Educating the Populace

I have a problem with fantasy school systems. They often are the catch all systems with bits and pieces of every educational system that has existed, as such they are the dustbin of the storyteller’s worldbuilding. This doesn’t exclude the issues with conflicts within the systems. This is however much better than the lack of education, formal or otherwise in the generic science fiction scene. Sure there may be an academy, or some colleges and mentions to ‘high school’ but the educational system is generally forgotten about.

To start I’ll block out the archetypes of schooling systems. The first and likely most familiar is the general to specialized. This is the system found in most countries, where your general education is covered by the ‘primary’ school and then you go to a ‘secondary’ school for the specialized education into a field. The K-12 followed by a 4 year degree is the cleanest example of this style of system. There’s then the apprentice ships. This is what was much more common a few centuries ago when children would become apprentices in a field and then slowly work up their skills and rise though the ranks of a profession before taking on apprentices of their own. Look to the pre-industrial world for examples for this was the way people were educated before governments started to mandate the more modern system.

There is then the informal system, which isn’t a lack of a system but rather a learn what you need when you need it. This could be done though short mentorships, books, online videos, perhaps friends and family filling each other in and individual practicing of skills. This is debatably where people are getting their proper education these days as platforms like Skillshare, and YouTube. Then there is the “formalized specialized track” which takes the apprentice ships and generalizes them under the general to specialized framework. I’ve thought about this as the ‘conical education system’ where students get more specialized education the older they get.

Don’t worry about the details of the system. Simply understand what, if any, system exists.

There are more variations on these archetypes however they cover the vast majority of the systems. However I can hear more than a few: “But why though?” coming from the future. It comes down to what to characters know and how do they know it. Is there a mentor, were they taught a rime or jingle by their mother, did they have to memorize it, and a load of propaganda, to pass that standardized test?

With the differing ways of being educated will have different character arcs associated with them in the character’s history. If someone was mentored they may have a secondary father or mother figure in their life, if one suffered under a generalized school system they may be understanding but resentful of the main stream.

Yet there’s often more to the education system than just the system itself. Think of the home-schooled kids, compared to the public school kids. While it appears to becoming more popular, or I’ve fallen in with the homeschooling crowd, they are generally outside of the normal system. Yet how would the world look if that was reversed? Likewise what if every school was privately run and the public option was there so those to poor to go to a private school could go, which hails back to the pre-industrialized times.

Things get even more interesting when systems and the expected genre associated begin to diverge. Mentorship only in the utopian future, with little to no classroom educations. How does that compare to the post-apocalypse with mandatory general education? Obviously the teacher’s union was one of the few things that survived the zombie hordes intact. Does the magitech past believe in an informal education, so strongly it’s reached a point where even proper mentorship programs, and learn on the job schools, are outlawed?

How does the greater world impact the education system and how does the education system impact the characters?

If one ponders these scenarios and attempts to create a character in each of them, one who reached adulthood or is perhaps an adolescent working their way though these systems, the characters should naturally diverge. Obviously Areilaya will have a very different outlook on magic than Spirala. Areliaya spent her entire education in a government run school; Spirala had to work her way though the ranks to become a mage going from mentor to mentor. While they are both gifted mages their understandings are completely complementary; Areliaya has the book knowledge and Spirala has the piratical knowledge.

Beyond the characters there are also considerations to the world and thus the conflict. Are the characters rebelling against the system that molded them? Highlighting the inconvenient truths that are swept under the rug to keep the system standing? Or are they pioneers looking to create a better world though adopting a new way of doing things? Perhaps the protagonists are those trying to prevent the changes.

How does the education system change the conflict?

If different characters, know different things for different reasons they will adapt to adversity differently. If someone grew up outside of the current educational system they may be missing a major clue, or have one. Since education is how children learn the culture they were born into. Thus being outside of the normal educational system will put them outside of the main culture. As culture impacts interpersonal conflicts it is likely that how characters were educated will impact how they will approach the challenges and conflict.

Likewise how many stories are there about children wanting to change or adjust the system they are being educated in? How many stories are centered in or around a school? How would they change if the school was a different kind or the education system didn't have schools? These are often overlooked impacts when it comes to the world.

This creates a cycle, where the world impacts the system which impacts the world.

This cycle does not move quickly. Implementing standardized education will erode and erase local quirks. If not completely than at least smooth them over. Great Britain is a good case study for this. Roll the clock back before the standardization of education and every hamlet had it’s own lexicon, dialect, customs and the like. Now a good number of those differences have been blended together into the larger national identity. This then changes the culture which in turns feeds back into the educational system.

Thus for large nations and larger governmental structures having a standardized school system, likely a generalist one, will help maintain the cultural fabric needed to contain the nation. Because if everyone had to read and write a report on “The Eastern Frog” surely some people will become friends over it. However that highlights another concept.

Centralization tends to lower standards.

I know it may seem obvious yet it’s not one to be overlooked. This can lead to primary, secondary systems. Where a strongly centralized general education system is supplemented by a local mentorship system, or learn as you want resources. This may mean that over the school year the kids slide though their government mandated ‘education’ before cramming as much useful learning they can outside of that time. It could be mentorships, it could be informal education. There are various options for why this happens, red tape, funding for test scores, brainwashing, aliens, take your pick.

Now with the school systems discussed, unless the story revolves around schools or the education system it should be what shapes the characters. Thinking about how the characters know what they know in addition to what they know gives more depth to the character. Who taught them? Why did they learn it? Was it something they had to peruse themselves or were pushed into it? Like many things about worldbuilding this background info will help build characters that are deeply linked to the world so that they could not exist in any other.

See you next week.