fandomhigh | Library Open (10/21)

Janet grabbed her backpack and gestured Sam and Parker toward Professor Methos' office.

She closed the door behind all three of them, locked it, then pulled her laptop out of her backpack and started music playing.

"There," she said. "That should add confusing background noise."

Parker grimaced. "I'm going to have to pull out my white noise generator again, aren't I? Damnit. And I thought I wouldn't have a reason to use it after the goddamn election."

"Glad you have one," said Janet. "What happens in Ethics class stays in Ethics class?" she asked, quoting from Professor Maclay's words in the first class. "Not with Angelus there. And probably not with her either."

"And if she's not just oblivious, then she's certainly way too close to him." Parker sits down, arms crossed. "I don't know if it would be better to complain to her about this setup, or not. I certainly don't trust her judgment at this point. I doubt she'd order me to do *jack*, but she's really damn good at talking people into things. And I doubt she'd find my reasons for disliking Angelus and his kind of vampire very convincing."

"If it were really staying in Ethics class, it would have been a one-morning assignment, not sixteen out of class hours in front of other people." Sam agreed. "Plus, it's got distinctly sexual overtones--don't we have enough ~~emo~~ issues at this school without adding that kind of power confusion?"

"He's offered to buy me clothes and food." Parker makes a face. "I'm sure they'd be fine, but wow, guess what I learned from this class, Professor? I don't want to be a kept woman in any sense of the word. My dad buys me stuff, but that's *my* money, or it's going to be. And I have to manage the income I get. Just this tiny part of the project is creeping me out."

"Clothes and food?" Sam grimaced. "Good, so she's also teaching to reinforce the dominant male hierarchy and roles in certain males who, from what I've heard, really don't need that kind of feedback."

"To be fair, it's paired up the other way too, female Master, male Slave, but since that's not the way society tends to go, I doubt it'll have much effect." Parker grimaced. "It's moot until Sunday. I told Echolls I'd give him my decision tonight, but nothing will take effect until then. Detention with Professor Cregg is infinitely preferable to dealing with this right now."

_{[ooc: and with that, must take off for several hours. You two have permission to mod Parker for this conversation. Talk to you later!]}

"Detention, huh. Yuck. I guess you should be glad it's with Professor Cregg, though."

[ooc: I'll be logging off for at least an hour myself--commuting and shopping.]

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janet_fraiser - 2005-10-21 21:14 (UTC) - Expand

OOC: Yay, feminist!Sam.

OOC: *smirk* She doesn't get out to play much anymore, does she?

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janet_fraiser - 2005-10-22 01:29 (UTC) - Expand

"She probably thinks we're all kids," spits Janet. "Who believe that the teacher's not going to make a mistake because she's the teacher."

"The teacher's making a huge mistake. The sexual overtones, the power confusion, the public humiliation--this is all going to lead to some pretty spectacular blowups. Who at this school is good at actually following the rules?"

Janet frowned. "Unless she wants everyone to fail for some reason? Can't think what, though."

"Well, she's wrong," Sam stated. "She should have checked her roster more carefully. Hell, Cameron's really a teenager, and he knows that what she's saying is wrong."

"No one follows the rules. Or, everyone follows the rules they feel are important and worth following and uses the others to beat their enemies and rivals into submission. It's a disaster waiting to happen! How can something like this not carry over into everyday? People will be behaving, in some cases, completely contrary to their nature and morals, and doing it in front of their peers. There's no excuse for that!"

Sam frowned. "What's the logic in having everyone fail? Maybe she's looking to terrorize the class for some other purpose? She...she sounds worse than Crazy Squid Lady. How wrong is that?"

"Well, I sure as hell won't. The rule say we don't have to, that if it's wrong or destructive, we can say no." Parker growls under her breath. "I already called Echolls on trying to give me an embarassing 'safeword'. Prick."

Parker grimaces. "I think she's trying to show that it's not a system that can be maintained indefinitely. That if you live in a free society, you are not subject to the same pressures that make people conform. I think she's overestimating high school students, though."

"If you live in a free society..." Sam shook her head in disgust. "No one really lives in a free society. There are always rules and mores that restrict the behavior of most of the residents."

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janet_fraiser - 2005-10-22 17:55 (UTC) - Expand

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carter-i-am.livejournal.com - 2005-10-22 17:59 (UTC) - Expand

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janet_fraiser - 2005-10-22 18:19 (UTC) - Expand

"What the hell is going on around here?" Sam really, really wanted to shout, but didn't want to risk it.

"Who knows?" asked Janet. "And what you said before Angelus came into the library? That phrasing was completely manipulative. A paper to let her know when she 'asks too much of me.' She wants a psych profile on me! Mackenzie has one already, and he's one jerk too many."

Janet avoided the urge to kick something. "How is giving students blatant permission to humiliate another student any kind of learning experience? Because based on what Parker's going through, that's what's going to happen by and large."

Sam snorted. "Mackenzie doesn't have a full (or accurate) psych profile on you and you know it. But it's none of her business. She's your teacher, not your friend, your doctor, or your shrink."

"I have no idea how humiliation teaches you anything you couldn't learn somewhere else in high school. I mean, hello, high school. All this project teaches you is that here, the teachers condone that kind of behavior, and if you've got an in with them, you can get away with anything you want."

"Mackenzie has a full and accurate psych profile on no one," said Janet. "Especially none of us here."

"I can't believe Charlie is going along with this," said Janet. "He's her other TA."

Parker grimaced. "He's got too much faith in people following the rules, or working inside the system. I think he's *hoping* someone breaks them, and then reports it, so he can come down on their asses, actually. I'm kicking his butt if he knew about Logan's project, although I doubt he did." Parker rubbed at her pounding head. "Echolls isn't going to be *too* far gone, he knows I'm friends with Rory. But this, this is... Even with the restrictions I'm putting on it, I doubt I'll last 10 minutes. He said I can contradict later. But so what? That would still be me, on the record, even with the damn Slave button, saying I support vampires."

"They can do amazing things with photo editing these days," said Janet.

"I know." Parker looked morose. "He said that if I don't do this, he'll think of something else. God, I don't want to know what."

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carter-i-am.livejournal.com - 2005-10-21 20:24 (UTC) - Expand

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mparkerceo.livejournal.com - 2005-10-21 20:27 (UTC) - Expand

"He's what?" Sam asked, shocked. "Charlie? Our Charlie? Is going along with all of this? How is that possible?"

"He somehow seems to think it's a good idea," said Janet. "He was telling Liz that he thinks it will teach the kids in the class that slavery is worng."

"He was telling Liz about slavery? Hasn't she seen it firsthand? What the hell could this teach her about slavery that she doesn't already know? No, she's never been a slave (as far as I know), but that doesn't mean she doesn't have normal human empathy for the condition. I've never been hit by a truck, but I'm not going to run right out and do that just so I understand accident victims, am I?"

She began pacing and running a hand through her hair. "Charlie knows better," she muttered.

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janet_fraiser - 2005-10-21 21:10 (UTC) - Expand

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