Example: Technology Oriented Schooling

Under the core mission & curriculum, there is much room for variety in communal mission & curriculum. This can be illustrated by examples.

Many parents believe that technology will remain the driving force of the progress of civilization for the remainder of the century. It's hard to be sure, but it's a reasonable thinking: Technology has been advancing quickly since the industrial revolution, and doesn't seem to be slowing down. So, it would seem - to those parents - like a good idea to send their children to a school that will develop in them the knowledge, skills and habits that will serve them in a technology-oriented economy. What will such a school look like?

There are many aspects to the hi-tech industry and economy: Purely technological, product design, marketing, management and probably more. To simplify the example, let's just concentrate on one aspect - the technology and science.

From a very young age - maybe 4 or less - the kids will be exposed to English - the international language of technology and commerce, even if they come from a non-English-speaking society. Of the 3 Rs, 'reading and 'riting will emphasize technical language. No need to be fanatical about it, though - this is just an emphasis, and not an exclusive direction, so written material with cultural significance will also be available. Regarding the 3rd R - 'rithmetic - there should be a heavier emphasis beyond what we would expect in - say - an art school: The children will be taught higher forms of math: Trigonometry, calculus, signal processing, etc. The learning is expected to be much deeper than what we see in general-purpose schools existing today, for a few reasons: The higher-classes students will be there because they want to study the particular material, and not because they defaulted into a school due to their place of residence. The teachers are also expected to be more interested in what they teach, and to know why they teach it - in addition for making a living. The curriculum as a whole will be more attuned to these studies, deemphasizing subjects that are not relevant to the technological direction.

Scientific thinking can also be taught from a very young age (3), doing fun experiments to see natural phenomena, like putting mentos in a bottle of cola. Then at the ripe age of 5, children can start guessing what phenomena would look like, for example, what would happen to a rubber ball if we make it really cold, and then bounce it off the floor? Once the kids have a theory, they can test it. Generally, it is easy to build the habit of questioning and testing assumptions. It works. I am not usually a TV fan, but we can even let the kids watch mythbusters, and it will encourage critical thinking and familiarity with the scientific methods. Well... Semi-scientific. Beyond scientific thinking, scientific method can be practiced a lot in school, going from the small experiments described above for 5-year-olds, to more scientifically interesting experiments. At some point in the education of young scientists, there is no more need for simulated classes and simulated experiments. School can go all the way to experiments that may be of interest to professional scientists. Note that since the hypothetical school discussed here is hi-tech oriented and not academia-oriented, I am referring to professional scientists working in the industry, and not to academic scientists. The types of theories to be tested in experiments often differ between the academics and the industry scientists.

Specific scientific subjects can be made available to the pupils: Physics, biology, chemistry, electronics, medicine, meteorology, etc. The school leaders should find a balance between the compulsory subjects and the elective subjects. One approach would be to teach everybody the basics of all subjects, and let pupils select which subjects to study in depth.

Communication skills should be taught consciously, and not as an afterthought. In the case of kids who study to be technologists, the goal of communication is to be understood and to understand others, at the right level of detail. Note that this is not a universal goal of communication: For people in sales or business, a critical goal of communication is to get another party to come around to your point of view, and even to dominate a discussion. An engineer (who is not a politician at heart) has no interest in doing that, but has a critical interest in having their opinion heard and understood.

A theory can be posed that any reasonable student in such a school should be able to have a BSc degree in electrical engineering, or equivalent, by the time they graduate, at the age of 17-20. A nice theory that will need to be experimentally proven.