#alternative school

[lolhiloll]

i tripped infront of a group of kids at my school earlier this week, i haven’t been to school since and i have to go tomorrow i’m gonna cry out of embarrassment oh my god

[theincediblesulk]

Hello all, as many of you know, I am a teacher. I teach students who have big behaviors and have never really liked school. Many of the kiddos in my classroom cannot read or have minimal reading skills. One thing I've learned over the years is that many of the students are more willing to explore books and reading choices when they feel welcome and comfortable.

For this reason, I am trying to raise money to put together a new reading area in my classroom. In the past the reading area has been the built in shelves and a carpet with a cushion and some reading buddies, however many of my students struggle to find books they are interested in because there is no room for book bins and therefore, there is no clear system for finding books. There are also books that students are unable to reach due to lack of space on the lower shelves.

My goal is to create a whole new reading area for the students with book bins, lower shelves, and a clear system to find books that might interest them. There is a link attached to this post that will take you to the donation page. If you are not able to donate, please share this post so that others can see it.

Thank you.

Classroom Reading Nook, a project from Ms. Wegley

Help me give my students a new space in the classroom that will create a lifelong love for reading and learning. Reading can open gateways t

[voidoftheotherside]

You know you’ve lived a weird life when the absurd gag in a comedy anime is something that happened at your school that you were involved with

Yes seriously. we had a floor panel that we could pull up and hide in the area under. Not even the weirdest thing to happen there

[ashtrayangels]

[foldedchip]

Going to college has informed me of how strictly I was treated as a middle/high school student who had mental health conditions. I knew at the time that I was treated strictly, even harshly by some staff members, but it’s another thing to actually experience the difference.

I used to have frequent panic attacks as a kid, usually due to OCD or autism, and my school directly made it worse and worse. Today in class, I had a panic attack, went outside the classroom, and just stayed in one spot until it was over. I felt like I was going to explode, my thoughts had gone out of control and I felt terrified, I didn’t want anyone’s eyes on me, I wanted quiet, so I just moved outside to an environment where I could calm down in silence. No harm done at all. No one batted an eye when they walked past me, even if it looked a little strange for an adult to be sitting with their knees to their chest for twenty minutes. I was treated with more grace as an adult than I was as a child/teenager.

As I came back to myself, I kept thinking about what this used to be like in middle and high school, and how I wasn’t always afforded the freedom to get through such a debilitating experience in an effective way. Some of my teachers were better than others, they would let me step into the hallway, write me a note if I was going to be late for my next class, or re-explain instructions to me if I had missed them. They knew I was struggling but doing the best I could, they put a little trust in me (which I never ever took advantage of), and they were understanding without giving me special treatment. I’m grateful to them. Other teachers said I wasn’t allowed to leave unless it was to go the nurse’s office, but as a kid, I was scared to go there and just wanted to calm down. Several teachers gave me poor participation grades just because I sometimes had to leave the room with a panic attack. I only had a thirty minute lunch period, and only a ten-minute window to actually get a meal to eat. The cafeteria was overwhelming and the opposite kind of environment that would calm me down, so I missed lunch several times because I was having an attack and couldn’t eat until I went home. If I missed lunch, too bad, I wasn’t allowed to eat in their classroom. Sometimes they would only give me five minutes outside the room before forcing me back in with the others. These conditions made my OCD grow out of control, it made the panic attacks come back again and again, nearly every day, causing the situation to get exponentially worse. I was an eleven-year-old in my first year of middle school (or, during the second round of panic attacks, a sixteen-year-old in my first year of high school), and I was constantly well-behaved. I followed the rules perfectly, I was always very polite and respectful, but some of my teachers treated me like a troublemaker that they couldn’t trust out of their sight. Even if I had acted up a lot, I still should have been afforded some understanding. When I was twelve and I dropped out of school, guess what happened? The panic attacks stopped overnight. When I was sixteen and I went home for winter break, guess what? The panic attacks ended overnight. As it turns out, mentally ill students can actually have a chance at managing their conditions when they feel secure in their environment and are not treated like a prisoner (and that is not to say that I don’t support criminals’ rights.) I will always advocate for alternative schooling options so that every kid can get an education in a way that’s actually effective for them, as well as special education and other support programs in schools. I want people to support quality virtual school systems, because they’re not just a write-off for students who got expelled, they’re for any student who doesn’t go to a public or private building school, for any reason.

[cringefail-loser]

As a high school student attending a therapeutic (alternative) school in America, I've noticed a lot of misconceptions regarding them. I wanted to make this post so people have a clearer understanding of them, and if you're planning on attending one, ease any fears you make have about doing so.

*(note that I will be using therapeutic school(s)/alternative school(s) interchangeably)

**(also note that some of these are from personal experience)

"You don't have to do work at alternative schools" This is the biggest one I've noticed, especially spread on TikTok. This is just... blatantly untrue. Even during summer programs, you've got to do schoolwork and homework (although homework is pretty uncommon). We're not just sitting around playing games and scrolling on our phones and drawing; we have things to do.

"You can't get a high school diploma at a therapeutic school" Just like regular American public schools, you can graduate and get into colleges normally. I've had people who don't do well in public school settings tell me that they "don't want to attend a therapeutic school, because they want to graduate normally". (To be honest, I take a little bit of offense to this, since it kind of implies I'm just getting away with being lazy... which brings me to my next point)

"Kids at alternative schools are lazy or stupid". To put it bluntly, kids at alternative schools aren't lazy or stupid. Alternative schools are easy for us in the same way public school is easy for you. Most kids in public schools are able to get work done, come to class, participate, and get good grades. Kids at alternative schools don't do well in these aspects at public schools, therapeutic schools make doing these things possible.

"All kids attending therapeutic schools are delinquents" Nope! Many (possibly even most) kids go to these schools simply because they have a hard time doing their work. Despite the name, therapeutic schools aren't just for kids with anger issues.

"Kids at alternative schools have intellectual disabilities" While it is true that some kids at therapeutic schools have intellectual disabilities, not all of them do. Most are there for other reasons.

"Alternative schools are very lonely" Not at all, actually. I've actually had an easier time making friends at my therapeutic schools than I have at public schools, and they tend to be more supportive and understanding than people at my old school

"Alternative school means you've failed at life" Even if this were true, these types of schools would help you pick yourself back up from rock bottom and start from the top. It's like a brand new page in a book, or even a whole new story.

I hope this helped some people have a better understanding of alternative/therapeutic schools :) If you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask!!

[dreamershoals]

oogh. life update + brief system ramblings

i can't believe i'm starting at an alternative school tomorrow! like, holy shit. it's a new environment, for sure — it got me immensely overwhelmed to the point where i started crying. but they have therapy dogs there, a short schedule (by 2 hours, but also i don't move rooms at all during the day), and i won't be able to even bring my phone or disposable vapes onto the campus. they can tell if i do with the metal detector placed in the entrance. but this is way better for me, even if i can't smoke in the bathrooms and spam my mom's number when i get stressed. i have a million problems with public school and how it works, so i guess this is a welcome change. my mom even raised the idea of a hybrid schedule — me being home on wednesdays specifically — if i get too stressed with being in a different school. does anyone have, like. tips for accepting being newly enrolled in an american alternative school? specifying american because i don't really know if they're the same everywhere else. i don't know what my new classes would be, and if they're even the same.

i just know that if i don't go for 75% of the remaining days in the semester, i'll be automatically enrolled back in my normal high school. but i really want to give this alternative schooling thing a try. it might give me a chance to graduate

— in other news... we have a shadow milk cookie fictive (who i will be calling milk for simplicity). yeah. i swear to god he is in love with my boyfriend's pure vanilla introject, who i'll just call by aer nickname, sol — sol's pronouns are he/ae/shy, by the way. i swear to GOD milk is down bad for him. and i almost feel bad 😭 i feel like i'm making milk do this? but i'm not. bro is doing it out of his own volition. milk KNOWS of the shadowvanilla ships. he is probably a shipper himself and just doesn't want to admit it. i just feel almost guilty that poor sol is just seeing this strangely canon-compliant (or at least extremely similar to canon personality) shadow milk take a liking to ae after, in aer source memories, tormenting him. however my boyfriend told me that shy is doing his best to be impartial about it, and i commend ae for it. good job. clap clap clap clap also shadow milk fuck you. you're probably going to pop back into front or at least co-con for a brief few seconds to say some random jester shit to me like Oh My God i Get It you're a faggot and you won't admit it. shut up faggot.

[catofthenine]

Gibbet Hill: Ham Stroker's New Publishing & Critique

Hey Ghouls! wake up new Bram Stoker!

I'm probably the last one to know, but a new short story by Bram Stoker has been uncovered from the archives! (Archival documents make me so happy)

SPOILERS BE AHEAD! If you have not gotten a chance to consume this piece of media, you can listen to it here. I couldn't find a written format, so this is the way I consumed it!

The audiobook I linked is really well done, although I would not pronounce 'gibbet' like that- maybe I'm just American, but it sounds too much like 'giblet'.

Shout out to Brian Cleary for discovering this 134 year old document! Almost as old as myself!

CW: I will be talking about racist and objectifying themes. I am also oversimplifying a lot of this because this is Tumblr, so feel free to add onto this!

ANYWAYS. Here's my review!

This story was decently entertaining, especially with the novelty on this new discovery! This ghost story was entertaining to listen to as I did my makeup this morning. The minor sexism at the end over the Wife was so over the top I found it amusing; "What should I do, husband!!". I enjoyed the plot a whole lot, I didn't find it too scary, but also I almost never find media scary. I also found like this magical-supernatural element really intriguing, and the snake part was cool (also sad).

Within I want to say the first third of the story, Stoker makes some racist comments. I believe he says something like "If these Indian girls were of European descent, they would be around 13, but because they are Indian, they are likely much younger." erm weirdo alert...?

This is seriously racist, objectifying, dehumanizing, among many other things. This is unfortunately very common in gothic literature- and none of these kinds of details are ever pertinent to the story! Like ever! I suppose that within a antique lens it's like a trope, comparatively Carmilla also had this similar thing.

You can make an argument that this is like, "of the time", and that this way of thinking is a product of the culture, but that's not the purpose of this post, maybe one day I'll do some kind of cool social-historical analysis, but not right now. For this post, I want to focus about how this effects the current day-- I'm not a historian!

How I consume gothic media with a critical lens:

Because a lot of our "classics" contain horrible stuff, it's incredibly important that we are anti-racist, call out the racism in gothic literature, and are open to stories that break barriers and stuff like that (I know that some stories regarding the harm of minorities are deemed "not scary enough" because we are so desensitized to this type of harm within western culture.) I'd say that we can be desensitized to harm against women as well, it is different however because that desensitization is inherently rooted to the objectification and sexualization of women. ESPECIALLY the sexualization of violence against women. But that's a little off topic for this post.

So, when we look at Ham Stroker's Gibbet Hill or any gothic media, we have to really like think of it in an oppositional way, and have that be an element besides our enjoyment. Or, I suppose, when we come across these uncomfortable plots we shouldn't be clutching our pearls at it- but we shouldn't also become desensitized to it.

I guess I don't actually care if you want to cross out/otherwise ignore the slurs or racist comments in books like Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite, but to ignore like this major horrible thing is entirely against what we as a subculture stand for.

Music Reccomendation: Voodoo Voodoo by LaVern Baker

You can come at me and say this isn't goth music but I'd argue that it's the earliest predecessor! Voodoo Voodoo was published before Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I Put a Spell on You, which it seems everybody and their mom seems to claim was the first song with 'gothic lyricism'. I also feel that this style of music was the predecessor for many gothabilly/spooky rockabilly music of the 60s and 70s.

As always, Thanks for Reading!

-Cat (Catofthenine)