011.

Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown as Will Byers and El Hopper

In my portrayal / understanding of Jane’s background through the show canon, personal canon-divergence and psych studies; I personally don’t believe that Jane would be able to fully maintain a proper education, especially after the events of all seasons. I don’t see her attending school with the party - this isn’t to say that she isn’t getting an education. I believe that she is homeschooled and occasionally a self-taught / self-learner.  Now, we know that Jane is intelligent and resourceful. Due to the happenings of her upbringing within Hawkins Lab, I believe that Jane knows not only English but Russian as well. Why? She was being raised and pushed to be a weapon. In Season One, when we see Jane being pushed to spy / listen in on men speaking Russian, I believe that she is knowledgeable enough to have an understanding - which, when being trained / groomed to be a weapon, I feel as if she would be taught the basics of Russian to be able to understand the dangers or happenings in a situation. 

Given the extent of trauma experienced in her early childhood and even still with the events of Season Two and Three, it’s in my opinion that Jane houses quite a large amount of anger and rage which is fairly common in those living with post-traumatic stress disorder (which i headcanon her to have for obvious reasons.) Occasionally outbursts are a result of not getting something she wants, a lack of understanding / miscommunication, an act of protection for herself and those around her, general triggers.  We can see evidence of outbursts in the way she had broken the cabin windows in Season 2, the breaking of Troy’s arm, the emotional strength and anger to close the gates and defeat the Mind Flayer and Demogorgan. 

It’s those emotional happenstances that I feel like it would be difficult for her to fully integrate into a public school system with other teenagers, given the slight inability to fully regulate her emotional state - which again - is fairly common in those who have a traumatic upbringing. School itself, in general, can be a stressful environment when learning and dealing with other teenagers - some people can be harsh and cruel - and we have seen countless times that her natural instinct is to react in the sense of using her abilities. This could make being at school difficult if she causes unintentional harm to one of her peers or breaks something. While of course, this is something that she could eventually learn to control but that is not something that happens overnight and it’s not as if she has access to therapy to cope with her trauma - which is unique in itself because how do you explain what happened in that facility and what she is capable of doing without drawing attention? Recovery and healing itself is not a straight line. It takes years and it’s an everyday process. There is a lot of personal growth and healing that she needs to prioritize before that, in my opinion.  This isn’t to say that she isn’t intelligent. She is. She is intelligent in the ways she was trained for. Her understanding of a lot of the outside world is not at the level of her peers, which we’ve seen when Mike taught her how to read a watch and some other basics, when Hopper taught her some new words, when Max tried to help her improve her social skills - which also need work given that she lived a highly sheltered life due to being in captivity. 

it’s been awhile since lux wrote a meta post. potential salt under the cut. maybe enough salt that we can melt some of the snow outside.