Andrew Janssen wrote: > The Order of Lucia offers free schooling to all children through the age > of 14, and charges fees for children ages 15 to 18. After age 18, > Sedonians who can afford it may attend the University of Thalsedon. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't 15-year olds be considered more-or-less adults in most Qaiyore cultures? They certainly were in Europe until -- well, I really don't know. At the very least a 15 year old would be expected to work full time (and all children would be exptected to work part time upto their ability from 6 years). Schooling ALL children until they are 15, and expecting most to continue going to school for several years after that is quite a modern concept that most current-day countries (NA/Europe excluded) cannot afford (in the short-run; the long-run perspective is another thing entirely). How about lowering the first age limit to 10 years? Another question: if Order of Lucia offers free schooling to *all* children, how many actually take advantage of that? And how many hours per week / month / year? Offering full schooling for all children would require HUGE amounts of resources from the Order. For example in Finland in the 19th century, all children were offered free schooling. But for most of the children, this consisted of a 2-week period once per year. The goal was to teach everyone to be able to read the most important parts of the bible. So the *real* reason for this practice was religious, not social or purely "educational". And this practice was backed up by being conducted by the state religion; this is not a status that the Order of Lucia can claim (being only a part of the state religion...). > Full Scholarships are available to students who are bright but poor, and > the Sedonian State Church pays half the fees of students who commit to > joining an Order. The University also reduces the tuition fees of > students who agree to remain at the University after taking their degree > and teach. > > Overall functional literacy rates in Sedonia are in the 55-60% range, > but nearly all Sedonians can at least write their own names. Would that 'all' mean women, too? And rural areas / peasants? I don't remember right now what's the status of women in Sedonia. (Experiences of aid workers in Africa show that literacy of women has a much bigger impact on productivity and health of the people than literacy of men. However, all too often only men are given even the possibility of education.) Anyhow, I feel that the 55-60% literacy is much too high, unless it applies to a certain restricted group. > The Order > of Lucia places importance on literacy and numeracy. In rural Sedonia, > most families have a hard time seeing the value of literacy, but they > keenly grasp the importance of being numerate, especially when it comes > time to sell the harvest, or the tax assessor comes around. In the > rising merchant classes of the cities, literacy approaches 85-90%. This might well be true, although it also is quite high. > The University is open to both men and women, and students from any > country are admitted, provided they can pass a proficiency test in > Sedonian, and can pay their fees. How many of the university students are women? And do they have separate classes from men? juuso ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
