[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
was needed was a complete revision of learning priorities,
suitable to those who were firmly and irrevocably based on
this planet. Why did anyone NOW need to know the underly-
ing causes of the Nathi Space War? No-one here was going
to get in space - even the dragons were limited to distance
which they could travel before they were in oxygen debt. Why
not study the spatial maps of Pern and forget those of Earth
and its colonies? Study the Charter and its provisions as
applicable to the Pernese citizenry, rather than prehistoric
governments and societies? Well, some of the more relevant
facts could be covered in the course to show how the current
governmental system, such as it was, had been developed. But
there was so much trivia - no wonder his teachers couldn't
get through the lessons. Small wonder the students got bored.
So little of what they were presently required to learn had
any relevance to the life they lived and the planet they
inhabited. History should really begin with Landing on Pern
ú.. well, some nodding acquaintance with the emergence of
homo sapiens, but why deal with the aliens which Earth's
exploratory branch had discovered when there was little
chance of them arriving in the Rukbat system?
And further, Clisser decided, taken up with the notion, we
should encourage specialized training - raising agriculture and
veterinary care to the prestige of computer sciences. Breeding
to Pernese conditions and coping with Pernese parasites was
far more important than knowing what had once bothered
animals back on Earth. Teach the miners and metal workers
where the spatial maps showed deposits of ores and what they
were good for; teach not the history of art - especially since
many of the slides of Masterpieces had now deteriorated to
muddy blurs - but how to use Pernese pigments, materials,
Page 39
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
design and tailoring; teach the Great Currents, oceanography,
fish-conservation, seamanship, naval engineering and
meteorology to those who fished the waters... As to that,
why not separate the various disciplines so that each student
would learn what he needed to know, not a lot of basically
useless facts, figures and lheories?
66
For instance, get Kalvi to take in... what was the old term
... ah, apprentices... take in apprentices to learn fabrication
and metal-work? And there'd have to be a discipline for
mining, as well as metal-working. One for weaving; farming;
fishing. And one for teaching, too. Of course, education in
itself was designed to teach you how to solve the problems
that cropped up in daily living, but for specialities you could
really slim down to the essential skills required by each. As
it was, that sort of apprentice system was almost in place
anyhow... with parents either instructing their kids in the
family's profession or getting a knowledgeable neighbour to
do it. Kalvi had both sons now in supervisory capacities in his
Telgar Works. And there should be provisions to save other
kids, like Jemmy, and see that they were able to develop a
potential not in keeping with their native hold's main business.
Adminster a basic aptitude test to every child at six, and the
more specific one at eleven or twelve, and be able to identify
special abilities and place him or her where s/he could
learn best from the people qualified to maximize the innate
potential.
Even in medicine, a new curriculum should be established,
based on what was now available on Pern rather than what
the First Settlers had had. Mind you, Corey was constantly
regretting the lack of this or that medicine, or equipment and
procedures that would have saved lives but were no longer
available. Clisser snorted; too much time was spent bitching
about 'what had been' and 'if only we still had' instead of
making the best of what was available in the here and now.
What was that old saying?
'Ours not to wonder what were fair in life
But finding what may be, make it fair up
to our means?'
Well, he couldn't remember who had said it or to what it
had applied. But the meaning definitely applied! Pern had
great riches which were being ignored in the regret of the
~what had been'. Even Corey had to admit that the indigenous
pharmacopoeia was proving to be sufficient for most common
67
Fo
pe~
OFf
err
Page 40
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
pl~
ha:
on
or
ha
AI
bu
va
su~
wi
ci~
T}
tr~
en
pa
pc
of
be
W
H,
its
rn
la
ailments, and even better in some cases now that the last of
the carefully hoarded Earth chemicals were depleted.
Basic concepts of maths, history, responsibility, duty, could
indeed be translated into music, easier to transmit and
memorize. Why, anyone who could strum an instrument could
give initial instruction in holds, teach kids to read, write and
do some figuring, and then let them apply themselves to the
nitty-gritty of their life's occupation. And music had always
been important here.
He put his foot down on the step, pleased with this
moment's revelation. A whole new way of looking at the
education and training of the young, and entirely suitable to
the planet and its needs. He must really sit down and think
it all through... when he found the time.
His laugh mocked his grandiose ideas and yet, they'd had
to revise and reform so many old concepts here on Pern: why
not the method in which education was administered? Was
that the word he wanted: administered? Like a medicine? He
sighed. He did wish that learning was not considered an
unavoidable dose. Certainly someone like Jemmy proved that
learning was enjoyable. But then, insatiable appetites like his
for knowledge, for its own sake, were rare.
Clisser trotted up the last of that flight of steps in con-
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]