Atlas City Project

"The 5 Tiers" is an education system I've been developing in my spare time and I believe it would be a good system to use for Atlas.

Problems of our current education system that this shall fix.
1. Not enough funding - fixed in atlas due to no monetary system.
2. Not enough focus - education will be one of the corner stone's of atlas society
3. No understanding of philosophical values - 1st tier education fixes this
4. Only small sections of knowledge formerly taught - Atlas, by its full completion, shall cover all fields of knowledge.
5. Broken "grading" system - A new system shall be developed to replace this
6. Under pressure - In atlas you can take as much time as you need.
7. Overcrowded classrooms - A new system shall be developed to replace this.
8. Not fun - It is our aim in Atlas Education to provide education that is as fun to learn as it is quality. There will be much more emphasis on applied learning and laboratories so students can have hands-on styled learning.

Right now, I believe that Atlas's education will be comprised of 4 main institutions. 3 of these are Research Universities - one for Sciences, one for Humanities, and one for Athletics. The 4th institution is a general education institution.

The Tier system organizes education by a sort of knowledge level. Each tier following Tier 1 will require an entrance test, but there's no passing or failing. Instead, it is to show you that you are properly prepared to move up into a different tier. There's no time limit for any of these. You could stay in tier 1 education your whole life! You can jump from one tier to another, back and forth at any time. Education is offered in the form of courses like our own system. Each course will list prerequisites, but you don't have to have taken them. It will list "required" meaning that you must have knowledge in that previous course to take the current one, and "recommended" simply recommends you have prior knowledge in that course.

Tier 1 - The first tier is the only education that should be mandatory. I try to avoid forcing someone to do something, but the content taught here is very important to keeping the Atlas society functioning. The purpose of the courses offered here are to teach students the ethics, philosophies, and morals of our society. The other things they shall teach include basic communication, reading/writing, listening/speaking, and socialization. They will also cover the basics of the Atlas Society. The goal at the end of Tier 1 is that students can function in Atlas Society, understand the atlas lifestyle, and that they have developed an altruistic, open-minded way of thinking. I believe that all the classes taught here should be required, simply because of their importance.

Tier 2 - The purpose of 2nd tier education is to give students a broad, but basic understanding of their world. I've been doing some research, and you'd be surprised how much you really don't know until you go to school. We understand that objects have properties (hot, cold, big, small etc...) but if you never went to school you would have never understood that, at least not formerly. This tier includes introductions to sciences, arithmetic and fundamental mathematics, and introductions to humanities - the arts and etc.

Tier 3 - 3rd Tier education offers more advanced concentrations of the basic knowledge listed above. You could say this is "intermediate" level topics. Tiers 1 through 3 are to be taught at the Atlas institute of general education.

Tier 4 - By this tier, education is now moved to one of the atlas universities, depending on what you would like study or focus on. If you want to further understand humans, develop a trade, or create something beautiful, there's the humanities institute. If you want to engineer new technology, discover a cure for cancer or simply learn to use technology, there is the science institute. And finally, for competition, mastering mental and physical games, there's the Athletic institute. Tier 4 is to teach advanced, in-depth education of content of your liking.

Tier 5 - Tier 5 mostly consists of seminars and theoretical topics of various fields. This tier also includes research. It's sort of theoretical topics and the research of these topics; if you are interested in creating a new theory or re-innovating that field.

Atlas Education - Leaving no stone unturned.

This is a good starting point. Is tier 5 like doctorate level?

Very well organized. I do think that a good part of tier 1 (philosophies, socialization) will be heavily enforced within ones household and public activities. This will be a part of choosing who gets to live in the city. Hopefully, with home education, games/shows/etc based on learning, and the general paradigms of people within the city the university(ies) can be utilized more for specific in-depth studies and research. My only worry is that we may not have enough room in this particular scenario for dedicated space for the more basic things that can be taught by friends, family, mentors and apprenticeships. What do you think?

Tier 3 - 5 seem to have a little blend - over. Who decides if a class or topic fits into a specific tier?

When does a topic become "theoretical" and moved into tier 5? There are alot of non-theoretical topics which are much more difficult than some theoretical ones.

However, this seems like a very good and solid idea, much better than the education systems of today. I really like it, good work Geoff.

I do have a problem with the educational system however, and being a high school I think I'd know how it all works...

First off, the pace in which you are taught is too fast. I understand that under a specific semester you are supposed to cover this material and that material, but I rarely find any teacher actually teaching you slowly and ensuring you understand what is being taught.

Secondly, interests. Some may not be interested in a specific subject and it isn't necessary for what they wish to be when they "graduate", however they are forced to take the class if they wish to move on to the next grade. For instance, I want to be a programmer, but I have to take Anatomy if I want to pass. Anatomy has nothing to do with Programming, and I do not want to learn it, which leads me to think that you should only learn what is relevant to your skill set, or what you want to learn, the rest will hold you back from further learning about what you want. This leads me to number 3.

Number 3 is actual requirement of school. Now I'll be honest and say I'm fine going to school, I learn and thats great. But others would rather be out doing other things, sometimes its more productive than others, but nevertheless. In a free society, you should be able to make your own choices, and school is one of those choices you can't make. I feel it should be this way:

If you want to learn faster and less thorough than you are currently, be challenged, and wish to expand on knowledge in different subjects, go to school.
If you wish to learn slower but more extensively, and only wish to learn what you feel you will need in your career, stay home.

I will say that I honestly think I've learned more about what I love here at home, not at school. Feel free to comment.

Well what I've always envisioned is education without finite borders. The option for a classroom environment or the option for a mentorship that is expansive which is not contained within the finite. And yes, Josh is correct, Atlas is about free will and choice. So while I do think a university is good, it is not a requirement. Requirements relate to heirarchy and that's one thing I believe is to be avoided. So a choice can be that if those who wish to go to university and learn these courses based on their passion, by all means. If others wish to learn on behalf of masters or mentors openly based on where their passion guides them, that is fine as well. You will always learn no matter what you do. But I really see Atlas City in its entirety itself as the school. It's not about division or units of where education is, its a matter of the entire structure of the city itself that is the learning center. And of course it will take time for something like this to develop. I don't suggest scrapping the university idea of course as I believe that is a powerful idea, but I believe it is more of an example that education can be "this and that" not "this or that." So university and the education learned through mentorship amongst the city, not one or the other, or only one option of the university. Hope this makes sense.

Excellent post Brad. I agree. People will have a choice to learn as they choose. Atlas City will be looking for like minded people at the onset who will value the gift off being in the city. But beyond a University, it will also serve as our hospital, a teaching University that obviously goes beyond medicine, but includes medical research to demoinstate to the world, that yes, people will truly work for the good of humanity, to research its biggest medical challenges, unmotivated by money.

I like the tier system but I would tier the content of all the sciences (physical, social, arts, humanities) and I would not put a time or age contraint to any particular part of it. As for the change we are introducing socially, we should come togather as a community and share the understanding and then nurture this in our families. I think the priority should be to educate and grow as parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts and have a education system that supports this and not the other way around. And by extention, support and share as we were meant to be, a community of human beings... a group of families!!!

I really like this idea, and this or something like it should be part of the city. Within a structure like this we can be sure of everyone having a basic knowledge base. To me, leaving everyone to find someone to teach them the basic things like reading, writing, etc, would let to many people slip through the cracks and not get a thorough understanding. Within Atlas schools wouldn't have to deal with the rules and regulations that schools do now. There wouldn't need to be grade levels or grades. Age wouldn't be a restriction, when you've learned the subject, you move on.

All say about age restriction, but we have to understand how humans absorve theis knowlege. Diferent ages require diferent attencion from the professors.

we are not thinking outside the box, althought there is a need for an instructor there is no need for the dicotomy teacher and student, higher grades students should advise the lower grades students.

In my opinion one should only graduate to a higher level of education when after being a teacher for the less educated in that same modality of education.

We today have internet, and that is a mass instruction teacher, in my opininion as silly as it may sound we all should have some tangible intruction (how to tranform our energy into work) and some intangible instruction (helps our energy transform into more work with less effort)
The computer allied with families would play a major role in the education althougth I definatly agree about the mandatory basic education like the system we are used to.

People will not need to go anywhere to learn, knowlege will be 1 click away
(I today study a lot from youtube)
We should only have a DATABASE of proved science using the scientific method, after something would be proven, this knowlege would go to this DATABASE where anyone could access ( Not like the crappy, industry bougth periodics tha publish any crap and still sometimes charge us for the hole scientific article)

In my opinion forming this FREE DATABASE would be one of the education pillars


Who is Jonh Galt

It is very true that different ages have different needs when it comes to how they learn, but we need to make learning work for everyone, not just the majority. We need flexibility that allows for slower and faster learners, and having age restrictions, or grade levels, doesn't do that.

It is true that if you are able to teach the subject, then you have a thorough understanding. But making it mandatory for students to have to teach younger kids seems restrictive to me. Not everyone is good at teaching and not everyone would enjoy it. It could be one of many the possibilities that allow you to move on to the next level, for those who are interested to do so. I believe that we would need many different ways to be able to move on to the next level, since not everyone is good at testing. Depending on the subject, we could have essays, tests, or some other projects that prove their grasp of the knowledge.

I completely agree that using technology as a learning tool would be a wonderful thing. My personal belief is that the social interactions, especially at the younger ages, are extremely important. Learning how to share, to be polite, and all of the little things that would teach them how to interact respectfully with others. So staying at home with a computer database and family to teach them, of course is a possibility, but without the benefits of learning how to interact and meeting new people.

I believe education be very open ended once you get past the basics. A person should be able to stop and start at will. A person should also have input in their education.
Everyone should be able to learn the way they can. I learn best online and hands on. Sitting in a lecture for an hour than having a test does not help me learn.
In our education do we have the choice as to how we wish to learn,online, with a private tutor, or at a university?
I think the internet should be a big part of education. How does the internet factor into education?