 Random: If I Ruled The World
|
Feb. 27th, 2012 @ 07:03 am 
|
|---|
If I ruled the world:
- As I am no lover of micromanagement, in general, populations would still be self-governing by democracy, except where I over-rode them. Anyone doing anything, at all, to impede other people's voting would face serious criminal consequences. (Even if I didn't just make voting compulsory, anyone who didn't vote would be asked why not, in order to help ensure that no voter interference was taking place unreported.)
- Any politician who disgusted me enough would be barred from office, and indeed, from political activity. If all this came true tomorrow, Tony Abbott, Christopher Pyne, Simon Crean, and Rick Santorum, among others, would be seeking new lines of occupation.
- Prostitution would be legal, but oh-so-heavily regulated, including mandatory, thorough investigation of every prostitute (background checks, interviews by qualified counselors) to ensure that no, really, they consented to this. (Also, thorough health checks and general OHS enforcement. And the age of consent for prostitution would be 21, minimum.)
Unlicensed prostitution would incur heavy criminal penalties for the person purchasing the services. The treatment of the prostitutes would vary depending on their circumstances, but in most cases would incur no penalty, as such, so much as a social services intervention.
- The criminal justice system would not have detention as its central means of "punishment". Petty thieves, for example, would be remanded for assessment by psychologists and social workers, to determine, and correct, the causes of their thieving. (For example, someone who stole because they felt they had no other way to survive would receive counselling and job skills training, and assistance in setting themselves up for a more stable life.)
- Education would be considered one of the most important priorities of any government that didn't want to be dismissed by me, with all its members thereafter banned from politics.
Primary school education would focus on establishing genuine proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic, streamed according to level of ability. Students who did not pass these subjects would not be permitted to advance in grade until they had been thoroughly assessed for learning disabilities.
The rest of their time in school - and I might well extend the school day until something like 5pm - would be spent on learning at least one musical instrument, learning the basic techniques of a range of arts and crafts, and periods designated to reading books of the student's own choice - with library staff assistance, if required, to look for something the child will enjoy reading.
Physical education will remain in place, but the emphasis will very much be on things that will be fun. Students will be encouraged to try different things until they find a sport they enjoy; by the time they're leaving for high school, every student should be a regular participant in a sport they enjoy, unless pure physical disability prevents this. (It doesn't have to be a team sport. Martial arts, for example, will be an acceptable choice.)
Vocational training can come later in life. The purpose of education, once the fundamental skills are in place, is to equip people to occupy their leisure time. No-one in the Utopia of Sami will spend their free time, as an adult, getting drunk every weekend because they don't have anything better to do.
In high school, required subjects will include logic, critical thinking, and linguistics. People should know how to think. Core subjects will now be Literature, Mathematics, Science, Critical Thinking, and History; outside of these subjects, students will be required to continue at least one sport, and at least one art; music, creative writing, painting, pottery, calligraphy, woodwork, making models, they can choose, but they have to have one.
After that, they can go to university, or to a vocational college, or to work, as their choices and aptitudes determine. But everyone should finish high school able to read and write, to know what they think and why they think it, to entertain themselves and occupy their free time in ways that they themselves find rewarding, and to know what kind of healthy physical activity they can enjoy enough to maintain.
|
![[User Picture Icon]](https://v2.dreamwidth.org/254881/16290) |
| From: | ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) willow |
|---|
| Date: |
February 27th, 2012 02:03 am (UTC) |
|---|
|
|
|
|
(Link) |
|
I like your 'if Sami ruled the world'.
It's similar to mine. Except mine would stress a LOT of history. Everyone's history. Geo-social-political history would be the CORE and math and sciences etc, would revolve around it.
So none of this 'All White Western Euros, or those emigrated to the US - ever invented anything, wrote great literature, made strides in science and math, black history begins w/ slavery - bs.' And no more 'The 1s woman who' Cause that line is truly long and goes beyond contemporary history's counting. Way more gender inclusion.
Also in 'Willow-world'? People would discover that not everyone THINKS in the same way, logic and critical thinking are key. But how people interpret data can differer, what strikes them first will differ, etc. So no telling Tyrone he's wrong for wanting to know the history of the music of an instrument of a culture, instead of wanting to know about government statistics, etc...
![[User Picture Icon]](https://v2.dreamwidth.org/3974986/75896) |
| From: | sami |
|---|
| Date: |
February 27th, 2012 07:56 am (UTC) |
|---|
|
|
|
|
(Link) |
|
History would be pretty central in mine, because, you know, my life in part revolves around history. But studying it in depth would wait until high school mostly because I'd want it to hit brains that were a bit more mature, and do so alongside critical thinking.
Part of why I think linguistics is so important is because it's hard to study it without being more-or-less forced to start understanding the ways in which words and ideas have different meaning to different people, as well as some fundamentals of why some cultural differences are just differences, inescapable differences, neither better nor worse either way but something that needs to be incorporated into your understanding.
I think I'd angle for a mixture of freeform and prescriptive. Like, some aspects of European history would be required, because they encapsulate *really important* conflicts of ideas, with lasting effects on the world. Things like the French Revolution and Europe 1890-1945 (with specific focal points around the Dreyfus Affair and the rise of the Nazis, because those two topics can cover, like, 90% of what people ought to know about politics, people, and Things That Should Not Happen).
But those two would only take up about a year between them for students who weren't interested in studying that period further.
History of colonialism and post-colonialism: what colonialism was and why it happened would be a relatively light overview, but the effects of colonialism and the consequences from the colonial era through to the present day would be covered in detail.
(Man, suddenly I want to start working on a syllabus for the Sami School of History.)
There'd be a good amount of study devoted to the history of bigotry. Understanding the covert ways existing power structures reinforce themselves - including case studies of well-meaning people whose unconscious racism caused problems when they totally thought they were helping, because people need to realise a) that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and b) that not everyone who was a racist by contemporary standards was also a horrible person, because if you believe that all racists are necessarily *evil* rather than *misguided* then you set up all sorts of other problems as well.
Plus, research projects every term for which the student would be encouraged to select their own topic, based on whatever catches their interest. Because everyone should also discover the joy of learning for learning's sake.
I think the only thing I would add to the education is "life skills". Everyone should know how to allocate their time, budget their money, balance their bank accounts and so on. They should also be able to cook and clean (nutrition and health) and make basic repairs around the house, and possibly also grow food to eat. Not so much in a spirit of self-reliance, but because so much of our basic health issues have their root cause of people not learning how to care for themselves. I would make sure statistics is included in math, because there are so many who lie with statistics, and teaching folks how to think should include (in my little world) how to take apart what others are telling you to see if what they are saying is more than just "truthy".
But really, those are all the changes I'd make. So, when can I join your world?
|
| From: | sami |
|---|
| Date: |
February 28th, 2012 02:25 am (UTC) |
|---|
|
|
|
|
(Link) |
|
When I ~take power~ you can have a position in my staff - right-thinking people to help me keep track of everything and point out where people are being stupid.
Taking apart what others are telling you for truthiness - that's the essential heart of critical thinking, as a discipline, and the main reason I consider it so vital.
Life skills is a good addition - that can go on the high school curriculum, because younger children shouldn't have to care. Kids who grow up in the Utopia of Sami should look back on childhood as a kind of hazy idyll, where "time management" is "persuading your parents to let you stay up late to go stargazing".
|
|
