Extreme School Idea

[Cognisant]

Inspired by team based RPGs, particularly some Japanese ones where the setting is literally a fantastic school for adventurers.

Instead of learning in a classroom kids have to tackle "dungeons" designed to challange them both as a team and individuals, think nerf-sword and paintball gun combat against robots or people hired to be opponents, it's an obstacle course too.

Now the treasures in these dungeons are pages from textbooks and the knowledge gleaned from them can be used to pass tests (which can be taken at any time) which is how they get their loot, e.g. You begin with a foam shortsword which can be exchanged for a longer sword, then a spear, then a warhammer, etc, eventually going up to things like powered armour and automatic paintball guns with high fire rates.

Extra curricular activities yeild aesthetic upgrades.

All the weapons are RFID locked so only the owners can use them, likewise for items and armour which is also inforced by the overseers who ensure everyone is playing safely and by the scenario rules, and the melee weapons have accelerometers & transmitters so when you hit a robot with one it acts appropriately so slashing at hexapod's legs will slow it down and eventually cripple it, while it'll be trying to knock you over and pin you down (gently) so you get disqualified.

Any ideas to add?

 

[Base groove]

So national exams are like... televised competitions with intellectual rounds as well as competition rounds.... competition between schools and districts, elite students get to demonstrate their weapons and armor as well as their knowledge of Shakespeare...

It's like track and field day, every day, with a healthy dose of math (well, that's all track and field day ever was to me).

 

[Rook]

The stick of truth...

 

[Mantis Toboggan]

Thunderdome.

 

[Coolydudey]

l.o.l.
ok I'll give you that that is very original. If the entire population of schoolkids was hyperactive competitive young boys then maybe it could have a chance of working. Even then, there goes any chance of preparing people for their boring adult life. Work has to be done. Other than that... just no.

 

[Cognisant]

The point of it is to make learning something kids want to do by setting up an environment that works with their desires rather than against them, granted athleticism and combat skills aren't exactly the basis of a strong economy (unless you're Sparta) however with developments in artificial intelligence the time of cubical workers may soon be at an end.

I think what kids need most is a proactive attitude, the desire to educate themselves, the confidence to take risks and social skills that go beyond merely tolerating each other's presence. These are things that schools as we know them don't teach, our current system is deigned to produce unmotivated cubical workers who do what they're told when they're told to do it with as little personal initiative or creativity as possible.

Which is great if you just need someone to act as part of a larger system but when machines can think conceptually it becomes so much more efficient to simply replace the human that has been trained to be a machine with an actual machine. Which is not to say people just won't have jobs anymore rather the added economic efficiency will make kinds of "work" possible and people who are able to adapt to these ever changing circumstances will be the most likely to prosper.

 

[Cognisant]

Every day I walk past two people on my way to work who are paid to stand around all day handing out free newspapers, let me repeat that, they are being paid to hand out stuff for free.

Now how does that work?

Well there's advertising in these free newspapers which pays for the paper, the printing, the people handing them out and the writers/photographers/editors that produce the content. Y'see we're entering into a world where the very concept of work is becoming something different, no longer are people just producers, retailers or administrators, now we're entering into a world where you can make money by simply disseminating information or collating it.

 

[Base groove]

athleticism and combat skills aren't exactly the basis of a strong economy (unless you're Sparta)

Well now wait just one second. Those movies do not portray the 'hoplites' in their correct historical role at all. The ancient Spartan economy was based on slavery just like all the rest.

 

[Kuu]

So basically problem-based learning with... foam swords?

our current system is deigned to produce unmotivated cubical workers

I've never noticed any cubical workers around here, must be an australian thing. Anyway, thank cthulhu we won't have to stoop so low as we are soon entering the glorious era of spherical workers, rolling with ease over all obstacles with their improved geometry!

 

[Pyropyro]

Inspired by team based RPGs, particularly some Japanese ones where the setting is literally a fantastic school for adventurers.

Instead of learning in a classroom kids have to tackle "dungeons" designed to challange them both as a team and individuals, think nerf-sword and paintball gun combat against robots or people hired to be opponents, it's an obstacle course too.

Now the treasures in these dungeons are pages from textbooks and the knowledge gleaned from them can be used to pass tests (which can be taken at any time) which is how they get their loot, e.g. You begin with a foam shortsword which can be exchanged for a longer sword, then a spear, then a warhammer, etc, eventually going up to things like powered armour and automatic paintball guns with high fire rates.

Extra curricular activities yeild aesthetic upgrades.

All the weapons are RFID locked so only the owners can use them, likewise for items and armour which is also inforced by the overseers who ensure everyone is playing safely and by the scenario rules, and the melee weapons have accelerometers & transmitters so when you hit a robot with one it acts appropriately so slashing at hexapod's legs will slow it down and eventually cripple it, while it'll be trying to knock you over and pin you down (gently) so you get disqualified.

Any ideas to add?

Now why wasn't this in the curriculum when I was younger!

 

[Hadoblado]

Any reason you're keeping this line of thought strictly in the impractical? There's an entire field devoted to making people pay to attain arbitrary and cheaply maintainable goals. How about we think waaaay outside the box and break the good/educational dichotomy on computer games?

 

[Pyropyro]

Any reason you're keeping this line of thought strictly in the impractical? There's an entire field devoted to making people pay to attain arbitrary and cheaply maintainable goals. How about we think waaaay outside the box and break the good/educational dichotomy on computer games?

Assassin's Creed did a good job in making gamers get interested in History. Perhaps we could get its good parts and balance it with sound educational topics?

 

[Duxwing]

Assassin's Creed did a good job in making gamers get interested in History. Perhaps we could get its good parts and balance it with sound educational topics?

Kerbal Space Program has made me somewhat literate in rocketry. I can talk about specific impulse vs. thrust-to-weight ratio in interplanetary transfer tugs and how these properties relate to delta-V budgets and transfer timetables, the necessity and requirements of launch escape systems on such high-value payloads as crew or nuclear engines, and even the life-lessons on balancing focus and diversity, long-term and marginal return, or theoretical confidence and empirical testing.

-Duxwing