Ditto on the love for your incredibly well thought out context for Three--IT IS AWESOME tell me all of it :D
As with a lot of other things in Panem, I think the Capitol privileges control over efficiency This is the #1 thing I try to keep in mind when I'm going "I wonder how [thing] works in Panem" and I completely agree on the disconnect between designers of stuff in Three and users of stuff in other districts.
OMG YOUR NATIONAL SCIENCE ACADEMY excuse me I need to flail for a second because:
I went to Caltech and it sounds like Panem's NSA is actually quite similar. Specifically: -- all students take about a year and a half of core classes. At Caltech this includes biology, chemistry, math, physics (every single student has to take @(&%#$ing quantum mechanics, which is way less cool than it sounds), a science intro-elective, and some token humanities and social science classes so we can pretend to be well-rounded adults. Plus whatever classes for your major.
-- collaboration! This was encouraged, less explicitly that in your thing but mostly by the fact that a) every freshman and sophomore is taking a lot of the same classes (because core) and b) the problem sets are REALLY FREAKING HARD so for those of us who are not actual geniuses collaboration is the only way to get everything done and also occasionally sleep. This is facilitated by the House System.
-- Hogwarts-esque houses! When I first went in 2001 I did not know about Harry Potter and thus struggled to explain Caltech's House System. It is like Hogwarts, but since there's no Sorting Hat we had a weeklong "rotation" period. This let freshmen meet each house and each house meet the freshmen, after which there is a complicated and supersecret process that mostly works to get people assigned to houses that they like. Because strangely, there are a lot of alpha strata Threes 18-year-old nerds with terrible social skills, who need structure to help them cope with the demands of teamwork. (and also the demands of incredibly challenging coursework and etc.)
OK that was a lot of only tangentially related information but in case you didn't know, there is totally a basis for what you are describing in modern-day USA. I think it's a great way to train scientists and engineers! (lol I have Feelings about academia and its occasional successes and myriad failures...don't get me started)
In more Panem-relevant comments: I think it's possible that a few exceptional students from other districts would get sent to Three to study and settle there--it'd be a shame to lose a potential genius just because she happens to live in D11--of course there's the control/efficiency thing there too but if they get pulled from their home district early and stay in Three afterwards I think it'd make sense.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2015-02-18 06:16 pm (UTC)As with a lot of other things in Panem, I think the Capitol privileges control over efficiency
This is the #1 thing I try to keep in mind when I'm going "I wonder how [thing] works in Panem" and I completely agree on the disconnect between designers of stuff in Three and users of stuff in other districts.
OMG YOUR NATIONAL SCIENCE ACADEMY excuse me I need to flail for a second because:
I went to Caltech and it sounds like Panem's NSA is actually quite similar. Specifically:
-- all students take about a year and a half of core classes. At Caltech this includes biology, chemistry, math, physics (every single student has to take @(&%#$ing quantum mechanics, which is way less cool than it sounds), a science intro-elective, and some token humanities and social science classes so we can pretend to be well-rounded adults. Plus whatever classes for your major.
-- collaboration! This was encouraged, less explicitly that in your thing but mostly by the fact that a) every freshman and sophomore is taking a lot of the same classes (because core) and b) the problem sets are REALLY FREAKING HARD so for those of us who are not actual geniuses collaboration is the only way to get everything done and also occasionally sleep. This is facilitated by the House System.
-- Hogwarts-esque houses! When I first went in 2001 I did not know about Harry Potter and thus struggled to explain Caltech's House System. It is like Hogwarts, but since there's no Sorting Hat we had a weeklong "rotation" period. This let freshmen meet each house and each house meet the freshmen, after which there is a complicated and supersecret process that mostly works to get people assigned to houses that they like. Because strangely, there are a lot of
alpha strata Threes18-year-old nerds with terrible social skills, who need structure to help them cope with the demands of teamwork. (and also the demands of incredibly challenging coursework and etc.)OK that was a lot of only tangentially related information but in case you didn't know, there is totally a basis for what you are describing in modern-day USA. I think it's a great way to train scientists and engineers! (lol I have Feelings about academia and its occasional successes and myriad failures...don't get me started)
In more Panem-relevant comments: I think it's possible that a few exceptional students from other districts would get sent to Three to study and settle there--it'd be a shame to lose a potential genius just because she happens to live in D11--of course there's the control/efficiency thing there too but if they get pulled from their home district early and stay in Three afterwards I think it'd make sense.