Education
Gnomes believe that pushing a child into a particular interest or vocation may be damaging to the child’s nature causing unhappy or introverted children. Gnomes are encouraged to explore all of their interests as they come. Gnomes are blessed with ever expanding imaginations. They seek to improve their world without bringing it harm through the use of mechanical inventions and alchemy. Gnome homes and villages are often littered with peculiar new creations and unfinished projects.
At the age of 30, gnome children begin school. Their studies continue for 9 years divided into three main sections. The first 3 years focus on the general studies of alchemy, history, mathematics, reading and writing. Grades 4 through 6 focus on the specialization the gnome child has chosen, and the last three years are largely independent study.
Upon completion of schooling, gnomes are required to offer a Final Showing. The project may consist of whatever the student believes best demonstrates their knowledge and skill in their chosen course of study. 9 mentors in the appropriate field will judge this Final Showing. All nine must judge the Final Showing project positively for the gnome to qualify for a Certification test.
Certification is a stressful 6-hour long process. Graduating students again face the 9 mentors from their Final Showing alone. This time, the mentors will pose numerous questions designed to test the limits of their knowledge.
Read more about this topic: Gnome (Dungeons & Dragons)
Famous quotes containing the word education:
“To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worth while. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)
“It’s fairly obvious that American education is a cultural flop. Americans are not a well-educated people culturally, and their vocational education often has to be learned all over again after they leave school and college. On the other hand, they have open quick minds and if their education has little sharp positive value, it has not the stultifying effects of a more rigid training.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“As for the graces of expression, a great thought is never found in a mean dress; but ... the nine Muses and the three Graces will have conspired to clothe it in fit phrase. Its education has always been liberal, and its implied wit can endow a college.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)