Utopian Education

Certain educational materials will remain permanently in each room. There should be hands-on exhibits along the wall to provide the students with useful activity any time prior to or following instruction. A record of activity would be kept for each student at each station, as to relieve some of the difficulty in discerning for which path in life they would be most suited. Relevant posters and graphs will be placed on the outer walls of the structure, so if the children are outside socializing they still have the opportunity to learn something new or be reminded of a concept they have previously been taught.

A raised platform in the center of the room will be the primary podium of instruction. Desks will surround the podium, each simultaneously facing it despite location. This formation will encourage the student to focus on the lecture, as well as be able to more easily view their classmate who may either be asking a question or making a comment without turning their head, causing neck pain. The teacher will not have a personal desk in the individual classroom, instead having an office shared with one of their peers elsewhere in the school.

If the instructor had their private desk in a classroom, they would become possessive of the room and create their own rules. This would lead to a constrictive environment for the students, which is not conducive to a positive learning experience.

Based upon the school system in place, each student has a choice of one of eight main educational paths. These paths direct the child towards a more concentrated study of one area, while still obtaining core classes. The student’s personal desk will be located in the classrooms in which their focused classes are conducted. This allows them access to it during the majority of the day.

In the classrooms where essential, generalized subjects are taught, the set up of student desks and instruction podium will be the same. Student desks, however, will not be personalized. They will be simplified structures with no more than a table and chair, so that the student will be less distracted than otherwise.

Each classroom will be adequately supplied with pens, markers, pencils, various types of paper, and other necessary equipment for students. This provides certainty that each child will have full access to these materials for various schoolwork and projects despite circumstances that may otherwise prevent them from having such access. Visual and audio enabled monitors will be placed in a fashion circling the instructive podium, facing outwards towards the students. They will be connected to the lecturer’s computer, making presentations for the class easier and more vivid. Microphones will be placed at the podium and each student desk. This lets the softer-spoken person to be heard, and a person who may be slightly hard of hearing should be able to understand them.

A key feature of the school system is the personalized student desks. Each student will have a full-sized executive desk table available to him or her. In the desk can be found a series of drawers, each with a particularly useful function. In the bottom right area will be a door enclosing an area of shelves that contains the student’s personal belongings. The top right will consist of a drawer with paper, staples, writing utensils, and similar general items.

A drawer in the top left is meant to hold more specified materials according to the educational path of the desk’s occupier. Filing folders will fill a large drawer on the bottom left. This is meant to keep the student organized with the large amount of material they would accumulate during the school’s semester. The desktop can modestly reflect the interests and personality of the child. It must have a clear space in the middle for in progress projects. On the left side of the desk will be a small end table consisting of a printer on the top and the student’s textbooks placed on the shelves below the printer. The chair will allow for moderate swivel-type movement, reach to the height of the head in the back, and have a low negative anatomical impact.

A proper environment is crucial to enhancing the learning experience of a student. A combination of the classroom and the individual student desk provides a more dignified setting, while concurrently inspiring advanced thought and individuality. The goal of this utopia is not to create replicate drones, but instead to find a harmonizing balance of personas in a complex society.