Even when I’m not writing a narrative where schools are central to the plot, it’s helpful to think about what the characters know and how they learned it.
In many cultures, some sort of schooling is involved in building basic knowledge. But in a sci-fi world where avians are highly intelligent, how do birds learn?
Time to build fictional schools for the Drifting Amalgams universe.
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Foundation for Writing Fictional Schools in Science Fiction
Many schools have a story about their founding and history. Though, not always interesting in real life, a fictional school’s reason for being can add depth to a narrative. Knowing why an education system was created in the first place, especially in a developing world, is important.
In my Drifting Amalgams universe, for instance, I’m thinking through how birds evolve. The sturnovula species in this world began as Stone Age avians that encounter spacefaring peoples. So, how do birds learn to live in a world that is much more advanced than anything they could have imagined?
I suppose they develop an educational system. Which means I need to figure out the history and evolution of the school system. Why was it founded? What traditions developed, and how has it changed since inception?
When I first began thinking of an education system for my sturnovula, I had already created a sect referred to as The Curious. These are essentially a group of sturnovula who make it their life’s mission to learn about their world. So I think, as the birds evolve, The Curious’ way of life can become common—even urgent—as my sturnovula begin to be demonized by other species.
As these birds experience more safety over time, though, I think it makes sense for their fictional schools to become less about surviving and more about thriving. Assimilating the knowledge they encounter throughout the universe. And since I’ve written them to have natural mimicry abilities, like their real-world counterpart, I’m going to go ahead and add education disciplines focusing on linguists and translation.
So now that I’ve built a foundation for learning, what, specifically, are they learning… and why?
Core Values for Fictional Schools: How do Birds Learn
Another aspect of a fictional school’s reason for being relates to its core values. Yes, schools seek to educate, but what agenda is being served?
When worldbuilding a school system, I consider the alignment of a culture’s value system with the educational mission. If a culture is strongly scientific, for instance, studies may be academically rigorous. If the society is always at war, schools may be militaristically disciplined. Cultures focused on the ethereal may have schools that are religious in nature.
And what does this mean for the way subjects are taught? Is there a formality about them? A structure?
Extending this thought a bit further, how does a school system’s value framework affect a character’s attitudes? How do they feel about investigating and understanding their world? Do they even want to?
Worldbuilding a school system for the sturnovula is pretty interesting in this regard. How do birds learn to think about a fulfilling life that extends beyond their need to repel enemies?
Inherent in a survive-and-thrive philosophy, I think, would be both the need to understand new things and the ability to find joy in life. So, from a worldbuilding a school system perspective, it makes sense to have a fluid teaching framework. Students would learn generalities about self-fulfillment with the expectation that their journeys will be unique.
Brief lectures combined with extensive practical lessons will be common. And beyond school life, characters who experience this teaching philosophy will, likely, respect–if not love– learning because they’ll consider it essential to life.
Subjects Taught in Fictional Schools: How Birds Evolve
I’ve established the “why” in worldbuilding a school system. Which, leads me to the “what”. Once I know the reason the educational system exists and what values it’s rooted in, I need to work through what the students are taught to achieve the fictional school’s goals.
Logically, religious schools would have religious studies. Military schools may have battle strategy courses. But even for school systems that don’t have a distinct value framework, what subjects are mandatory for all students? And is there a central theme to these subjects? Perhaps the school is meant to train engineers, so all the classes relate to engineering.
This is the easier of the ideas in this chat, but I’m also staying aware that comprehensive studies may be needed even when a school focuses on one area. After all, a student with no real-world skills may have difficulty navigating the world.
Back to this idea about how birds evolve from a survival mentality to a mindset for thriving. In a lot of ways, thriving requires survival first. So, for their own safety, sturnovula need to understand why others perceive them as a threat: History. Similarly, they’ll need to protect themselves. So offensive and defensive techniques will be taught. These include fighting, mimicry, and murmuration. Food and shelter are a must, so I’ll include hunting and gathering as well as homemaking.
As for thriving, I think this will be a little more individualized. Accordingly, teachers will encourage students to figure out what brings them peace–even when their environment is chaotic.
As I mentioned, these are informal lessons. No mandatory sessions. However, it will be uncommon for fledglings to skip educational sessions. After all, these are life lessons. Who wouldn’t want to take part?
I’m not sure how many school systems I will develop this extensively, but it’s interesting to think about how a Stone Age society could transition from operating on basic instinct to prioritizing wellbeing.
Until next time, stay inspired.