#teachers have reported that a lot of younger children are coming in just. having issues learning how to even write

[ganondorf]

i hate having to agree with boomers on children's overuse of technology because i believe one of the issues with why children rn are very far behind in education is just that they are not paying attention in class because they're on that damn phone

[butterysalt]

Fun | Sherlock x platonic!Reader

Pairing: Sherlock x platonic!gender neutral reader

Request ( @a-paper-cut​ ): 

Word Count: 2,202

Contains: Mentions of child abduction, platonic fluffiness and banter :)

A/N: AAAAAAA thank you so much, lovely! This was my first request and I was SUPER excited to write it hehe. I’ve been on a slight creative block lately and I enjoyed writing this so much. I hope this fic does justice for what you wanted and I hope that you are doing amazingly 🧡🧡

It was an early, snowy winter morning in London. You and Sherlock Holmes have been mind-boggled by a puzzling case for the past week. The detective proposed that the two of you go on a walk to allow some fresh air in the brains again. This suggested that even his extensive mind palace and composing weren’t helping the genius. Not that you were complaining about sharing a nice stroll with Sherlock. It had been years after all since you two had spent any casual time together. Like what people normally did in their free time, anyway.

The two of you stepped side by side, feet planting in the thin sheet of snow on the ground in unison. You grinned a little at the matched body language. You and Sherlock always had special ways to subtly communicate with one another. It was like a part of your minds were connected.

“Anything yet?” the tall brunette questioned. Your lip twitched upward. “Don’t rush the process, Sherlock. Just enjoy the moment. Live in it a little.” Sherlock’s long drawl could be heard next to you. His walking strides were growing longer as his patience began to thin out. You could practically hear the subtle gnawing of his teeth.

“We’ve only been walking 5 minutes,” you flouted, “Loosen up a bit.” Sherlock snickered to himself, messing with his gloved hands. “You’re already trying to read me?”

“You’re walking like you’ve got a stick up your arse. It’s clear you’re agitated,” you jested. The curly-haired detective sneered at you and kicked a clump of ice out of the way. “I can’t think, Y/n. We have potential homicide to solve and we’re here drudging in the snow.”

“Remember, this was your idea, genius. Unless you can come up with something else, this is all we’ve got.” Sherlock went silent, chewing the inside of his cheek. His mind wandered to try and come up with something snarky to throw at you. Perhaps a witty comeback that would leave you in doubt. The headache he was dealing with was enough to strike him in his train of thought. He shook it off and his focus returned to the matter of urgency. Unsolved case.

Sherlock lifted his face to the sky, blowing a hot cloud of breath into the chilly London air. He tugged his scarf a little closer to his neck, shoving his gloved hands down into his thick coat. The breath cloud was a common habit of Sherlock’s during cold weather. It mimicked the effect of blowing cigarette smoke, just without the tar and nicotine. Fortunately, the only time the detective abused drugs anymore was when cases had him horribly stumped; thanks to you and John’s efforts, his drug use was much more controlled now.

“Five missing children. All between the ages of 7 and 9. We know that the connection is tied to their private schools. Three different religious private schools within a 10 kilometer radius — so, fairly close together. The parents reported their children coming home with expensive gifts from a mysterious donor shortly before they went missing. They referred to the perpetrator as ‘Ray’. Anyone handing out shiny trinkets to naive children is either a philanthropist or a predator. I’d like to bet on the latter.”

You sighed, mentally reviewing all of the evidence from the case in your head. “But all of the children knew basic safety protocols: don’t talk to strangers, never accept anything from strangers, the whole package. Their parents are terribly traditional. They never would have let any of them see the light if they broke any of those rules. So the chances are near impossible that they would have fallen for such typical child abduction tricks.”

“Near impossible, L/n. That means there’s still a possibility and possible is all we need to screw this up,” Sherlock tutted. He blew another large cloud of air, shaking some light snow off his curls. You frowned, “The suspects. We’ve interrogated the popes, teachers, parents… who are we missing?”

Sherlock stopped walking. You turned to check up on him, finding him with his eyes shut. “Maybe we’re asking the wrong questions…”

“Of course we’re asking the wrong questions! We have all the pieces in our hands but no instructions, Sherlock. We’re running in circles with this case,” you walked over to a public railing, leaning against it and looking out across the long white blanket that stretched to the horizon.

He joined your side shortly after, bending down to pick up some rocks to toss down the snowy hill and watch as they made skinny trails in the frosty powder. Sherlock sighed out, exasperated and worn out. “We’re not getting anywhere by mulling over it, are we?”

You smiled at him and shook your head. You pulled your coat a little tighter around yourself. “That’s why I’m here to keep you in check. It’s good to get some air, you know? Christ knows when’s the last time you did that simply because you wanted to.”

Sherlock’s eyebrow perked up and he faced you with a blank expression. “How do you mean?” Your eyes widened a little, unsure of how you should pick out your next words. “Well… you know, you don’t exactly, uh…” Nervously, your eyes flicked up to his. He was watching your expression very carefully.

“You don’t spend a lot of time for yourself,” you said simply. Sherlock frowned in disagreement. “I spend a lot of time by myself. I thought you knew me better than that,” he teased.

You rolled your eyes, leaning your back against the cold railing now, crossing your arms. “In your mind palace, Sherlock. I mean you don’t do things you enjoy.”

“Who said I don’t enjoy things?” he countered your query. You found yourself forming a cold sweat, debating on how to deliver your message. “Hobbies?”

“Violin.”

“Meh. Parties?”

“You disturb me.” Your best friend’s disgust made you cackle. “See, that’s my point! You don’t know how to have fun anymore. What happened to old Sherlock?”

Now this was a personal offense against Sherlock. “What? You don’t think I’m fun?” Sherlock sounded incredibly appalled by your claim. A hot cloud of air rose to the sky when you scoffed.

“Holmes, you are probably the farthest thing when it comes to the definition of fun!”

“Well, probability-wise, that’s highly improbable when Mycroft exists.”

“His poshness makes up for it. You’re just irritating.” Sherlock puffed out his red cheeks, nudging you playfully. “Oh, come on. You must admit that I’m at least an interesting character?”

You pondered in fake thought, scrunching your face together. “Interesting is debatable. Fun? That’s foreign territory, Sherlock.” The tall man grimaced deeply at your bluntness that he clearly had issues with. “What do you mean by ‘Old Sherlock’? What was good about the ‘old me’? I consider myself much more refined in the present day.”

Old memories of the two of you hanging out with one another as teenagers came back to you. A smile melted on your face from the warm feelings of nostalgia, the chilliness from the snowfall leaving your body.

“You used to prank Mycroft all the time. Everything was always a competition with you and me; we would go from racing down the neighborhood to reach my house first or rush to finish homework and claim the telly before the other could. Oh! We would always make up fake cases, too, trying to entertain a mystery that didn’t even exist,” you laughed to yourself, “Look at us now.”

Sherlock grumbled at the reminder of your old shenanigans. He wasn’t always the fondest of his younger self. But he had to admit he was reckless, even as a child. It was a simpler time and kids didn’t have much to fret or fear.

“Now you’re all enigmatic and stoic with your flipped up coat collar and scary cheekbones. The difference is so disappointing, it’s sickening,” you gagged. Sherlock slipped off his glove and jabbed his freezing hand against your neck, making you exclaim at the coldness and shove him backward. He wore a victorious smirk at your suffering. You pointed a hard finger at him, holding back your own laughter to prove a point.

“NO, that’s not being fun, Sherlock. That’s torture- sadism! You’re just an arse!” He threw his arms in the air, tossing his glove in your face. “It’s subjective! I can be fun,” he insisted.

“You’re predictable, Holmes. You don’t remember what good humor is and it shows in your actions. You pick everything up from books and telly. You can’t surprise me anymore,” you declared. Sherlock’s expression contorted into shock as he stared at you in disbelief. You had left the great Sherlock Holmes baffled. The silence was deafening — music to your ears.

When you thought you were winning this argument, a special glint quickly shone in Sherlock’s eyes. Your expression dropped and then you were pushed backward. There was no railing behind you anymore to catch you.

As you were falling, you naturally grasped for something to hold on to. In this case, Sherlock’s coat. The evil smirk on his face was immediately replaced with shock then fear as he was crashing hard into you. Gravity did the rest of the work. With the momentum you had already begun, dragging Sherlock down with you was one of the worst possible outcomes of the situation. A crude curse slipped past his lips and both of you latched onto each other because there was nothing else to brace with.

What was initially meant to be a playful fall down the snowy hill turned into a rolling battle full of frantic thrashing and screaming as both of your bodies thumped and tangled with each other. The two of you occasionally bounced a few inches off the ground and crashed back into the ground, knocking the breath out of both of you. The wild human avalanche down the hill was finally put to a stop when you rolled into a tree. With a loud OOMPH, you and Sherlock flopped into the ground, groaning and croaking in pain. Neither of you moved for the first passing moments, unable to process what just happened.

Your fall was broken when you landed on top of Sherlock, his body sprawled out in the cold snow, rasping heavily. Some snow fell off your form and your arms shook as you propped yourself up, no longer caring about the fact that you applied all the pressure in your friend’s ribs.

“You alright, mate?” you panted, checking up on Sherlock, eyes analyzing him for any serious injuries.

“You take my breath away.” You sputtered and shook your head at his ridiculous humor. “Aren’t you just romantic?” He squinted his eyes and flashed a sarcastic smile but groaned out, “No, really. Please get off my chest.”

“Oh God, sorry,” you scrambled off of him and he rolled over into the snow, gasping for air as he clutched his side in pain. You punched him in the shoulder. “You bloody twat, Sherlock Holmes! Pushing me down a hill by Jove’s sake!”

“I remember it being much more fun when we were younger,” he grunted out, pushing himself onto his forearms. And just then, his eyes burst wide open. His face slack-jawed as his brain computed at top speed. He was onto something.

“Sherlo-”

“FUN, Y/n,” he articulated, scrambling over to you and grabbing you by the shoulders. You stiffened and backed away, startled by his abrupt realization. 

“Oh, Y/n, you are brilliant! This is why we work together!”

“What?! What are you-”

“The kids were abducted because they were having fun! ‘Ray’ is Remus Stooge, another private school kid in the area. The Stooge family owns several of the land plots around this corner of London and they’re the ones funding all three schools — The Stooge’s are plenty wealthy. The children were going to Remus’s home, ditching class time to get a personal house tour of his daddy’s money. The fancy car rides, luxurious delights, shiny sneakers and tailored clothing… Who wouldn’t pass up on an opportunity like that? It only makes sense why they were lured in so easily! Their rich best pal Remus has been the one inviting them right into the trap!”

“What- Sherlock! Where is this all coming from?! How do you even-”

“Trust me, Y/n!! I have it figured out- It all makes sense!” he interjected again. The look on your faces was bizarre. You tossed a handful of snow at him as he blocked it with his hands. “NO?? It doesn’t! This is so sudden-”

Sherlock was on his feet in an instant, brushing off the powder from his coat and yanking you up. His eyes were gleaming with excitement. “We have to go tell Lestrade, now! Call John and get over to the Stooge’s place!”

“To arrest the kid?!”

“No, the butler!” He grabbed your gloved hand and dragged you up the steep white hill. You shook your head wildly, “Holmes, you better have a bloody good explanation for this in the cab or there will be hell to pay.” Sherlock smirked triumphantly and squeezed your hand.

“Come, L/n! The game is on!”

Requests are open! <3

[robininthelabyrinth]

What would happen if Jiang Cheng found A-Yuan hiding in the tree stump at the Siege of the Burial Mounds and decided he's going to take in this toddler Wei Wuxian's was raising and raise him, in the memory of what WWX promised to be for JC?

sequel to this aka Delight in Misery (ao3)

--

“Sizhui?!” Jiang Cheng roared as he stormed into Lan Wangji’s room. “You named him Sizhui?”

Lan Wangji had already long ago become inured to Jiang Cheng’s huffing and puffing. Anyway, Jiang Cheng had medicine in his hands when he stormed in, which meant that he wasn’t bothered enough by it to come yell at him outside the usual time - and that meant that whatever it was, it was no big deal.

Accordingly, Lan Wangji didn’t give the yelling any more thought than it required, opting instead to turn onto his stomach in silent invitation.

Sure enough, Jiang Cheng came over to sit on the bed, grumbling the entire time he undid the bandages on Lan Wangji’s back and starting to spread the soothing balm onto the slowly healing wounds.

“I can’t believe you picked ‘Sizhui’ as a courtesy name for A-Yuan,” Jiang Cheng said, sounding thoroughly disgusted and more than a little disgruntled as well. His hands, however, were as gentle as his voice was harsh. “Sizhui. Was carving ‘Lan Wangji loves Wei Wuxian’ into the woodwork too subtle for you?”

Being face down made it easier for Lan Wangji to hide the way his lips twitched.

At first, he had been disturbed at the notion that his grief for Wei Wuxian’s loss – an endless well of despair, an injury that would never heal – might in some ways be balanced with instances of joy, and yet, in time, he had slowly come to accept it. After all, Wei Wuxian himself had never remembered pain for more than a moment; he would not have wanted Lan Wangji to deny himself the pleasures of A-Yuan’s cheerful presence, the peace of being surrounded by Wei Wuxian’s belongings, the amusement of Jiang Cheng’s sarcastic commentary that was so thoroughly ungracious it could only be laughed at.  

The adjustment had not been easy. Lan Wangji was broken in both body and heart, lingering too longer in regrets of the past, while Jiang Cheng had walked a fine line on the verge of true madness, periods of calm interrupted suddenly by grief so intense it manifested as hysterical anger and furious lashing out, his own servants trembling to see it - it was only when Jin Ling had ended up with them, a safe haven for him in his younger years while Lanling Jin sorted out its own internal issues, that Jiang Cheng had started to calm down. His nights were still full of nightmares, brutal soul-shattering screaming ones that Lan Wangji suspected matched his own, but there were now entire days in which the man who kept him company (because apparently “seclusion” wasn’t considered a real word in Yunmeng Jiang, and “alone” was translated to mean “with me”) was a serious, earnest sect leader with a penchant for snide quips rather than the  devastated wreckage of a human being he had met upon the Burial Mounds.

They had not been particularly close, before, and their personalities weren’t exactly compatible. And yet, to his surprise, Lan Wangji found that he didn’t miss the serenity of the Cloud Recesses as much as he thought he would, but rather appreciated the noise and clamor that Jiang Cheng brought into his life.

“ – like two drops of water, both of you,” Jiang Cheng was saying. “Sizhui and Rulan! These are people’s names! They’ll have to bear them their entire lives! Do you think when they’re adults they’re going to enjoy telling people, ‘oh, yes, well, you see, the people who named us had absolutely no sense of dignity or proportion, so –’”

“How is A-Ling?” Lan Wangji asked, feeling his ears go red. He had known about Jin Ling’s courtesy name since long ago, but he hadn’t known until Jiang Cheng had told him that the name had been bestowed by Wei Wuxian, or that Wei Wuxian had praised his sect and maybe even him in the naming – it sometimes made him wonder if his feelings, which he’d long believed to be unrequited, might not have been so hopeless after all.

That didn’t mean he wanted to talk about said feelings with Jiang Cheng, though.

Luckily, Jiang Cheng’s attention was very easy to divert when it came to his precious nephew. “Good! His teeth are finally coming out properly, so we won’t have to deal with all that wailing and gnawing anymore – I thought we’d have to lose A-Yuan’s fingers to all that biting before it ever happened –”

“I thought you told him to stop.”

“Of course I did. Did he listen? No. He just looked sad and obedient whenever I looked at him, and snuck his fingers into the crib whenever I didn’t – I should’ve gotten you to give him the order. He actually listens to you.”

Lan Wangji hummed in response, listening as Jiang Cheng continued in his usual manner to update him about the development of the children they were raising – teething for Jin Ling, Lan Yuan’s rapidly swelling waistline (he was almost recognizable as a child again instead of the pile of bones he’d been after he’d recovered from his fever) and the need to start him on physical conditioning soon, the investment of time and effort that all three of them were putting into trying to convince Jin Ling that his first word should be ‘jiujiu’ – and then, from there, about developments at the Lotus Pier more generally.

At first, Lan Wangji had thought there was a purpose to these updates, that he was meant to give some sort of advice as payment for taking up food and resources, but after a while he realized that Jiang Cheng just wanted someone to listen to him.

He didn’t seem to have anyone else that would.

“– finally finished the full set of docks, so maybe the fishermen will stop beating my ears in about it,” Jiang Cheng was saying. “And yes, damn you, your idea about opening up hotels was both very popular and very profitable – just goes to show that your Lan sect’s reputation for being above it all isn’t in any way justified, you lot make money better than the Jin sect…your brother came by again.”

Lan Wangji tensed.  

“Stop that! Your back’s bad enough without adding knots to it.” Jiang Cheng pressed down on one of them purposefully: it hurt for a moment, and then released, and Lan Wangji involuntarily relaxed as the relief spread through him. Jiang Cheng either had a very good teacher in massage or a natural-born talent for it; Lan Wangji hadn’t yet figured out how to ask which it was. “He’s still looking for you, that’s all, and it’s starting to take a bit of a toll on him; he looks like he hasn’t slept in a while. I’m starting to almost feel bad about it.”

It was very classic Jiang Cheng, Lan Wangji had found, to orchestrate a punishment for someone and feel bad about it almost immediately thereafter. It was no wonder A-Yuan had him so thoroughly wrapped around his little finger.

“You can tell him, if you want,” Lan Wangji said reluctantly. Telling would mean seeing, and while he missed his brother very much, he was still very angry over everything that had happened. “I do not want the Lotus Pier to suffer for having harbored me.”

“Stop being so damned self-sacrificing,” Jiang Cheng said, and Lan Wangji wasn’t looking but he could hear him rolling his eyes. “I don’t care how much you enjoy it; I for one can’t stand it. Anyway, if my Jiang Sect can’t hold our heads up against another sect’s anger, we don’t deserve to be called a Great Sect. It’s like I told you: the moment he actually admits that you’re missing, rather than being all ambiguous and vague about it, I’ll tell him.”

Lan Wangji was secretly glad, even though he knew it was petty of him.

The thought of how frantic Lan Xichen must be after all these months, the idea of him not sleeping, of him travelling to all the sects to ask again and again if they’d seen him…the thought of it hurt, he didn’t deny it. But it didn’t hurt as much as finding out that Wei Wuxian had died with no one by his side – as finding out that his brother, who knew what Wei Wuxian meant to him, had known and deliberately omitted to tell him.

Just as Jiang Cheng was deliberately omitting to tell Lan Xichen the truth now.

“The sect would lose face,” he finally said, offering up an explanation for his brother’s actions, both then and now.

“Yeah, well, fuck your sect,” Jiang Cheng said. “I picked my sect over my family, too, and where did that leave me? Now it’s all I have left.”

His hands stilled for a moment.

“…except you and kids, I guess,” he said, sounding especially bitter about it in the sort of way that Lan Wangji had learned indicated that Jiang Cheng was having an attack of feelings and not particularly enjoying the experience. “You’re not that annoying.”

That was practically stating that Jiang Cheng would die without them.

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, and after a moment Jiang Cheng continued rubbing in the salve. There was even a brief moment of silence, probably Jiang Cheng being thankful that Lan Wangji didn’t call him out on those feelings. Normally, Lan Wangji would just enjoy it, but… “You could have children of your own.”

Jiang Cheng choked, his hand slipping as he nearly fell over. “What?”

“Children,” Lan Wangji said. “You could marry.”

Not that marriage was a requirement for children, as Jin Guangshan continuously seemed to demonstrate – according to some of the gossip Jiang Cheng had recently reported, he’d recently brought another bastard son home.

“I’m trying, aren’t I?” Jiang Cheng asked, indignant. “I’ve gone on three matchmaking dates –”

Lan Wangji was well aware. He had been the one to whom Jiang Cheng had exaggeratedly complained after each one of those disastrous dates.

“Deliberate sabotage,” he said, because even without having left the four walls around him in months he could figure that much out. “Why?”

Jiang Cheng hesitated, then snorted. “Well, let’s hope not everyone’s as perceptive as you. It’s the agreement I made with the Jin sect to allow me to raise Jin Ling – no other children.”

Somehow, Lan Wangji hadn’t expected that. 

He swallowed, his throat suddenly tight. He knew, of course, that there was nothing Jiang Cheng wouldn’t do for his last living blood relative, even risk having his Jiang sect turned into nothing more than an inheritance to be gobbled up by the Jin sect, but he hadn’t realized – that the Jin sect would take advantage of the grief and trauma that Jiang Cheng suffered, the same grief and trauma that he himself suffered from every day…

It made him taste bile.

“Though you’ve nearly screwed that up, you know,” Jiang Cheng said, sounding suddenly amused. “Back’s done, by the way.”

Lan Wangji sat up and turned his head to look at Jiang Cheng. “How?”

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “Well, given your injuries, I’m the one out there teaching Lan Yuan all the basics, aren’t I? The Jiang sect hasn’t started accepting disciples that young yet, so he stands out. Everyone’s starting to say that he’s mine.”

“His surname is Lan.”

“And Wei Wuxian’s was Wei; that never stopped people from talking, did it?” Jiang Cheng scowled a little at the reminder he’d just given himself; as Lan Wangji had found out these past few months, Jiang Cheng was a master of the self-inflicted injury. “The latest I’ve heard is that I fell in love with some lady from the Lan sect who left her child with me when she died – honestly, it’s a bit sad that they can’t think of anything more interesting. Why would I be stupid enough to make the same mistakes as my father?”

Lan Wangji frowned. Jiang Cheng’s voice was shading near to actual pain, rather than his usual bark without a bite – he had let slip enough about his childhood for Lan Wangji to have figured out that the old jokes about the Jiang sect leader’s favoritism for Wei Wuxian were not jokes at all.

More like an old wound ripped open so many times that it would never heal.

It was no surprise, then, that it hurt him to be cast in the same role.

“You could always tell them that the lady still lives,” he said mildly, pretending his words weren’t hurting himself this time. Maybe Jiang Cheng had a point when he said that Lan Wangji enjoyed self-sacrifice. “Only that she’s ill, or in confinement, and cannot be seen.”

“Not a chance! Like I’d ever do something like that,” Jiang Cheng said, and Lan Wangji very briefly loved him for his immediate rejection of the idea. “Besides, if I say that, what do I do when you do come out of here and claim him? Everyone will think we’ve been sleeping together.”

Lan Wangji politely didn’t mention the occasional night that Jiang Cheng spent huddling by his side, wild-eyed, until the nightmares went away, or the way Jiang Cheng would occasionally lend a hand with certain physiological reactions that Lan Wangji could not bear to deal with himself, turning what might have been a trigger for self-hatred and near suicidal despair into a process as mundane as the baths he still needed help taking; neither of those were what was meant.

“No one would fear that you would have children if they thought you cut your sleeve,” he pointed out, not sure why he was pushing the issue. Even if people did say that, it was only rumors, after all, and temporary ones: when Lan Wangji could walk again, even the most pointed would swiftly fade in favor of ones that slandered Lan Wangji’s reputation instead.

“I’m still hoping to get married eventually,” Jiang Cheng said. “Just – after Jin Ling is an adult. Once he’s sect leader, he can release me from the promise I made. No harm done, assuming I don’t die first.”

Lan Wangji nodded. It made sense, though for some reason he felt some dissatisfaction.

“Though,” Jiang Cheng continued, looking thoughtful, “it might not be that bad an idea to spread some rumors. If I never commented on it, people would never know for sure if it was true or just slander by some dissatisfied female cultivator after one of my horrible matchmaking meetings.”

“It would still affect your reputation.”

“Like I care,” Jiang Cheng scoffed. “Let them talk! If anyone is stupid enough to think that the contents of my bed have any impact on my abilities, I still have Zidian to show them the error of their ways. And I will, too; don’t think I won’t!”

Lan Wangji abruptly felt lighter inside. Of course Jiang Cheng wouldn’t care; he hardly ever cared about anything other than his sect and the children – and anyway, just because Lan Wangji had never told Jiang Cheng directly how he felt about Wei Wuxian didn’t mean that he hadn’t guessed. He had given Lan Wangji Wei Wuxian’s bedroom, after all. “I would never be so foolish.”

Jiang Cheng huffed and tossed his head, then turned to say something that he promptly forgot in favor of gaping at him. “Hanguang-jun, what are you doing with your mouth?”

Lan Wangji allowed his smile to widen. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Stop it! It’s creepy! Go back to being humorless and dull this instant!”

“No.”

“This is my sect and you’re my guest; you have to do what I say.”

“No.”

“You’re worse than A-Yuan,” Jiang Cheng complained. “At least he pretends to listen. I’ll have to raise Jin Ling to be properly obedient.”

For some reason, Lan Wangji didn’t think he would have much luck with that.

[vladdocs]

Dracula's life from birth to 7 years by Lyzhina Svetlana Sergeevna (Лыжина Светлана Сергеевна) originally in Russian. http://samlib.ru/l/lyzhina_s_s/dracula_7.shtml In this article I have tried to collect ALL the information somehow related to the early childhood of Dracula, and the story of childhood always begins with the story of the birth, so that's where we'll start. When Dracula was born. The year of Dracula's birth is reported differently by different books. Some say 1429 and some say 1431, but all of these statements are based on the same facts. _ _ _ _ _ Fact 1 - Dracula had an older brother, about whom we know that in 1442 he was 13-14 years old. This is reported in Jean de Wavrin's "Anciennes Chroniques d'Angleterre". Fact 2 - Dracula first ascended the throne in November 1448 and began to rule without the help of a regent, which means that Dracula was already 17 years old at the time. _ _ _ _ _ These two facts are the basis of all the assumptions we find in various books, so it is not difficult to guess where the numbers 1429 and 1431 come from. If the elder brother of Dracula in 1442 was 13-14 years old, it turns out that this brother was born around 1428, which means that Dracula himself couldn't have been born before 1429. At the same time, if you count Dracula's age from the time of his first reign, that is, subtract 17 from 1448, you get 1431. By the way, that is why the birth of Dracula is often associated with another fact - the entry of Dracula's father into the Order of St. George (Order of the Dragon). It is presumed that the accession took place no later than January 1431, since in a letter dated February 8, 1431, drawn up in Nuremberg, Dracula's father, among other things, states that he enjoyed the support of Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, who was the head of the Order. House in Sighisoara It is common knowledge that Dracula's early childhood was spent in the Transylvanian town of Sighisoara, where our hero lived with his father, mother and older brother until the fall of 1436, which means that at the time of his departure from the "land of childhood" Dracula was no more than 7.5 years old. How many memories could Dracula have of Sighisoara? About as many as each of us remembers of kindergarten and the first school bell. Is it a lot or not - you decide. The house where Dracula lived is located on the corner of Zhestianshchikov Street and Museum Square. Zhestvenshchikov Street is a historical name, and Museum Square was a street in the Middle Ages and, of course, was called differently. The most likely name is Blacksmith's, so you can imagine the sounds that little Dracula heard from morning to night. The mint in the house. It is also known that Dracula's father set up a sort of mint in the family nest. Special people came to the house and were engaged in minting gold money - the very coins with dragons, thanks to which Dracula's father got his nickname. The minting process and the coins themselves looked like this: https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/.../440.../0_acb55_83f50b94_orig Of course, the presence of unauthorized people in the house and the constant hammering of the stamp caused some inconvenience to the family, but it was impossible to move the "production" to another place, because only Dracula's father had the right to mint money, and in order to comply with legal formalities, he had to do it in his own territory. Frescoes in the house Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what Dracula's house looked like in the 15th century. What we see now is the 17th century, but many researchers believe that the house still has something that existed in the 15th century - a mural on the wall of the second floor. I read on the official website of House of Dracula that there were originally 4 people in the mural, although only 3 images have survived. It is believed that the "man in a turban" and the woman next to them are Dracula's parents, and to the right and left of them the artist depicted guests invited to the feast. That the fresco depicts four people, not three, is more than

likely, but the assumption that next to the owners of the house are depicted guests, I personally think wrong, because Dracula's parents, ordering a painting, would have preferred to see there not guests, but really close people, i.e. relatives. I think the mural was a family portrait, not just a sketch from life. The gray-bearded man on the right side of the fresco looks a lot like Dracula's maternal grandfather, the Moldovan sovereign Alexandru the Good. If I am right, the portrait on the opposite side, which is not preserved, belonged to the Romanian sovereign Mircea the Old, Dracula's paternal grandfather. https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/.../4400.../0_acb56_233d42a_orig By the way, there are other frescoes on the second floor, or rather remnants of frescoes. In some places we can see floral ornaments, and on the upper slopes of the windows we can see figures of some people, depicted waist-length and placed in round frames. Most likely, the frescoes on the slopes date from the 16th century, as the numbers 1576 are visible on one of them. The only thing we can say for sure is that these frescoes depict noble people. Near one of the images there is a figure of a two-headed eagle. Next to the other image is the inscription "archi..." (Latin: archiepiscopus - archbishop). In a third image, a woman's hairstyle and a richly patterned dress are clearly visible. https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/.../440.../0_acb57_354e446a_orig Services in the house Dracula's family was Orthodox, and the population of Sighisoara in the 15th century consisted almost entirely of Catholics, since at that time Transylvania did not belong to Romania, but to Hungary, a traditionally Catholic country. There were no Orthodox churches in Sighisoara at all, and this posed a serious problem for Dracula's father and mother. Dracula's parents were supposed to live a church life, which is possible only with the participation of a priest, who can take confession, baptize the newborn, etc. Dracula's parents lived in Hungary for many years - first at the court of Sigismund of Luxembourg, and then in Transylvania - and all this time were away from Orthodox parishes. For example, it is known that in the Middle Ages there were no Orthodox churches in the Hungarian capital. Such a temple appeared only at the end of the 15th century in the neighboring city - in Pest - and was a wooden church built by the Orthodox Serbian settlers. How did Dracula's parents deal with the issue of confession and baptism of their children? After all, someone had to baptize the newborn Dracula as well! Most likely, the parents, being well-to-do people, hired a certain Orthodox priest, who conducted home services, took confessions, etc. By the way, little Dracula, living in Sighisoara, is unlikely to have confessed, because in Orthodoxy all children under 7 years are considered absolutely sinless, and Dracula at the time of his move from Sighisoara to Romania was (recall) no more than 7.5 years. Dracula's first steps in comprehension of sciences If you believe the textbooks on the history of pedagogy, the basic principles of education since the Middle Ages have not changed so much. In the Middle Ages, as now, science was taught from the age of 7, but Dracula probably began learning a little earlier. The Dracula researcher M. Kazaku suggests that Dracula and his elder brother had teachers in common, as the difference in the age of the brothers was insignificant - two years maximum. If further to follow this logic, then it turns out that the older brother Dracula began to learn reading at age 7 as it should be, and Dracula was put in school at 6 or even 5 - just for the company, so that the younger brother did not hang around while the older one was sitting in class. All the textbooks on the history of pedagogy say that in the Middle Ages the teachers of the "book sciences" were from the church milieu. Even if it was to teach a child who was not prepared for a spiritual career, he was still taught by churchmen, because they were the most literate and educated class. By the way,

this is another argument in favor of the assumption that while Dracula's family was wandering around Catholic lands, an Orthodox priest lived there all the time. Dracula's parents needed this priest also because someone had to teach their children to read and write. In any case, we can say with absolute certainty that the literacy learned by the young Dracula was Slavic. He simply could not have been taught Romanian literacy, because it did not exist in the 15th century. If we look at the history of the Romanian language (old Romanian to be exact) we see that it was an oral language until the 16th century. The earliest known letter written in Romanian goes back to 1521 and is in Cyrillic script, because most of the official documents in Romania at the time were written in Slavonic and the liturgies were held in the same language. Exactly in Slavonic, not in Latin, as many people think for some reason! This gives us reason to believe that the little Dracula, as a child of an Orthodox family, studied first of all the Slavic letters, and not the Latin. It turns out that already at an early age Dracula knew three languages: - Romanian, because it was spoken in the family; - Hungarian, because the family lived in Hungarian lands; - Slavonic, because it was the starting point for literacy. It seems incredible that a child at such an early age could be taught a Slavic language - essentially a foreign language - but there is nothing surprising in all this. At a later time in the so-called "classical gymnasiums" young children had to learn two foreign languages at once - Greek and Latin - but no child died or went mad from this teaching. So could not the little Dracula learn the Slavic alphabet? That is, perhaps, all there is to it, and of Dracula's further maturing one can

[marculees]

Epilepsy Awareness Month💜

I recently seen this post by @interstellix  who made great points about epilepsy for Epilepsy Awareness Month. It sums it up really well so I suggest you give it a read and reblog! Its nice to find another photosensitive here too because we’re such a small group within the epilepsy community. I deal with anxiety on top of my epilepsy and while they aren’t always related to each other, I don’t hear enough about the day-to-day worries of epileptics. Things that seem completely normal or fine to some people can be dangerous for me, which is why stuff like giving trigger warnings are much appreciated. But often, non-epileptics don’t know about what its like to actually live with epilepsy - not just having seizures. I want to add on some of my own experiences with a funky clickbait title, below the cut. Anyone who reads this all is a star and ily⭐️

10 Things Non-Epileptics Don’t Get (Yet)

1. That moment in movies when the character wakes up and a bunch of faces are gawking down at the camera uncomfortably. Always have someone to stay with the person having a seizure. But out of care for both that person and the people around, its best to get everyone else away. No one enjoys watching someone have a seizure - it’s scary and knowing you can’t stop it can ignite feelings of guilt or panic. For the person having the seizure, its embarrassing - they aren’t even conscious of what’s happening and for all they can remember, they were minding their own business and now they’re waking up and barely able to move their body without wincing in pain.

*TW: BODY FLUIDS* I’ve literally puked, shit and pissed myself all at the same time unconsciously in front of a room of people. I’m lucky these people were my family but it doesn’t make it any less embarrassing or upsetting knowing that everyone there saw me in such a state. A fear I had growing up was having a seizure in front of my class and the students making comments about it, thinking it was funny. In today’s age, filming seizures is something to worry about too because of how easily it can be shared to others online. Even if you aren’t an arsehole like that, try to be as respectful as possible and get everyone else to evacuate the room. At most, have three people to stay there: one person to stay close and time the seizure, one person to move furniture away and find something soft to lay under the epileptic’s head, and one person for crowd control who is keeping everyone else out and reassuring them all it’s okay.

Whatever you do, don’t make the epileptic feel bad for having a seizure. They can’t control it. Afterwards, comfort them and let them know its all over and you’ll stay with them until they feel better (unless they say they would rather be alone). Most of the time, the epileptic will be so tired and sore after their seizure that they’ll fall asleep. Let them; they need it. I’ve woken up on a couch, in my bed, the back of an ambulance or in a hospital bed and sometimes I was laying there for half an hour, sometimes a whole day. Knowing someone was there is relieving. Knowing everyone was there is shaming and it doesn’t make you feel any better when they’re all in your face afterwards too. Don’t be the camera crew.

2. Travelling alone is either a dream or everyday reality for a lot of people, but its a no-go for some of us. I was raised in a very overprotective household and still today, I don’t have a lot of freedom. Driving is usually one of the first bits of independence you get, but not for me. I’ve had seizures while out travelling because of the SUN. The sunlight flickering through trees, railings or bouncing off surfaces have triggered seizures in me where my family have had to pull over. The thought of being the one driving in such a scenario is terrifying to me, my loved ones and everyone else on the road. Driving is such a normalised thing for people my age that I’m embarrassed to bring up my own case unless someone specifically asks.

Then you have public transport. The sunlight issue is also here but this time, you’re with a bunch of strangers (see Point 1 again). Something my mum drilled into my head since I was younger was that if I ever got public transport by myself, then I could have a seizure and someone would film it and another person would rob me (and then you wonder why I have an anxiety disorder). I got my first bus by myself when I was 19 and for something so mundane to most people, it was like a little adventure to me. My mum didn’t approve but she complained about having to drive me everywhere too. While its fun to get the bus into town every now and then though, it becomes a bigger issue when travelling is a daily requirement and you aren’t able/allowed to drive yourself.

Free public transport doesn’t always include those with epilepsy, depending on which country you live in. What do you do when an employer asks if you can drive? What do you do if you have committments to go to and no one is around to drive or come with you? Or you need to explain why you’re going out, every single time, because someone else has to decide whether its worth the risk. Sunny roadtrips? Want to be a pilot? That last one isn’t a joke, by the way! I used to get a coach/private bus to college and if it was sunny, I’d pull the curtain over, wear my sunglasses and try to nonchalantly cover one eye to help. You can’t really get a curtain while driving your own car though and driving one-handed is not cool, its irresponsible.

3. Staying up all night talking with someone you love isn’t as romantic as we’d like it to be. All-nighters, i.e. lack of sleep, are a huge trigger for many epileptics. I wasn’t allowed to go to sleepovers with friends as a kid until I was 13, and at that sleepover I ended up having a seizure in the middle of the night after waking up to use the bathroom. Not to flex, but I had a seizure on the toilet. Where’s the weirdest place anyone else has had a seizure?. As a result of that, I was put back on medication after being told I was growing out of my seizures and had been med-free for one whole year. I’d love to stay up with a loved one and spend the night talking or watching movies, but I think a seizure would be more of a killjoy than going to bed early.

3. Unless you’re the paparazzi, camera flashes won’t give photosensitive epileptics seizures. Its a small gesture and I do appreciate it, but don’t worry - one small flash from a camera will not send my brain into override. Just don’t be taking photos from 5 different phones at the same time for more than one pic. Standing and waiting for people to take a photo all at the same time is awkward already because you don’t know who to look at, what to do with your hands, if you should change pose, smile or not, etc. Just take one flash photo and be done, or don’t use the flash at all if you don’t need to. Ring lights are a common thing now, by the way and I love them? Bye-bye camera flash!

I don’t blame anyone for having these types of concerns though. The only time you’re probably warned about flashing lights is when you’re about to watch a news report or awards show where there will be paparazzi and performances will be aired. Concerts are another thing that can be risky depending on the genre, size of the venue, whether its indoors or outdoors (if you’re like me and enjoy EDM music, you’ll have a very low chance of actually attending or watching anything live fdkslbjfdhb). Those things we avoid. But you taking a photo with a once-off flash will be okay, don’t worry. Seizures aren’t triggered by a single flash, but rather multiple flashes in a short period of time. They’re called Hertz and that shit hertz when its between 3-30 flashes per second. Also, fuck strobes, the Incredibles 2, Into The Spiderverse and any other movie that uses these for unnecessary effect.

4. Not everyone is diagnosed with epilepsy in their childhood and though some might grow out of it as they get older, not everyone will. I thought I had been growing out of it on two occasions (see point 3 again and point 9). Some people only get diagnosed with epilepsy later into their life. If you’re diagnosed while young, its easier to adjust your life because you’re growing up with it as your norm and its something you’ve just learned to live with. But for some people, they suddenly have to change their entire routine that they’ve established since they became an adult. Be sympathetic to those with epilepsy in their adult years, especially those who only got a diagnosis. Its not just a disability for children.

5. There are different types of seizures and one that’s commonly misunderstood is the partial seizure. These types of seizures have been mistaken for people being drunk or high (i.e. slurred speech, difficulty standing up or walking in a straight line, etc.), which has led them to getting kicked out of venues for something they have no control over. Swimming pools seem to be a common place for these bans, as well as gyms. Sometimes, these people are still somewhat aware they are having a seizure but cannot control them, which is really scary to think about. I don’t have them myself but I cannot imagine how frustrating they must be to not be taken seriously and instead as someone being high or intoxicated and then being punished for that. Alcohol is usually avoided as it can trigger seizures but when these seizures happen at social events, people can get the wrong idea. If you know someone who has these types of seizures, keep an eye on them if you’re out together. We’re usually only allowed one pint and hardly anyone gets that drunk after just one, so be aware that its likely they aren’t actually hammered but having a seizure instead.

6. Nobody likes being overworked but school, college, jobs and sport can very hard on us. Unless you’ve had a seizure, your teacher or boss probably won’t extend a deadline for you. The latter might even fire you. Chronic fatigue isn’t taken seriously. School is one big memory test in most countries, but for those with aura seizures, their ‘spacing out’ can affect how information they are actually taking in. Side-effects of meds can also make concentration and memory tough, and I hate how forgetful I can be because then I feel like I’m unreliable even though I push myself to give 110% anyway. Some activities like sports and physical education can be more draining than they would be for the average person, and sometimes I’d have to sit out during these activities because I felt an aura coming on after overexerting myself. I wish I could sit out having multiple assignments and group projects due in the same week, but college doesn’t work that way. I wish I could tell employers that I might not have that presentation done by the end of the day, but that wouldn’t go down too good either.

If you know someone who takes longer to complete tasks that might seem simple to you, ask yourself if you’ve ever considered they might have epilepsy or another chronic illness or disability. Don’t assume they’re lazy if they need to take an extra day or two to complete their final essay or have to stop their beep test earlier than the rest of the class. I didn’t know a good average for the beep test was 8-9, because no one ever told me. I pushed myself to 16 because I was scared people would think I was lazy and that I was dropping out to be with the other girls who agreed beforehand. I then ended up having an aura that almost slipped into a full seizure. I also almost had a seizure an hour before my religion exam in my Junior Cert at school. My mum even insisted I stay home and miss my State exam because of it. I still went though, took a bathroom break because I had another aura, and finished with an ‘A’ but had it been a different day, I might not have been so lucky. Its about knowing yourself and your limits, but we aren’t always informed that they should exist and then you end up doing stupid things like me that could hurt you. Likewise, its important to be understanding that not everyone can work at the same pace as you. It doesn’t make the quality of our work any less even if we need more time or energy to do it.

7. Side-effects aren’t always in the short-term. My own meds are advised to not be taken long-term as they weaken my bones over time. I’m 21 now and I’ve been on meds since I was 8. I wanted to reduce my dosage and eventually become med-free last year but the neurologist told me I still had brain activity and needed to stick with them. In fact, they almost ended up prescribing me more even after I had told them I was five years seizure-free. Why? See point 9. I’m lucky though because I’ve only been on one type of med. Some people can take years to find what works and their neurologists will prescribe them all sorts and leave them with awful side effects. Only last year I was chatting with a woman whose meds had caused sudden depression and fits of anger in her after she had been diagnosed and given her prescriptions. She eventually got brain surgery instead.

8. If you have a uterus and/or want to have children, do your research and a LOT of it. Birth control is usually a tough decision to make and often times, it can feel like you have no choice. Its so important to check with multiple neurologists and doctors which form of birth control is the best for you with your medication, because even the slightest new introduction to your meds box can have unpleasant side-effects. With the current medication I’m on, I can’t take the pill unless I want to increase my current dosage of meds as the pairing cancel each other and make me more vulnerable to seizures and other side-effects. I’m not pregnant and yet I have to take daily folic acid supplements because my meds cancel that out too. Every month or two, I will faint or almost faint on the first day of my period and I’m more vulnerable to having a seizure during that time. If I ever want to give birth, my children can possibly inherit my condition or be stuck taking care of me when I should be caring for them. I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone.

This is not to say that people with epilepsy can’t have fulfilling sex lives or raise families. But we just do it at a greater risk that even some neurologists aren’t aware of. I had to tell my neurologist last year why I didn’t want to go on the pill because HE didn’t know it interacted negatively with my meds. I’ve known women who were prescribed the pill or meds BY A PROFESSIONAL that interacted negatively with each other and gave them seizures as a result. It takes ‘find the right method for you’ to a whole new level. If your partner has epilepsy, its so important to discuss birth control and take their condition into consideration. I hear men telling their girlfriends to go on the pill so that they don’t have to use a condom, which is really selfish for a start and also disregards other forms of birth control. Do your research but let them and their own trusted neurologist decide which form is best. You should still be using a condom to protect yourselves anyway! And if you and your epileptic partner decide you would like to have children, do the same process and make sure that they are in a safe position to do so.

9. *TW: DEATH* Threatening (even ‘jokingly’) to trigger a seizure in someone is playing with that person’s life. SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy) affects roughly 1 in 1000 people each year. Even if that person doesn’t die after their seizure, you may have just broken a record they set for days, months or YEARS without a seizure. You just revoked their driving license and they weren’t even behind a wheel. You just prescribed them new doses of medication without any years of medical school.

Growing up, I had countless incidences where classmates would joke about making me have a seizure. If the teacher left the room for anything, the first thing they would do is run up to the lightswitch and fuck around with it. In secondary school, I stopped using the bathroom at lunch because one of the girls thought it was funny to deliberately flick the lights on and off anytime I was inside. She would snicker and call out to me while I was in the stall, asking if it could make me have a seizure. Even after saying yes, she continued to do it. If I did end up having a seizure in that bathroom, god knows what could have happened. I had a seizure in a bathroom before and was lucky I only hurt my jaw as my head slammed against the wall. Others aren’t so lucky. Injuries from seizures can be brutal, just like OP said. Yeah, you might not kill them by triggering a seizure, but what injuries do they have to deal with after?

Imagine playing a game for years and you spent ages collecting all the items, defeating every boss and proudly showing off the trophies you won. Now imagine someone suddenly pulls the cord as you’re playing; your game freezes, the screen shuts to black and when you try to frantically start it up again and see where you had remembered to last save, it says your data is corrupted and deletes everything without your permission. It doesn’t matter where or when you saved. You have to start your progress all over again. You can try memorise the strategies from before but the game switches things up and suddenly you’re hit with a difficulty spike out of nowhere. The person who joked around and pulled the plug doesn’t have to do anything. And if they wanted to, they could do the same thing again and again. Don’t be that person. Be their Player 2 and help them. If they need to go into a dungeon but they’re scared to be alone, offer to cover their back. If their health is low, find them a safe spot and let them heal. The same goes for appointments and seizures. Its not a multiplayer game by default and while they can power through solo, that doesn’t mean they don’t need help if they’re ever stuck.

10. To end on a more positive note, there are lots of successful people out who have/had epilepsy and you probably never even knew. Cameron Boyce’s passing brought attention to SUDEP and celebrities with epilepsy but did you also know about these people and their own cases and seizures?

Prince

Elton John

Lewis Carroll

Danny Glover

Lil Wayne

Neil Young

Hugo Weaving

Charles Dickens

Julius Caesar

Vincent Van Gogh

Theodore Roosevelt

Adam Horovitz

Susan Boyle

Rick Harrison (the Pawn Stars guy!)

And some who are not confirmed (due to medical practices of the time) but are suggested as a result of numerous seizures:

Leonardo da Vinci

Michelangelo

Edgar Allen Poe

Agatha Christie

Socrates

Napoleon Bonaparte

Aristotle

Alexander the Great

Epileptics are humans, normal people just like you. And like you, they’re capable of great things too. If you think about making a crude comment to someone with epilepsy, think about these people and ask yourself if you would say the same things to them. 

If you read all of this, comment with a ⭐️ and please reblog to spread awareness. Whenever we talk about epilepsy, we start and stop the conversation at seizures. Its good to bring awareness to the other things too because its something that affects every part of our lives. Its an invisible disability but that doesn’t mean we are hidden from the disability community and discussion!

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Ok, let me forget about Sonic for one sec. I really like you, Mystery, and I hope you're doing good! I don't know exactly what's happening in Florida that's upsetting you so much, but I still want you to know that I care about you, ok? Your blog makes me really happy! And I really want you to be happy as well ❤

It’s okay, I can explain.

In the United States of America, our coronavirus numbers are up. We are around 4,450,000 people infected and about 152,000 deaths. Not everyone here is able to get a COVID19 test. You can in my town, but you have to make an appointment... that’s about a week or so of waiting. Results of your test won’t come back until 6-8 days later. That data would not be accurate anymore.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the USA’s leading doctor on the whole pandemic here, says that for each state you should go back on immediate lockdown if you’re state has a 5% risk of getting infected. The state of Florida is 16% positive. We need to be on a lockdown. My state governor said that we shouldn’t be on lockdown, that would upset Trump.

I could care less what that incompetent fool thinks. State governor and Trump.

In the USA, each citizen is entitled to a form of public education. Trump, not the smartest little boy in the whole world, claims that he can cut funding from public schools and send the funding to private schools if we do not force public schools teachers to go back to a brick and mortar school. Legally, he cannot stop funding. That’s been proven. Public education has been defunded—do not dare challenge me that it’s the same as defunding police—before in the past, but to completely stop funding public schools cannot be done. Legally, it would be almost impossible.

My state governor, Ron DeSantis, claimed that he’ll stop funding funding schools in the state of Florida. I’ve done my research, this is what an anthropologist does, and I found that with Florida’s governor and the USA government funding Florida’s schools is not even near 32%. We get all of our school funding from the working people of the town. That’s why when you go to a public school it looks nice.

The plan that I proposed was simple:

Give The state capital the middle finger and say that we’ll lose the 30% for the one year.

Last year Florida’s education was rewarded a surplus of money for the improvement of test scores in students and with what the school did in performance academic wise. We could use a great chunk of that to keep the paychecks flowing to teachers.

Schools earn money for each kid present on campus. This helps factor in school supplies, such as text books and class materials. Have each kid stay enrolled in a public school and collect that check to invest in online software. We can create Blackboard, Google Classrooms, and Canvas rooms for the new year to interact with each kid to help them through the new year.

It’s a state requirement here that kids in public school need to take an online class. If you have all the kids do this now, then you DONT need to worry of a child will graduate will all Florida credits.

We, my town, partnered with the university that I attend. We could work together and create “Hot Spots.” It would be a designated school bus parked in one part of neighborhoods for low-income students, and provide iPads for students to do their work on. The university agreed to help in a townhall meeting.

I also proposed a math problem to school board members:The average substitute teacher makes $75.00-$100.00 dollars around the week that they substitute. Let’s say that for our seven hour school day, we take six class periods. If they’d have to call upon a sub for each teacher that ONE sick kid interacts with, they school would have to pay for a substitute. But think of this also: kids interact with other teachers, teachers aids, and if they come across some in hallways, then they’d need a sub as well. We’re looking at ten subs for just six teachers, as well as those that need to do lunch duty and dismiss kids from school. You’d need six separate subs for each class... and then think about the other teachers that come to interact with one another. We might need more than ten a day. We could need at least 12 or 14 or more. Each student also interacts with that one kid and transitions to another class... think about THAT. It would be cheaper to use the reward money from last year to invest in hotspots and iPads for each student.

You have to pay for a COVID19 test here. It’s supposed to be free, but some people are reporting that they are paying either $23.00 to $2,300 for each test due to the insurance companies’ fee. Not every test goes to a specific place in back, this means that it’s shipped to whatever lab is willing to take it and test the results given to see if you’re infected or not. The school would have to pay for that.

Again, it would be cheaper to have kids stay home rather than have them go to school each day.

DeSantis stopped testing sites in some parts of the state due to Hurricane Isaias. Why is it that testing sites are closed, but not schools? They could move testing sites somewhere else.

There were lots of things that the school board said that educators should do for their students, but somethings that they’ve said, such as opening windows and taking students outside, violates fire safety hazards and an American Teacher’s ALICE training. (ALICE prevents school violence. I’ve been to a couple of schools where there was really bad school violence). This was detailed in my essay.

DeSantis claimed that teachers can take a sabbatical—that means that they have a job, but they won’t be paid for a whole year—if they’re at-risk. My mom is asthmatic. She can’t afford to take a sabbatical. This was what was written in Florida’s opening process plan for the state’s schools.

DeSantis also states that it’s options for masks in schools for kids. Here’s the thing with that. Children are asymptomatic. They carry the virus and spread it. They can get sick, yes, they have different symptoms than we do. Teachers would have to wear the mask. This already endangers younger kids in elementary school, specifically kids between 4-12. When a teacher speaks, kids will need to study the teacher’s mouth on how words and sentences are pronounced. Their face is already covered. In ONE year, that specific age group could have a development issue on how they speak because they are not seeing how certain words are pronounced. You’ll debate that, “oh, they’ll learn this from parents,” but that’s part of the argument. Developing minds need this access all the time. You could have a generation that would require speech therapy. I’ve been in speech therapy due to hearing problems as a child. That’s not fun. The online screen time where the teacher can call via video chat would be much more efficient.

So, yes. There’s a lot on my mind. I’ve given a chunk of what I’ve explained to many school board members AND to DeSantis himself. This is crucial. This is a matter of saving many lives or endangering lives due to COVID19. The answers were there. Now something else is happening because they’re afraid of losing something that’s not even possible in our USA government. I even used lots of citations in the essay that I’ve shared supporting my arguments.

I encourage you all to use your voice. This is what I proposed.

[fmdsamsooarchived]

Hello all! Most of you probably already know me and Samsoo, because I used to be apart of Famed for quite a while. I took a step away from the group for a while, but I couldn’t stay away for too long lol so here’s Samsoo 2.0! There are a few changes from the old Soo, but he’s still the same at his core. I don’t have any written plots, but I do have some plot ideas and connections at the end of this intro post, so give this a like if you’d like to plot! 

He’s the third born of four children. He has two older brothers and a younger sister (if you’re looking to bring in a new muse and want a sibling, hmu) 

His parents never really gave him as much attention as his other siblings because he’s never really fit in with his family. He was always quiet and awkward, didn’t really speak much. His parents loved to compare him to his older brothers and always asked him why he couldn’t be more like them. 

He’s really close to his little sister, way more than he is with his older brothers. 

He was bullied a lot while he was in school, because he was smaller than everyone else and because he was so quiet. He was an easy target for people because they knew he’d never complain or report them to teachers. The only time he had a decent conversation with people was when they were being “nice” so he would do their homework or other school assignments. 

He started getting interested in music when he was nine years old. It was a great way for him to express himself, something that was hard for him to do in any other way. 

He was twelve years old when his parents sent him and his older brothers away to boarding schools in the states. That was when he really started to get invested in music and decided that was what he wanted to do for life. He stayed there for four years, hit a growth spurt, and decided to come back home to start pursuing his dream. 

His parents weren’t really receptive to him auditioning for companies, but he was surprisingly firm about his decision and they knew that they wouldn’t be able to stop him, so they just decided to let him do as he pleased. 

In 2010, he joined Dimensions. It was really difficult for him at first because he was still a quiet and shy guy, but he knew that in order to make it in the industry, you have to stand out and ooze confidence, so he started working on building up his confidence. 

He trained for two years, and then Alien’s debut came about. He thought he would be apart of that lineup, but he was skipped over. Of course he was a little frustrated about it, but he tried not to let it get to him. There were people who had been there longer than him, so of course he wasn’t guaranteed a spot. 

Another two years passed and Mars debuted. The irritation he felt when he didn’t make the lineup morphed from irritation into anger. He was getting frustrated being kept in Dimensions’ basement, and he was so close to just leaving but he was worried if he left, he would have to start from the ground up again as a trainee in another company, so he decided to stick it out a little while longer.

Eventually, he was told that he would be debuting in Unity as one of the main vocalists. 

He’s actually really happy now? He’s glad that Unity’s getting a lot more attention and recognition, and he’s looking forward to getting his own solo career started one day soon. 

PLOTS/CONNECTIONS

Your muse is from Seoul and they grew up with Samsoo in the same neighborhood/was one of his only friends in elementary school before he left for boarding school

I would love to have some exes plots going on. Before Soo settled down with Jaewon, he was in a few relationships and had quite a few fwbs, so exes and ex-fwbs are wanted!

A muse around Soo’s age (so a 92 liner to a 96 liner) who went to the same school as he did and defended him when he was bullied by other kids.

Friendships that Soo formed while he was a trainee! He’s a loyal guy, so if you gain his friendship, you’ll have a friend til the end.

Someone that Soo doesn’t get along with. He’s a nice guy, but even nice guys have people who they don’t like, and the feeling’s mutual for the other person. We can discuss why they wouldn’t get along.

Someone that’s Soo’s rival in the idol industry?? It can be media fueled or it can actually be real. (preferably a main vocal)

Soo’s a responsible and hardworking guy, but this muse isn’t really all that responsible. They’re the little devil on his shoulder that gets him to do things he usually wouldn’t (clubbing, drinking, e.t.c.)

The same connection as above, but Soo’s the angel on their shoulder and gets them to do positive things.

A thread where your muse takes Soo out and he gets drunk because we love drunk Soo in this household.

Soo’s used to taking on everyone else’s problems and issues but he doesn’t really vent or unload his problems on anyone else. This muse lets him use their shoulder to cry on - literally and figuratively.

Soo used to be romantically involved with one of your muse’s relatives or siblings and they ended up breaking up, now your muse doesn’t like him.

Your muse and Samsoo used to be really close friends, but then something happened (some sort of argument maybe?) and now the two of them can’t be in the same room with one another because it’s so awkward and tense.

Your muse reminds Soo of his little sister, so he feels really close to them.

Samsoo and your muse are on a variety show together and they shoot them the ideal type question and neither of them don’t know what to say so they?? Just say each other because they’re put on the spot. We can discuss where it goes from there.

Both your muse and Soo are really busy, but they keep in touch through texts and when they have free time, they always grab lunch to catch up. if it’s a male muse, the fans love it and say that their friendship is cute. if it’s a female muse, the fans assume that they have a thing going on.

Your muse doesn’t see the hype behind Unity and think that Dimensions’ older groups (Alien and MARS) are better.

Soo and your muse tend to hang out together later at night, in the early hours of the morning, at 24 hour convenience stores where they eat tteok-bokki and just talk about anything and everything.

Your muse and Soo are two guys in the idol industry that international stans love to ship together because of their close friendship.

Your muse is a sunbaenim that Soo looks up to a lot. (preferably debuted 2012 or earlier)

Your muse is a dongsaeng that Soo has taken under his wing, maybe helps them with their singing

Samsoo lovessss watching dramas, and he forces your muse to watch them with him. At first your muse wasn’t interested, but now it’s become a tradition for them to sit and binge watch dramas when they both have free days

Surprisingly, Soo is a big conspiracy theorist, and your muse is the unlucky person who has to sit and listen to him ramble about his favorite conspiracy theories.

[matildainmotion]

This is Your Invitation to the Ball

You don’t have to come. You can turn this invitation down. That’s the definition of a genuine invitation - something to which you do not have to go. If you have to go or feel you should it is not very inviting. At heart I am a hermit. My first response, when anyone invites me anywhere, is a small moment of panic. If I were Cinderella I would never have gone to the ball– the cinders would have suited me just fine. I see this in my son too. We went away for half term and before we left he was already worrying about being homesick, about staying somewhere with different smells, a different bed – the unfamiliar.

I am not in fact inviting you to a royal ball, though I hope the event will be celebratory as if it were one. I am not inviting you away on holiday but I hope the event will take you to new places you had not expected, like a good adventure. I am inviting you to step out of your routine, to come to an Open Space event for our school on Saturday March 7th. If you are like me that last sentence will have triggered a small moment of panic. A step out of the routine is how all stories start, and stories mean change and change is scary. But remember – it’s okay, you don’t have to come. However, whilst you consider your options, I am going to give you three reasons why you might want to accept the invite: a mythic reason; a practical, immediate reason, and a third reason which is both mythical and practical, a long term one.

First, the mythic one. Back in June last year I ran two Open Space events for our school. Beforehand I wrote a blog to encourage people to attend, in which I described the story of the school as if it were a fairy tale. I called it “A Chance to Change the Story.” Since then the story has changed. Something has happened that has never taken place before in the history of the school: a Principal has been appointed. On the mythic, fairy tale level a prince has turned up. A hero. A leader.

Whilst the story of ‘the hero to the rescue’ is a famous fairy tale motif and is part of the dynamic now vis a vis the present threat, in this case being played out by the dragon/ ogre/ evil curse called ‘Ofsted,’ it is not the whole story. For a start Ofsted is not simply ‘the bad guy.’ In many stories the facing of the dragon, the threat, is the process the hero needs to undergo to become stronger, wiser, better. But what happens next is not just down to Paul, galloping in on a heroic steed – it’s also up to us.

The invitation to attend this event comes from Paul. Every man, woman and child in the land is being invited to come and have their say. Every one of us gets to come to the ball, if we wish. Paul may be in the role of the Principal, but in the field of the fairy tale we are all story tellers – we each play a part in shaping how the story unfolds from here. This will be true whether you come to this Open Space event or not. The Open Space provides an opportunity for us do the story-making and shaping of our school consciously and together.

If that was a little too mythical for you, let’s get concrete. If you are thinking, “Yes, that’s all very well, sounds nice, but what actually comes out of these things? Isn’t it just a lot of hot air? I’ve been to loads of meetings and nothing ever really comes from them,” then let me answer this very valid concern. The Parents Working Group has now held a total of four meetings in the last year, open to the whole community. I also held an Open Space on an inset day for the staff. Here is a sample list of four tangible actions that have come out of these meetings:

1)    The PWG held a ‘World Café’ meeting to discuss how best to address the safeguarding standards that Ofsted required us to meet. The procedure for collecting pupils from the Lower School building was decided based on the discussions held at that meeting.

2)    One of the sessions called at our June meeting was, “A refresh of all key touch points on the customer (new parents) journey, i.e. website, open days, 1st email response, parent handbook, homepage film, facebook etc? “. We now have a new website, in part informed by this.

3)    Several sessions at the events raised environmental concerns. A group of staff are collating all the ideas generated by these with a view to putting them into practice within the school. An Industrial compost bin for kitchen waste has already been researched and funds have been raised to purchase this.

4)    Another session called back in June was, “Creating a state of the art and craft centre in the clockhouse.” Funds from the Advent Fair have been allocated towards this and Photography, Drama & the Art & Design course have already moved in.

You might not think that is enough, but please note we have not been going long at this. The PWG open meetings are barely a year old. In the performing arts community, the company with which I work, Improbable, have been holding meetings in Open Space for over 15 years. Literally hundreds of projects, shows, companies, networks, policy changes and collaborations have come out of these meetings – we’ve even been credited with bringing about a few marriages. If there are immediate, tangible things you want to discuss or make happen at our school, then come along on March 7th and do just that. Your issue, vision or idea will only get on the agenda if you turn up and put it there. What do you want to see happen? What do you want to work on? What do your children want to work on? The younger ones? The older ones? They are welcome too. Children are naturals at Open Space – they already know how to follow themselves and what they care about. At the last PWG Open Space in June a Class One student participated, calling a session entitled “I want animals at our school –rabbits and guinea pigs.” It was a brilliant example of someone following their passion. One of the things that I would love to make happen is the re-opening of the top lake within our amazing grounds. I don’t yet know how but I know that when you open space, when people turn up and work together, following their passion and energy, stuff happens. Things change. It is an incredibly efficient way of working. But, it takes practice….

           Here comes reason number three as to why you might want to accept the invitation and come along on Saturday March 7th. Opening Space is a practice, and like all practices – meditation, music, sport, art - this means it is a tangible, practical thing you can do which, if you keep doing it, has intangible outcomes, mythical rewards. Recently I went to our Class 2 parents’ evening. Julian Rolton came along to tell us about the Class 2 summer term ‘Violin Introduction week’ and to persuade us that, quite soon, it might be a wonderful thing for our children to take up an instrument. He spoke to us about practising, ways to make it easier, to encourage our children to sustain it- things like leaving the instrument out and making a set time every day when it happens. The point of a practice is that you keep doing it, even when you don’t particularly feel like it. You put the hours in. And if you do then, bit by bit, you get better. You start to make music. Whether or not you become a famous musician, Julian proposed, the practice changes you, helps you grow, you become more tuneful, and more in tune, with yourself and with the world. Practice may or may not make perfect, but it does make wonder and meaning.

What then is the ‘music’ being practiced in opening space? It’s this: we are practicing the art of conversation and connection. We are practicing how to be a thriving and sustainable community. We are practicing how to listen. We are practicing how to step up and follow our passion. In short we are practicing, and modelling, all the things which we hope this very special school is fostering in our children. If we keep doing it, bit by bit, things will change, profoundly and for the better. Our school will become more wonder-full and more meaning-full – even more than it is already. I am talking about the intangibles here. Alongside the list of concrete outcomes, the track-able sorts of things Ofsted require us to demonstrate, there is a list of impossible to quantify ‘results’ – ideas, feelings, experiences, connections.

I value these intangibles. I also know they yield tangible rewards. But, like many good things, it takes time. One of the things I love about Steiner education is the recognition within it of the need for time. We try not to rush our children. Let’s have the same patience with each other. I do not know and cannot promise what the results of March 7th will be – within Open Space there is a paradoxical recognition that we are all, potentially, leaders, and yet none of us are in control. The power, the gold, lies in our exchanges, our collaboration. We will not produce a ‘To Do List-like report’ from this event. We will co-create a record of our conversations. Conversations between all of the diverse members that make up our community: parents, young children, older students, teachers, staff, trustees. It is part of our practice. Practice is key, but the process need not be painful. We can practice joyfully.

           This is an invitation. I am going to say it again – you do not have to accept it. Staying at home is a valid choice. It’s a choice I made the first time I was invited to an Open Space – I stayed home. Then, the next year, I didn’t, and, despite being a hermit at heart, I had an incredible time. But I actually don’t want you to come unless you genuinely want to be there. Of course, I hope you do want to be there. Because our new Principal has issued a proclamation for the peoples of the land to gather – it’s a pivotal moment in the story. Because we can get some stuff done – make things happen. Because I want to practice alongside you, learning how to create community. I believe it is what our school and our world needs most right now –to start to value the intangibles, to come together with patience to practice the art of connecting. We have so much to do, we have so little time, we urgently need to slow down.

And if you come, you might have a ball. You might have an adventure. You might have a really good conversation. You might decide to make something happen. So, I might, perhaps, possibly, see you there…..

N.B. If you do want to accept my invitation please let reception know so that we can get a sense of numbers beforehand – we want to make sure there are enough biscuits at the ball for everyone who comes. However, it is also possible simply to turn up on the day. You and your children will be very welcome.

To read the original invitation, from Paul and the PWG go HERE

[fandomshatelgbtqpeople]

On JK Rowling, Dumbledore, lycanthropy, and cultural context

I want to address an idea I’ve been seeing pop up a lot recently, which is that JK Rowling added Dumbledore being gay and lycanthropy being a metaphor for AIDS years later in order to seem progressive, and I’ve put a lot of time into thinking about why these claims bother me (since I’m definitely not mad on Jo’s behalf because she’s been dead to me since 2016), and I think it really comes down to this. These claims are based entirely off of how things are today and show a fundamental disregard for the cultural context at the time that’s concerning and feels dismissive to the people who lived through it. Basically, it goes hand in hand with the lack of knowledge and sometimes intentional rewriting of our community’s history that’s so prominent on this site.

Note that I am not arguing that Dumbledore is good rep or that the lycanthropy-HIV metaphor was well executed (or even a good idea in the first place). I just wish people would stop treating these things like JK Rowling said them yesterday as opposed to 12 years ago.

1. Dumbledore being gay 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out in July 2007 and Jo first publicly said Dumbledore was gay and in love with Grindelwald in October 2007, so the idea that she added it years later is just factually untrue. It came out three months after the release of the final book. 

Let’s take a look at public attitude towards queer people in 2007. I’ll preface this by saying that I’m American, so I’ve done my best to find data on the UK, but most of my info is from the US.

In 2007, in the US, Gallup reported that only 59% of adults surveyed believed consensual sex between two people of the same gender should be legal, that 46% of adults believed that same-sex marriage should be legal and come with all the same rights are marriage between a man and a woman, and that 50% of adults favored a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Despite all that, only 22% of surveyed adults answered that they thought gays and lesbians (the language in the poll) should be more accepted in the US and 27% of adults thought gays and lesbians should be less accepted. Jumping back to 2005, 43% of respondents didn’t think gay people should be hired as elementary school teachers and 36% didn’t think we should be hired as high school teachers. I mention these numbers specifically because they’re relevant to Dumbledore. 

On the legal side of things, there were enforceable sodomy laws on the books in 13 states until 2003, four years before Deathly Hallows came out and Jo announced that Dumbledore was gay. In 2004, the fact that Kerry was in favor of same-sex marriage was considered a significant liability in his presidential campaign because even a lot of democrats still didn’t support it. In October, 2007 when Jo did that interview, same-sex marriage was legal only in Massachusetts, civil unions were legal in four states, and domestic partnerships were legal in three states. Meanwhile, twenty-five states had constitutional bans on same-sex marriage and twelve of those states also had constitutional bans on other rights, such as civil unions and domestic partnerships or extensions of employment benefits to same-sex partners.  

In the UK in 2007, just under 40% of adults believed that same-sex relationships were morally okay, 17% strongly agreed that same-sex marriage should be legal, and just under 45% believed that a same-sex couple could raise a child as well as a man and a woman. A 2005 Gallup poll found that, 38% of Brits believed homosexuality should be more widely accepted, 15% thought it should be less widely accepted, and 44% thought the currently level of acceptance was about right. 

On a more personal note, my high school hired its first openly gay teacher in 2008, and the fact that he was gay was considered pretty scandalous among the student body. We had a gay band instructor, but he only ever referred to his partner as his roommate. When we did debates in social studies classes, same-sex marriage was always one of the issues we had to debate over. Of the eleven people I went to high school with whom I now know are queer, only three of them were out in high school. That’s how uncommon it was at the time to come out before you were relatively independent. 

So this idea that announcing that a prominent character who was a headmaster at a school and had a close relationship to the teenage boy main character in a wildly popular children’s book series was gay would have been a popular move in 2007 is pretty laughable to anyone old enough to remember what 2007 was actually like. No one was using support for queer people just to bolster their public image unless their product was specifically marketed towards queer people, because the general wisdom at the time was that it would hurt them too badly with straight audiences. In fact, if memory serves, the queer fandom’s reaction to Dumbledore was initially pretty positive because it was more than we ever thought we were going to get. I didn’t start seeing people talk about how it wasn’t enough or about how the entire plot line was homophobic until maybe 2012.

You can’t use today’s context to interpret why someone made a decision in 2007 because it’s difficult to overstate how different things are now. The only reason to want to look pro-gay in 2007 was if you genuinely thought it was the right thing to do.

2. Lycanthropy and HIV

I was genuinely surprised when this caused a stir when JK Rowling tweeted (?) about it in 2016 because I was pretty sure she’d talked about lycanthropy being a metaphor for HIV years ago. It turns out I was right. She discussed it during the copyright trial she was involved in in 2008 (you can find it here, on pages 72-73). So it didn’t come out until nine years after Prisoner of Azkaban and three years after Half-Blood Prince (when Fenrir Greyback was introduced), but it’s not something she first mentioned on twitter in between tweets about how she meant for Nagini to be a Korean woman in 1989. It was before she was shooting off her mouth about ridiculous stuff every other day.

Regardless, I can understand why that would feel like her pulling something out of left field today because HIV doesn’t get talked about as much, but you have to remember that these books were written in the 90s at the height of the AIDS crisis. It’s difficult to imagine how much that permeated our culture if you didn’t experience it, even for someone like me who was in elementary school in a white suburban area and, as far as I’m aware, didn’t know anyone who was HIV+. My school had a how-not-to-get-AIDS assembly every year.  They probably showed us every movie in existence about kids with HIV. After-school TV shows did special episodes about how you shouldn’t be “blood brothers” with your friends because of AIDS. 

So when my friends and I were reading Prisoner of Azkaban as middle schoolers in the early 2000s, those memories were still fresh in our heads. We didn’t need to be told lycanthropy was supposed to be a metaphor for HIV because it had just been a huge issue five years ago and we knew enough about HIV and how the people who had it were treated to see the parallels. I imagine it was even clearer to the people who read PoA right when it first came out in 1999. It didn’t even occur to me that the metaphor is less obvious to people who are younger until I started seeing claims about this was just something she made up years after the fact and was like, "What do you mean this wasn’t clear to you when you read the book?” It fits perfectly with the general public’s preoccupation with and faulty understanding of AIDS in the late 90s. You just have to acknowledge that things have changed in the past twenty years.

I know that this comparison calls on a lot of stereotypes that are homophobic and otherwise bigoted against people who are HIV+, but those aren’t arguments against the metaphor existing and being intentional, they’re arguments about why that’s not a good thing. Fenrir Greyback is straight out of a 90s detective show. The “person with AIDS who wants to infect other people because they’re bitter about it” was such a common trope that almost every crime drama in the 90s and early 2000s did an episode about it. The “adult man gives a young boy HIV” thing grew out of the “gay men are pedophiles” and “queer people want to recruit your kids” stereotypes. These were prejudices Jo had that misinformed her writing.

I don’t have a whole lot to say on this one other than that given when it was written and how close it fits, including how much it draws on negative 90s-era stereotypes about people who are HIV+, I would honestly have a harder time believing it wasn’t intentional than believing it was.

Anyway, really my point is that it wasn’t always 2019 and if you’re using only today’s culture to inform your opinions about why someone made a certain decision a decade or two ago, not only is your understanding of the situation going to be incomplete, but the fact that it’s incomplete is going to be obvious to anyone who remembers what things were like during the time period you’re trying to talk about.

[md-admissions]

In a otherwise healthy 6 year old who has had pneumonia twice in 3 years, is there any way to prevent it? What causes pneumonia?

Hi there, anon!Your two questions are actually quite difficult to answer for me, as an infectious diseases fellow! For a couple reasons which I will outline below. That said, if you don't mind providing me additional information, I can probably provide a more useful answer!1) Specificity of the question to a real child or an abstract idea of a healthy 6 year old. So a real life, presumably healthy six year old is far different from the health six year old in a test question. In that some presumably healthy six year olds may not be as healthy as we think and need more work up to find out an underlying cause, if the six year old is not our child we may not be observing them daily to find environmental triggers putting the patient at risk for pneumonia, or family history that would make one wonder if something else aside from pneumonia is going on. If this is an otherwise healthy six year old in a test question, you just take their word for it, you don't have to wonder much farther. So it's hard for me to provide a helpful or general answer to you without knowing whether this is a hypothetical question or about your child or a niece/nephew or a patient you may have seen because I don't want to make any suppositions. It's easy for me as someone who's never met you or the child to theorize and go wild with my differential diagnosis if it's a theoretical patient. But if this is an actual case, I do not want to be running my differential and causing unneeded anxiety or fear or emergency trips to the hospital as someone who has never examined this six year old. Furthermore, as someone who's internal medicine trained, the last time I was doing in-depth exams and care for pediatric patients was four years ago. 2. The diagnosis of pneumonia itself. How was the diagnosis made? If chest x-rays were done to make the diagnosis, okay that's a done deal, that's a diagnosis of pneumonia. But some doctors will make the diagnosis by listening to the patient's lungs and based on the report by the parents come to a diagnosis of pneumonia. So how the diagnosis was made and if we have confirmed diagnoses is the other thing that I would want to know saying anything about causes or reasons. THAT all being said:What causes pneumonia? Many different types of bacteria and viruses can cause pneumonia. Pneumonia describes an infection of the lungs but it does not describe which of the aforementioned offenders caused it. Examples of bacteria that cause pneumonia include: streptococcus pneumonia (it's right in the name!) and mycoplasma pneumonia (some older doctors called infection with this bacteria 'walking pneumonia' because people were often well enough to walk around and do simple things but were still clearly not feeling well). Not all but many people with bacterial pneumonia will need antibiotics to fight it off. Confirming that the source of the pneumonia is bacterial usually involves taking blood or phlegm for testing. Examples of viruses that can cause pneumonia are influenza (that's the classic), parainfluenza, adenovirus, coxsackie virus. Testing for a virus as the source of one's pneumonia can involve nasal swabs (looks like a soft bristle q tip going into the nose) to test for the presence of one or two or several of these viruses at a time. Sometimes, just based on what the patient tells us, (ex. a parent reports several kids in their child's class have been sick with confirmed tests for influenza) we can deduct with reasonable certainty that the patient has a virus rather than a bacteria as the cause. Viruses are not treated by antibiotics. Only influenza has been consistently shown time and time again to be treatable with oseltamivir aka Tamiflu. However, treating is not necessarily curing in the cause of oseltamivir. It just shortens the time period that you feel crummy and are contagious. How to prevent pneumonia? If the person has no other medical issues, two things have consistently stood the test of time to reduce your frequency of acquiring viral or bacterial respiratory infections like pneumonia: immunizations and thoughtful hygiene. Get your flu vaccine. My own sister and my best friend don't get them every year and still have misconceptions about flu vaccines but they are pro-science, intelligent people. They're just very healthy young adults who are lucky and don't often get sick. It's hard for folks like them, who are just like me and likely you, to wrap their minds around the idea of vaccinating for something they basically never get. But a lot of the work of convincing people to get vaccinated for the flu is not giving up on them and using non-confrontational, empowering but NOT condescending education. Even casually just dropping anecdotes, learning the values, desires, and needs of your family and patients will help you see what angle you need to take to educate and empower them to get vaccinated. Now to part two: thoughtful hygiene. Wash your hands. Don't cough into your hands, cough into the crook of your elbow. If you're sick, actively coughing or hacking, do not come in to work. This is called presenteeism, aka working while sick. This has in fact been studied and shown to cause decreased productivity, prolongs subjective duration of illness, and increases the risk of workplace epidemics. Teaching kids early to take care not to cough at people's faces and to wash their hands after play or sharing toys, books, etc. can help immensely (and their teachers and fellow classmates will thank you too). Also, if you are healthy, do your part when you are sick to stay away from vulnerable people: the elderly, people on immune suppressing drugs, infants, younger children, if you can help it. Again, let me know further details if I can provide more specific help!md-a

[askatemplarchampion40k-blog]

💛- A memory that makes them feel angry

Johan looked up at the ruins of the hive central spire. Great fires whisked around the hellish column of iron and steel that stabbed at the heavens. He sighed, and took up a canteen from his belt, satiating his thirst with some water. After days of fighting, his neophyte’s armor was battered and ruined. Traitors always died hard- if they were easy kills, there would be no need for astartes. The crusade here would be wrapping up soon, but this hive?

He looked at the ruins around him again.

This hive’s fate was looking grim.

“Johan.” the internal microbead asked.

“Jawohl, this is neophyte Johan. Do you need something Helmuth?”

“Come to my coordinates, alone. I have a lesson.”

Johan agreed, and did a quick bolter maintenance drill, checking the magazine and weapon- perfect as always. He jogged quickly down the warrens and streets- they had been cleared out hours ago, but he was wary of infiltration and ambush. Shortly, he came before a large building, but the function of the structure was a mystery as fire and battle damage had consumed its exterior turning it instead to a blackened husk of a place.

Johan stepped in.

“Im here mein herr. Alone as you say. No contacts.”

There was a slight pause, and Johan’s enhanced senses caught some muffled movement and a slight ‘thud’ one or two floors above.

“Third floor, second room to the right, boy.” Helmuth said, before cutting the line.

Johan moved as he asked. The hallways were a bizarre series of poorly made drawings, occasional motivational quotes, and colourful animals, with demonic eight pointed stars of the great enemy covering them over, and a painting or portrait of the arch-heretic of this hive in every chamber.

When Johan arrived, he found his master, Initiate Helmuth, standing in a door frame.

“Johan.” he said, not turning from whatever was in the room.

“Yes sir.”

“I need you to kill heretics today. It is a test.”

Johan was confused. He had been doing a lot of that lately, and with no complaint or issue.

“Naturally sir. And then we’ll move on to the next objective?”

Helmuth said nothing. There was muffled scuffling and moaning inside, perhaps even weeping?

Helmuth stood aside. “Before you shoot, look.” he said, gesturing Johan inside.

Johan did as commanded, his weapon raised, but did not like what he had found.

A young woman, probably in her 30′s lay dead slumped in the corner. a bloody trench knife lay just beyond her fingertips. Her skin was riddled with endless icons of the arch-enemy, stars, sigils heralding multiple dark gods, all manner of things discussed in the Liber Daemonicum. What was unusual was her civilian outfit, a fairly unassuming and normal looking one witha  short skirt and a small well fitted suit-coat that probably fit nicely and looked smart at one point. Take away the scars, and she could have very easily been an up and coming middle class hiver, in the prime years of her life.

Johan’s gaze drifted from her, to a pack of children, huddled among themselves, somewhat malnourished probably from the siege. Some were as young as five years. Others closer to 10 or 11, and these older ones did their best to cover and protect the younger ones.

Johan was about to reach out and calm them, when he saw to his horror more important details.

Each child bore the mark of chaos taint. A five year old boy that cried softly was adorned with the pox tattoo of nurgle, and looked sickly indeed. The oldest girl showed the mark of slaanesh and flicked a long forked tongue at him. One or two had eyes of glowing blue energy, and were surely owned by Tzeentch.

Johan hesitated. He lowered his bolter, and glanced at Helmuth.

“Sir- I, they’re only ki-”

There was a blurr as a 9 year old boy with ripped clothes and a full face tattoo of Khorne yanked the knife from his teacher or caretaker’s dead hand and stabbed at Johan, plunging the knife into the marine’s exposed leg, before ripping it out and preparing to go again.

“Blood!” the boy screamed, giddy.

Johan’s reflexes acted for him, and in as little as three movements,slit the child’s throat with his own captured trench knife, before dropping both to the deck and fumbling with his bolter.

“They are not innocent any more.” Helmuth said, flatly.

“This is not a galaxy where a man can act wholly in the light. This is not a world where goodness and purity can save a corrupt soul. These young ones never had a chance Johan. They were born in wickedness and taken by it. Everything they know, everything they are, is corruption.”

Johan still couldnt, even as he bled from a fresh wound in the leg.

“They’re just children!” he shouted, boltgun moving from target to target, the children remaining deathly still.

“In this universe, you will be expected to kill children, weak, infirm, mutants and plague bearers who hold only love for the Emperor, injured and surrendering xenos, and even me, if I fall Johan.”

Johan said nothing.

“Do you understand? That is the OATH, the one YOU TOOK. You said you would destroy the emperor’s enemies? HERE THEY ARE. FIRE YOUR WEAPON.”

Johan shouted back. “They couldnt possibly hurt the emperor! They’re just kids!”

Johan heard a click. Behind him, Helmuth had placed his bolt pistol Johan’s skull.

“I can make it easy on you boy. The reports will say you died a casualty to enemy fire. I’ll have you posthumously made an initiate. You wont have to make the hard call ever again. Only me, and the emperor will know your weakness. Son, if you can’t do this- if you cannot become what the emperor and the universe needs, let me know. It will be painless.”

Johan froze, not sure what to do.

“Or.”

Helmuth spoke slowly.

“You can wake up. One of these boys just stabbed you. The little boy with the mark of nurgle- what will he grow up to be? A herald carrying new taint to unsuspecting villages? A plague zombie? A demon host? The tzeentchian children, what will become of them? Sacrifices for some eldritch daemon? Daemonhosts? Witch psykers to terrorize our realms? Consider. Think.”

Johan did. He thought a lot, in a short period of time.

“In this room, theres you, the Emperor, me, and the Dark Gods of Chaos. Choose what side you’ll be on.”

Johan succumbed to emotion. His bolter shook with anguish. Letting out a howl of pain, he used precision to sweep the bolter from child to child, a bolt for each one as furious tears ran down his face.

“I’M SORRY!” he screamed, continuing to fire long after all had died.

“I’M SO SORRY!”

The bolter clicked dry. The magazine was empty. Johan pulled the trigger again and again anyway.

“WHY?! WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT TO YOU?”

Helmuth said nothing.

“WHY!” Johan shouted throwing the heavy weapon to the floor and falling to his knees.

Helmuth at last spoke, softly.

“Because there are two truths in this universe, neophyte. There is the Imperial Truth, and the laughter of thirsting gods. Did you think the arch enemy was some kind of joke? Did you join this crusade resolute that there was but one power in the universe? No. The emperor is not the only god. There are many, they are powerful, and they are malevolent. They will use people as puppets. They will twist their flesh and their innocence rotten. They will plant doubt in your heart and attack when you are weakest.”

Helmuth grabbed Johan and held him at eye level.

“I did not lie. I brought you here to kill heretics. You killed them. You passed the test. There will be others, all throughout your time as a crusader. Some will be this difficult, others, even more so. Always remember that there is a choice, and that you must live with that choice. Do not be weak, boy. Accept what you have done. Do not lie and say the Imperial cult releases you from that sinking feeling in your gut.”

Johan was visibly confused. “But the holy light of terra purifies us of sin.”

Helmuth shook his head. “It does not. the holy light of terra teaches us not to sin, and teaches us the paths which we must tread in life, but sin is eternal, my son. Only a saint or the emperor himself could dare to presume so much as to forgive it. This is why the wickedness of the fallen is irredeemable.”

“Then, Helmuth, how do we carry on, wading through endless sin and misery as we wage the emperor’s wars?”

“We follow the Emperor’s path to balance the atrocities we must commit to save his realm, and more important, we understand always, that the alternative- giving into sin, is infinitely worse”

An incendiary grenade was tossed into the room, and both left the building in silence.

[oblio-k]

Modern AU with young (~8 year old) Ziyal being accidentally kidnapped and taken to the beach by Garak’s two sons, one of whom is her classmate she has to do a book report with.

Also on AO3

Sand Dollar

Ziyal liked Mr. Garak, because he was kind to her and always made time to talk to her whenever he saw her. He was like a nice uncle, and although her father hated him for some reason, she enjoyed sitting with him and talking about art or books. Nerys didn’t like him much either, but didn’t discourage her from talking to him, as he shared her job in exposing her to her culture. Where Nerys taught her what it meant to be Bajoran, Mr. Garak taught her in depth about how to be a Cardassian.

He never called her paintings silly, and encouraged her to keep creating art. Although she was only in fourth grade, he’d say, she had a lot of potential, and was already quite talented. That always made her day, and she kept painting as often as she could, of all sorts of things.

Ziyal did not like Mr. Garak’s younger son, Elan. He was in her class, and would stare at her with cold, distant eyes. When he had spoken to her, his words were few and sharp, and he wouldn’t look directly at her. He didn’t care for her artwork, and didn’t like to talk to anyone at school. 

She’d tried to befriend him after he was first introduced to the class and asked to talk about himself and his family, but he’d ignored her. He’d stared at the floor and said in a rehearsed voice, “I’m Elan Garak. I’m from Cardassia, where I lived with my grandmother. My father owns the tailor shop in Mall Nine, and my stepfather is a doctor.” After that, she rarely heard him talk.

When their teacher assigned them as partners for a book report, she’d been nervous. Elan hadn’t said anything, but he’d looked down at his desk, frowning. They were to work on the project outside of school, which meant one of them would have to go to the other’s house. Ziyal was supposed to go with Nerys to the temple, but she had to call it off because of an issue with her friend Odo, so she decided not to call her father to come pick her up, and instead waited with Elan to see if either of his parents would let her come over. She’d text her father once she knew if she needed a ride or not, she told herself.

Instead of Mr. Garak or Dr. Bashir showing up to pick up Elan, a run down old van had pulled up in front of them, and Elan’s older brother rolled down the window. “Made a friend, Elan?”

“We have a project to do.”

“Alright. Get in. Father and Julian are going out tonight, so I thought I’d drive us somewhere, but you can bring her too, I guess.”

Ziyal wasn’t sure whether or not she liked Mr. Garak’s older son, Liret. He was an adult, so she’d only seen him when he came to pick up Elan once every week or so. He looked a lot friendlier than his brother, and hardly resembled him. Where Elan looked a lot like Mr. Garak, Liret took after whoever his other parent was. His prematurely grey hair didn’t help, either. 

She and Elan got into the back of the van. Liret adjusted his mirror so he could see them properly. “Buckle up.”

“Do we have a destination, today?” Elan asked, as soon as the vehicle started moving.

“Not particularly. I was thinking a beach, if we can find one. You two can work on your project. If you’re hungry, I’ve got a cooler with those packaged sandwiches in the back. Oh, Elan, I might pick up my friend, later. Is your friend okay with that?”

Elan turned his head towards Ziyal, but looked off to the side. “My brother has strange friends. Please say no.”

“Ah, ah, ah, little brother. Don’t be like that. It’s going to be Vrejek.”

“Father doesn’t like him.”

Liret scoffed. “Father doesn’t like him because he’s a half-breed.”

“You’re a half-breed.”

“Tsk, that’s a bad word, Elan. Vrejek is a very nice person, Elan’s friend. Hey- you’re a half-breed too, aren’t you?” She frowned, and he rushed to add, “Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to upset you. I’m half Romulan, if you couldn’t tell by my name and the fact that I’m not a sickly pale like Elan. What are you?”

“My mother was Bajoran.”

“My friend is half Romulan, half Vulcan. We’re definitely picking him up. Elan, text him with my phone. It should be back there. Kid, make sure Elan doesn’t tell him something mean.”

She peered at the phone as Elan typed a message. He scowled as he typed ‘my brother is going to pick you up -Elan’ and then sent it. Liret hummed, and Elan kicked his seat. He got a laugh in response.

“Kid, what’s your name?”

“Tora Ziyal.”

“Hm, sounds familiar... Oh! You’re the girl my father talks to about art! Dukat’s daughter.”

“You know my father?”

“Fortunately, no. Sorry, I shouldn’t say that. I’m sure your father is nice to you.” Her father often forgot about her, but she wouldn’t say that. “Well...”

“If you’re just going to blunder, you should keep your mouth shut, Liret.”

Ziyal couldn’t believe how rude Elan was to his brother. It was the most she’d ever heard him talk before. 

But Liret just laughed. “You’re right, little brother! I should. I get it from the Centurion.” A Romulan rank, she believed- his other parent? Ziyal wasn’t sure. “Start working on your project, or else you won’t be able to enjoy yourselves when we get to the beach.”

“Is there even a beach nearby?”

“I’ll check on Vrejek’s GPS. We’ll be at his place in forty-five minutes.”

“Fine.” Elan unzipped his backpack and pulled out his notebook. “Let’s get started, Ziyal.”

-

Elan wasn’t that bad to work with. He didn’t say very much, but they were able to get through most of the sheet work before the van rolled to a stop. The door opened almost immediately, and someone hopped inside.

“Vre!” Liret leaned over to hug his friend. “Got your GPS?”

“Always. It would be illogical to accompany you somewhere without one, lest we repeat what happened during our first year of friendship.”

“Ah, I’ll never live that down. You’re such a bitch.”

“So are you, my friend. Jolan-tru, Elan.”

“Hey.”

“Ah- you have brought another child.”

“That’s Ziyal. She and Elan are doing a school project. Hey, see if your GPS knows where we can find a beach.”

“If we are going to a beach, we’ll need swimming clothes.”

“Go get yours. I’ve got mine and Elan’s. Ziyal, I’ve got a spare pair of trunks for Elan, and an extra tee-shirt. Will you be fine with that if you want to swim?”

“Sure!” She’d never gone swimming before. It would be fun to walk around in the water, at least. “That’s alright with me.”

“Great! Once Vrejek has his shorts, we’ll head out.”

Vrejek returned to the van with a pair of swimming trunks in hand. He buckled in and turned on his GPS. He typed something on the tiny screen, and it said, “In two miles, turn right onto Derna Road.”

“Perfect! Let’s get going, children, the beach awaits.”

The van started up once more, and Liret started to talk to his friend in a language Ziyal couldn’t understand. Since the two of them were both half Romulan, she assumed that Rihan was what they were speaking. Elan tuned them out, and they returned to their project.

-

After an hour, they finished their book report. Elan unbuckled and reached into the back of the van, popping open the cooler. He rummaged through the ice, and pulled out two bagged sandwiches. He dropped one onto Ziyal’s lap, and one in the space between them, and returned to the cooler. After a minute, he called up to his brother, “You forgot to put water and soda in this again.”

“Guls, what’s in it?”

“Beer.”

“Hm... Is it high or low quality?”

“It looks like trash.”

“Split a can.”

“Liret!” Vrejek punched him in the arm. “They are children!”

“Elan has had kanar before!”

“Children, if you are thirsty, just put an ice cube in your mouth. Do not drink alcohol.”

“I can pick up some soda when we stop for gas...”

“Don’t bother.” Elan handed Ziyal an ice cube. She sucked on it, hating how cold it was, but thankful for the water. He sighed, and then sat back down, beer can in hand. After buckling, he cracked it open.

Vrejek spun in his seat, eyes wide. “Elan!”

“It’s just shitty beer, it can’t hurt us.”

“Miss Ziyal, I implore you, do not let these horrible brothers influence you.”

“It’s kind of fruity. Here, Ziyal, pretend it’s juice.” Elan handed her the can. She eyed it. The friendly looking apple on the front and small percentage of alcohol seemed inviting enough. She’d had a few sips of kanar and springwine before, which were relatively high in alcohol, this couldn’t hurt.

It wasn’t like she was going to drink the whole can. She was sharing. Her father and Kira would never find out.

She took a sip, and Vrejek huffed, turning back around. Before he could complain, the GPS gave another instruction. “Two more hours, kids!”

-

Elan grabbed a different can once they finished theirs, some energy drink with a much higher percentage of alcohol in it that Vrejek tried to snatch away from him, and Ziyal realized that he wasn’t quiet because he was mean or because he disliked her. He was quiet because he was nervous. A third of the way through the large can, he was much more talkative, and actually smiled.

“You’re a really good artist, Ziyal! I always liked your paintings.”

“Thank you!” She smiled, cheeks warm. He let her have a sip of the can, and it definitely tasted a lot stronger than the first, but was much more enjoyable. “This one is better than the beer.”

“Good old kanar energy. Guls, Father and Julian are going to kill me if they find out I let you drink that. Vrejek, I should have bought soda.”

“It is most gratifying to see you squirm with guilt, my dear friend. This is illegal.”

“That beach better be empty when we get there. I can’t get arrested again.”

Ziyal wondered why they were speaking in Standard again, but Elan asking her what her favorite thing to paint was distracted her from their conversation. The two adults slipped back into Rihan soon enough anyways.

Her discussion with Elan switched to a variety of things, and she could hardly keep track of it as the tall can emptied. Elan got them two more sandwiches, and dug out a slightly old apple, which Vrejek cut in half with a knife he kept in his coat. Liret had them pass up food to them, and Vrejek asked for a handful of ice cubes, which he shoved into Liret’s mouth. 

“I’ll take a beer, Elan,” Vrejek added as Liret sputtered, spitting the ice cubes onto his lap.

Elan giggled as he told a story, “-and then Julian asked Father if he’d learned how to hack computers from the Obsidian Order, but Father told him to stop indulging in his fantasy. Julian gave up on it for the day, even though he was right!”

“Everyone knows Mr. Garak was a spy!”

“Julian still isn’t sure half the time. He’s so funny, I’m glad Father found a ridiculous man like him to marry-”

Finally, as the sun started to go down, and Liret’s clock displayed that it was almost seven, the GPS interrupted Elanas he detailed yet another embarrassing story about his stepfather, and announced, “You have arrived at your destination.”

“We’re here, kids!”

“Wow!” It was getting dim outside, but it still looked beautiful. “I’ve never been to a beach before, Elan. I’m excited!”

“It’s really your first time at a beach, Ziyal?” Lerit asked, parking the van right up by the sand. “We’ll make sure you enjoy it, dear. Alright- I’ve got my shorts on already. Elan, yours and Ziyal’s are in the back. I’m going to get in the water.” He pulled off his shirt and got out of the van.

Elan climbed into the trunk, and passed Ziyal a shirt and shorts. He ducked down to change, and went out through the back. Vrejek changed in the front, and walked after Lerit.

Ziyal hopped out once she had changed. Thankfully, the clothes were her size. She left her shoes in the van. Sneakers wouldn’t be good on sand. While there was a cool breeze, the sand was still warm from a day of soaking up the sun.

“Let’s go in the water before it cools off, Ziyal!” Elan grabbed her wrist and pulled her along. They ran down to the water. Lerit was already in it, sitting down in the shallows. He lifted up a pile of seaweed and tossed it at his brother. Elan dodged it, and scooped up some of his own. Lerit couldn’t dodge fast enough, a small wave almost toppling him as he tried to move, and ended up with faceful of it.

“Agh!” Vrejek laughed, and Lerit growled. “Come here, you-!” He hurled a wad at his friend, and got him in the chest.

Smiling wide, Elan started walking towards some rocks, feet splashing in the water. “There’s probably crabs over here!” Once they were over by the rocks, which were covered in hundreds of small snails, Elan whispered, “My brother gets really annoying when he’s with Vrejek.”

“Are they dating?”

“I don’t know. You know how weird Cardassians are about dating. Romulans are weird too, and Vre’s part Vulcan, and they’re extra weird about it.”

“Oh. I don’t really know a lot about Cardassian dating. My father flirts with everyone, pretty much.”

“That’s what Julian said. Hey- there’s a crab!” Elan grabbed at it, but it scuttled down into a crevice. “Aw. I missed it.”

“Don’t they pinch?”

“I guess. But it was little, I don’t think it would have hurt. Let’s find some more!” 

They trotted around the rocks until Ziyal managed to scoop up a baby crab. She held it up proudly. It tried to pinch her, but was too small to cause any pain. Elan poked at it, giggling. They put it back, and Elan pried off a couple of the snails. He stuck one on Ziyal’s cheek, and they both sat down in the water, laughing helplessly. 

With waves lightly pushing against them, they sat there until their giggling subsided. Elan pulled the snail off of her face and put it back on the rock. “There you go, little one.”

It stuck back onto its home, and the two of the waded out into deeper water. Once it was up to their waists, they stopped. “Can you swim, Ziyal?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Liret taught me how to swim a long time ago, when we lived with our grandmother.” He lowered himself down until the water lapped at his shoulders. “If it wasn’t getting dark, I would teach you!”

“I think there’s a public pool near where Miss Dax lives...”

“Public pools are lame! You’ve got to learn in the ocean! Or a river or lake. Or a pond. That’s what Liret told me.”

“Would he take us out here during the day?”

“I’ll ask him tomorrow. Maybe he can take us on the weekend. Father and Julian are going to a concert on Saturday.”

“My father works Saturday, and I don’t have to go to Temple with Nerys...”

“Good!” She was so glad Elan was her friend now. All it took was a long car ride, a trip to the beach, and some weird drinks to get him to open up and realize she wasn’t someone to be nervous around. She’d remember to ask Nerys if that was a good way to make friends, or if she should let it be a one time thing.

They walked around in the water for a while, Elan swimming back and forth every so often. The sun continued to drop, turning the sky into beautiful hues of red, orange, and pink. She tried to commit it to memory so she could paint it. It began to fade to black.

Liret and Vrejek had gotten out of the water and were talking on the beach. Vrejek had another beer can in his hand, and was waving it around as he said something that made Liret laugh.

“I think I found a sand dollar!” Elan ducked under the water to get it. He popped back up a moment later, holding a small, grey sand dollar. “Here! To com- commen- to commemorate your first time at the beach!” He tucked it into her shirt pocket.

“Thank you! I love it!”

He beamed. Then he put his hands on her shoulders. “Have you ever dunked your head under the water?”

“No.”

“Try it! Close your eyes and hold your breath! I’ll pull you right back up, trust me!”

Mr. Garak’s repeated warnings to her to trust no one and her father’s own warnings rang in her head, but she was too excited by the idea of trying something new that she ignored it. Elan wouldn’t do anything to hurt her, he was a nice person.

He didn’t let her drown, but the saltwater stung her eyes when she opened them and water dripped down her face, and she couldn’t see. “My eyes hurt...”

“Oh! Sorry! Ah- I don’t have anything to wipe it with. Come on, let’s go find a towel and play in the sand-”

Liret wiped her face dry with his arms and smoothed back her hair to keep it from dripping instead of letting Elan guide her to the van. Once her eyes stopped stinging, she and Elan settled down on the wet sand, and began making little mounds. It was too dark to go back in the water, and it was beginning to get too difficult to see what they were making, the moon a small sliver in the sky, the stars not providing enough light.

They made one big mound and covered it with rocks and seaweed before Liret called out, “Ziyal! Your phone is ringing!”

Ziyal was struck with the realization that she had completely forgotten to text her father and Nerys to tell them that she would be with Elan and his brother. She’d been so surprised at Elan talking that she’d forgotten all about where her phone sat sadly at the bottom of her backpack.

She wiped her sandy hands off on her damp shirt before taking her phone. Sure enough, it was her father calling. He was going to yell at her, she was sure.

When she hesitated to answer, Liret asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to tell my father I was coming with you. I was going to text him after I knew whether or not I could do my project with Elan, but I forgot.”

“Guls, he doesn’t know you’re here?”

“No...”

“Ziyal! It’s almost ten! I picked you two up at three! That’s seven hours! Oh, fuck, fuck-”

Vrejek looked equally ashamed. “Liret, this is kidnapping.”

“I know, guls, I know. I kidnapped a child, I kidnapped my brother’s friend. Fuck, I should have asked if she had permission- guls, I don’t know why I assumed her father knew-”

“Answer it, Ziyal!” Elan urged. “Tell him you forgot to text him! He’ll understand, right?”

The call ended. Her notifications showed a truly ungodly amount of missed calls from both her father and Nerys, starting around nine.

Vrejek took the phone and called her father back, hit speaker, and then handed it to her. Almost as soon as it was in her hand, her father answered. “Ziyal?!”

“Hello, Father.”

“Where are you? Are you alright?” 

“I’m fine! I’m-” She had no idea what beach they were at. “Um, I’m at...”

Liret looked ready to die. Vrejek shrugged. Elan added, not very helpfully, “We’re somewhere!”

“Elan!” Liret cried.

“What? It’s true. You’re the ones with the GPS, didn’t it say where we are?”

“Ziyal, who is that?”

“Um, my friend Elan, from... from my class.”

“Kid, could you sound any more nervous?” Liret groaned. “That’s it, I’m finished. This whole idea was ridiculous. I can’t bring two little brats out to have fun. Oh, fuck me-”

Elan leaned in to the phone, “Hi there! I’m Elan Garak! Ziyal, I’m really tired, it’s really dark and cold, and I want to go home.”

“Elements, you three, you’re really making this sound like a kidnapping.”

She could hear her father sputtering on the other end of the line. Liret sent a mortified look at his friend, and snatched the phone away. “Mr. Dukat, I am so, so sorry!”

“Who the hell are you? Why do you have my daughter?”

“I’m Liret Garak, Elan’s older brother. I really didn’t mean to kidnap your daughter, sir, I thought she had your permission. You see, when I went to pick up my little brother from school today, she was standing with him, and they said they had to do a project. I thought I’d be a cool older brother and bring them somewhere fun after they finished their project, but Ziyal forgot to text you.”

“Doesn’t he hate your father, Liret? The thought just occured to me.”

“Shut! Up! Ugh, Vre’, just get the kids ready to go. There’s towels in the back, I don’t want sand and water all over my seats.” He gestured widely in the direction of the van. “Mr. Dukat, I will drive Ziyal home immediately. It, uh... It’ll take about four hours, but we’ll leave right now.”

Vrejek nudged the two of them back to the van. Ziyal could hear her father demanding to know where they were that it would take four hours just to get her home, and Liret desperately replying that he really had no idea, just that they were at some beach, and had a GPS to get back.

They dried off and changed back into their clothes, and Liret slumped in the driver’s seat, handing Ziyal her phone back. “I’m going to be arrested.”

“Really?”

“I don’t know! Maybe? Guls, he thought she was with some woman named Kira at a Bajoran temple, but those things close at seven.”

Liret’s phone rang, and he picked it up. “Hey, Father-”

“You kidnapped Ziyal?”

“Guls, I’m the criminal for taking Elan and his pretty little friend out to have fun!” He hung up, huffing. 

Vrejek passed the GPS back to Ziyal. “Put your address in this.” She input it, and gave it back. “Huh. Four hours and five minutes.”

“I am going to be murdered by a sweet little girl’s father, just because I try to be a nice person. Father was right, you should never do anything nice for anyone that isn’t family!”

“Ziyal, put your number in my phone.” Elan pulled a worn out phone from his backpack. “We’re friends now, so we should text each other. I’ll send you a picture of myself so you know what number is me.”

“I could cry, Vre’, I really could. At least Elan made a friend. I guess that makes it worth it, huh?”

“Not really.”

-

“Ziyal!” Her father scooped her up and hugged her tightly as soon as she hopped out of the car. It was just past two in the morning, and she was too tired to talk or do anything but wrap her arms around his neck and tuck her head against him. The energy drink had worn off, and she’d slept a bit in the car, only just waking up when Elan shook her and said they were pulling in the driveway.

Elan set her backpack on the ground, careful not to drop it so her phone and sand dollar would be okay.

“Bye, Ziyal! I’ll bring our book report to school tomorrow!”

“Hey, Liret, let’s just leave. Elan, shut the door.” Elan pulled the door shut with a loud slam, and Ziyal could hear the van backing up. She heard a, “Sorry, Mr. Dukat!” from Vrejek, and they were off.

“Hey!”

Her father growled as the van presumably vanished down the road. Then he sighed, and kissed her temple. He adjusted his hold on her so he could crouch down and grab her backpack. Finally, they went inside. Ziyal yawned.

They sat down on the couch, and her father made her straighten up so he could look at her. Seeing that she was free of injury, he relaxed a bit. “Are you alright?”

“Mhmm... Just tired.” She didn’t think she’d ever stayed up so late before.

“You smell like the ocean. You should take a shower before you go to bed.”

She did feel like she was covered in salt, and there was probably still sand on her, so she nodded. As she grabbed her pajamas and went to shower and brush her teeth, she overheard her father talking on the phone. Too tired to make out what he was saying, she assumed he was probably calling Nerys to tell her she was home, safe and sound.

She felt even more exhausted when she was clean, and wandered out of the bathroom, ready to go to bed. Her father picked her up as she walked down the hall, and took her with him back to the living room. She feel asleep on top of him, head tucked against his neck, a hand petting her hair.

[dr-archeville]

INDY Daily: Back to School with COVID-19, the Feasibility of Reparations, the Triangle's Renter Wage Gap

It’s Wednesday, August 11

   Thanks to our sponsor this week, Theatre Raleigh. August 25th kicks off their third show in their 2021 Summer Season series, Fun Home. Winner of the 2015 Tony Award for Best Musical, Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes. Theatre Raleigh is also committed to ensuring the comfort and safety of their audiences and artists.  Visit Theatre Raleigh to book your tickets and learn more about their safety updates.

Good morning, readers.

I hate to ruminate on bad news all the time but with the COVID-19 situation being what it is today, I don't feel like I have any other choice.

The state's percent positive rate was reported at 14 percent yesterday, higher than at any point I can recall (though I believe it was higher at the pandemic's peak this winter).  This report details how North Carolina's COVID surge is actually steeper than this winter's:

"Multiple experts agree that the speed of the increase in the number of cases per day is faster now than it was over the winter, and that’s due to the highly contagious delta variant.

From June to October of 2020, the number of daily new coronavirus cases reported were mostly in the 1,000s or 2,000s range, with several exceptions where the state only reported a few hundred new cases.  On Nov. 11, the state reported over 3,000 new cases for the first time.  On Nov. 19, there were over 4,000 new cases for the first time.

But the current surge in COVID-19 cases in North Carolina looks a little different.  On June 30, 208 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in North Carolina.  But it only took until Aug. 5 for the state to report over 4,000 new COVID-19 cases."

Mask mandates are back for Durham, Orange, and Chatham counties, and likely will come back for Wake, too, once all the county's mayors get on the same page.

There are reports of COVID-19 clusters at nine schools across Wake, Durham, and Johnston counties.  Teachers and staff from WCPSS to UNC-Chapel Hill have told us they're worried the Delta variant will run rampant in their classrooms.

And all the while, we're living in dueling realities, where some  of us have been vaccinated, some of us can't be vaccinated, and some of us won't be.

As I was driving to work yesterday, I listened to this NPR interview with the chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  I know, it's Arkansas, where only about a third of the population is fully vaccinated.  While the situation maybe isn't so dire in North Carolina, it was jarring just the same.

The doctor, Cam Patterson, talked about how much different this wave of the virus is, with younger patients hospitalized with serious illness, pregnant mothers losing their babies because of COVID-19 infections, children hospitalized with COVID complications, including a five-week old baby, at the Arkansas Children's Hospital.

I don't highlight all this to shock or scare people, but to ask people who are resistant to the precautions –– getting vaccinated, wearing a mask indoors, asking children to wear masks at school –– to please consider the medical workers who have to take care of COVID-19 patients day in and day out.  Because they live in a different reality, too, and it's one that's likely a lot worse than any of us who haven't experienced it are able to imagine.

We've got a new, COVID coverage-heavy issue on stands today, and you can read all of our stories on our website. Stay safe and thanks for reading.

Like the INDY Daily? Share it with your friends and ask them to subscribe

The INDY Daily is made possible by the INDY Press Club, which is helping us keep fearless, independent local journalism viable in the Triangle.

[Photos from archives.]

Orange County

We spoke with Shenekia Weeks, the Town of Chapel Hill's new (and first) officer for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, about her work.

Orange County will reinstate its indoors mask mandate beginning at 5 p.m. today. The requirement applies to the municipalities of Hillsborough, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill.

A UNC faculty member told the INDY she doesn't feel the university is fully prepared for the return of students:

"I don’t feel safe and I think there are a lot of people that are uncomfortable but it’s all said in one-on-one conversations. It’s not said in a group setting. I think everyone is a little wary about saying too much and everyone is just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Students come back in a week and we have been there for three weeks now. It feels really tense."

Durham County

In Durham, the percentage of fully vaccinated residents has been dropping off month to month since June.

Duke economist William Darity, Jr. will helm a research project on the feasibility of paying reparations to the descendants of Black enslaved people, funded by a $300,000 grant from the William T. Grant Foundation.

[Illustration by Jon Fuller.]

Wake County

While COVID-19 metrics are increasing rapidly in Wake County, and neighboring counties are reinstating mask mandates, Wake County hasn't yet. Such a mandate would need buy-in from all 12 mayors of the county's 12 municipalities, in addition to county leaders. Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin and Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht told the N&O they're monitoring the situation.

A Wake County Public Schools middle school music teacher says she is worried about the Delta variant running rampant in her classroom:

"It is kind of like rearranging the furniture when the house is on fire. None of us feel quite ready to tackle this beast again but here we go whether we’re ready or not."

Wake County is offering free at-home COVID-19 testing kits.

House Wake!, which provides financial assistance to people during the pandemic, has launched an online portal.

Guest House Raleigh, the boutique hotel started by former Raleigh Planning Commission member Matt Tomasulo and his wife, architect Nicole Alvarez, has been sold to Loden Properties, owner of downtown Raleigh's Longleaf Hotel. Loden acquired the hotel, located at 420 South Bloodworth Street, for $1.75 million.

The zebra cobra owner took a plea deal and will give up his snakes, plus pay a $13,000 fine, some of which will go to the first responders who worked the case.

NC + Elsewhere

A new study from personal financial website Smartest Dollar found that the Triangle fared poorly in terms of the renter wage gap.

House Bill 96 was presented to Gov. Cooper yesterday. The bill permits pharmacists to administer more injections and other medications, including PEP and birth control, but it prohibits teens from getting a COVID-19 shot on their own. It's not clear whether Cooper will sign the bill.

Charlotte is the latest city to expand LGBTQ protections. Where's Raleigh?

In case you missed it, Madison Cawthorn is joining a revolt against members of the Buncombe County School Board for requiring masks in public schools.

Statewide COVID-19 by the numbers: Tuesday, August 10

2,985 New lab-confirmed cases (1,089,923 total; seven-day average trending up)

2,179 Current hospitalizations reported (seven-day average increasing; 13,768 total deaths, +9 over Monday)

16,006 Completed tests (14.76 million total; most recent positive rate was 14 percent)

9,984,713 Total vaccinations administered; 47 percent of population fully vaccinated; 58 percent of 18 years+ fully vaccinated (State data not updated daily)

[Image from DPAC.]

Eat. Drink. Do.

Get out and about in the Triangle today. Got an Eat.Drink.Do Idea? Email us at EatDrinkDo@indyweek.com

Eat This spicy fudge brownie with vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche caramel, and peanut-cocoa nib crumble from Luna Rotisserie looks to be everything.

Drink Grab a beer after a run at Raleigh Brewing's Run Club. 

Do Styx performs at DPAC as part of its world tour.

Today's weather

Partly cloud and hotter with highs in the mid

Song of the day

Styx –– Come Sail Away The famed 70s rock band band plays DPAC as part of its world tour this evening.

—Jane Porter— Send me an email | Find me on Twitter

If you’d like to advertise your business to the Daily's 33,000-plus subscribers, please contact John Hurld at jhurld@indyweek.com.

Love the INDY Daily? Support it by joining the INDY Press Club.

[pooma-education]

EDUCATIONAL REFORMS-THREATS AND CHALLENGES

💎

“Everybody is a genius , But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree , it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid" - ALBERT EINSTEIN

India a country with glorious past who has given the world universities famous like Nalanda , and Taxila is still striving to raise itself in the level of quality education.

Present education system in India is just like a teacher pouring her thoughts and knowledge in a student’s head and the student is passively imbibing it, which is decreasing the creativity in our generation.

A child is totally stressed by TV, school parents, religion, distorted religious believes, all these institutes are pouring wanted and unwanted information in his head.

Original thinking, creativity, research, innovation, adaptability, conceptualizing, scientific approach should be cultivated and encouraged from a very young age.

INSTEAD -THERE IS A MAD RACE FOR HIGH SCORES. INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM IS GEARED TOWARDS TESTING THE KNOWLEDGE –where in best crammer is the winner.

“INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM HAS BECOME A CORRUPTION VICTIM”

A nationwide survey on status of education in rural India has revealed that there is a decline in the education standard across the country.

According to the latest report by NDTV 50% class 5 students can’t read class two text.40% of youth in the age of 14-18 age group are still within FORMAL EDUCATION.( ASER 2017)

Only 25.97% of elementary schools in rural India have access to computers.

According to another report by NDTV the basic learning level of children in rural India had fallen in 2012. Just 5/10 students in class 5 across rura India could solve a simple Arithmetic problem.There is a sharp decline in the reading ability of children , especially in the government schools and more parents seems to be dependent on private schools in rural India.[ this report is based on survey carried out in rural schools across 567 districts and covering 60,000 children in the age of 3-16)

• There is an increase in the number of drop outs. Other issues coming up are –recruitment of teachers and their quality , teacher pupil ratio in schools , etc. India needs to revest the ways in which it promotes education.

• Even the present education policy is unable to solve all the problems in the education system.A few senior teachers still say ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’. There is lot of stress on the younger children. The age of introduction to formal education should be increased from 3 to age age 5 years. Although this will reduce the productive years a of a service class person but, this shall obviously decrease the stress on children which is one of the major cause of depression. So it is important to introduce vocational training at a very early age. It is rightly said ‘ give a man a fish and you feed him for a day ,teach him how to fish and u feed him for a life time.’ This is possible only if the age for appearing in competitive exams is increased. ” A happy population shall give a happy nation. Acc to the latest survey India is continuously falling in its position for ‘HAPPINES STATUS’. Now India is even much lower than our neighbors Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan.

• NEP is still paying lot of stress on writing skills at an early age rather than reading skills and application. This is where we are different from the western education system. Indian education system has a knowledge acquiring approach unlike the west which has a skill acquiring approach.

• NEP still does not provide a method to judge a child according to his ability. A classroom has children with different mental abilities and skills –and we judge them on the same platform. 'It is like having a herd with different animals viz elephant , cow ,monkey ,deer, tiger, giraffe and we make them compete among themselves to judge who could climb a tree better’

• As far as census examination is concerned –NEP has advocated a board exam for class 3,5, and 8.So many exams are being conducted that a child , parent and teachers are always in examination mode. Restriction of language is another threat.

• NEP aims at reducing the burden on children , however Board in class 3,5 and 8 levels puts extra ordinary burden at a very young age of 9,11 and 14.

• NEP is still focusing more on making a child literate rather it should be meant to enable a child to Earn. Education system has become an archaic- we are still catering to students that were 20 -25 years ago and not the present generation. We have still not realized that we are dealing with a different age-the Gen X, which have different priorities and is techno savvy. With the advent of technology the face of education has changed.

• NEP has no provision for a regular moral education. The poor still have no access to quality education. In fact with the privatization of schools and colleges education has become an entity which can be bought. Imagine if one is giving crores to become a doctor then what will he do to earn it back. You have money , you can become anyone.

• Education is the backbone of any society. Teachers say there are too many restrictions. Some measures should be taken to bring a more disciplined condition.

• Subject choice should be introduced a little early .

• To get best output proper representatives and suggestions should be taken from entire school community and associations.

A sudden change at the academic level shall create a huge unwanted pressure on parents , students, teachers and schools as well.

As an educator I am more worried and concerned .It will lead to huge level of dissatisfaction at all levels.

‘shiksha ne aik aisi bahut badi abadi paida kar di hai to padh (read) to sakti hai par ye nahi pehchan sakti ke padne layak kya hai’ –G.M Trevelyan.

Follies in education system and low literacy rate has turned into a National Disaster.

¶ To summarize:

Education system in India is – Satire of a broken education system with low paid teachers with heavy work load and stress, greedy educational managers chancellors and president, with horrible government funding, support and structure.

Government is unable to provide employment so instead of sending their child to study a poor parent prefers to send their children to work and earn.

My maid is uneducated with a very low standard of living ,but she is earning 50% to what I draw. The low standard of living and unemployment is pushing Indians into illiterate , uneducated citizens.

The education system must challenge our kids thought processBut instead it is de-boosting it.

As per my understanding the assessment system:

• Should allow kids to use morethan one concept on a topic.

• Have a multi subject approach i.e.questions which include more than one topic and concept.

• Must Check the understanding developed on the concept.

• Must Check the ability developed to apply the same concept in rea life situations.

• Most importantly –they should assess the skills mastered , instead of the questions answered.

RAFAT NASEER

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Indiana School Goes Extra Mile to Help Vulnerable Kids Weather Pandemic

After covid-19 forced Olivia Goulding’s Indiana middle school to switch back to remote learning late last year, the math teacher lost contact with many of her students. So she and some colleagues came up with a plan: visiting them under the guise of dropping off Christmas gifts.

This story also ran on USA Today. It can be republished for free.

One day in December, they set out with cards and candy canes and dropped by the homes of every eighth grader at Sarah Scott Middle School in Terre Haute, a city of more than 60,000 near the Illinois border where both Indiana State University and the federal death row are located. They saw firsthand how these kids, many living in poverty and dysfunctional families, were coping with the pandemic’s disruptions to their academic and social routines.

“You just have a better concept of where they’re coming from and the challenges they really do have,” Goulding said. “When you’re looking at that electronic grade book and Sally Lou hasn’t turned in something, you remember back in your mind: ‘Oh, yeah, Sally Lou was home by herself, taking care of three younger siblings when I stopped by, and I spotted her helping Johnny with his math and she was helping this one with something else.’”

The school’s experience provides a window into the hardships millions of families across the country have endured since last March, and exemplifies why education isn’t the only reason many Americans want schools to fully reopen. Schools like Sarah Scott help hold their communities together by providing households with wide-ranging support, which has become much tougher during the pandemic.

“A lot of our students are struggling emotionally,” said Sarah Scott’s principal, Scotia Brown. “They’re stressed because they’re falling behind in their work. Or they’re stressed because of the conditions they’re living with at home.”

Even before the coronavirus struck, kids at Sarah Scott faced significant obstacles that compounded the normal social challenges and surging hormones of middle school. They live in Vigo County, which has the state’s highest rate of child poverty and high rates of child neglect. Nearly 90% of students qualified for free or reduced-fee lunches. Some showed up needing to shower and change at the school, which has a food pantry that also offers clothes and hygiene products.

Things got more difficult for students when covid threw Sarah Scott’s normal schedule into disarray. Initially, the school went totally remote, then moved to partially in-person for the start of the 2020-21 school year. When covid spiked in October, Sarah Scott went remote again because not enough substitute teachers could fill in for quarantining staff. Since January, students have been spending part of each week in the school building, with no plans as of early March to open fully.

Kids were given laptops to use at home. But internet access can be problematic.

“Internet has been the worst,” said Samantha Riley, mother of seventh grader Mariah Pointer. “So many people are on it, it shuts down all the time.”

When that happens, she uses the Wi-Fi emitting from the school bus that sits in front of her apartment complex, one of several parked around the community to fill the gaps.

Even when the internet works, though, keeping kids on task at home isn’t easy. Heather Raley said she often cries from the stress of trying to make her eighth grade daughter engage online. “It just seems like we’re always butting heads over this,” Raley said. “It’s just a bigger battle getting the work done.”

As in many other communities, students are falling behind academically. Some don’t do any of their e-learning activities. Sarah Scott’s reports to child protective services for educational neglect — when caregivers aren’t getting their children to either in-person or remote classes — have more than tripled this school year.

Brown said she also worries about physical neglect and abuse, which is harder to detect when interacting with students remotely. “If you’re in an abusive home and you have to be there five days out of the week because you’re doing remote learning, you’re in that environment even more,” she said.

More time at home can also mean doing without necessities, including food.

The school helps by offering free breakfasts and lunches for in-person students and to-go lunches on remote days. Sometimes, the principal delivers boxes of groceries to students’ homes. The school recently secured a microwave for one family and an inflatable mattress for a student who’d been sharing a bed with his grandmother.

For some kids, the stress of the pandemic has worsened emotional problems and mental illness. Recently, a former Sarah Scott student who had moved out of state logged into her former teacher’s virtual class to say she planned to kill herself. The school contacted police, who checked on her. Referrals for suicidal students are up fourfold, Brown said.

School social worker Nichelle Campbell-Miller said it’s been tough counseling kids online or through text messages.

“I am all about building relationships and being in person and being able to dap you up or give you a hug and be like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’” she said, using a term for various greetings like fist bumps or elaborate handshakes. “So being online is extremely difficult for me, because you can’t really tell the tone of your student. When I’m talking to you in person, I can read your body language and I can gauge where you’re at.”

Right now, she said, the psychological well-being of her middle schoolers is even more important than education.

Many students, such as eighth grader Trea Johnson, come up against challenges on both fronts. Trea transferred to Sarah Scott two days before covid ended in-person learning.

“We struggle with school anyway,” said his mom, Kathy Poff. “Then when this pandemic came along, it just knocked our feet out from under us.”

His grades plunged. He began to hate school, Poff said. He didn’t attend his daily video meetings with his teachers. His mother fought with him to complete his online assignments.

“I usually get pretty bored,” said Trea, whose long, straight hair sometimes falls over his eyes.

Poff found him a therapist he meets with once a week. She said his mood and academic productivity have improved. He wants to be a computer programmer and has been coding in his spare time lately. She also moved his computer into her bedroom so she could better monitor him and has started paying him to do his schoolwork.

“I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be a 13-year-old going through this pandemic,” said Poff, 51, a single mother. “They’re going through changes anyway, adjusting to adolescence and figuring out who they are, and they don’t even have a social group to figure that out.”

Goulding, the math teacher, said she’s glad she and her co-workers can help provide stability and continuity during this trying period. One recent night, for example, she got a call from a truant boy’s grandmother, who said she was in poor health and raising him alone. The next day, the principal and social worker picked him up and drove him to school.

Still, Goulding lamented not seeing her most vulnerable students on the days when they are remote.

“How do I check on my kids? How do I make sure they’re eating? How do I make sure,” she paused to compose herself, her voice quavering, “they’re safe?

“You’re no longer thinking about, ‘How are they doing on their polynomials?’ You’re thinking about, you know, the reality of life.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Indiana School Goes Extra Mile to Help Vulnerable Kids Weather Pandemic published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[stephenmccull]

Indiana School Goes Extra Mile to Help Vulnerable Kids Weather Pandemic

After covid-19 forced Olivia Goulding’s Indiana middle school to switch back to remote learning late last year, the math teacher lost contact with many of her students. So she and some colleagues came up with a plan: visiting them under the guise of dropping off Christmas gifts.

This story also ran on USA Today. It can be republished for free.

One day in December, they set out with cards and candy canes and dropped by the homes of every eighth grader at Sarah Scott Middle School in Terre Haute, a city of more than 60,000 near the Illinois border where both Indiana State University and the federal death row are located. They saw firsthand how these kids, many living in poverty and dysfunctional families, were coping with the pandemic’s disruptions to their academic and social routines.

“You just have a better concept of where they’re coming from and the challenges they really do have,” Goulding said. “When you’re looking at that electronic grade book and Sally Lou hasn’t turned in something, you remember back in your mind: ‘Oh, yeah, Sally Lou was home by herself, taking care of three younger siblings when I stopped by, and I spotted her helping Johnny with his math and she was helping this one with something else.’”

The school’s experience provides a window into the hardships millions of families across the country have endured since last March, and exemplifies why education isn’t the only reason many Americans want schools to fully reopen. Schools like Sarah Scott help hold their communities together by providing households with wide-ranging support, which has become much tougher during the pandemic.

“A lot of our students are struggling emotionally,” said Sarah Scott’s principal, Scotia Brown. “They’re stressed because they’re falling behind in their work. Or they’re stressed because of the conditions they’re living with at home.”

Even before the coronavirus struck, kids at Sarah Scott faced significant obstacles that compounded the normal social challenges and surging hormones of middle school. They live in Vigo County, which has the state’s highest rate of child poverty and high rates of child neglect. Nearly 90% of students qualified for free or reduced-fee lunches. Some showed up needing to shower and change at the school, which has a food pantry that also offers clothes and hygiene products.

Things got more difficult for students when covid threw Sarah Scott’s normal schedule into disarray. Initially, the school went totally remote, then moved to partially in-person for the start of the 2020-21 school year. When covid spiked in October, Sarah Scott went remote again because not enough substitute teachers could fill in for quarantining staff. Since January, students have been spending part of each week in the school building, with no plans as of early March to open fully.

Kids were given laptops to use at home. But internet access can be problematic.

“Internet has been the worst,” said Samantha Riley, mother of seventh grader Mariah Pointer. “So many people are on it, it shuts down all the time.”

When that happens, she uses the Wi-Fi emitting from the school bus that sits in front of her apartment complex, one of several parked around the community to fill the gaps.

Even when the internet works, though, keeping kids on task at home isn’t easy. Heather Raley said she often cries from the stress of trying to make her eighth grade daughter engage online. “It just seems like we’re always butting heads over this,” Raley said. “It’s just a bigger battle getting the work done.”

As in many other communities, students are falling behind academically. Some don’t do any of their e-learning activities. Sarah Scott’s reports to child protective services for educational neglect — when caregivers aren’t getting their children to either in-person or remote classes — have more than tripled this school year.

Brown said she also worries about physical neglect and abuse, which is harder to detect when interacting with students remotely. “If you’re in an abusive home and you have to be there five days out of the week because you’re doing remote learning, you’re in that environment even more,” she said.

More time at home can also mean doing without necessities, including food.

The school helps by offering free breakfasts and lunches for in-person students and to-go lunches on remote days. Sometimes, the principal delivers boxes of groceries to students’ homes. The school recently secured a microwave for one family and an inflatable mattress for a student who’d been sharing a bed with his grandmother.

For some kids, the stress of the pandemic has worsened emotional problems and mental illness. Recently, a former Sarah Scott student who had moved out of state logged into her former teacher’s virtual class to say she planned to kill herself. The school contacted police, who checked on her. Referrals for suicidal students are up fourfold, Brown said.

School social worker Nichelle Campbell-Miller said it’s been tough counseling kids online or through text messages.

“I am all about building relationships and being in person and being able to dap you up or give you a hug and be like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’” she said, using a term for various greetings like fist bumps or elaborate handshakes. “So being online is extremely difficult for me, because you can’t really tell the tone of your student. When I’m talking to you in person, I can read your body language and I can gauge where you’re at.”

Right now, she said, the psychological well-being of her middle schoolers is even more important than education.

Many students, such as eighth grader Trea Johnson, come up against challenges on both fronts. Trea transferred to Sarah Scott two days before covid ended in-person learning.

“We struggle with school anyway,” said his mom, Kathy Poff. “Then when this pandemic came along, it just knocked our feet out from under us.”

His grades plunged. He began to hate school, Poff said. He didn’t attend his daily video meetings with his teachers. His mother fought with him to complete his online assignments.

“I usually get pretty bored,” said Trea, whose long, straight hair sometimes falls over his eyes.

Poff found him a therapist he meets with once a week. She said his mood and academic productivity have improved. He wants to be a computer programmer and has been coding in his spare time lately. She also moved his computer into her bedroom so she could better monitor him and has started paying him to do his schoolwork.

“I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be a 13-year-old going through this pandemic,” said Poff, 51, a single mother. “They’re going through changes anyway, adjusting to adolescence and figuring out who they are, and they don’t even have a social group to figure that out.”

Goulding, the math teacher, said she’s glad she and her co-workers can help provide stability and continuity during this trying period. One recent night, for example, she got a call from a truant boy’s grandmother, who said she was in poor health and raising him alone. The next day, the principal and social worker picked him up and drove him to school.

Still, Goulding lamented not seeing her most vulnerable students on the days when they are remote.

“How do I check on my kids? How do I make sure they’re eating? How do I make sure,” she paused to compose herself, her voice quavering, “they’re safe?

“You’re no longer thinking about, ‘How are they doing on their polynomials?’ You’re thinking about, you know, the reality of life.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Indiana School Goes Extra Mile to Help Vulnerable Kids Weather Pandemic published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/