Natwerk Designs

Part 1 of my 'ideal school' essay.?

I wrote this essay for a contest. how's my 'ideal school'? My ideal school would be a boarding school, placed in a great city named Venheimen, far-far in the future. My ideal school would have around 2000 students and be named Morgan Aniston Secondary Boarding School, after the great man who founded the city. In my fictional universe, education starts at the age of 6 and ends at 16, with the option of university for the graduates. Students from the age of 6 to 11 go to primary school, where they would take the Primary School Examination (PSE) which will decide which secondary school they would go to. Students 12 to 16 go to secondary school and take the Secondary School Examination (SSE) at the age of 16. In my ideal school, classes start at 9am and finish at around 4pm, with lunch at noon lasting 1 hour. Friday classes end 1 hour early. Students study compulsory subjects such as English, Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Science, Astrology, Computer Technology, World History, Basic Geography and Creative Art and have a choice to study elective courses such as French, Chinese, German, Biology, Chemistry, Advanced Computer Technology, Advanced Geography, Space Research, Business Studies, Music and Professional Art. Students are required to take at least 2 elective courses. Creativity is highly encouraged among students in the school. Students create an endless stream of new inventions, letting their dreams come to life, though not all of which are positive and work well. Once, a group of boy students built a war robot to battle against another team’s robot. The robot went awry, grabbing a hair design and fashioning machine made by a group of girl students and started hitting everyone on the head with it. To end the situation, a group of teachers and students hit the robot on the head with sledgehammers and mallets. The robot returned the hair design and fashioning machine to its creators, who were given such a bad haircut they had to be warded for shock. There is a computer room with virtual-reality computers where the internet is an interactive space one can delve in. Antivirus programs are virtual rifles held in one’s hand shooting corrupt files and viruses. Games are played with eye goggles and motion sensor gloves. The virtually unlimited number of games forced the school to limit computer time to 2 hours a week on weekends because students were spending 20 hours a day in the computer lab. This has upset many students. There is a hair salon for girls where they change their hair to any style and colour they want. Every Friday there are arms training lessons given to all students at 3pm. This is because all healthy 17 years olds have to go for military service for 1 year. They are taught the art of Gunkata, martial arts with weapons, the notoriously difficult art of avoiding an enemy’s weapon fire and firing your gun, practiced with click guns. Unarmed combat training is also given, causing a worrying trend of kung fu fights in the halls and full hospital wings every Friday. The secondary objective for arms training is to relieve the stress the students feel after a weeks worth of classes and homework. Students are free to leave the school on weekends and wander around the city or return home as long as they are back by 8pm on Sunday. Students are strictly forbidden from borrowing live weapons from the arms locker at all times. Breakfast consists of buttered toast, oatmeal, porridge, cereal, eggs, sausages and jam with coffee. Lunch, Steamed rice, cornmeal, bread, chicken, fish, vegetables and potatoes, whereas dinner is a hearty affair of lamb chops, roast chicken, vegetables and potatoes with Yorkshire pudding. The students select their desired meal on computer screens and their order will be served within 2 minutes. Students are allowed to be creative with their food as well, creating many awkward, strange and downright disgusting combinations of food. Instant noodles were served when there was a feast and everyone finished everything in the kitchens save for nissin noodles. A breakdown in communication (the telephone broke, and no one could call telecoms) ensured hearty meals of noodles 3 times a day for a week. There was a decrease in interest in noodles among all students. Students are also allowed to cook their own meals during cooking classes once a week to improve their skills. Many students found their hidden talent, creating exceptional meals of great taste, while many others find that their talents lay elsewhere, because their cooking was utterly repulsive. Once some students made Beef Wellington using a real, stinking Wellington boot stuffed with old beef they bought from a bargain bin and fried in mashed potato gravy, the smell of which caused 5 students to faint and 1 teacher poisoned because she was forced to try it, and let us not talk of the time someone tried to make a Baked Alaskan. Students are required to spend 2 hours a day in study rooms,

Public Comments

1. I do not like your ideal school. It reminds me too much of the boarding school I went to and hated. I like that compulsory education ends at 16 (although it already does in some states, most kids just don't know that) but some of the required classes seem a bit weird. I mean, why is astrology mandatory? Also why creative art? Why not just have a bunch of different art classes as electives. I don't think military should be required either as it really has nothing to do with school. I do like that there seems to be more creativity allowed than there is in school today. But overall I still think it's too controlling of students. My ideal school (Sudbury School) already exists, although most people haven't heard of it.