#education shouldnt be like this

[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.

[tododeku-or-bust]

Quick vent post

Okay so obviously there are more important things than my lil bitch and moan here but give me some momentary grace.

I will say it's crazy how when I got on here four years ago I was like "oh! A place where everyone shares their hobbies! And they're queer! I love and write fan stories too! I've never seen fanart! It's an art escape!" Yeah, I posted fanfic before, but I was new to Fandom™ as a collective. I thought we all just spoke over comments on FF.net. I didn't know how "/" or "slick" were used til I got here.

And now I feel like a hardened soldier and it's not like I did it on purpose lmao. I had to. I just wanted to write and post fun stories and talk about my blorbos with friends. Instead y'all reminded me in short order that fun isn't for the Black, and that was just the first thing 😭 I had to start learning real quick what the actual deal was here. I'll never regret becoming more aware, learning my own identity and how it relates to the world around me. I love educating myself.

I just hate that it has to be like this 😭 I hate feeling jaded, of being sad that I didn't know better. I hate that I have to suffer the chronic pain of racism even here. There is no escape. It must be nice to sit and look at the content of racist creators and feel zero qualms about participating. Instead I care about humanity and gotta watch my friends fight for it daily and everyone else treat them like trash. When does it end, when do we get to come here and start talking about fun shit 😭 Vent over. 👍🏾

[iamunabletothinkofablogname]

physical abuse/fighting in families shouldn't be fucking normalized or joked about EVEN with siblings EVEN with parents EVEN with any fucking relatives

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Rishi Sunak really did just tweet you don't need uni to be successful in life, clearly trying to defend his plans to fuck up uni degrees. Like Rishi you can't talk, you literally only got to be rich and successful because you married a rich man's daughter.

[shirleyjacksonism]

"student life" this "student life" that. girl I haven't been to a club in a year. haven't spoken to another student for longer than 10 minutes since the beginning of uni. haven't made plans with ABSOLUTELY ANYONE. everyone seems to get on well with each other and hang out together and everything and I have only spoken to 3 of my classmates in total. I'm living in my childhood home with my mom. thank you but I think I'll skip this "student life"

[quotidian-oblivion]

I hate those memes with moms (or dads) getting exasperated or irritated with their kids and joke about how much they hate them, or underappreciate their kids and undermine their love for their parents. I hate them. If you don't want kids, don't have them. If you're "stuck" with your kid(s) then maybe reconsider your mindset as a parent and look beyond the surface. They're kids. They're not gonna say "I love you" until you make a habit to say it first.

[saint-ambrosef]

young devout Catholics: A lot of laity don't really seem to know or understand a lot of core Church teachings, so it's important that we clearly teach and live it :) boomer hippie Catholics: Wow, so arrogant and unkind. Extremist millennials like you will be the death of the Church. young devout Catholics: ??????????

[dolokhoded]

the chosen is fucking insane they're making a show about a palestinian jew and shahar isaac is WHEREEEE ???????

[agentgreenbean]

the phrase "financial abuse" had not occurred to me as a way to describe my situation with my mom until a few days ago but now i cant stop thinking about it

[ben-the-hyena]

With @papabirdurskeks we noticed that after having been emotionally, verbally and/or physically abusive to the Prince to punish him whenever he fails in the Game Over minigames, the King always goes silent abruptly never finishing his big talk. There is never an angry "NOW YOU GO BACK THERE AND YOU RETRY GOD DAMMIT DON'T YOU RIDICULE YOURSELF AGAIN" nor a cold "We give you a new chance. Don't you waste it again." but just a "try again or quit ?" option button as if he suddenly stops speaking and just stands silent no longer speaking or hitting or blasting lasers. Possibly staring or looking away. Yes there is "a GOODBYE" in the end of the dialogue after a big "leave you ashamed Us LEAVE" talk in the first game, but then he still stays there instead of leaving as if he did not mean it for real and the option still appears instead of it being him giving himself the option

So because we love angst we love to imagine that in these moments he himself realizes he goes too far and stops and is horrified at himself to be like his father was and stops before becoling worse but of course won't tell or apologize, but is in silent shock for going that far and not even being able to prevent himself from starting these outbursts

Plus we noticed that after several games if being emotionally critical like in the first game then physically punishing as well in the sequels, the last "official/real" game has him "just" yell at him angrily not to fail again. Scary, especially since he essentially has him float to his face to yell at him ordering him to never do that again, but there is no longer a cold soul-crushing sentence like "it is not your fault but Ours for having believed in you" nor lasers nor boxing nor pool (during which he comments and speaks coldly too at the same time). It is the first game in which is anger which is scary itself but not emotionally or physically destructive like it was before. And even there again, abrupt silence with a "try again or quit ?" option instead of him speaking at all

And technically we have not seen him go that far in spinoffs coming out inbetween or after

So Mat and I wonder if he himself realizes every time he just keeps going too far each time and that at this rate his son, being only 6, would already start resent him like he resented his own father all his childhood and they made peace too late as a late teenager and now that he is senile he knows and regrets how they didn't get to enjoy each other enough. So it IS very hard, having grown up like that (and yet as I said several times he does punish him MUCH LESS harshly already and outside of the occasional irreponsibility he forces him to fix for himself he is decent, playful and loving) but now he TRIES (even if there is a looong way to go) to be more just, all while wanting to push him to go harder and still be strict (again he WILL rule over the whole cosmos and it requires to be experienced, in shape and master perfectly everything notably katamari, so he can't be too chill either)

So maybe, maybe, the man does regret and is aware and feels guilty each time stopping himself in horror when his self awareness kicks in all of sudden and so he TRIES to change but it takes colossal amount of will and he is too proud to aknowledge it and just goes like nothing happened afterward

[dashiellqvverty]

so evil that i can't find a single gifset of them in this episode at least not from searching the episode number like i usually do

[orbmanson7]

:(

Very bad grade in therapy today

[gibbearish]

are we really back to "oh you support (blank)? name ten people who (do/are) that right now or else youre lying for allyship points and everything you have to say should be disregarded". i thought we left that back in like. 2012 misogynist nerdbro culture

[astranauticus]

Borrow - Mao Buyi (借 - 毛不易) Translation

Finally figured out how to tackle this song I've been obsessed with for years. Enjoy!

借

Borrow

借一盏午夜街头 昏黄灯光

A streetlamp, casting hazy yellow light at midnight

照亮那坎坷路上人影一双

To illuminate the pair of silhouettes on the uneven pavement

借一寸三九天里 冽冽暖阳

An inch of frozen sunlight from the dead of winter

融这茫茫人间刺骨凉

To melt the frigid cold of this endless world

借一泓古老河水 九曲回肠

A scoop of water from an ancient, twisting river

带着那摇晃烛火 漂往远方

To take that swaying candlelight drifting far away

借一段往日旋律 婉转悠扬

A stanza of an old song, gentle and melodious

把这不能说的轻轻唱

To quietly sing this which cannot be said

被这风吹散的人说他爱得不深

Those blown apart by these winds will say that they never loved deeply

被这雨淋湿的人说他不会冷

Those caught in this rain will say that they will not be cold

无边夜色到底还要蒙住多少人

How many more people will be enveloped by this endless night?

它写进眼里 他不敢承认

It lingers in the mind, yet he dare not admit

借一抹临别黄昏悠悠斜阳

A glimpse the setting sun in the moment of farewell

为这漫漫余生添一道光

To add some light to the rest of this life

借一句刻骨铭心来日方长

A simple 'we have plenty of time' etched into the soul

倘若不得不天各一方

To prepare for the chance of forced separation

被这风吹散的人说他爱得不深

Those blown apart by these winds will say that they never loved deeply

被这雨淋湿的人说他不会冷

Those caught in this rain will say that they will not be cold

无边夜色到底还要蒙住多少人

How many more people will be enveloped by this endless night?

它写进眼里 他不敢承认

It lingers in the mind, yet he dare not admit

可是啊

And yet

总有那风吹不散的认真

There is a sincerity that cannot be blown apart by this wind

总有大雨也不能抹去的泪痕

There are tears that cannot be washed away by this rain

有一天太阳会升起在某个清晨

Some day, on some morning, the sun will rise

一道彩虹 两个人

Under a rainbow, two people will stand

借一方乐土让他容身

An acre of land for him to call home

借他平凡一生

An ordinary life for him to live

[flower-zombie-rob]

The jkr squad is so funny. Like theyll go off one at you in the notes of a post, but they have no reading comprehension so they'll just make shit up as if you said it. They wont even reblog the post with their points, they'll just comment like a coward so no one sees their opinions. Hilarious stiff

[sanguine-tenshi]

Genuinely think that if you design a piece of technology that is user unfriendly you should be brought before a firing squad.