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Entry tags:
Kyle & Gaia | School
Kyle takes on the challenge of figuring out how to teach Gaia.
With the summer had come some changes to Gaia’s usual routine at the mansion. There were now expectations. Things she had to do at certain times. Some she didn’t mind, but sitting at the table in the room with Kyle was not one of them.
From her outing with Laura and the events of Prom, she now knew this was a “classroom”, but even before she had avoided the space. It was ominous. Obviously many had been tormented within its four walls.
She looked at the mutant expectantly, an inkling of what he called her here to announce already in her mind.
"You know you don't have to sit at the desk, right?" Kyle came around from behind his and hopped up to sit on the big teacher's desk. "I was at mine because I'm writing Liam some recommendation letters. You get to sit wherever you want." He waved at the beanbag chair in the book nook, and the two plush chairs he'd stolen from one of the lounges. "If you like the desk, great. If you hate the desk, I literally don't care where you sit. Used to have a student who turned into a wolf, we did history lecture with her sprawled out on the floor on the big rug."
Gaia made no move to get up, back straight against the desk chair. "It is fine." She was not the sprawling type. "So my assumptions are correct? I am to start.. school." Not a molecule of her being seemed at all enthused by the prospect.
"Do you want to? Because technically we have alternatives." Kyle offered. "You're in a situation where if schools' not right for you yet, nobody is going to force you. If you need time to acclimate to living in this universe." Why was this now a speech he'd given twice? More than twice if he was counting one more he might have to give, and one that wasn't about school. "Then we find other things for you to do. If you want to learn though, then we make that work."
The mutant seemed to relax minimally. “I have no current desires to go to ‘high school’. It was most unpleasant.” She seemed to ponder for a moment. “I did enjoy the learning however.”
"Okay, well, we can make that happen. Sometimes people like the school setting." Kyle wasn't even sure why Laura did, but that was her call. "And sometimes it's hell. So let’s get you learning, and not stuck with, I dunno, whatever you didn't like about a formal school setting."
Fluorescent lights. Teenage emotions stinking up the place. The short class times. Gaia could go on and on, but chose to just nod instead.
There was another issue though, one that had been bothering her for some time. “I…. I do not know how much I know.. And I still know so little of this world.” She was a fast learner, yes, but there were so many things she didn’t understand. Things that had been lost. “How shall I know where it is appropriate to start?”
"Yeah, you're like, the very definition of non-traditional learner." Kyle agreed. "Easiest assessments are probably math and reading. Like..." He waggled the fingers on one hand. "I can't imagine one two three four five would've changed much for you, same concepts, different words. Reading's kinda the same. That's probably gonna give us a direction for everything else." He reached back and picked up a tablet and stylus to tap out a few notes. "Dropping the Federalist Papers on you won't matter much if you're like "Kyle, what the hell is a federalist and also what's paper?"
He paused. "I know you know paper, and nobody expects you to know what a Federalist is, it's just an example. I also don't expect you to know calculus, but if you do I'm gonna be really impressed because I don't."
Gaia managed a slight smile at that, tension minimizing as the conversation went on. “No, I do not know what a Federalist is.” Calculus she wasn’t so sure on.
“I can read, however. Math…. yes. Some.” Her amalgamation of stolen skills had got her by so far.
"Math, yes, some, is about how I do math. Okay, I gotta be honest, you legit don't fit any of the usual models for education, because usually there's some cultural similarities." Kyle continued to tap on his tablet. "I don't even know how relevant the eval tests are going to be." He looked at Gaia, uncomfortable and awkward - and then cracked his neck, left then right. "Okay, we're gonna do this differently for you. Be honest here, if I handed you a laptop and asked you to take a math and reading eval test, you'd hate it. How do you feel about a really, really alternative approach? I usually use it on way younger kids, who are coming out of real gnarly situations, but there's a concept called unschooling. You find something a student is into, and let that drive the curriculum. So instead of dropping, I dunno, To Kill A Mockingbird on your lap, we let you raid the library, find something that sounds cool, and go from there. Repeat for math, for science, and for history, at least that one I can just start from the dawn of recorded human history. That one's easy, start with okay, so like three hundred thousand years ago, humans evolved."
He paused. "Sorry, that was a lot. Basically, I'm gonna throw out all the tests, drive you to a library, and ask you both to come back with like one book to read for interest, and one that has something you wanna learn how to do. Might recruit Laura to go with, she could use the cultural stuff and life skills too."
The mutants shoulders lifted in a shrug. She had no experience with the traditional schooling path, so an alternative was all the same to her.
“I would like that, I think.” Studying with her friend would make the process all the more enjoyable as well. Kyle’s proposal felt like an easier approach to the mountain of knowledge she had yet to obtain.
"Yeah, nice easy first step to climb. Maybe we get to a traditional syllabus someday, but right now let’s get you over the cultural hump."
“Okay.”
It wasn’t often that Gaia felt self conscious. Out of her depth, maybe. But throughout this conversation it was becoming increasingly apparent how different from her peers she really was, and it made her more uncomfortable than she would ever to admit.
“So it will be a long time before I… ‘graduate’… if ever?” Laura and Liam were doing that this year. Emily would be soon as well. Would she forever be stuck behind her friends?
Kyle waggled a hand. "You're not... god, I hate having to tell you this, but I don't wanna sugar coat it" He raked both hands through his hair. "You're not gonna have a typical high school graduation. But you're also resilient. I entirely do not get what you survived, Marius tried to, like, explain it one night over drinks and nope. Totally noped out on the metaphysics." He paused. There was probably no way she knew that term. "Metaphysics are philosophy. They're the abstract concepts. Time, space, you being both like, a teenager and a couple thousand at the same time. Anyway. We're gonna get you caught up. Just not. This year?"
“I understand.” She supposed she had all the time in the world now. “So, when shall we start?”
With the summer had come some changes to Gaia’s usual routine at the mansion. There were now expectations. Things she had to do at certain times. Some she didn’t mind, but sitting at the table in the room with Kyle was not one of them.
From her outing with Laura and the events of Prom, she now knew this was a “classroom”, but even before she had avoided the space. It was ominous. Obviously many had been tormented within its four walls.
She looked at the mutant expectantly, an inkling of what he called her here to announce already in her mind.
"You know you don't have to sit at the desk, right?" Kyle came around from behind his and hopped up to sit on the big teacher's desk. "I was at mine because I'm writing Liam some recommendation letters. You get to sit wherever you want." He waved at the beanbag chair in the book nook, and the two plush chairs he'd stolen from one of the lounges. "If you like the desk, great. If you hate the desk, I literally don't care where you sit. Used to have a student who turned into a wolf, we did history lecture with her sprawled out on the floor on the big rug."
Gaia made no move to get up, back straight against the desk chair. "It is fine." She was not the sprawling type. "So my assumptions are correct? I am to start.. school." Not a molecule of her being seemed at all enthused by the prospect.
"Do you want to? Because technically we have alternatives." Kyle offered. "You're in a situation where if schools' not right for you yet, nobody is going to force you. If you need time to acclimate to living in this universe." Why was this now a speech he'd given twice? More than twice if he was counting one more he might have to give, and one that wasn't about school. "Then we find other things for you to do. If you want to learn though, then we make that work."
The mutant seemed to relax minimally. “I have no current desires to go to ‘high school’. It was most unpleasant.” She seemed to ponder for a moment. “I did enjoy the learning however.”
"Okay, well, we can make that happen. Sometimes people like the school setting." Kyle wasn't even sure why Laura did, but that was her call. "And sometimes it's hell. So let’s get you learning, and not stuck with, I dunno, whatever you didn't like about a formal school setting."
Fluorescent lights. Teenage emotions stinking up the place. The short class times. Gaia could go on and on, but chose to just nod instead.
There was another issue though, one that had been bothering her for some time. “I…. I do not know how much I know.. And I still know so little of this world.” She was a fast learner, yes, but there were so many things she didn’t understand. Things that had been lost. “How shall I know where it is appropriate to start?”
"Yeah, you're like, the very definition of non-traditional learner." Kyle agreed. "Easiest assessments are probably math and reading. Like..." He waggled the fingers on one hand. "I can't imagine one two three four five would've changed much for you, same concepts, different words. Reading's kinda the same. That's probably gonna give us a direction for everything else." He reached back and picked up a tablet and stylus to tap out a few notes. "Dropping the Federalist Papers on you won't matter much if you're like "Kyle, what the hell is a federalist and also what's paper?"
He paused. "I know you know paper, and nobody expects you to know what a Federalist is, it's just an example. I also don't expect you to know calculus, but if you do I'm gonna be really impressed because I don't."
Gaia managed a slight smile at that, tension minimizing as the conversation went on. “No, I do not know what a Federalist is.” Calculus she wasn’t so sure on.
“I can read, however. Math…. yes. Some.” Her amalgamation of stolen skills had got her by so far.
"Math, yes, some, is about how I do math. Okay, I gotta be honest, you legit don't fit any of the usual models for education, because usually there's some cultural similarities." Kyle continued to tap on his tablet. "I don't even know how relevant the eval tests are going to be." He looked at Gaia, uncomfortable and awkward - and then cracked his neck, left then right. "Okay, we're gonna do this differently for you. Be honest here, if I handed you a laptop and asked you to take a math and reading eval test, you'd hate it. How do you feel about a really, really alternative approach? I usually use it on way younger kids, who are coming out of real gnarly situations, but there's a concept called unschooling. You find something a student is into, and let that drive the curriculum. So instead of dropping, I dunno, To Kill A Mockingbird on your lap, we let you raid the library, find something that sounds cool, and go from there. Repeat for math, for science, and for history, at least that one I can just start from the dawn of recorded human history. That one's easy, start with okay, so like three hundred thousand years ago, humans evolved."
He paused. "Sorry, that was a lot. Basically, I'm gonna throw out all the tests, drive you to a library, and ask you both to come back with like one book to read for interest, and one that has something you wanna learn how to do. Might recruit Laura to go with, she could use the cultural stuff and life skills too."
The mutants shoulders lifted in a shrug. She had no experience with the traditional schooling path, so an alternative was all the same to her.
“I would like that, I think.” Studying with her friend would make the process all the more enjoyable as well. Kyle’s proposal felt like an easier approach to the mountain of knowledge she had yet to obtain.
"Yeah, nice easy first step to climb. Maybe we get to a traditional syllabus someday, but right now let’s get you over the cultural hump."
“Okay.”
It wasn’t often that Gaia felt self conscious. Out of her depth, maybe. But throughout this conversation it was becoming increasingly apparent how different from her peers she really was, and it made her more uncomfortable than she would ever to admit.
“So it will be a long time before I… ‘graduate’… if ever?” Laura and Liam were doing that this year. Emily would be soon as well. Would she forever be stuck behind her friends?
Kyle waggled a hand. "You're not... god, I hate having to tell you this, but I don't wanna sugar coat it" He raked both hands through his hair. "You're not gonna have a typical high school graduation. But you're also resilient. I entirely do not get what you survived, Marius tried to, like, explain it one night over drinks and nope. Totally noped out on the metaphysics." He paused. There was probably no way she knew that term. "Metaphysics are philosophy. They're the abstract concepts. Time, space, you being both like, a teenager and a couple thousand at the same time. Anyway. We're gonna get you caught up. Just not. This year?"
“I understand.” She supposed she had all the time in the world now. “So, when shall we start?”