No matter where in America they are, there are a grand total of three people that have the most influence over the life of any given kid: a marketing bubba, a petty bureaucrat, and a terrified servant.
Let's talk about the marketing bubba first. A kid's life is full of screens. And each and every one of those screens is powered by one thing: advertising. Now, nobody likes ads,and except during the super bowl, nobody likes commercials. But ridiculous amounts of money are put into making them and getting them onto screens, for one simple reason: that's where people's eyes are. There is effectively no way to separate them. The only way the internet or television as we know it operates is either by adverts or buying your way out of adverts (and even that only accomplishes so much). The marketing bubba isn't paying much attention to how that relates to the given kid we mentioned. They probably know some places not to go, thanks to the 80's. But they're looking at the balance sheets, not the individual potential customer.
Then there's the petty bureaucrat. You're only slightly more likely to meet this one than you are the marketing bubba. The PB occupies some spot in a state-level or below government unit, likely CPS, health, or education. PB's aren't malevolent in and of themselves, but they are very risk-adverse. Think of hobbits toting triplicate forms instead of pipeweed. They stay in their holes, never going on any adventures or doing anything unexpected. The best way for them to be sure of that is to make sure that those they track never do anything unexpected either. So anything even remotely risky to any potential kid is locked down, safetied up, or eliminated entirely. Proverbial squeaky wheels or nails that stick up are feared like signs of the apocalypse, for they bring the lawsuit down like the hammer of angry gods.
Which brings us to the terrified servant. You know them as the kid's teachers. Ostensibly they're there to teach the kids in question. How much they can actually achieve is a dice roll that has no bearing on how well they can actually teach, because they have no effective influence on making kids learn. In a complete inversion of Spider-man's Uncle Ben, they have all the responsibility and not a scrap of power. The threat of lawsuits came down on the petty bureaucrat listed above, who took said power out of the hands of the teacher one piece at a time. I can point at NCLB or standardized testing, but the bottom line is we stopped caring whether or not kids learn, so long as they pass. And any teacher attempting to actually hold kids to a standard is either ground down into line or eliminated.
So there we have our everykid's influences: One person trying to sell them things, one person doggedly working to ensure they don't step out of line, and one person terrified into ensuring they never meet the letter of failure, because the substance isn't allowed to matter.
Let's talk about the marketing bubba first. A kid's life is full of screens. And each and every one of those screens is powered by one thing: advertising. Now, nobody likes ads,and except during the super bowl, nobody likes commercials. But ridiculous amounts of money are put into making them and getting them onto screens, for one simple reason: that's where people's eyes are. There is effectively no way to separate them. The only way the internet or television as we know it operates is either by adverts or buying your way out of adverts (and even that only accomplishes so much). The marketing bubba isn't paying much attention to how that relates to the given kid we mentioned. They probably know some places not to go, thanks to the 80's. But they're looking at the balance sheets, not the individual potential customer.
Then there's the petty bureaucrat. You're only slightly more likely to meet this one than you are the marketing bubba. The PB occupies some spot in a state-level or below government unit, likely CPS, health, or education. PB's aren't malevolent in and of themselves, but they are very risk-adverse. Think of hobbits toting triplicate forms instead of pipeweed. They stay in their holes, never going on any adventures or doing anything unexpected. The best way for them to be sure of that is to make sure that those they track never do anything unexpected either. So anything even remotely risky to any potential kid is locked down, safetied up, or eliminated entirely. Proverbial squeaky wheels or nails that stick up are feared like signs of the apocalypse, for they bring the lawsuit down like the hammer of angry gods.
Which brings us to the terrified servant. You know them as the kid's teachers. Ostensibly they're there to teach the kids in question. How much they can actually achieve is a dice roll that has no bearing on how well they can actually teach, because they have no effective influence on making kids learn. In a complete inversion of Spider-man's Uncle Ben, they have all the responsibility and not a scrap of power. The threat of lawsuits came down on the petty bureaucrat listed above, who took said power out of the hands of the teacher one piece at a time. I can point at NCLB or standardized testing, but the bottom line is we stopped caring whether or not kids learn, so long as they pass. And any teacher attempting to actually hold kids to a standard is either ground down into line or eliminated.
So there we have our everykid's influences: One person trying to sell them things, one person doggedly working to ensure they don't step out of line, and one person terrified into ensuring they never meet the letter of failure, because the substance isn't allowed to matter.
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