While some parents are more involved and vocal than others about the education system and the curriculum, most of us just accept that as long as we get our kids to show up for school, work hard, do their homework, and get good grades, then we have done our part, and we blindly put our faith in the system. But if you take a step back and look at the world through a different lens, you can start to see how we have all been conditioned in to thinking that we must put our kids and young adults through such an intensive education system from a very young age if they are to have any chance of getting a good job and having a good quality of life.
We spend most of our young lives during the day going through the drudgery of school, and often work late nights after school to finish mountains of homework. During this time our heads are filled with facts and figures, most of which we forget because the old adage is true that "if you don't use it, you lose it", and when challenged about this our educators tell us that it develops "memory retention". All the way through primary school, secondary school, and college we are bombarded with information and forced to take subjects which we have absolutely no interest in, all so that we can complete the required work and get our high school diploma or that college degree.
If you add up the amount of time invested by teachers, administrators, and students to pass on information that is never, ever used by the recipient once they leave school, you will begin to realize what an incredible waste of human time and energy there is in the current system. Think of the kids who are taught calculus, or the French language, or the state capitals, or the periodic table of chemical elements, or how to play a musical instrument badly, or how people used to talk and write in the days of William Shakespeare. Sure, every kid needs to be taught to understand language, math, science, and have knowledge of historical events, but what's needed is a mere fraction of what is taught in schools today. Similarly, it is useful for children to explore what interests them by exposing them to art, music, and other non-essential subjects for a short time, but to demand that children spend years of their young lives on these for the sake of having had a "rounded" education is nonsensical.
Education in Nutopia is shaped primarily by the Core Principles of Quality of Life and Equal Responsibility. In a nutshell, people should thoroughly enjoy life but acknowledge that all people need to contribute their physical and mental labor to complete the tasks needed by the community as a whole. That means working only as needed so that you can enjoy life the rest of the time, and learning skills that are in need by the community at any given time so that you can contribute.
Every citizen who joins or is born in to Nutopia must complete the Essential Education to get their citizenship. This education prepares citizens with everything they need to communicate, behave, contribute, live happily, and adhere to the Nutopia policies. After they have the Essential Education they are expected to learn skills that are needed in the community. The Guardian System manages all the needs of the community and all the available labor in the community to make sure that citizens are learning appropriate skills.
The Essential Education for young people is taken between the age of 5 and 15 and from then on they develop skills based on their interests and the current needs of the community. Some skills become obsolete over time as automated ways are found to replace human labor and new skills are defined as the needs of the community evolve. The learning of skills is part of the Equal Responsibility commitment of the Citizenship Agreement and is treated the same as physical or mental labor.
