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I think we have had refrences to this in the past... I'll see if I can find them...

Obviously, we'd want to set a very high standard for education, as it is possibly the most important function of any social system.

It would be good to have good public education available to all children through high school, and eventually though collage. many adults need to further their education, but often can't afford to go to classes, so public adult education would be good too. I'd like it all to be affordable and possibly free so social conditions didn't affect one's abilities.

Cultural education is less straight forward. I suppose the media and public TV, seminars and such would be the best ways of doing this. It would be slow, and some pockets of society would linger on for a while without being educated.

any education system to be truly valuable must be totally free at source of use, or the intelligent-poor people - those who would benefit most - would be excluded, like they are throughtout most of the world at the moment... and a system to enable all people access (like grants, loans etc, so they can afford to live while being educated) would have to be considered.

education must be objective, there's no point in teaching science within a religious framework, or viceversa for example.

as for what should be taught, well, anything & everything the students could ever possibly want to learn! i have found that here in the uk, the education system, while better than many, is too restrictive and places too much focus on learning information by rote, rather than teaching people to think which is far more valuable, as it enables a person to educate themselves and with any luck, causes people to want to learn

Instead of one exam, I'd suggest one exam per year for a few years. this way the children get used to taking the exams and don't get penalized if they have a bad day.

On another note, education should start early. The US school system may be as fast as some people can handle, but I have always been bored with it. Advanced classes should start at an early age so that the students can truly reach their learning potential

A major roadblock to peace is the language barrier. Most highschoolers know how difficult learning other languages can be. I suggest that foreign languages be taught starting when the child is between 5 and 7.

Technology is narrowing the line between the two spheres of emphasis you suggested. Education needs flexibility. Perhaps having everyone take 10 years of general (or advanced) education, then be allowed to diverge in their learning to become whatever they want.

Private education is a necessary part of society. Without it, the government gains the ability to control what enters the minds of all the children. It impairs freedom of speech, although it doesn't clearly violate it.

One thing I am against is private education, at least for children. I honestly believe that it is morally wrong. If the public education system doesn't meet the standards you want it to...you put money in and fix the system. You don't undermine it. Private education, as it is, creates a huge rift in America's educational system as it is. Those with private education don't have to worry about the "sink or swim" approach to college that I had to take.

A type of charter school I think would be a better idea. Schools which perform better could then be more selective, but still free; but charter schools only work up to a point, and only in highly populated cities (there are already many in Los Angeles).

As to what exactly should be taught...wisdom should be revered above knowledge. "Half of being smart is knowing how to find the answer." While teaching students logical patterns and reasoning is undervalued, so is the ability to research. The ability to write and communicate well, too, is subverted by the dreaded multiple choice test. Knowledge - and even pure wisdom - are nothing without communication skills. After TA-ing for a few classes, I'm tired of seeing students get A's on MC tests but hand in essays that are like, "Drilling in ANWR would be very bad. It could upset the ecosystem there. I liek polar bears."

I'm torn on where to draw the line on education. On the one hand, I understand the need for vocation-specific education; on the other, I'm appalled at the fact that education for the sake of education is NOT a value of ANY society in the world. While a vocational worker should certainly be competent, can they not also be well-read? Is it really so impossible that the garbagemen of a Utopian society still be able to discuss Plato and modern science in the same breath? By starting education earlier and emphasizing logic and process over specific material, we can accomplish both. To me, the most valuable student is the one who has been exposed to a wide array of materials and understands how to work with each.

And Tenescowri; I agree that education should be objective. But, in the case of trying to expand a child's knowledge on cases of sociology, religion, philosophy, even economics and political science, this can be hard. I maintain that courses in religious philosophy and/or history of religion should be mandatory, but they must be taught correctly to avoid corruption. I also agree that a wide array of courses should be available at all age levels, not only college; however, economical concerns shift more towards "popular" courses, and so we must still build a very basic core that would be absolutely required.

I have to disagree with you there. I went to a private school in middle school, because my public elementary school was horrible and did not really care about anyone's education. I learned more in my first year of middle school than I ever learned from teachers in elementary school (I mostly had to teach myself through reading outside of class). Private schools, or at least the one I went to, are created by people with a passion for teaching children, and you get so much more from people who actually enjoy their work. Because they had a passion for teaching, the students had a passion for learning. The problem is, of course, the acessibility. Find ways to make teachers and administraters passionate about what they do, and you will quickly have a school as good as a private school. I'm not really sure how to make this more common, and it is a shame how hard it is to find education of that kind of quality.

No real comments, just that without war, the governments would have a lot more money to go around.