“Teachers affect eternity; they can never tell where their influence stops.”
– Henry Brooks Adams
The formation and success of the HOA system depends on the educational system that trains its citizens to hold positions as representatives. The HOA is a system that is fundamentally based on the right decision making power of the individual and his/her capability to run the affairs of the country without depending on the political elite to do it on their behalf. Therefore, education plays a vital role in developing such a system as the schools can broaden their interests and enhance skills that are required to live as responsible and accountable citizens.
Everyone has a gift that needs to be capitalized on. History has proven that those who utilize their God-given talents become very successful as it comes naturally to them. Imagine if everyone is doing what they love to do as their work. If everyone’s gift is identified early on in their lives, then the person who loves carpentry will be the best carpenter and would love doing it. That person would be successful and not feel as if the system owes him or her something. A proper education is based not on ideological ideas of what is good for a child but on solid foundations of literacy and educational purpose. Therefore the following charter on education should not be modified, amended or interpreted in any other form or shape, specifically to serve the interest of any ideology, party or person:
Schools are responsible for providing the means for the citizenry to become responsible and useful members of society. Education involves identifying the necessary and appropriate disciplines to help every citizen to be a productive member of that society. These include full literacy, where the student is able to read, write, and think critically; Mathematics at least through Geometry; and sciences such as Chemistry, physics and Biology. Disciplines such as Philosophy will be added after the student is well-trained in the basics and are added so that individuals can work to develop their own philosophy of life based on researching and experiencing various ideas to find what works for them. Other topics such as religion will be discussed under philosophy, but would not be considered as a discipline as it does not serve any purpose for this system. Therefore, there would not be any discipline such as divinity school for mullahs, preachers, rabbis, etc.
Teachers have the most unique position in this society, as they are the ones who form the future of the country. To build a great society, teachers need to train their students to be happy in life and be a useful member of a society. Happiness is a moral responsibility of everyone.
Those who want to be teachers must be trained for a minimum of four years in their chosen discipline and then another two in certified teacher training programs. The curriculum of teachers would include Child Development, physical and natural Science and Psychology to make sure teachers are equipped with identifying students’ gift early on.
School starts at prekindergarten stage to teach children cooperation, equality and friendship through games and play to prepare them for this proposed school system. These notions are strengthen in kindergarten. Elementary schools are responsible for teaching students reading writing and solve simple mathematical problems. Art and team projects are taught at this stage to promote team building and develop individual capabilities. All school teachers are also trained to recognize specific capabilities in students. For instance, gifted students in painting or math or reading will be identified and will be directed to specific high schools where they will be concentrating on those specific topics. Other disciplines will also be included in each curriculum so that each student will be well rounded.
Teachers who teach junior high grades (sixth through ninth grade) would specialize in those specific topics for an additional two years beyond the elementary education. Since students will attend schools that cater to their gifts, students with gifted math capabilities, for example, will require teachers with degree in math who are versatile in all higher math functions such as calculus and differential equations, etc. Similarly, teachers teaching in junior high schools catering to art will have degrees in art related topics such as painting, sculpture and different school of thoughts in arts. Teachers training students with interest in biology would need to have a degree in Biology to prepare these students for medical school, etc.
For high school grades ninth through twelfth, teachers will be required to have training of additional two years and a completed master’s degree in teaching a specific subject. The teaching shall be in a form of research to make student research and develop new ideas and explore the topics in that discipline. The subjects are combined with practical laboratory experiments to make sure complete understanding of the topics.
The university teachers are required to have an additional four years of training with a completed Ph.D. and complete training for teaching. Again, teaching shall be in the form of enticing students to question and research on their own, make presentations on a variety of topics, and perhaps make new discoveries. In all levels, students would be working together in team arrangement. Ideally, these teams would number no more than six with members of the team numbering no more than five. By training each student to learn in teams, each person will be fully able to work together as a team when it is their time to serve in the HOA. If a member of a team is not fast in catching up with the rest of the team’s member, it is the team’s responsibilities to make sure the slow individual understands the entire topic before the team moves on. Students need to be taught that more can be accomplished as a team rather than as an individual.
Students during the first six years of schooling will be exposed to variety of topics from art to science. During these six years, teachers and students together will arrive to a conclusion about the student’s gift and its abilities. If a student is not good in math, but very good in biology, then from seventh grade onwards, the student will be taught mostly in the biological sciences and less in other non-related subjects.
After three years of intensive focus on a specific topic, biology in this example, the student will identify a trade that they would like to concentrate on: medicine or teaching biology for a biology student in this example. After the ninth grade, the student will be working during the summer in the trade they want to ultimately train for, to assure their perspectives are correct. Each student would have an advisor and mentor that can help guide him or her to the right field or profession.
Although the purpose of this Manifesto is to develop a system to ensure a free society, some limitations are required to make sure fanatical thoughts and acts would not find their way into the educational system. The idea is not to pollute the future minds of the country. For example, specific religious beliefs and ideologies, while they are guaranteed in the Declaration of Human Rights, must be curbed in any educational classroom. Religion is a private, not a public matter. For this reason, every teacher would be closely monitored to make sure they are not including their own agendas into their teaching in classes. For instance, no specific religious ideologies are allowed in any classroom. However, everyone is free to practice any ideology they wish in the privacy of their home, since that is a relationship between the person and God and does not need to be displayed in this society. Therefore, displaying any religious beliefs even as jewelry or dressing attire is not allowed as these displays can cause for separation, social disintegration, discrimination and finally war between the members of a society.
History shall be taught in school in a form of a documentary and/or movie with all references according to what really happened and the effect of every decision on the society as a whole. Since history has been written by the victors, the historical books shall be studied and books with inaccuracies and vendetta will be dismissed by proper references and will not be used for teaching the history. History shall be taught starting at fifth great in elementary school with lessons starting with the motherland’s history. History subjects shall also be part of the high school curriculum, which will include foreign history, and it will also include lessons in contextualizing historical incidences, both in terms of the past and present and what the people of each country can learn from each other’s history.
Live discussions shall be part of each class and the final exam shall be in the form of a thesis with topics that could include what a specific history would look like if the decision would have been different.
The school curriculum would also include a class on parenting, which will include a year of study on relationship and child development. This one year study will be provided in the eleventh grade and will follow with one more year of schooling for those who want to get married and not to continue their education any further. These students are required to have a license from school certifying that they know the responsibilities come with being in a relationship and being a parent. This will bring order into the society. Every student is required to graduate from high school, and parenting classes will help ensure each individual is prepared to raise children and are able to take up the mantle of representation when it is his or her time.
This is for everyone to understand human psychology. This information will arm them with knowledge so they in turn can develop better children for the future. Of course there would be cases that a child will be born to unlicensed parents. In these cases, the child will be under the state’s protection with all medical and educational benefits, and the parents would have a visitation right. To make sure this type of accident would not happen, the mother will have a tubal ligation until a time that she presents a special parenting licensing. This license requires four-years of parenting, and a trade certification. The tubal ligation will be removed only when these licenses are provided.
Sex education should also be a part of schooling and it may be combined with classes on human nature and instinct. It appears those societies with a taboo view of sex are suffering from some psychological deficiencies than those that are more open about it. Exploring human nature and instinct need to be part of the curriculum to make sure people are not growing up with complex or odd ideas about human sexuality. The sex education should not be gender biased and influenced by religious ideologies. School will be a full eight-hour day, five days a week and homework to keep the student interested and occupied during the week. This is to match children’s schedules with parents’ working hours.
Child psychologists will make a determination of the right combination of schooling, physical activities and break for the best results. This will be established and will be reviewed every six years. In case of new discovery about this matter, this combination of class hours/break can be reviewed and it will be implemented the following year. From the ninth grade on, all schooling will include practical matters such as building a machine, computers, dissecting frogs, or introducing a new philosophy. Part of any high-school curriculum should include students making presentations about their work and being challenged by their teachers and peers in a respectful way to promote learning.
Each school will build a global Knowledge Center Network involving universities, research centers, civil society organizations, and companies around the world to accelerate practical problem solving for sustainable world at the local, national, regional, and global level. The school board would consist of a combination of parents, educators, and experts in the field of child development. Each professional school board member serves a five-year term and they are elected by the parents in that school district. They can be re-elected to the board as long as the parents are satisfied with their performance. Since there is no campaigning in this system, new candidates are introduced by the parents in that school district, and each candidate is allowed to present his or her vision on education in a specified format, but would not deviate from this charter.
The salaries of school-board members are paid from the tax base on that school district. The parents serving on the board do so, on an honorary basis and no salaries are allowed under these positions. The terms are one year, with an additional year for those who are asked to stay on as consultants. The consultants will be paid on an hourly rate, negotiated by the school board. This will provide an incentive for those members who serve well to stay on the board and help make the board as effective as possible. These consultants will be good candidates for the school board position. Any salary increase shall be decided and approved by the parents of that district as well as the budgeting office of HOA to make sure the district would never go over budget.
Ultimately, the proposed school system strives to create educated, qualified and skilled generations that are capable to shoulder the responsibility of statecraft on one hand and family responsibilities on the other. After this education, they will be human beings who would enjoy liberty with responsible freedom, authority with accountability, responsiveness with reasonable judgment and above all social commitment without compromising personal dignity. The Manifesto gives priority to education as any defect in the grooming of responsible citizen would lead to the fall of the system itself. When Plato designed his famous Republic, he had prepared detailed treaties on educational system that can act as a foundation of the entire edifice of the political system.
The main responsibility of the HOA in developed countries adopting this system will be the establishment of an educational system explained above. However, in the under developed countries the most important issue is providing access to education to all. In some part of the world, the children still lack even primary education. Since the success of the HOA depends on a responsible and intelligent civil society, there is an urgent need to put extra effort to extend educational facilities to all. Provision of free and compulsory education for the poor, thus, makes an important attribute of this system. We must realize that the huge and persistent inequalities in education have far reaching effects, leading to inequalities in employment, wages, health and social integration. Therefore, proactive policies should be implemented to fill the gap in educational attainment. The gender gap in education should also be addressed to ensure that neither sex is favored over the other.