Following the loss of two school days in late Feb. due to an unprecedented snowstorm (translation: a slightly frosted lawn) and what students call “snow debt” from the last three years, Lexington High School’s Flipped Classroom learners have officially gone on strike.
“In a district where every penny is spent towards the new LHS building, Flipped Classroom feels like teachers retaliating for wages that make Mint Mobile look expensive,” Kanot D. Fend, a junior and part-time lawyer, said.
For those lucky enough to remain on the Right Side Up, Flipped Classroom is a system where teachers strategically outsource their jobs to Khan Academy under the guise of “a job well done.” Rather than teaching during the seven hours students are legally trapped in a brick building older than the Creel House, learners are expected to absorb new content at home while still receiving their normal nightly homework.
“The teachers call it independent learning, but if I wanted to be independent, I wouldn’t be living under my parents’ Wi-Fi plan,” Wilnot B. Payd, a junior and chemistry lab survivor currently suffering from back pain due to the generous weighting of exams, said
As more students are forced by teachers to watch educational videos, contributing to increasing YouTube ad revenue (which experts confirm is still more than teachers’ wages), the next logical step was obviously a lawsuit. Local courtrooms have since been flooded with cases in which students are asking for wages to complete their Flipped Classroom assignments. Yet concerns have arisen about whether the plaintiffs are qualified, let alone actually attendees of a law school, as LHS unfortunately only hires from Harvard.
“We are very confident with our case,” Fend, who recently googled ‘how to file a lawsuit’ after typing ‘google.com’ into Google, said. The remainder of their statement was not made publicly available due to “pending legal review,” though insiders confirm that their closing argument reflects learnings from the rigorous Introduction to Law course.
Despite the unrest, with the new system in place, students have found many silver linings and creative workarounds, including repairing their sleep schedules.
“I’ve mastered the ability of sleeping so perfectly still that I have become practically invisible to the teacher’s eye. Watch,” an anonymous student said.
Meanwhile, others have turned towards collective resistance. A small group of Chemistry students have banded together in an RV outside the Science Building to form their own study group. Sources say they seem to be cooking something, following a small Bunsen Burner incident.
“This is my own private domicile, and I will not be harassed,” one student, who declined to elaborate further, said. Still, the debate continues. If learning at home teaches most of the fundamental knowledge necessary for the class, students are divided as to whether or not class is useful at all. After all, if a 20-minute video covers content spread across one hour, it begs the question: why do both?
“Maybe watching flipped classrooms will fill the gaping hole in my heart for quality education,” another student suggested.
For now, the strike shows no signs of slowing down. Protesters have begun demanding overtime pay for each ad and a mental health day for, well, doomscrolling. Until their demands are fulfilled, the school has advised everyone to continue watching their assigned videos, which have now stopped being uploaded under mysterious circumstances likely pertaining to employment cuts.
“After all, Flipped Classroom has completely changed the way I learn– and by that, I mean I don’t, but now at twice the speed,” Payd added.