Schooling

Do you know this feeling? There are a couple of kinds of books that I’m just tired of. Assassins and pirates, they no longer excite me. Sadly, I’m getting to the same point with books about magical or superhero schools. I know it’s a result of being a school worker, but so many authors seem to have no understanding about how schools work.

Believe it or not, there are laws about education. These laws state that special populations (super kids/magical kids) have civil rights. They should have individual education plans that address how their special abilities are trained.

School is not jail. (I know the students will sometimes disagree.) Headmasters/principals cannot snatch kids away and confine them for years, denying contact with their birth family. Even orphans have other relatives. And their relatives also have civil rights. Families must be consulted regarding their child’s education.

Schools should not subject students to violent or extreme training, including contests to the death. Schools should not make them into any sort of soldier. (Or superhero.) Recruiting children into the military is a war crime. Who knew!

Now let’s talk about the teachers in these books. This might seem dumb, but the teachers should have valid credentials. A lot of the time, the teachers are random random superheroes, or mages, or military officers, or even other students. In one series, which I otherwise adored, there were no teachers at all. The school was sentient enough to do the teaching. (And the student body was very traumatized, because no one was there to guide them.)

Speaking of student bodies — and I am not kidding you — the teachers should not have passionate love affairs with their students! (Do I seriously need to explain this?)

My husband laughs at me when I exclaim over how bad some of these fictional schools are. “It’s in a fantasy world. Their rules are different.” (The book was set in Pennsylvania.) Somehow I think that, even in a fantasy world, the families would expect their children to be safe and come back mentally well.

Also, education is not a fantasy. We educators are already being accused of so much stuff. Indoctrination, grooming, you name it. It feels like these school books are part of normalizing the propaganda against our profession.

So this is my appeal to fellow writers. Before you write a school book, educate yourself in our best practices. Find out about education law in the state/country/dimension where your book is set. IDEA, FERP, SEL, Inclusion, even Kelso and his choices. If you can’t bother learning about our profession, then please find a different setting for your violent, abusive, child-snatching story.

Like, just make it in a fantasy prison instead of a school. There you go — a whole new genre!

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