How secret is this, because I can see it kind of like the Career districts where it's vaguely hush-hush, people know about it and the Capitol has given support, but at the same time they're not open about how extensive it is -- and maybe even LESS so because intellect is power and the Capitol, as Gandalf says, does not share power.
Yes, I think they’re somewhat similar (especially the food aid, which has to be a kind of wink-and-a-nod program similar to the Athletic and Personal Growth Center), though I also imagined the academic stratas as a factor that dominated D3 childhood but became mostly irrelevant as individuals moved from study to work. In my headcanon, I pictured the labeling a pervasive and high stakes element of schooling, up to the teen years, where at around 16 or 18, you go to your final round of testing, and you’re either selected for higher education or placed into vocational training (both of which I picture as being funded and controlled by the Capitol). Theoretically only school officials, the education bureaucracy, parents and students know their precise label, but it’s probably relatively easy to sort out from a child’s advancement through the curriculum and other circumstances (for example, I imagine science fairs are all the rage in D3, and that there are a lot of other competitions, with public results).
Children tracked for vocational training end schooling by 19 and are placed in the factories, where, once you’re in, there’s basically no ladder out: organizations presume that the government tracked you correctly and so even if you want to move up, you likely won’t be considered because you don’t have the ‘right’ educational background. Due to space constraints, Panem’s district specialization system, restrictions on ownership and general poverty, there’s not a lot of options outside the factories (you could design the equivalent of the personal computer in your spare time, but Steve Jobs without a free market and stable democracy is, unfortunately, just a guy with a hobby).
Children tracked in the upper stratas begin to receive aid from the first round of testing that indicates their status, and receive the aid so long as they maintain the status. Most children are going to proceed through typical schooling alongside children in the lower stratas, but tracked into more advanced classes and moving forward based on ability level rather than age. Eventually, they’re selected for higher education, in the form of a technical school or university. The exceptions are the alpha-ranked children; from as young as 12, they move to the National Science Academy, a college within the University of Panem’s main D3 campus.
I think the Capitol is aware of the potential threat of cultivating a crop of geniuses, but also wants the technological goodies, and so tries to mitigate the threat by controlling areas of study, access to economic capital, and, as you suggested, food instability. As you noted, I think its part of a pattern of how the Capitol maintains control: tight control on food in the urban districts, lack of technology/education in the resource-rich districts, and of course, persistently playing the districts against each other through the Games.
But meanwhile I assume with that kind of upward mobility the pressure to stay at the top and keep innovating would be kind of insane.
For the students, especially those on the cusp between one tier and another, I think it’s absolutely manic, and results in the widespread abuse of ‘study aid’ drugs (which have caused some D3 tributes to crash in the arena). For the adults, I think it’s like a professorship with a never-ending tenure review: not nearly as bad as the acute pressure of zero-sum testing, but still, a continuous drive to research, improve, meet specific goals, etc. Certainly enough for the scientists and factory workers to share a common enmity for the Capitol.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Re: District Three Headcanon, Part the Second
Date: 2013-08-25 03:32 am (UTC)Yes, I think they’re somewhat similar (especially the food aid, which has to be a kind of wink-and-a-nod program similar to the Athletic and Personal Growth Center), though I also imagined the academic stratas as a factor that dominated D3 childhood but became mostly irrelevant as individuals moved from study to work. In my headcanon, I pictured the labeling a pervasive and high stakes element of schooling, up to the teen years, where at around 16 or 18, you go to your final round of testing, and you’re either selected for higher education or placed into vocational training (both of which I picture as being funded and controlled by the Capitol). Theoretically only school officials, the education bureaucracy, parents and students know their precise label, but it’s probably relatively easy to sort out from a child’s advancement through the curriculum and other circumstances (for example, I imagine science fairs are all the rage in D3, and that there are a lot of other competitions, with public results).
Children tracked for vocational training end schooling by 19 and are placed in the factories, where, once you’re in, there’s basically no ladder out: organizations presume that the government tracked you correctly and so even if you want to move up, you likely won’t be considered because you don’t have the ‘right’ educational background. Due to space constraints, Panem’s district specialization system, restrictions on ownership and general poverty, there’s not a lot of options outside the factories (you could design the equivalent of the personal computer in your spare time, but Steve Jobs without a free market and stable democracy is, unfortunately, just a guy with a hobby).
Children tracked in the upper stratas begin to receive aid from the first round of testing that indicates their status, and receive the aid so long as they maintain the status. Most children are going to proceed through typical schooling alongside children in the lower stratas, but tracked into more advanced classes and moving forward based on ability level rather than age. Eventually, they’re selected for higher education, in the form of a technical school or university. The exceptions are the alpha-ranked children; from as young as 12, they move to the National Science Academy, a college within the University of Panem’s main D3 campus.
I think the Capitol is aware of the potential threat of cultivating a crop of geniuses, but also wants the technological goodies, and so tries to mitigate the threat by controlling areas of study, access to economic capital, and, as you suggested, food instability. As you noted, I think its part of a pattern of how the Capitol maintains control: tight control on food in the urban districts, lack of technology/education in the resource-rich districts, and of course, persistently playing the districts against each other through the Games.
But meanwhile I assume with that kind of upward mobility the pressure to stay at the top and keep innovating would be kind of insane.
For the students, especially those on the cusp between one tier and another, I think it’s absolutely manic, and results in the widespread abuse of ‘study aid’ drugs (which have caused some D3 tributes to crash in the arena). For the adults, I think it’s like a professorship with a never-ending tenure review: not nearly as bad as the acute pressure of zero-sum testing, but still, a continuous drive to research, improve, meet specific goals, etc. Certainly enough for the scientists and factory workers to share a common enmity for the Capitol.