Culture Shock: Adjusting to Life on the Weird Side | Tuesday, Period 2

[voiceoverdue]

"Hello, class!" Cecil beamed at them all. "Now that we've covered a few of the immediate things, we thought we'd go back to some of the basics. Like...classes! You've all got classes, right? Otherwise you're really in the wrong place, because - well, this is a class. So, how are your classes? Like, were you home-schooled before and you have a small family, so you've never been in a group like this? Or are you more used to having normal classes like Geology, Marksmanship, and Modified Sumerian?"

"Oh, hey, I learned marksmanship too," Kanan mused. "I mean, I learned it from a Kalleran scoundrel who tried to sell me on more than one occasion, but... important life skills."

That was much easier to discuss than his education at the temple, which he wasn't going to touch on for the life of him, thanks.

"But there, that's another possibility," he added. "No formal classes at all, but practical lessons, possibly apprenticeships or internships, meant to give you hands-on experience instead of stuffing a book in your hands and telling you to read three chapters before the next lesson."

"Not that reading isn't important," Cecil said gravely. "It's just highly dangerous and best taught in a controlled environment."

Kanan side-eyed Cecil for a moment.

...

You do you, Cecil. You do you.

"Anyway," he said, shaking out of that moment and crossing his arms in front of his chest, "school here. Probably different from what you're used to back home. Let's talk about how, and what you're doing here to adjust to that change."

Comments

Class exercise

[voiceoverdue]

Discuss the differences between what you're used to and what you're getting here.

Re: Class exercise

[notouchykuzco.livejournal.com]

"I have a talking dog," Kuzco said. "Who talks. Like a person. Creepiest ever. Last week he was wearing glasses. Why would a dog ever need glasses?"

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

"Maybe he's a nearsighted dog," Kanan offered, smiling sympathetically at Kuzco. "I understand what you mean, though. He's my teaching buddy."

Of course, the 'talking dog' bit wasn't so weird as the 'licked Kanan's housepet' bit. But still.

Re: Class exercise

[notouchykuzco.livejournal.com]

"It's weird," Kuzco grumped.

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

"He licked my dog," Kanan shared. "Trust me, I know it's weird. But he's harmless. If the strangest thing he's doing is wearing glasses, why not just sit back and enjoy the show?"

Kanan was mostly thankful that he'd made it clear to Mr. Peanutbutter that licking students was off-limits, back at the picnic.

Re: Class exercise

[notouchykuzco.livejournal.com]

If Mr. Peanutbutter had licked Kuzco, the entire school would have heard the screaming.

"Talking. Dog.," Kuzco enunciated carefully. "Who thinks he'd being recorded or something."

And Kuzco wanted to be the only star in a room, okay.

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

"So, just so we're being clear, the fact that he can communicate is the weird part, here?"

Kanan had to check. His particular galaxy had many fun and varied races. Many of which could also talk.

"I would think it would be difficult for him to teach a class if he couldn't."

Re: Class exercise

[notouchykuzco.livejournal.com]

"Which would be my second question, yeah," Kuzco said. "Why is a dog teaching a class?"

Re: Class exercise

[spell_chucker]

"Everything about classes is different here," Khadgar said, looking rather pleased about that. "At home, almost all of my training was focused on different aspects of magic, and I did most of my learning one-on-one because... well, I guess the simplest way to put it is that I was being trained for a specific job. It's a lot different to be in classes with other people, even though my classes were already chosen for me when I got here and some of them are not what I would have picked."

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

"Oh? What would you have picked differently, if you were given the choice?"

So help Kanan, he was curious.

Re: Class exercise

[spell_chucker]

"This class has been helpful, and my class on the history of this world has been very interesting. However I...er, don't think I would have signed up for Sex Ed. Or class with Mr. Deadpool. He's a little... unique."

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

The corner of Kanan's mouth twitched a little. Hey, he would've appreciated a Sex Ed class back when he was Khadgar's age. But Jedi, life of celibacy and all that stuff he'd been quite alright with disregarding once 'Jedi' became synonymous with 'death sentence.'

Some things were just better not being approached completely blind. All things he wasn't going to say, here, since the boy was already in the Sex Ed class and Kanan wasn't planning on hitting overshare mode with his students today.

"I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting Deadpool personally," he noted. "Though his radio broadcasts were always... a bit different. What's he teaching this time around?"

Re: Class exercise

[spell_chucker]

Khadgar probably would have appreciated the Sex Ed class more if he thought he was ever going to have sex. He wasn't holding out a lot of hope on that front at the moment.

"He's teaching us how to avoid our problems, through a great amount of swearing and adult topics," Khadgar said. "It's unlike anything I've experienced before."

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan's eyebrows edged upwards on his forehead at that.

"... Sounds a bit like a class he should've considered teaching at the Community Center instead," he noted. Not at all because that was exactly the sort of class he could get behind taking himself. Honest. "But I suppose it isn't exactly the most useful class to take if you're hoping for a well-rounded education."

Don't ask don't ask don't ask don't ask--

"Has he taught you anything interesting yet, at least?"

He asked.

Re: Class exercise

[cracksmostly]

"I was the only one in my clan studying with the Keeper," Merrill volunteered, "since there aren't any more than two mages to a clan, ever. So while everyone else my age was learning the Vir Tanadhal, I was . . ."

She waved a hand in a vague shooing gesture. "Over there, studying history and magic and -- I don't want to sound like I didn't enjoy it! It was just lonely."

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

"Having different expectations from your peers can be a lonely business," Kanan nodded, nodding a little. "So studying in classroom environments like this one was a nice change of pace for you?"

Re: Class exercise

[cracksmostly]

"It was!" Merrill's head bobbed up and down in a nod so enthusiastic, it was almost sad. "The kinds of subjects are a change of pace, too. A strange change of pace sometimes, but nice. It's nice to know I'm learning something that isn't going to go over the heads of almost everyone else around me."

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

"And hey, this way, you'll have people you can study with," Kanan offered, smiling faintly. "Compare notes with. That's a pretty good deal."

Re: Class exercise

[cracksmostly]

"What kinds of notes would we be comparing?" asked Merrill. "Or . . . I missed something again, didn't I."

That was distinctly not a question, and more a very articulate sigh of resignation.

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

"Nah, it's a fair question," Kanan replied, waving that resignation off. "If you have any classes that are the sort you might take notes in, you could compare those, to make sure you didn't miss anything important. Or, in a less literal sense, you could all just sit down and talk about what you learned, or didn't learn, or what you do and don't like about the classes."

He smiled and gave his shoulders a shrug.

"Any kinds of notes you want."

Re: Class exercise

[snipsnspecks]

"I'm more used to an apprenticeship system," Ahsoka hedged, though at least Kanan wasn't immediately going to leap to 'weird sex thing' when she said that.

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

"Which this place doesn't have much in the way of," Kanan agreed. You know. Knowingly. "How are you finding the lessons here, comparatively?"

He was a little old to be a student himself, but was curious, okay?

Re: Class exercise

[snipsnspecks]

"Well, I haven't been in classes this large since I was a youngling." Because communal learning was for children. "But despite the fact lesson are more structured, there seems to be less of it."

She had so much free time on her hands. So much.

Re: Class exercise

[uncertain_dume]

"Finding it a bit of an adjustment, having so much time to yourself?"

Kanan sympathized. There was a reason he generally packed up and moved on from a planet not once he was worried for his safety, but when he simply found himself getting bored.

Re: Class exercise

[snipsnspecks]

"Something like that." At least when she'd been trying to keep her ship's hyperdrive from exploding mid-flight it was something to do.