I remember hearing a story on NPR not too long ago that some social scientist did a study that determined that one of the main qualities of successful people was something they termed “grit”. The ability to dust off and jump back in when shit gets tough. I know that 9 out of 10 of those human-interest-fodder studies…

Bet dollars to donuts they complain about “that terrible movie” to their parent friends and also blame the media when their precious angel babies turn into assholes.

Yeah, mr. grump and I are taking a break from The Wire right now for that reason. Season 4, the one centered on kids, is fucking tough to take.

Is it worse kinja to ask why they left?

I was worried I was going to get torn apart for my post, but it’s heartening to hear from other people who understand what I was trying to say and also agree. It frosts me when I hear one kid call another a bully in a joking way—that shit’s just not funny, and shouldn’t be tossed around like it’s nothing.

There’s a happy medium, though. I get that they might not have been happy if you sat her down in front of Nightmare on Elm Street, but Disney is fully manageable for most kids. C’mon...

I think you’re on to something!

Yeah, the kids that I teach are intelligent, but some are incredibly unable to function in any kind of adverse circumstance. Kids can be real dicks to each other, and obvi that should be addressed and dealt with, but I’m happy to hear that others are also seeing the need to kids to have some grit in order to be…

Exactly! It’s getting tossed around a lot, and it worries me that overuse undermines the seriousness of it. People who have truly been bullied, like you have, shouldn’t be lumped into a category with a one-time tiff between classmates.

So Gryffindor’s modern crest needs a GoPro on it. What modern symbol would go on the other crests?

That’s a good point. Binge-watching makes it a lot easier to get sick of the neuroses and inconsistencies in a show, and it makes the formulaic ones SO much harder to take. I’ll have to revisit some of the better ones as time goes on

Totally with you on GOT. Also read the books and was really jazzed at first, but now with all the bizarre wildlings stuff and Danaerys’ white savior complex I’m just over it. Don’t hate it, just don’t care. Glad to know there are others out there in the same boat!

Ravenclaw for lyfe. I’m busy thinking and being right about trivia. Get out of here with your bravery, loyalty, and devious plotting!

Potentially polarizing question here: what’s our feeling on the use of the term “bullying”? I am a teacher and I’m finding that more and more students and families are using the term for situations that (in my opinion) don’t always warrant it. A student borrowing an eraser without asking and then returning it isn’t…

I feel like I have the opposite pattern. I’ll be madly in love with a show and binge-watching it like crazy, until I have some sort of breaking moment and then suddenly I just don’t feel like turning on another episode. It’s happened with Gilmore Girls, Dexter, Medium, Supernatural, Friday Night Lights, and myriad…

We’ll get there some day

You win the greys.

Maybe she wasn’t the only one..