Improving the education system

There is no doubt that the education system is crumbling, with some students starting university as functionally illiterate. The reason for this, I think, is the relentless drive to reduce everyone and everything down to the lowest common denominator. Academic excellence is frowned upon, as indeed is any type of skill or prowess in any area. My own education, thankfully, was very different, since I went to a boarding school, and so I can speak from experience. The school not only valued hard work and competition, it made them an essential part of school life. Did this disadvantage some students with regard to others? Absolutely not! What it did is encourage everyone to work harder and be better at what they did, until eventually. by the time we left, we had all found out what we were good at, either in academic terms, or in terms of vocation.

So the answer, I think, is to set up different schools that select for different purposes, academic, artistic, vocational, etc. Crucially, though, students should be given the opportunity to swap from one school to another as they get older, as their skills develop and change. These schools should be fairly small, and ideally should be boarding schools, taking students from all over the country, therefore giving them a sense of independence and self-reliance.

In the UK the secondary school age is 11 to 18, which is what I'm talking about here. Primary schools, ages 4 to 11, should remain local and community based.

What about separating boys and girls to prevent distractions?
Implementing a uniform.

Yes, both of those things are exactly what they did at my school.

We should also give consideration to what happens after school, since higher education is part of the education system.

I would suggest that on leaving school, everyone should go on to do a form of part time community service, till the age of 25. This would include any higher education or vocational training that they are interested in pursuing. It should be paid for by the state, so that no one is disadvantaged, but in return, the participants would have to give something back to society.

In the UK, for example, there's a staff shortage in the National Health Service, so those doing community service could be drafted in to fill it, while learning valuable skills at the same time, both professional and social. They could also help out with the emergency services, and even agricultural work, as we are constantly hearing about crops rotting in the fields for lack of cheap labour to pick it. Another important service that they could perform is community policing, reconnecting the police with the people they are supposed to serve. Basically any work required for a healthy, functioning society, giving everyone a sense of purpose, and also the opportunity to learn about themselves, and what it means to take responsibility.

I can relate much of this, again, to my own experience. On leaving school I went straight into work, in the care sector, working with the elderly. I could have gone to university, but ultimately, I wanted my own independence, and I also wanted to give something back. But if the opportunity to do both at the same time existed, that would have been ideal.

Yes...males should serve in the armed forces unless they cannot, in which case they should serve in any capacity they can.
Women should serve the public, and the military, if they meet the criteria.

Nobody is a citizen unless they serve. Nobody votes or can hold public office unless they do their tour of duty.

You are describing a Timocratic system.

I would suggest men serving in the defence forces and emergency services, and women as community police and hospital staff.

Is that the system that Plato based on Sparta?

Maia wrote:

I would suggest men serving in the defence forces and emergency services, and women as community police and hospital staff.

this is my version of Timocracy.

Maia wrote:

Is that the system that Plato based on Sparta?

Yes.

Heinlein depicted it in Starship Troopers...made into a bad movie.

The idea of homoioi was based on shared racial - ethnicity- and cultural criteria and on service to the community.
Boys taken form their mother's at the age of 7 and raised by men to become men, and then returned to women.

I wouldn't go as far as separating children from their families. Even at boarding school, we still went home every few weeks at half term, and then for longer in the holidays. Family is very important, and any system should encourage it.

The only one by him I've read is Stranger in a Strange Land. I found it quite disjointed, as I remember, though it was some years ago.

Stranger in a Strange Land may have been based on Dostoyevsky's Idiot, and Starship Troopers on Plato's Republic.

Interesting, I didn't know that.

With regard to Plato, I'm mostly familiar with Timaeus and Critias, but then, since they mention Atlantis, a long-term fascination for me, that's not surprising.