Line #31 PlayingWith/SuckySchool


1	'''Basic Trope''': An underfunded, poorly-performing, poorly-maintained school.
2	* '''Straight''': Troperville Public Schools have crumbling walls, falling-apart textbooks that have been in use since TheEighties, overcrowded classrooms full of overstimulated kids, underpaid teachers (gross amounts of [[{{Jerkass}} asshole-ery]] optional) and gross school lunches. The playground equipment is old and rusty. TeenPregnancy is rampant, as are [[DrugsAreBad drugs]] and [[{{Delinquents}} gangs]], so many students [[TragicDropout don't even graduate]] HighSchool.
3	* '''Exaggerated''':
4	** The building has ''completely'' collapsed, and so classes are held outdoors even in the worst weather. The school doesn't even serve lunches, and the textbooks are the ones from TheFifties. And not only are the teachers underpaid, they aren't even paid at all; they're either volunteers, or college students/recent graduates doing an unpaid internship. The playground equipment is not only rusty and old, it's crumbling and falling apart. Many students don't even graduate JuniorHigh, because they get pregnant and/or [[HarmfulToMinors die]] from getting mixed up with drugs and gangs.
5	** BoardingSchoolOfHorrors
6	* '''Downplayed''': The textbooks are from the TurnOfTheMillennium, and the teachers could probably be paid more.
7	* '''Justified''':
8	** Tropestan funds its public schools primarily through property taxes. Troperville is one of those towns where property values aren't all that high for whatever reason(s), and/or where there are far more renters than homeowners.
9	** Westville is becoming, if it hasn't already become, a ghost town… the penny pinchers at the Tropestan Department of Education see no reason to keep Westville Elementary afloat under such conditions.
10	** The school exists only to teach children the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, because that's all they're going to need if they're going to be working in mines or factories, or becoming [[{{Housewife}} housewives]].
11	** Funding for schools in Tropestan is dependent on the students' collective/average scores on standardized tests. For one reason or another, the students aren't doing so well on them, and so [[ViciousCycle less funding is given to a "failing" school]]. It also doesn't help that the teachers are now forced to "teach to the test"- that is, teach students how to take the test, and what they'll need to know for the test, rather than teaching anything useful, and thus many teachers are burned out and jaded.
12	** The work is set JustBeforeTheEnd: civilization is falling apart before everyone's eyes, and the education system only exists as a formality to cling onto whatever's left of their past lives. Both teachers and students are too concerned about their survival - [[ApatheticCitizens if even that]] - to focus on education.
13	** The local MayorPain is deliberately withholding funding from public schools so that parents will be forced to send their kids to the expensive private schools if they want a proper education. The owners of said private schools [[CorruptPolitician are major donors to the Mayor, of course]].
14	* '''Inverted''': Troperville Public Schools have newly-renovated and well-maintained buildings complete with a MysteriousTeachersLounge for the faculty and staff, and beautifully manicured gardens. All of the teachers have excellent pay and benefits, the school lunches are made with only fresh, high-quality, organic, farm-to-table ingredients, the textbooks are updated every year, and the playground is newly built. Drugs, gangs, and teen pregnancy are straight up non-existent, and pretty much all the students graduate. Not only that, but everyone is part of TheBeautifulElite.
15	* '''Subverted''': Troperville Public Schools seem to be doing all right.
16	* '''Double Subverted''': The textbooks are old and falling apart, and the teachers have a HighTurnoverRate because of the low pay.
17	* '''Parodied''': The school board gives the school an FMinusMinus.
18	* '''Zig Zagged''': The portrayal of Troperville Public Schools alternates DependingOnTheWriter
19	* '''Averted''':
20	** No one goes to school in this setting.
21	** Everyone is homeschooled.
22	** The school is average.
23	* '''Enforced''':
24	** The author is appealing to the childish hatred of school.
25	** The author did not have a good time in school.
26	** The work is intended to address the problems with a particular place's education system.
27	** This is a SaveOurStudents plot: the school ''needs'' to suck [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality in order for the story to work]].
28	* '''Lampshaded''': "My school is a terrible place to be."
29	* '''Invoked''': ???
30	* '''Exploited''':
31	** The heroes recruit kids from this school, knowing that they will find dissatisfied students wanting to be taken away.
32	** The local BarbaricBully JerkJock Flash Young makes himself the Head Boy of Troperville High, through excelling at the frankly depressing education system, to managing to bang as much girls (and teachers!) as he wants.
33	* '''Implied''': As the camera shows the exterior of Troperville High, the soundtrack switches to the opening riffs of [[BadToTheBone Guns and Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle", Juster's "Boom Boom Boom", Alice Cooper's "School's Out"]] or a similar "[[UrbanHellscape this is a hellhole]]" StandardSnippet.
34	* '''Defied''': When the school starts to go downhill, the school board intervenes and increases funding and staff to prevent things from deteriorating. All deficient teachers are also given a warning and the SadistTeacher is fired outright.
35	* '''Discussed''': ???
36	* '''Conversed''': ???
37	* '''Deconstructed ''':
38	** After some news goes around regarding the school's dysfunctional programming, it's promptly shut down.
39	** The school environment becomes so hostile that it leads to a tragedy, which in turn attracts the attention of news outlets. Their culture is condemned by the global village, and they become [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten saddled with a reputation that haunts them for years to come]].
40	* '''Reconstructed ''':
41	** The city fails to address the core issues that plagued the former school, and [[HereWeGoAgain so they persist]] in the new campus they intend to replace it with.
42	** Their unsalvageable reputation puts the school across a collective DespairEventHorizon: why bother improving themselves [[ReformedButRejected if the rest of the world won't allow them to move past that tragedy]]? As a result, it continues to languish indefinitely.
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Context PlayingWith / SuckySchool