Conversation one [Tag Professor Wright] on Aladren Commons

Quillan Arcadius

December 27, 2022 7:04 PM

Conversation one [Tag Professor Wright] by Quillan Arcadius

It was probably better to do this sooner rather than later. The ‘probably’ made Quillan hesitate slightly… If this went wrong, he was in a cauldron of hot water so deep he didn’t think he could get out. His ninety percent assurance that it wasn’t going to go wrong was reassuring but not complete. But the alternative was living with the perpetual fear of being caught—of having his needs uncovered and revealed to him on someone else’s agenda, and with it the possibility of accusations of cheating. This was his best shot at a reasonable conversation that had the outcome he needed.

And if he blew it, or if they weren’t receptive, he had no idea how to handle things going forward.

He tried not to think about that as he knocked on Professor Wright’s door, from the corridor side, and went in when he was called.

“Good evening, sir,” he began, inclining his head politely and only taking his seat once he was instructed to do so. He sat, making sure to mind his posture and to keep his hands clasped neatly in his lap so that he wouldn’t fidget. “I wanted to check something about school policy with you—the, uh, use of dictation quills when doing homework,” he said. His voice, which had sounded polished and presentable in the first half of his sentence stumbled slightly as he got to the second part. “I don’t mean ones that embellish my ideas or anything. The work would be all my own. But I have the most dreadful handwriting, and no one needs to suffer through trying to read that… My tutor at home, she always said she wanted to test my thinking not my penmanship—and I know that both are important, and I will try to keep improving it, but in the meantime, I just want people to be able to read what I’m writing and I—” He realised he was running out of both breath and ideas and paused to gather both. The arguments which had been so clear in his head when he’d rehearsed them felt like they’d come out as rather a mess. “It would be all my own work. Right down to taking down every ‘um’ and ‘er’ though of course I’d try my best to edit those out—it’s not actually that easy doing it to dictation, it’s…” It’s a skill in itself. But that sounded either foolish or arrogant now and he dismissed it. It’s not cheating… That wasn’t up to him to decide. “I brought my quills. You can inspect them if you like. If you think it might be okay?” he added.

13 Quillan Arcadius Conversation one [Tag Professor Wright] 1570 1 5

Grayson Wright

January 14, 2023 8:24 PM

An important one, no doubt. by Grayson Wright

He'd have to get on with figuring out how to be unproductive sometime, but for a few days, at least, the problem could be put on the back burner. The first days of school were not exactly the most paperwork intensive part of the year, but after a couple of months of getting out of the usual practice, the paperwork seemed to take longer than usual during them, somehow. It wasn’t a purely subjective idea, either – the clock seemed to support it, as far as Gray could tell, though he admittedly hadn’t taken the time to gather actual data to support this idea. It was just a general impression.

In any case, he was near to completing the daily portion when there was a knock on the door, which was mildly interesting, this early in the year. “Come in,” he called to whoever it was, which signaled the door to allow the visitor to do so.

It was one of his first years – the easiest of the three to distinguish, as he was both the only blond and the only one with a name which hadn’t previously appeared around the school with some regularity. Not, of course, that it was a great challenge to learn to tell the other two apart, either, or to tell one of those two from his thankfully-fraternal twin in Crotalus. There were advantages to a small student population…He returned the greeting and invited Quillan Arcadius to sit down, unconsciously adjusting his posture to seem as unimposing as possible. It was a trick he’d picked up with Evelyn and Xavier, but it seemed appropriate to dealing with first years as well, most of the time.

Quillan still sounded nervous, and his ideas came out in a rush. Under the circumstances, this seemed understandable. He contemplated the issue, which wasn’t one he’d thought of often since Tatiana Vorontsova. Her sister and brother had both arrived at school speaking and writing English significantly better than she had, somehow, and it was difficult to forget that incident with Dorian Montoir over his ‘souerette….’

“Well,” he said, once it seemed Quillan had nothing else to add, or at least no more air to add it with. “Your tutor had an excellent point – your ideas are, are the essential thing. And I know all about dictation not being easier than other forms of expressing them,” he added with a faint smile. He’d tried that a time or two, but found it much harder to compose at any length that way. Talking and writing were fairly distinct skills, as witness…his entire life, really. “As for your notes and your home, homework, we’re hardly going to monitor anyone to see what kind of quills they’re using – if there was a suspicion that your work seemed like it might have been altered magically to improve it, you might be asked to answer questions about the subject verbally or to do a similar assignment in another context, but that’s rare – usually that would only happen, if at all, after we’d had a while to learn how you usually respond and then saw something very unusual.”

“As for exams, though…well, to take written exams that way, you’d need to make special arrangements anyway.” It would be hard to say what anyone’s original work was if people were talking through their extended responses out loud, plus many would find it difficult to concentrate under such circumstances. “We try to be accommodating about such things, of course.” He had trouble imagining many students volunteering to take their exams off-schedule and under closer scrutiny, much less Aladrens, so if one did, there was presumably a reason for it. “But the final decision would most likely lie with Professor Skies. I can speak to her about this, if you like?” It was not as though he and Selina were unaccustomed to working together at this point, even with Xavier now primarily Giselle’s responsibility, so it would be easy enough to do that, he imagined, before the first years had to worry about much in the way of written exams.

16 Grayson Wright An important one, no doubt. 113 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

January 15, 2023 3:19 PM

And maybe one of several... by Quillan Arcadius

The 'well' hung uncomfortably in the air for a second. Quillan had drawn in air when he found himself running out of it, but now he tried not to breathe too obviously as he waited for his fate. A grin of relief flashed across his face as Professor Wright showed every sign of agreeing with Ms. Faulk. There was a possibility of being called out, which made his skin itch. But Professor Wright seemed to be more quoting a general policy than saying he foresaw that happening. "Are you saying that's no more likely to happen to me than to anyone else? Because I'm being compared to myself more than anyone else to determine irregularities - and you already know why my classwork and homework might look different to each other?" he clarified. He rolled the things Professor Wright had said round his brain a few more times. "I mean, my classwork and my homework might look very different to each other," he admitted, seeing as Professor Wright did seem sympathetic and they'd already talked about that anyway - that was, essentially, the main problem. "But not because I'm cheating or because it's easier with the dictaquill, it's just... Well, it is easier for me. I get to do it in the way that suits me, and that means I do better. My best when I'm writing by hand is nowhere near my best because I spend all this energy fighting through how hard that is."

He grimaced at the mention of exams. Worksheets and the threat of pop quizzes were his current nemeses, but the idea of struggling through a full exam, where it really mattered for his grades and his future, and being judged only by what he could communicate by hand writing things... He was pretty sure that was the stuff boggarts were made of.

Exams were a long way off but he suspected official processes to be an exception were time consuming to get, if at all achievable... The thought of having to sit his exams separately to his peers was embarrassing but the lesser evil compared to failing. Perhaps he could melodramatically break his hand in Quidditch practice right before, as a valid reason for stepping out and using dictation?

"It's probably worth talking to her sooner rather than later, just in case..." he admitted, looking like he was being forced to swallow bubatuber pus. "Do you know what kinds of things would I need to get special arrangements?" he asked. "Like... A doctor's note or a.... a diagnosis of something? Or can you just decide it?"

OOC: My guess for that based off my own knowledge is that internal tests can be more flexible and done however the teacher feels is best, but national exams would be stricter and need more evidence, though also... It's the magical world and they don't have as much policy on this so they might just be willing to hand wave things with common sense/physical evidence (e.g. his terrible writing) and it may also vary by state and depending on who you ask. Feel free to leave vagueness and wiggle room or tell him you just don't know.

13 Quillan Arcadius And maybe one of several... 1570 0 5

Grayson Wright

February 01, 2023 3:23 PM

Possibly, but it'll work out. by Grayson Wright

Professor Wright smiled approvingly and nodded when Quillan accurately summarized his point back to him. "Yes, that's it, exactly," he said. "Not just appearance, of course - though it does help to know ahead of time that there might be a discrepancy - but also ideas and style. Since we - the teachers, I mean - will know about the appearance issue ahead of time, it's no more likely to happen to you than anyone else."

He nodded again, this time with sympathy, when Quillan explained why his method worked best for him. "I...well, I may not understand, since it's not an issue I've dealt with myself, but I see what you, you mean. The important part isthat you learn, and that we can assess how much you've learned. CATS and RATS are a bit more complicated, but that's a long time away. For now, it's largely our job to figure out what works so you can do your best."

If they could just manage to figure out a way to do that without drawing undue attention to the boy, though, that would be better. He could just be given oral exams, but that would have to be done separately...as usual, he found himself looking to his own subject for solutions first, but wasn't too sure the first thing that popped into his head could actually be done. A matter to look into later, he supposed, after he finished this conversation, scheduled a meeting with Selina....

"Teachers here usually set our own tests, so that should be easy enough to work out at a staff meeting," he said. "Professor Skies would usually have the final decision on accommodations we all agree to follow, though, so yes, better to speak with her sooner than later." He felt faint guilt about how glad he was not to be the one who had to make final calls as a rule, especially since he knew he'd immediately get irritated if he didn't like calls that were imposed on him; there were a lot of reasons why Selina liaised with MACUSA on the special cases and he did not, but the one for why he'd never volunteer for that particular job involved his opinion on said governing body's collective intelligence ever since, at the very latest, the time a particularly bone-headed call of theirs had resulted in him coming within a centimeter of using a word that rhymed with 'duck' in front of a student. "Could you write down your old tutor's name, please? In case Professor Skies wants to consult her. Ah - thank you for taking the, the initiative and bringing this to us before it could become a problem," he added warmly. "This should make everything much easier for everyone overall.

16 Grayson Wright Possibly, but it'll work out. 113 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

February 03, 2023 1:19 AM

I hope so by Quillan Arcadius

Professor Wright seemed to be willing to forgive appearance discepencies, though the point about content felt just as likely to trip Quillan up. The slow, resentful work he produced by hand rarely had the depth of ideas that his dictated work did. The energy and focus that went into trying to cajole his spelling into behaving meant that he couldn't keep his train of thought. He supposed, if he used the tactic of letting his handwriting flow across the page, hiding all his spelling errors, then he might produce comparable levels. But he suspected that no one would be able to read it to verify that, potentially including himself. Still, Professor Wright was being more than gracious and he was out of the bravery required for further clarifications, lest he be considered ungrateful or to be splitting hairs. It sounded like it would be fine? Ish? Hopefully.

The rest of what Professor Wright had to say was more reassuring. It's about learning. It's our job to help you do your best. That sounded a lot like how Ms. Faulk talked to him, and he could see why she'd had faith in this place.

Following this was something that made his heart sink and then soar in quick succession. First, came the instruction to write something down. With Ms. Faulk, he understood that directions to 'read' or 'write' universally meant 'take in this information' and 'make a note of this' or 'compose' regardless of what verb she actually used - she had got into the habit of using the latter two to replace 'write' though they had never found quite so succinct an equivalent for 'read.' But, however much Professor Wright was proving to be accepting, Quillan wasn't quite sure how much leeway he was allowed in interpreting that request.

"You're welcome. Thank you for being accommodating," he said, dealing with the easy part first. He wondered if he could pretend not to have a quill on him, though he had already admitted he did, and there would be no shortage of writing implements for the professor to push towards him. He was ninety percent sure he would get it right. Names we're important, and even if she had never insisted he drilled hers into his head, he had wanted to get it right and made pains to memorise it. But that certainty was shrinking with being placed on the spot. "It's Ms. Faulk," he replied, hoping that came off as mild inattention to the actual direction - a fairly terrible fault but it couldn't be helped. He tried to shake the feeling that this was a deliberate test. "It might already be in my file. I believe she got my parents to sign a note giving you permission to correspond with her about my academic progress if needed."

13 Quillan Arcadius I hope so 1570 0 5

Grayson Wright

February 20, 2023 11:53 PM

I have yet to be completely wrong about these things. by Grayson Wright

There was a note in the file. Notes! Signed! Quillan and his parents were firmly placed on the list of Good students and parents, who did not make Professor Wright wish to run away into the desert, never to be seen again, rather than make a completely independent call on something that didn't make him irate enough to want to do violence. He knew it was more than a little disgraceful to be in his mid-forties and still fret as much as he did over such things, but he had learned to accept that maybe hiding this tendency from students was the only reasonable goal he could really expect to even firmly set for addressing it, never mind actually meet. He took his odds of meeting said goal on a day-to-day basis, but was never gratuitously optimistic about it.

"Excellent," he said with a smile. What he had actually said and why it had not been the correct thing to say would not occur to him for another three hours. He blamed the delight over the prospect of documentation and interventions already existing, rather than being made up as he went along, for it, however little good that did when it would certainly be highly improper to offer that as an explanation to a student. "That should be very helpful in getting everything set up. Is there anything else for now?"

16 Grayson Wright I have yet to be completely wrong about these things. 113 0 5