Relationships for Dummies, Monday - 2nd Period

[captainskullpoopl]

Today, Vanessa was dressed rather patriotically: her t-shirt had ‘USA’ across the chest and she was holding a tiny American flag in one hand. Also, she looked rather smug. “So, you’re going to have arguments in relationships,” she said. “Over serious things and over trivial things like who should do the dishes. And you should definitely settle them like adults. And not settle them using your countries’ Olympic teams as proxies like we do.”

"Canada is a winter sport team!" Deadpool snapped, looking extra surly about his poor country's prospects vs that of the US. "You cheated me."

“Oh, like it’s my fault you were missing presumed dead during Sochi and didn’t get to reap the spoils,” Vanessa responded.

He threw his hands up in the air, not like he just didn't care, but more that he totally cared way too much about sports people forgot about move of the time. "In my defense, I'd been stabbed and burned alive. Which I think is equal to living through the Olympics for most people living at the locations."

Poor, poor Brazil. First the World Cup, now this.

“Remember, we’re not arguing,” Vanessa said brightly. “We’re setting a good example for the kids!” And then she waved her tiny flag. “Anyway, the point is that America rules and Canada drools, at least until November when I may be considering the benefits of Wade’s citizenship, but also, again: try not to resolve things through fighting. Unless you just really love makeup sex.”

Deadpool already had a hand up for a high-five over the potential to move to Canada in November, which Vanessa met without having to look at him. "Which we do. But you still need to work through your squabbles with talking. Or getting really good at going down on--"

“Wade!”

"...elevators?" he finished lamely.

“Or escalators!” Vanessa waved her flag again. “Go Team USA! Keep Wade doing the dishes all month!”

Practical Philosophy, Monday

[endsthegame]

"It's been a quiet week," Ender said, "But for the market. It's left me thinking about an old class topic: our judgment of others, and what it means."

He took a swig from a bottle of water. "It's the idea of judging people that drove the human philosophers of old into endless debates, on when it was okay to judge something terrible or evil. They developed extensive theories on what made something good and right. Take the old Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Aristotle, who believed in what's called 'virtue ethics' - the idea that the character of the person defines the morality of his actions. Socrates argued, for instance, that if a person knew what was right, then he would do right. It was only not knowing what 'good' was that might cause someone to do evil."

"Then there were the stoics, who believed virtue laid in contentment, in being happy with what you're given, whatever it was. Opposite them, the hedonists, who believed 'good' was anything that made you feel happy. Later philosophers came up with the theory of consequentialism, the idea that your morality depends on the consequences of what you does. Some philosophers felt that good deeds were only good if they worked to better the country, for instance. On the other hand, deontologists such as Kant believed that goodness came from doing, and the reasons someone might have to do something. If you were doing something out of duty, for instance, then according to Kant, you were doing some good. 'Nothing in the world can possibly be conceived which could be called good without qualification except a good will.' Your intentions are what make you good."

He sat back.

"As I said, we all make our judgments. Of ourselves, of the people around us, of their pasts - especially around here. On what do you base your judgments? I think most of us realize that there is no such thing as pure good and evil - but how we judge other people tends to depend a lot on what we were taught and where we come from."

Another faint smile.

"I personally believe that character is important," he said. "Once you try to understand what makes people do what they do, it becomes that much harder to see them as evil. After all, most of us do what we think is right, even if our ideas of what right is are different. And in doing these things, we inspire other people to act in their own way."

Coping with Change | Tuesday, period one

[voiceoverdue]

So, there was a television at the front of the room today. The teachers weren't absent or anything, it was just that some days needed to be movie days.

That, and Jono had a mild 'up too late staring at scripts like a crazy man' hangover that had been mostly fuelled by insomnia, and for once didn't have a whole lecture in him. He did, however, have a film about a little brown alien creature on blu-ray, mostly because it was the thing that fell closest to hand that seemed even remotely relevant to the class they were meant to be teaching, here.

//Rejoice. There's microwave popcorn and a case of Coke. It's a film day today.//

"I brought hummus and pita chips!" Cecil added. "There's even wheat in them!" He was never going to get over being able to eat wheat and wheat by-products. "And Jono says this is a pretty good movie, so enjoy!"

//Actually, I said it was a classic, and I'm throwing popcorn at the first person in the room who complains that it's older than they are.//

Whippersnappers.

Either way, with that, he was hitting play.