Show and Tell, Tuesday, Period Two

[myownface]

This week, Sparkle's class had been sent an e-mail in advance with a prompt for what to bring in to the classroom today. And that prompt was, 'toys.'

Which they were free to interpret however they cared to, just so long as they kept it clean.

He'd admit he was curious to see how Ringo managed this one, having used her AT card on day one.

"Okay," he said, grinning at the class. "Not every week can be a field trip week. Well, I mean, it could. There are literally classes that do that. But I'm not that organized anyway, so we're going to trade off every now and again, at least. And this week, I asked you guys to bring in some kind of toy, if you have anything that qualifies. If you don't, here's where you fake it, which is an important part of the whole 'show and tell' experience."

Or maybe Sparkle just figured that lying was more important than plenty of people might prefer. One of those. Either way, he was pulling a little black stuffed toy cat from his bag, and holding it up for the class to see.

"This is Velcro II," he shared. "Named after Velcro the first, who was my pet cat while I was a student here. I couldn't keep him after grad when it was time to go back home, so Velcro found a home with one of the other students, and when I came back to the island I wound up living with a guy whose one house rule is 'no cats.'" Atton was lucky Sparkle liked him. "So he got me this guy instead. I'm pretty sure he felt bad about the house rule? I dunno. Either way, Velcro II comes along with me whenever I've got my backpack anywhere, because... I'm a big kid? Whatever. Here's my toy, that was my bit. You guys can pass him around if you like, but someone's gotta share."

Try Not to Die, Tuesday, May 23, 2017

[sith_happened]

"Welcome to another class," Anakin said, pointing at the now familiar world map. "Today we're going to Estonia, which is an extremely tiny country on this huge land mass that they give two different names for reasons I don't quite understand. Estonia falls into Asia. I think. Maybe Europe. They were involved in Eurovision, but so was Australia and that's its own continent."

Anakin was confusing himself.

"Anyway," he said, shaking his head. "Two tasks in Tallinn. Don't get killed."

Resolving Conflict Without Violence, Wednesday First Period [Week 3]

[retired_hero]

As usual, Anne was standing at a sort of relaxed attention at the front of the room.

"Welcome back again. I hope that you found the discussion last week stimulating, and perhaps a little uncomfortable." She let her eyes sweep the room. "One of the goals of this course is to push you to think about things, and in ways, that you aren't used to. Exposure to new and challenging ideas can stand you in excellent stead when something unexpected occurs and you find yourself mentally scrambling."

"So. With that in mind."

Anne turned, writing on the board.

"Allowing harm vs allowing harm. As with most complicated questions about morality, whether there is a difference between directly participating in activities that harm someone and standing by without intervening while others participate in those activities is a subject to much debate."

"However, as with any topic we discuss in this class, the goal isn't to simply answer the question, it's to explore the boundaries of the question. If you believe that they are the same, then is watching someone next to you get beat up the same as not going to the nearest big city to find someone being mugged so you can defend them? Or if you believe that there are differences, what makes them different?"

Anne smiled slightly. "Each of you will have your own answers, I suspect, even if you have similar ones. And one thing you'll likely discover that your own beliefs are complicated. For instance, while I personally feel that it is my moral responsibility to defend someone who is being assaulted nearby, you won't find me wandering into the next town." She paused, frowning for a moment. "Baltimore, I think it's called? Anyway, I don't go prowling there looking for criminals to stop and innocents to defend. For me there's a line that has to get drawn related to scope and scale in order to keep moral obligations from overwhelming."

Which, she reflected with a certain amount of silent irony, was a pretty ridiculous thing to claim given what she'd been doing just a couple of months ago. Her eyes drifted to her empty left sleeve for a moment before she realized the silence had dragged out just a little too long and her attention snapped back to her students.

"But enough about me! You all know the drill. Pair up, start a discussion, probe at the boundaries of your beliefs."

She grinned. "Unless you find yourself dying to know more about me, in which case, well, feel free to ask me questions, too. Just know that I'll be asking them back."