SFP

Markus

Independent study with Paladin? I’d like to think so.

flame821

I hope so, Paladin seems to have her life/mind a bit more organized and would probably be able to give Allison the guidance she so desperately craves. Not that Moonshadow won’t somehow manage to throw a wrench into the works, whether purposely or not.
- motorfirebox
  
  Well, Paladin is an amazing inventor and mechanic, but her answer to the question of how to fix the world is to teach classes at a college. Which is a good answer, to be sure, but it’s a drop-in-the-bucket answer. And Alison’s opinion on drops and buckets has been explored.
  - Sabriel
    
    Good point, although that is going to be true of every professor, isn’t it?

Charles M. Hagmaier

Yeah, pitchfork the shellshocked MBT-in-the-shape-of-a-coed – complaining about uncertainty, lack of focus, and the need to do something, anything – into something as free-form and airy-fairy as “Independent study”. That totally won’t end in blood, fire, and tears.

Is she going to discover real college at some point, or has she omitted the tide in the affairs of students, and all the voyage of her college life bound in submarxian shallows and po-mo miseries?

Pat

Welcome to our generation’s wasteland. “The Realm of the Worthless Degree.” Of course whatever her degree, she’ll be able to get a lot of good done, sociologically speaking, by trading on her name/rep. That’s why charities go to big celebrities to promote them.

KatherineMW

Allison isn’t going to university to get credentials; she’s there to learn about the world and figure out what she wants to do with her life. A superhero isn’t going to have trouble finding employment, regardless of what her degree is in.

Dave Van Domelen

Naturally, she’ll seek out the professor who hates her guts for this. 😉

Seastone

Ooooh. I did a bunch of independent studies when I was in college and they were such a joy even though I wasn’t a retired superhero. Do it, Alison! I can’t wait to see where this leads.

S.I. Rosenbaum

” pitchfork the shellshocked MBT-in-the-shape-of-a-coed – complaining
about uncertainty, lack of focus, and the need to do something, anything
– into something as free-form and airy-fairy as “Independent study”.

This is exactly what my college experience was like

Emmy

Ooo, I loved independent studies! They’re a great way to end up with two majors, three minors, and $100,000+ in debt.

Markus

Somehow I don’t think Alison will have that third problem.

Arthur Frayn

MBT – Main Battle Tank? Maximum Brake Torque? Mont Blanc Tunnel? Methylbutyltryptamine? Mechanical biological treatment? Malignant brain tumor?

Charles M. Hagmaier

Main Battle Tank, of course. Since the text has been getting increasingly up-front about calling her a “former child-soldier”…

TheGonzoMD .

She should do an independent study on the correlation between being a former superhero and having terrible fashion sense.

Sayakai

Probably a strong one. It’s simple, really – hardly any friends who’d wear normal clothes, and wearing spandex themselves all the time, means no practice. Turns out a fashion sense isn’t something that pops up out of the blue, it needs to be trained and cultivated, and a good deal of it comes from feedback from your peers.

Speaking of which, not many people would tell someone who can punch them to bits without trying (regardless of how plausible them actually doing it is) that their outfit sucks. A lack of criticism means you easily get the wrong impression about how nice your outfit actually is.
- S.I. Rosenbaum
  
  truth. Being a superhero means wearing the same outfit every day.

wanderingdreamer

Aw, I was hoping they’d say something like a service based class where you both learn and have a public service requirement, being out in the rest of the world really does help here!

Mrimm

This guy is the worst at his job.

TheGonzoMD .

I know right?

“I just want to make a difference!”
“Hmmm… pottery?”
- motorfirebox
  
  Hey, it worked for Taran!
  
  (Sorry, been re-reading the Prydain Chronicles for the first time since high school.)
  - John Smith
    
    Taran also studied weaving, sword-smithing, sheep-herding and farming/”luck”. A very well-rounded education! 🙂
    - motorfirebox
      
      Yeah, pretty much the ultimate in ‘independent study’!
Dean

It could be that he hates giving actual guidance, due to his history as a mind-controlled slave, and prefers to just provide options and let the student make up their own mind.
- Mrimm
  
  I mean, maybe? But if so, he has the wrong job.

Arnaldo Iggi Roman

My dad’s college was paid for by the 70s NYC gov law which changed when I got to be that age.

spriteless

Anthropology is a good start dear. It covers things like colonialism, other ways cultures can interact than colonialism, and white people’s superstition that milk is healthy leading to white people shipping large amounts of powdered milk to lactose intolerant peoples.

Jack Lostthenames Warren

Listen, I could see Allison making some killer bowls.

Guilherme Carvalho

Quite literally, really.

Brainstorm

As someone who’s actually taken a pottery class (the course’s actual name was “Ceramics” but details), it was a ton of fun but also, at times, really delicate work. Making a bowl or a cylinder on the wheel takes patience and care and simultaneously delicate grip and firm arm strength.

It’s the “patience” and “delicate grip” bit that make me side-eye the idea of Alison taking the course.

Also I’m imagining her accidentally crushing finished pieces on the day they are due.

Dean

Alison has previously indicated that she worries about accidentally injuring others with her super-strength. Maybe it would be good for her?
- Brainstorm
  
  Ooh, hadn’t thought of it from that angle.

fairportfan

My mother did an Independent Studies-type thingy when she got her PhD at age seventy-five…