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[Mithfindel]

I just noticed something that I first did not in "Under the Sea, the City":

I was twelve when I was accepted into the Caldari Army.

So, um, a military school? Still, pretty damn young, even if we assume that he was accepted several years younger than usual. Would it be possible that the Caldari do aptitude tests as very young and then filter their people into their future careers, with the department / division / corp taking care of the child from that point? At least some corps (Wiyrkomi, Hyasyoda) seem to value the family unit, so having everyone go to a boarding school doesn't sound so likely.

[orange]

There are plenty of military schools that can start as young as 12 years old (or younger) even today.

Lets reduce the age of active service to 16 (only 2 years) and the "traditional" Caldari system also takes 2 years to train an officer (fully, college + officer training).  Now, the Caldari Army may also have a Army prep school that is 4 years long and is largely secondary eduction.  But it is also preparing the individual for service in the military, possibly as warrant officers.

With a prep school, I think it is reasonable.

[Seriphyn]

Having military secondary schools as commonplace in the State I could imagine, especially if it separates it from the more vanilla, European-style Gallente education system.

I imagine the Gallente education system would be tailored at abstract thinking, and educating the individual to think for themselves and all that philosophical stuff. In contrast, the Caldari education system would be focused on the practical side of things, and getting skilled, no?

[Arvo Katsuya]

Indeed. Like comparing 'Liberal Arts' to a specialized Ph.D, I'd say.

[Mithfindel]

Both styles will be needed on both empires, though. You can't build an empire with only theoretical science (though that may be the ideal) and you can't stay innovative just with being skilled. Of course, it might strike me as very odd, since the idea of a "military school" is completely alien to my local culture (well, they have those on the other side of the border, but still - here military training to underage people is forbidden, even when the wartime recruitment age is technically 16 for non-combat assignments). The assumption I had is that if the military is picked that young, then perhaps the training on other fields is started early. I personally had a very long "general education" and "do not have a profession" as I'm having a university background, but taking back a generation I do remember that my old folks started working when they turned 16 (with a few years of vocational training before that).

If we recall the old discussion about mill towns, it might be that the vocational training of the Caldari children starts very early with the basics coming amongst play in kindergarten-style schools, continuing with a bit more practical stuff in primary education, which however stays general enough so that if the kids who do well in aptitude tests can be snatched to other schools. From the chronicle referred to in the OP I assume that the usual age for full-blown specialization comes a bit later (14? 15?) but those who do test well can start early. In this case, the character mentions that he was quite strong for a 12-year old, and based on the tasks he's doing, it might be that he tested well in some "P-tests" too. ("P-test" is the term used by the local military for psychological, logical thinking etc. tests.)

[orange]

So, the US has military schools (they are also boarding schools) that go down as far as primary school.

I suspect the State's education system varies from corporation to corporation (much like the US's education system varies State to State), with some end standards that want to be reached.  In the case of the State, these standards are set by corporate hiring policies.

Also, in the US, education is inefficient.  Material is often repeated year to year and lots of vacation is provided.  The State is unlikely to have "summer" vacation.  This alone increases the rate of education, if from age 6 to 12 you are attending school as if it was a job, with 3 "semesters" per year, you  have managed 18 "semesters;"  now have one of those semesters off and it takes an additional 3 years!

We, modern people, have an expectation of ~18 being "adult."  But this is a modern western invention.

What do we consider the 15 or 16 year old insurgent/freedom fighter?  Is he an adult?  How about the 15 or 16 year old murderer?  Answers to these questions vary even in western cultures.

Basically, we should consider the idea that the State's primary & secondary education systems are not based on western education systems and thus someone having been part of the Caldari Army, starting with a focused secondary education since 12 makes sense.  I would extend this to other duties as well.  If I have trained the factory operators by age 15/16 and I found one of them particularly useful at management, we can being advanced training based on aptitude and merit for some and getting others in the workforce early.

[Vieve]

I imagine Caldari schools are also run according to work shifts, that is 24/7, with children being enrolled in the school (school/work program as they get older) shift that best fits their family unit's work assignments. 

Caldari parents don't have to worry about finding something for the kids to do because they get out of school at 14:30, and neither of the parents are home before 17:00 (if they don't have to pull a longer shift).

[Stitcher]

I've always pictured the Caldari system as having a lot of data mining and aptitude monitoring right from the very beginning. A child's educational records will stretch right back to the kinds of toys they chose to play with in nursery, which classes they paid attention in and which they were bored by throughout primary and secondary education, which games they played during break hours, their extracurricular activities... all of it gets fed into a database and thoroughly analysed with a view to not only optimising their education, but also to help them make decisions which make best use of the skills and aptitudes they display.

Of course, the usual result is unlikely to be decisively one thing, but it does help the Meritocratic system that encourages people to "fall into" their niche. the downside is, as with most Caldari things, that people get reduced to statistics and the data-mining, being done by software, lacks that empathic subtlety which might draw out hidden talent.

[Dex_Kivuli]

I've always pictured the Caldari system as having a lot of data mining and aptitude monitoring right from the very beginning. A child's educational records will stretch right back to the kinds of toys they chose to play with in nursery, which classes they paid attention in and which they were bored by throughout primary and secondary education, which games they played during break hours, their extracurricular activities... all of it gets fed into a database and thoroughly analysed with a view to not only optimising their education, but also to help them make decisions which make best use of the skills and aptitudes they display.

This sounds really close to what I imagined too. The State is painted as a model of efficiency, favouring the group over the individual. A lot of the thinking in that regard is tempered by the implication that in historical periods, the State has not only had too few people, but too few people in very harsh environments.

Couple this with the idea of lifetime corp commitments. While some corps favour research and such, ultimately every corp has scientists, soldiers, accountants etc etc etc.

I always imagined State education as being very focused. If a person had aptitudes towards science and maths, they'd be shuffled to an engineering class group very quickly, and this would all be within their existing corp. To my thinking, just because a person is in the Caldari Navy or whatever, doesn't imply they're training to be a soldier. They could be training to be a Caldari Navy lawyer or doctor.

In terms of training differences, I've always favoured the view that the State's education system would be putting people to good use. So, if you were in secondary school completing an assignment on electronics, it would be practical. So, while a Gallentean school may have you drawing circuit diagrams and writing an essay, I'd imagine in the State they'd have you fixing a broken circuit board from an old Merlin. The theory is still there, but if a person is doing the calculations anyway, why not get some utility from them.

[Akikio L]

I'm thinking of a very alien (to me) approach in Caldari education. Since the individual is nothing and the group is all maybe you don't really get judged/evaluated as an individual but as a group. So a class gets an assignemnt and then it's up to the group to organise the work as best they can. Natural leaders will emerge, the cogs will grind into synch with eachother...or something like that  . Maybe even that the groups qualities are evaluated and their future decided as a whole. A squad in the Caldari army might have known eachother since they started school. I don't know if this hangover crazy idea makes any sense? 

[Stitcher]

The individual isn't "nothing" in Caldari culture, it's just that people are considered in terms of what they can contribute to the collective effort. You don't build a precision machine out of whole cloth, instead you focus on producing each component in such a way that it performs its role exceptionally well.

This philosophy is very visible in the starship design, actually. Caldari ships tend to excel at a single role, and have good synergy with other ships, but lack flexibility.

[Yoshito Sanders]

In my Birth of a Pod Pilot: Caldari piece, I did a bit about Caldari schooling.

http://homebasecomics.com/blog/2009/01/09/birth-of-a-pod-pilot-caldari/

It's not the main thrust of the piece, but it does a fair job of illuminating my thoughts. And I think it matches up well with what a lot of you all are thinking as well.

[Mithfindel]

Also, any system based on data mining is dependent on the people inputting the data. So the performance of poorly-funded or staffed schools is going to drop, if for no reason then perhaps because the teacher might just record the students' advancement sloppily - possibly even having resigned to a "they're all just going to work at the Armor Forge" type mentality.

Of course, the top schools will also have motivated teachers and the best teaching and grading support tools. Which brings me an idea of something else in the PF that might work: Heth's re-education efforts. What if what the Provists did was just reassessing the abilities of those workers whose data they could reach, and then picked for re-training those with whom they could get the best improvement? Even when Heth's possibly not really bright outside of military affairs, this would sound like something his late second-in-command could've done.