Difference between revisions of "Category:Education"

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Lithmorran Education

Education for Lithmorran children starts at the early age of five, although toddlers are taught rudimentary information such as colors and letter identification by their mothers or nurses, before entering the formal compulsory education system. Even the smallest of villages has a local school, usually taught by a younger woman or an acolyte of the church, for the Lithmorrans hold a basic education as much of a necessity as food and drink.

Boys and girls of all classes are taught the essential skills of reading, writing, counting and computation. These skills are taught by using the Erra Pater; children cut their teeth reading the holy text, and learn how to write by copying the Holy Scriptures. It is a rare occurrence for any Lithmorran child to have reached maturity without possessing these skills, as the church and state funds these mandatory schools, attended for 4 hours in the morning by the young pupils. For the lower classes, their education is completed by age twelve, leaving them free to work the fields or take up a trade with a master.

For all but the most base and impoverished of the classes, these are just the basic rudimentaries of an education that is built around diplomacy, theology and history. Children of the nobility, and those of aspirant gentry folk, spend longer hours with private tutors who drill children vigorously on church doctrine, foreign languages and historical fact. No child of fine birth would come away without having at least a sound knowledge of Vavardi as well, being a mark of pride to be at minimum bilingual.

In addition to those base sophisticated topics, children with a particular interest in a field will likely receive advanced training to prepare them for their vocation to come in the days ahead in areas such as economics, business, law, music theory, art appreciation or advanced theology. Commonly, the daughters of the nobility learn the practical skills such as embroidery, singing, dancing, poetry recitation and potentially a simple instrument or two. Some show promise and become aficionados that make for entertaining pastimes in the evenings. The sons while also learning the finer skills of dance, music and occasionally art, are more likely to be taught the more practical skills of weapon handling and warfare. By the age of their majority, such children are typically afforded the opportunity to further their educations at the University, although frequently they will forgo this save the most scholarly of souls, or dedicated of students.

Farin Education

General education is not priority in the minds of the Farin people. It is a luxury reserved for those who can afford it, where both finances and time are concerned. It is extremely rare for a poor Farin to know how to read or write, and most only ever learn basic counting from their meager monetary transactions. The poor are typically born into their profession, learning the trade from their parents and then going on to teach it to their own children in time. Most only know how to say a few simple sentences in Lithmorran, although they may learn more if their profession requires it.

Those of the middle class send their children to local one-room schoolhouses, where classes are taught by one or two members of the clergy. Children normally attend these schools from ages 4 to 10 and are taught a variety of subjects, including reading, writing, history, counting, computation, Lithmorran, and Davite religion. The length of a school year and hours of classes vary from town to town, but in most cases the semesters run from Maritus to Maius and Septembris to Novembris, with three-month breaks in between so that children can learn and perform their household duties as well. Classes are not held on holy days, Votumas, and Solisda. Attendance is not compulsory, but since the schools are run by the Church for no expense, most parents who do not need their children to work will insist on sending them. By age 11, most children go on to apprentice to local masters or to assist their parents at work or home.

Gentry and nobles look down upon the crowded classrooms of the public schools and prefer to keep their children at home. Instead, they hire private tutors, experts in their particular subject, to teach the children of the family (who are often numerous enough to fill a small classroom on their own). Boys are taught fencing, politics, economics, law, and military strategy. The education of girls focuses more on culture, dancing, music, painting, and embroidery, although they are increasingly allowed to sit in on the boys' lessons. Both sexes learn history, religion, and several languages. Lithmorran is the sole language used in the classroom, Farin being considered informal, and Vavardi is the most popular foreign language of study. Education usually begins at age 4 and goes on until age 16, when the boys leave home to serve in the military.

Tubori Education

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Vandagan Education

While not as fixated on the point of education as Lithmorrans, Vandagans with the funds available tend to consider it a high priority to have their children educated.

Many richer members of Vandagan society have studied in Lithmore itself to be truly cultured, cosmopolitan and experienced with the liberal arts, before returning to Vandago to devote themselves to the arts of rhetoric and debate considered proper and necessary for their highly political way of life. This is mostly true for males, Vandagan women of the upper classes receiving at most private tutelage in manners and the feminine arts. Needlework, dancing, music, and fine speech are all the average noble or gentry woman might expect to learn, usually kept out of the heavier subjects the men study.

The average school in Vandago itself tends to focus primarily on practical subjects such as engineering, rudimentary physics and architecture, with a slant more towards actual career teaching than liberal arts curriculums. Middle-class male Vandagans will often attend these vocational schools as a route to success, fueling the duchy's dominance as an architectural and scientific power. It's not unheard-of for middle class women to attend as well so as to find a career that will allow them to be somewhat respected and self-sufficient in their own right, whereas the poorer of both sexes will be lucky if they can attain enough of a basic education to be able to read and write.

Membership in the Church is the one real exception to the dominance of practical schooling in Vandago. Those who take holy orders are rigorously educated in theology and learning, putting a Vandagan's time-honoured love of a good argument behind obscure doctrines and scriptural passages. The church schools in Vandago are extremely thorough due to their rich funding, producing scholars whose focus on effective and powerful sermons is well-supported by their practice in debate and speech.

All in all, the Vandagan approach to learning mirrors that of the Lithmorran in the upper classes, albeit slanted more towards use in the turbulent world of Vandagan politics rather than simply for its own sake. The middle classes focus on learning in its practical applications, leading the duchy to success in scientific pursuits, whereas the lower classes tend to find any form of education whatsoever both difficult to obtain and largely useless in everyday life.

Vavardi Education

Education is valued in Vavard for its own sake, rather than only for its practical considerations, and a well-balanced curriculum is considered highly important. Music and the arts especially are included much more prominently than they are in other duchies, but more traditional topics are also included.

The nobility and most affluent gentry hire personal tutors for their children. Good tutors are highly sought after and well-paid, offering instruction in politics, laws, economics, religious texts, history, fine arts, music, court dances, etiquette and multiple languages. Further lessons are geared more to the role the child will be expected to fill, including potentially business or household management, statecraft, architecture, warfare, dueling, fashion, embroidery, poetry, singing and playing musical instruments. This tutelage may last until the child is nearly sixteen, when he or she is expected to begin shadowing the appropriate parent and gradually start taking over small duties.

Those whose families cannot afford private tutors begin their education in primary schools. Open to children between the ages of five and ten, lessons are offered without a tuition charge due in large part to the donations of generous benefactors. Though enrollment in these schools is not compulsory, most parents try not to let their offspring miss out on the opportunity, given the strong civic pressure for all citizens to be educated. Classes include reading, writing, counting, art and music, and the young pupils enjoy diverse reading materials, from the Erra Pater to classic plays written by famous bards, from a collection of nursery rhymes to royal speeches. By the end of this education, children are expected to possess the basic knowledge in many fields: economics, arts, laws, music and Lithmorran. Given the heavy funding from donations, school functions are also a frequent occurrence, focused on appeasing the egos of the school's benefactors through the display of star pupils and artistic presentations of gratitude.

After the age of ten, schools become much more specialized. Donations change greatly as well; instead of sponsoring schools, it is much more common for benefactors to sponsor individual students who are especially promising or beautiful. A sponsored child is expected to owe direct benefit to their sponsor, especially those who go on to study arts or trades, who will often join the service of their benefactor for a few years after completion of their training. As these secondary schools charge tuition to the parents, the poor who go unsponsored tend to end their education at this point, returning home to assist their parents as best they can. Those students who continue in their education select between schools geared to academia, economics, trades, and arts and architecture. In addition to core studies catered to the type of school, students are provided more lessons in economics, architecture, a foreign language, and a form of art or music, and they are encouraged to attend special conferences held by visiting luminaries from different fields and walks of life. The length of the curriculum varies between the types of school, generally between two and five years. Depending on the direction of the school, students then go on to become apprentices, return to assist their families, or enter into university level education, including specialized classes at The Vavard Academy of Economics or studying abroad in other duchies.

Charali Education

Education akin to that of Lithmore's society is not stressed amongst the Charali peoples. A nomadic people, the Charali instead chose to educate their offspring in the means of survival on the oft-times brutal plains.

Standard education consists of skills used in day to day life and these life skills are often divided amongst the tribe depending upon ones social-standing. The lower members of the tribe are typically taught to be proficient in animal husbandry, horsemanship, and falconry. Middling ranks in the tribes assume the roles of the hunters and gatherers, learning how to hunt for food and how to work the hides of the animals that they have managed to kill. The upper echelon of each tribe typically becomes classed as the warriors, learning valuable skills in combat for the protection of the tribe. Families within each rank of the tribe are often acclaimed due to their great skill in one of these areas.

A highlight of this 'education' comes in the coming of age. In most tribes, the thirteen year old is cast out into the wilderness with a knife. For an entire cycle of Elliueh (approx. 31 days), the youth survives without the aid of their clan. On their own wits and knowledge they must not only survive, but find their totem or namesake. Before this point in their life they are simply 'boy' or 'girl'. This harsh coming of age kills many youth and is often viewed as savage by other cultures, but it is the only test they know for survival in their world.

Grudgingly, Lithmorran attitudes have managed to work their way into the Charali way of life through Davite missionaries from the Holy Order. These highly educated men and women, schooled predominantly in theology, have taken to teaching the willing Plainsmen some city-customs. Though not widely accepted or used, some Charali's have taken to learning to read and write because of the clergymen present within their tribal hierarchy. These traveling missionaries have also attempted to sway the Charali's in their religious beliefs, but their efforts have met with dissonance, as the Plains-people continue to cling to the ways of old.

The Charali written language, a relatively new development, uses the Lithmorran and Vavardi scripts to approximate the sounds of Charali words. Still, almost all knowledge in Charalin society is passed down from parent to child orally. In this regard, Charali are known for their lyrical speech and tremendous memory.

Hillish Education

Formal education as Lithmorrans understand it, is a practical non-issue amongst the Hillfolk, though they typically have keen minds with a firm grasp on how the world works. Their children learn the necessary life skills from working side by side with their parents: crafts, weapon crafting, cooking, hunting, and the art of warfare. Children are expected to be attentive at all times to their parents and learn from modeling of proper technique.

The only exception present is that the Davite missionaries and few clergy in the few assorted actual churches receive at least a basic education in reading, writing, and Davite philosophy.