Government on a Neighboring Planet

72:4.1The ed­u­ca­tional sys­tem of this na­tion is com­pul­sory and co­ed­u­ca­tional in the pre­col­lege schools that the stu­dent at­tends from the ages of five to eigh­teen. These schools are vastly dif­fer­ent from those of Uran­tia. There are no class­rooms, only one study is pur­sued at a time, and af­ter the first three years all pupils be­come as­sis­tant teach­ers, in­struct­ing those be­low them. Books are used only to se­cure in­for­ma­tion that will as­sist in solv­ing the prob­lems aris­ing in the school shops and on the school farms. Much of the fur­ni­ture used on the con­ti­nent and the many me­chan­i­cal con­trivances—this is a great age of in­ven­tion and mech­a­niza­tion—are pro­duced in these shops. Ad­ja­cent to each shop is a work­ing li­brary where the stu­dent may con­sult the nec­es­sary ref­er­ence books. Agri­cul­ture and hor­ti­cul­ture are also taught through­out the en­tire ed­u­ca­tional pe­riod on the ex­ten­sive farms ad­join­ing ev­ery lo­cal school.

72:4.2The fee­ble-minded are trained only in agri­cul­ture and an­i­mal hus­bandry, and are com­mit­ted for life to spe­cial cus­to­dial colonies where they are seg­re­gated by sex to pre­vent par­ent­hood, which is de­nied all sub­nor­mals. These re­stric­tive mea­sures have been in op­er­a­tion for sev­enty-five years; the com­mit­ment de­crees are handed down by the pa­ren­tal courts.

72:4.3Ev­ery­one takes one month’s va­ca­tion each year. The pre­col­lege schools are con­ducted for nine months out of the year of ten, the va­ca­tion be­ing spent with par­ents or friends in travel. This travel is a part of the adult-ed­u­ca­tion pro­gram and is con­tin­ued through­out a life­time, the funds for meet­ing such ex­penses be­ing ac­cu­mu­lated by the same meth­ods as those em­ployed in old-age in­sur­ance.

72:4.4One quar­ter of the school time is de­voted to play—com­pet­i­tive ath­let­ics—the pupils pro­gress­ing in these con­tests from the lo­cal, through the state and re­gional, and on to the na­tional tri­als of skill and prowess. Like­wise, the or­a­tor­i­cal and mu­si­cal con­tests, as well as those in sci­ence and phi­los­o­phy, oc­cupy the at­ten­tion of stu­dents from the lower so­cial di­vi­sions on up to the con­tests for na­tional hon­ors.

72:4.5The school gov­ern­ment is a replica of the na­tional gov­ern­ment with its three cor­re­lated branches, the teach­ing staff func­tion­ing as the third or ad­vi­sory leg­isla­tive di­vi­sion. The chief ob­ject of ed­u­ca­tion on this con­ti­nent is to make ev­ery pupil a self-sup­port­ing cit­i­zen.

72:4.6Ev­ery child grad­u­at­ing from the pre­col­lege school sys­tem at eigh­teen is a skilled ar­ti­san. Then be­gins the study of books and the pur­suit of spe­cial knowl­edge, ei­ther in the adult schools or in the col­leges. When a bril­liant stu­dent com­pletes his work ahead of sched­ule, he is granted an award of time and means where­with he may ex­e­cute some pet project of his own de­vis­ing. The en­tire ed­u­ca­tional sys­tem is de­signed to ad­e­quately train the in­di­vid­ual.