Education in Urcea

Education in Urcea is provided in public school, private school, and home schools, and is divided into K-12 education and higher education. Urcean public education is operated jointly by provincial and local governments alongside the Church and is regulated by the Collegium Scientificum, which is both a university system and the nation's public education department. Education in Urcea is traditionally based on the principles of classical education and primary and secondary education are primarily focused on teaching the seven traditional liberal arts.

Principles

According to the Collegium Scientificum, the purpose of education in Urcea is "to mold students into more complete people and able citizen-subjects" by "freeing (them) from their basest desires and creating them as individuals capable of self-rule in the most direct sense". Consequently, the Collegium Scientificum argues that the outcome of education is to create a population "free to pursue the intellectual and religious pursuits of their longing in addition to being capable in their duties to state in life" and to create a population 'capable of self-governance by means of self-rule' and 'self-moderation'." This is accomplished through the two primary subject areas of education, referred to as "knowing" and "doing". "Knowing" refers to the program of teaching "cultural touchstones", that is, specific fact-based education, while "doing" refers to technical knowledge that will be useful to students later in life.

Self-governance

The highest principle imparted in the Urcean education system is "self-governance", sometimes also referred to as "self-rule". Rather than self-sufficiency, self-governance refers to ensuring that students have emotional discipline and control over their own desires. These skills are not only viewed as valuable due to the religious implication of self-control and resistance to sin, but also because it is viewed that individuals who have self-restraint are more responsible citizens. Individuals who are capable of self-governance, according to the Urcean system, capable of not only being more productive workers, but also are better trained to be diligent parents and responsible voters.

Technical knowledge

The Urcean educational system emphasizes the teaching of technical knowledge, that is, the "science of doing"; this entails not only physical labor tasks and familiarity with physical tools and objects in addition to more "white-collar" tasks such as basic familiarity with filling government forms and completing taxes, but also basic familiarity with task completion. Accordingly, at all grade levels, attention is given to establishing balance between one's work and their other life obligations, as well as to fundamental abilities such as how to internally schedule, balance different tasks, and awareness of how one's emotions and situation are affecting one's productivity in any given day. This type of education is not only geared towards creating productive workers, but is also geared towards giving students the tools to properly achieve self-governance while not being overwhelmed by their work, no matter the industry or field they enter.

Cultural touchstones

In addition to technical knowledge and concepts in self-governance, the Urcean education system does include components of education referred to as "cultural touchstones", a fact-and-memorization style of education that gives students a basic understanding of world history, comparative religious beliefs, Urcean literary canon, and a more thorough education on Urcean and Levantine history. While touchstone-based education is not included in every curriculum every year, it is variously included or heavily referenced by year. The intention of memorization of these facts is to provide students cultural literacy and context for human behavior that may provide students the opportunity to acquire additional knowledge as adults when presented with unknown information. In this sense, the Urcean educational model views these types of facts to be the basic building block on which students, when adults, can become more well rounded and capable of self-governance.

Detractors have derided cultural touchstones as "dated, rote memorization" which detracts from the teaching of general skills.

Religious education

In Urcean public schools, catechetical classes are included in every grade level. As a vast majority of Urceans are members of the Catholic Church, all students - Catholic or not - are expected to take Catechesis classes, although non-Catholic students are "graded only on their understanding of the underlying philosophical concepts" according to the Collegium Scientificum rather than their acceptance of the ideas as true.

Urcea's religious education is intended to convey two types of information. The first is called "religion in fact"; this is basic information learned by rote memorization relating to the facts and timeline of salvation history, important Saints, information about the Sacraments and Christian life, scripture, and other information taught in a straight forward way and is similar in concept to cultural touchstones. The second is called "religion in truth", which are more fundamental and complex philosophical concepts about God and how they relate to "religion in fact", including ideas such as divine simplicity, the unmoved mover, and aseity. Both "religion in fact" and "religion in truth" as education are not, contrary to popular opinion, intended to necessarily convince students of the truth of the Catholic faith, though it often has that effect. Instead, the two-pronged approach is intended to equip students "to handle, understand, and apply breakthroughs of grace in their lives with the truth of salvation history; to impart on them the tools of understanding grace in their lives once present". In other words, Urcean society relies on what is referred to as the "violence of grace", a sudden and irreversible act of realization and conversion that occurs in one's religious life. The educational component is intended to contextualize the "breakthrough" when it occurs in order to leave the educated Urcean in a position to truly embrace the Catholic faith. This method has been criticized both by secular educators and some Catholic catechetical experts for departing from a traditional teaching method.

K-12 education

In Urcea, K-12 education is divided into two sections, called "sextets" for grade groupings. Structurally, each sextet is responsible for conferring different subjects but also includes catechetical education classes at each grade level. In addition to the core basics of each sextet's areas, various history and Urcean literature courses are included at varied grade intervals. Most grade levels also include a remedial material course, which ensures students remain a level of familiarity with material learned at lower levels, especially materials taught at grade intervals. Remedial material courses are graded on a student's grasp on the sum total of all knowledge acquired so far in their academic career, and is considered the most important class for the purposes of a student's overall yearly grade.

First Sextet

The "First Sextet", a period of education which can be roughly equated with "primary education" in other countries, is the first six grade levels (and kindergarten), focused primarily on teaching the trivium - grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The First Sextet includes the years K-6. Basic math courses are also included for the students to have a base level understanding of mathematical concepts before a full arithmetic-based education occurs in the Second Sextet. The First Sextet begins usually at age five and ends around age twelve.

Second Sextet

The "Second Sextet", a period of education which can be roughly equated with "secondary education" in other countries, is the second six grade levels, focused primarily on teaching the quadrivium - arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. The Second Sextet includes the years 7-12. The second half of Grade 12 is largely all remedial classes based on all seven of the key principles of education as well as historical, literary, and catechetical information, and typically includes four major examinations at its conclusion as well as two major academic papers of the student's choosing, with one focusing on philosophical concepts, such as those learned through the First Sextet and catechetical classes, and the other on material concepts, such as those learned during the Second Sextet. The Second Sextet begins around age twelve and ends around age eighteen.

Higher education

Trade schools

Urcea has a well developed system of trade schools maintained by each guild, with most guilds having either a standalone trade school per province or an embedded program within provincial public universities. Trade schools are typically a three year degree program that includes salaried apprenticeship roles beginning in the second year of an education. While a trade school degree does not require an individual to join the particular guild industry of their choice on graduation, the education is highly specialized to each guild and sets an individual on the track of life within that industry. As guilds are divided into both labor and capital, the education provided at trade schools includes both technical, hands-on labor education as well as practical management and financial balancing courses necessary for an individual to one day own their own firm. Trade schools also offer intangible benefits to its graduates, namely networking opportunities and personal engagement with local vested guild members, often offering apprenticeships under vested owners and workers alike. Due to the social and economic influence of guilds within Urcea, the percentage of young people attending trade schools as opposed to traditional liberal arts-oriented institutions of higher education is higher than any other Occidental country.

Seminaries and formation schools

The third largest type of higher education institution in Urcea is Catholic seminaries and formation schools. Seminaries work for the training of priests and most date to the counter reformation; formation schools are lesser institutions dedicated to the education and training of other religious. Many of these are privately operated by the Church with various degrees of state support, and most seminaries operated independently by religious orders receive no state funding at all. Some seminaries, however, are embedded within public liberal arts schools or have associated programs where seminarians receive educational credit. A small number of seminaries are operated directly by the state within a public school. The most prominent institution is St. Andrew's Seminary, part of the Collegium Scientificum in Urceopolis; this institution is a campus within the larger Collegium Scientificum system, although the vast majority of programs and all seminarian dorms are on-site at the seminary.