already is. That'll be one thing I want to hammer in, punishing them for poor educational performance isn't going to do us any good. We need more carrot, less stick, if we're going to keep them at this.

[grimbiker]

I have a feeling I'm one of those adults who will need lessons. Unless you find a motorcycle, the only possibly useful lessons are some herbology, care of magical creatures, and ancient runes.

[Well, probably not ancient runes but you never know when you'll run into them a cursed veil door.]

[tarnishedavenger]

You know how to hotwire a bike?

Some basic herbalism won't hurt. Surely all of the worlds we run into won't have a totally alien ecosystem.

[grimbiker]

No, a spell could do that. I know how to fly one.

[Which he can't do here either. Damn.]

Herbology it is, then. And I think it couldn't hurt to make sure people know how not to get gored by a hippogriff or manticore.

[tarnishedavenger]

Well, mythological beasts ought to be nearly multiversal enough that those lessons could cross over.

Just remember to have a bit of a disclaimer there. Seems like my world's legends of unicorns and the ones some of our fellow New Hires ran into were a little different.

[wheyoftheadept]

i like the idea of classes for everyone - swap skills, brainstorm, that sorta thing. but why lock this post only to adults?

[tarnishedavenger]

Because, from what I've seen of the kids here, we're going to have some of them throwing tantrums at the idea of schooling. Like the song goes, "We don't need no education," etc.

I'd rather see if there's any interest in lending a hand with doing something like this without having to take breaks to explain to, say, Dave or Jack why this might be a thing.

[wheyoftheadept]

sure if you approach it as a "we the adults have decided what you need" thing they'll say fuck you. i'd say fuck you, frankly. what you're suggesting isn't schooling, it's swapping skills and information so we can work together better and have redundancies on expertise if something happens.

like are you assuming none of these kids have anything they might be able to teach? cause from the kinda people we got here with us, i'd say that's a pretty unfair assumption.

the kids we got ain't stupid and they all seem to know the score.

[tarnishedavenger]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, I just figure that any time we start teaching STEM stuff, it counts as schooling.

And, while some of the kids have... Honestly very impressive skillsets, they're either very specialized in ways it would be hard to teach/replicate or a lot of the adults seem to have taken things further. Like Jack. Seems to be great with machines, but it sounds like Brainiac and Alia have him beat. But, if I'm brutally honest, I don't think that most of the people here would be able to put the lessons on that he could teach into practice. I know I couldn't. He's just too far ahead of the curve for many of us.

[just_rogue]

Back home I spent most of my time at a school, trying to help young mutants find their way with powers and with life just like you're saying.

I have some experience with the teacher and mentor thing, I could do it. And kids need someone they can talk to and to show them the ropes.

Count me in.

[tarnishedavenger]

Did you teach academics or just powers and life skills?

Don't take this as me downplaying the importance of either, but, as a teacher, you'll understand why I'd want to know.

[just_rogue]

History, mechanical engineering, and fighting with and without powers.

Probably could pinch-hit a few other things if need be too. I know a few languages decent enough. But Remy's the one who could do that better. He's got a fair eye for art and some other things if he was inclined to teach.

[tarnishedavenger]

Those can definitely help. I never got big into mechanical engineering, but calculus has definitely been a lifesaver. Quite literally.

Unfortunately, much like the current school situation in America, I don't see the arts getting that much funding. We'd have to do some scavenging for that, I think.

Still, gives us a little shopping list when we go on missions again.

[kingofneworleans]

Can't say that I have much in the way of book learning I can help teach. I barely graduated high school myself. But I have some useful skills otherwise.

I can teach a couple different fighting styles. Bōjutsu, savate, general hand to hand. Straight up dirty fighting if that's needed. A little bit with blades, but I'm not as trained with them.

As for other skills? Little bit of hacking. Good bit of lock picking. Might be able to teach how to reproduce building plans from a walk through, though that one's a LOT of practice.

I can also teach cooking, if it comes down to it. Not baking, though. Never had the patience for it.

[tarnishedavenger]

I'm teaching some fighting classes already, but more teachers and styles are always good. Picking locks would be excellent and some hacking wouldn't hurt. We've got a batch of people good with computers already, myself included, but there's only so much time in a day. And I don't want a team screwed because they ran into a computer and all of the tech-literati are off on another job.

Don't know if cooking will be that useful here, no offense, but we could probably use it as a 'fun' class.

[kingofneworleans]

I assume you've been in the cafeteria. I'd say that cooking would be very useful. Also, I'm not bad at camp cooking, which may be something we'll have to deal with eventually. Afraid most of my survival 'know what you can eat and what you can't' only extends to the bayou, though.

Fair enough. How far down the road of technically illegal stuff are we going?

[tarnishedavenger]

You bring up good points. Camp cooking couldn't hurt. I think we've got mostly free reign of the kitchen after hours? I haven't gone.

I'm not a cop anymore. I don't think anyone that's left will worry about breaking the law, especially without having jurisdiction.