« Apparently, SC schools are bad. But not really. | Main | Readings for Tuesday »

November 01, 2007

Moon School and Moon Soceity

Categories: EDUC 110

I received an email today from a student with a question about the moon school. I thought it was an excellent question and may be pertinent to how everyone sees their project. Thus, I am posting the student's question (with his permission) and my reply below.

Student email:
This space station on the moon -- what sort of station is it? Is it like some sort of futuristic Mayberry, where only a chosen group of specialists engage in the highly-technical hoopla and the rest go about a relatively normal town-life, with shopkeepers and postal workers and et cetera; or is it designed in such a way where everyone will have to share the burden of maintaining the station and thus need advanced training in specialized areas of physics and engineering?

My response:
A very good question, since you seem to be asking about what sort of society the colony is and are thinking about your school accordingly. Let's say that, up until this point, it's been all technical, since there have been no colonists. The school, however, will be an essential part in creating the society that will develop on the moon, so whether or not it's a Mayberry or Terrforming Colony 846 will be up to you and your school design. There is no reason that if you think that all colonists ought to have a role in maintaining the station that your school couldn't reflect that. But if you want to create a Mayberry and leave the maintenance of the colony up to some specialists (perhaps imported from Earth), then that could be reflected in your school as well.

A rambling way of saying "It's really up to you and your school how the colony turns out."

Posted by Nakia at November 1, 2007 12:15 PM