School System

Abandoned classroom from Children Of Men

A school system will be needed once the community has re-established a sense of community. This will allow children to develop the necessary skills to function in the new society and within the community. The following is an overview of how the school system will function and how it is organized.

Establishment

Depending on the situation, we will either need to build a school, make a house/building into a school or use a pre-existing one. Although any room is a school if used properly, if we intend to adapt to the rising population of our community, we will need a school like structure to support the students. If we build a school, use a house/building as one, it will require:

• A segregated environment where the focus is learning
• Separate rooms (ideal but not necessary)
• Rooms big enough to support multiple students
• Benches and chairs so the students and staff can sit
• Lots of bathrooms that are big enough to support multiple students
• An area for the students to eat (although they could eat in the classrooms, but it wouldn’t make their learning environment very sanitary)
• An area to create an a library (ideal but not necessary)

The Different Stages of the Education System

Before the outbreak, in Canada a student would start school at the age of 6 or 7. He would start off in primary school, then Junior high, then highschool and then the student would go to either university or college before entering into the workplace. However, in the post-apocalyptic society, this division will be somewhat similar but it will be different.  It’s worth mentioning that these stages will take place in the same establishment except for maybe highschool and the mentorship.

Primary School

Grades 1-6 will be designed to help the student develop basic abilities. They will learn how to read and write, how to add, divide, multiply and subtract. They will also learn how to react appropriately in different situations in the post-apocalyptic community/society. It will also teach them how to cope with possible trauma that may have been experienced during their survival (assuming they were alive before the reconstruction of society).

Junior Highschool

Grades 7-9 will be devoted to help the student find his/her preferred profession. Here they will learn general sciences, mathematics, art and literature. It will be designated to helping the student to find a path in life and help them be more independent and responsible.

Highschool

Grade 10-14 is supposed to prepare the student for their chosen career path. The studied subjects will be tailored to suit the students chosen career. For example, if a student knows he/she wants to be a doctor then he/she must take advanced science courses. At this stage, they will learn the theory of practice of their chosen domain and then they will be able to put that theory into practice. This is meant to allow the student to show that he/she belongs on his/her chosen path.

Mentorship

Some professions might require a student to take on a mentor, so they can expose them to real life experience of the nature of their profession. It will also allow the student to master her/his skills and abilities.

The School Week

Assuming the community has established a method for telling time and that method is the traditional method, school will only take place four days out of the week. School will take place Tuesdays through Fridays with Saturday, Sunday and Monday off. However, this is only applies for the school, it may vary from career. It’s also not applicable to the mentorship stage of education because the student follows mentor whenever the mentor goes to work. 

Testing

There are two types of testing within school systems, there's standardized testing and non-standerdized testing.

• Standardized Testing Standardized tests are tests that are created, administered and regulated by experts at the divisional, provincial, national or international level. There will be no standardized testing within the new school system. There won't be any because it is mainly used to compare schools with each other but because there will most likely be only one school or educational establisment within the comunity, there's no need for them. 

• Non-standardized Testing There will be testing in classrooms, but in moderation. There probably will be no record archives on individual student grades, therefore the testing will only really be used to test the individual capabilities, their progress and their development. Testing will not be valued as much because most of the time, students become anxious and nervous before test. Testing will also be used so students can learn from their past mistakes and understand the reasoning behind them.

Grading

Grading standards

All educators should grade students from an objective viewpoint. To ensure that objective grading, students will be assigned a specific number which they will use as their names when undergoing academic tests. The educator will have a sheet matching students’ names’ with their respective numbers after grading has been completed. This will allow anonymity for the student and it will allow the educator to grade appropriately and objectively. Children within their primary years won’t have to memorize numbers due to their undeveloped memory capacity. Instead, it’s up to the educator to consciously grade them objectively. However, all students will be given cards which carries their name, student number and blood type (in case anything were to happen to them). Teachers will be required to grade with only comment to criticize them constructively so they are able to identify their mistakes. The student will be refered to by his/her actual name within the school.

Grading System

Any form of grading is accepted because they all have their advantages and disadvantages, as long as they:

(1) communicate the achievement status of students to their parents and other interested parties; (2) provide information to students for self-evaluation; (3) select, identify, or group students for certain educational paths or programs; (4) provide incentives for students to learn.

The teacher should inform his/her preferred method of grading to his/her students so they understand the teachers reasoning. However, percentile grades will be discouraged because of the possibility of human error and a shortage of calculators within the community.

Method of Teaching

A method of teaching is required to fit the new generation of intellectuals. The lack of technology and constant distractions will provide a good environment to use Socratic teaching as the preferred method of teaching in the school. Socratic teaching consists of asking large questions, while providing them the tools they need to answer those large questions. Through these large questions, the students will be able to find smaller questions which they will be capable of answering. These questions will be taught by discussions rather than lectures because discussions allow for thought provoking questions to be asked and thought of.

A good Socratic question should: 

a) keep the discussion focused

b) keep the discussion intellectually responsible

c) stimulate the discussion with probing questions

d) periodically summarize what has and what has not been dealt with and/or resolved

e) draw as many students as possible into the discussion.

Teaching Ethics

The student/teacher relations come with responsibilities and with those responsibilities, the teacher should take on an ethical code. In the new society, everyone has done questionable things while trying to survive. Over time, new teachers will join the community and it will take time for them to adapt to the safety and security but if they want to keep their job, they should adopt the ethical code.

This code consists of trust between the student and the teacher. This aspect requires honesty, fairness, and openness. The student has to trust what the teacher is telling them is right while the teacher has to trust that his/her students are willing to take in the information that he/she provides them This will also be a part of the various coping workshops that will help people of the community cope with the horrors they’ve seen.

It requires care for the students. The teacher has to accept the student no matter what (unless the student become a feral and tries to kill everyone). The teacher has to have interest in what he/she is teaching. He/she should create an environment where students care about learning and value the knowledge they are receiving.

It requires respect between teacher and student. The teacher has to treat his/her students as human being while conserving their dignity. The student has to do the same, but he/her needs to respect the teacher’s authority and what the teacher says.

It also requires integrity so the teacher can be relied upon to carry out takes and accomplish them with respectable morals. The teacher has to reflect the image of an average person, trying to live in a post-apocalyptic reality rather than “Gods” of the classroom that some teachers like to portray themselves as.

Given the post-apocalyptic community, one can’t monitor if this ethical code is being abided by. For that reason, it’s the educator’s responsibility to uphold that ethical code in the already-damaged world.

Discipline

At first, students will have trouble adjusting to the new routine because of the disturbing nature of their past, as such; it wouldn’t be surprising if students were to act up during class. If a student acts up, no punishments that infringe the rules of the ethical code shall be administered. That means no physical or sexual abuse, no verbal abuse and no classroom humiliation. If a student were to become aggressive and a threat to others, the educator or any personnel has the authority to us appropriate measures (i.e. attempt to subdue or incapacitate the student). Punishments should never be administered to students because of disabilities, race, sexual orientation or mental capacity. Punishments that hold students against their own will such as “detention” or even forcing the student to go to school during a weekend is prohibited. This is mainly because the student won’t learn from his/her mistake and they will resent the school establishment and the educator, thus making the student less motivated to even attend school. If the educator is disrespecting by one of the students during class, he shall not retaliate with anger and frustration. Instead, the teacher should ask the student to meet with him/her later on, in a private environment. In that private environment, the teacher should dissect the issue and find out why the student behaved or acted as such. This will allow the teacher to understand the issues and motivations for a negative behavior so it won’t reoccur.

References

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