Lore Prompt 10: Education
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How is Education portrayed in your Realm.
Some things to think about.
- Who is Educated?
- Is there a formal system of education or Tutors?
- How are the well educated seen/treated in the realm?
- How are the illiterate seen/treated in your realm?
- How Literate is your realm?
- Does the level of education affect your culture in any way?
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- Who is Educated?
Pianto Dia Florina has many different racial demographics within the realm. We have Humans, mostly ethnic Kry humans, Dwarves, Orcs, Elves, and however many more pop up in the region.
The city is only explicitly split between the Humans from the Florina's Children ethnic group and everyone else. Kry humans also have some level of an implicit split, as they benefit from the Kry culture in the region and the influence of the neighboring realm of Kryizon.
Florina's Children are mostly all educated. How this happens is further explained when you look into the system of education, but the general take here is that everyone from that group has had some level of formal education.
- Is there a formal system of education or Tutors?
There is no formal public system of education, but there is a developed and supported private system of education. In practice, your access to education is directly tied to your families access to wealth. Here is a breakdown of how wealth is distributed in the realm.
The members of the ethnic minority, Florina's Children, have access to education. Why? Because they have a widely unequal amount of access to wealth, and therefore to education. The formal education sector is not explicitly labeled for members of this group; they just tend to be the primary customer.
Dwarves and other humans (Kry) are second in terms of education. Dwarves play a large part of the underground industry that the city is built upon. Elves and Orcs have very little access to formal education. Since orcs and elves are considered enemies in the neighboring Kryizon, even though they have a better status in Pianto City, no one goes out of their way to help them.
Now that access to education has been discussed, the primary means of formal education are private tutors. These are highly educated individuals that go to the primary residence of their pupil's family and provide direct instruction to however many children a family has. There are no educational buildings, but many families do have rooms in their homes dedicated to it. This system of education rewards the wealthy that can afford private tutors and punishes those that cannot.
- How are the well educated seen/treated in the realm? | How are the illiterate seen/treated in your realm?
The majority of citizens of Pianto City don't put too much value on formal education. Especially because the majority do not have equal access to this private system of education. Parents from the lower classes simply do not expect their children to become literate or to receive any formal type of education. The vast majority go into trades that their families have done before them and learn informally.
For those groups of citizens that have access to private formal education, it really depends on the culture of the student's family. Dwarven families tend to stress literacy and languages, for trade purposes. A dwarf that works in the heart of the industrial belly of the city is looked up upon if they have access to the written word and multiple languages.
Florina's Children have internal competitions between their families over whose children are the best. Education is seen as important, but no more important than other fields such as competitive sports, wealth, diplomacy, and political relationship building. They do not gauge their importance over other groups in the city based on their level of education. Even the most illiterate and uneducated member of Florina's Children is seen as higher than someone from another group.
It's important to note here, Florina's Children don't have the influence they have because the majority of citizens democratically decided they are the best. They use cruel economic and political means to attain this power. The lower class does not think they are beneath the educated upper class. The heel of the upper class forcibly keeps them in this dynamic.
- How Literate is your realm?
Since Florina's Children make up 6% of the 65% of the total human population in the city. Highly educated individuals are a vast minority. The upper class is all literate. The middle class has a literacy rate of around 50%, depending on their family industry. The lower class has a low literacy rate, probably under 10%.
- Does the level of education affect your culture in any way?
YES! Because literacy is the highest within Ethnic-Florinian's; their culture tends to be written down and has the most documented history. Poetry, Books, Research all tend to be hoarded by this small group. However, the lower class in Pianto City primarily use music, spoken word, dance, and story-telling to carry their culture.
Education is just another way that class-divide is enforced in the realm. That divide goes all the way down to the very means by which the different classes express themselves.
