Most utopias share the same set of utopian ideals surrounding equality, plenty, and sustainability, but many differ in the ultimate objective. My utopia, Chroniko, much like the conception of Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has a centralized emphasis around education and by extension, the preservation of history and knowledge for future generations. Unlike the rigid schooling structure in our current society, Chroniko’s educational system focuses on hands-on apprenticeships of trades and work that will equip adolescents with the skills necessary to provide for the community. While there is some formal schooling in the early years of a child’s life to provide them with the basic knowledge needed to function in society, most of their adolescence…show more content… Herland’s form of education fixates on the natural curiosity of infants, and engaging their desires to learn. These children, are “reared in an environment calculated to allow the richest, freest growth” (Perkins 87), being allowed the freedom to explore a variety of interests and arrangements. Herland children, unlike those in Chroniko, are not subjected to classroom education and the senseless cramming of information on matters such as mathematics, sciences, and English, which in hindsight, may in fact deter individuals in my utopia from their wishes to learn. While Chroniko adolescents would spend years of their life being subjected to instruction on the three topics that I believed would equip them with common knowledge needed to function in society, the adolescents of Herland gained the same common knowledge through an array of “mental exercises”…show more content… Although it is not a requirement for Chroniko inhabitants to spend their time perusing the books or for seniors to pass that knowledge onto the younger generations who come to visit, it is common practice for most, as ingrained in Chroniko’s developped culture. For those in Herland, “the records of their past [are] all preserved, and for years the older women [spend] their time in the best teaching they [are] capable of, that they might leave to the little group of sisters and mothers all they possessed of skill and knowledge” (49). This suggests another difference — in Chroniko, only studies of core subjects are mandatory, and education of its history is completely voluntary, whereas in Herland, the same history is integrated into their educational system, albeit not through the traditional means of teaching
