The
South did rise again, and she rose with a vengeance.
In
the fall of 2050, Ms Samantha Lee started her tenth-grade economics class the
same way she always did, and she ended the first day of class like she always
did, “Alright students, I’m passing out half sheets of paper now that I don’t
want you to put your name on. I hope this classroom is a safe place for you and
I’m hoping for you to teach me almost as much as I teach you. Today I want you
to anonymously answer the questions ‘What is education?’ and ‘How does it
affect me?’ You’ve got about five minutes to answer these questions. I’ll be
standing by the door when the bell rings and this piece of paper folded in half
is your ticket out of here.”
She
got her usual mix of positive and negative responses: everything from “A
necessary evil,” to “A great opportunity.” But one answer she’d never heard
before and it touched her in a profound way, “A hazing ritual for the rich –
Something I can never be part of.”
Ms
Lee had been teaching for thirty years. She had become a teacher because it was
her firm belief that education was the best way for everyone to better both
themselves and society. She believed in letting people choose who they wanted
to be and providing them every help they needed. On the drive home that day she
couldn’t think of anything but that student’s discouraging answer to the same
question she had been asking once a year for about twenty years.
Her
husband, Marvin Lee, was a freelance software developer who was currently
between jobs. “Marvin,” she said as soon as she walked in the door, “I’ve got
an idea for a website I’d like you to help me create.”
“Ok
honey,” Marvin said with a sweet smile. He was better at taking orders than
showing initiative, one of the reasons he was currently out of work. Mr &
Ms Lee didn’t always get along but they were about to get along better than
ever as they started this project together.
The
internet had been around for about seventy years and still it was all about
instant gossip and naked pictures. Samantha got to thinking that there must be
a way to provide free textbooks online, and a way to grade the public’s
comprehension and application of these books. That fall, Samantha and Marvin
began what would become the gateway to the United Countries of Earth.
The
idea was simple: free online education. Samantha started to create a union for
the high school teachers of Alabama who believed in socialized education. These
teachers believed in giving people equal opportunity to earn privilege and
giving credit where credit was due. They believed in the transformative power
of a good book and were happy to help make textbooks available in an online
format. The reading could be done at a student’s leisure. The testing process
was a bit more traditional. Samantha’s high school was the first to open its
doors to the public every Saturday from nine to five. The idea was to provide
every level of test for every subject and Ms Lee was surprised how quickly the
idea caught fire.
The
high school teachers of Alabama debated, nominated, and reviewed the recommended
reading for each test. Marvin created a website that provided these readings to
the public. It required ID verification before an account could be created.
ID’s were shown at the Saturday testing centers and that’s all it took to get
any test you asked for. Once a test was taken, the score was posted publicly to
that account.
Ms
Lee originally thought that people unhappy with their scores would just wait a
week to retake the same test. She definitely wasn’t ready for the backlash of
anger from people unhappy with their scores. All the usual excuses came pouring
in: ‘I wasn’t ready!’, ‘There must have been a mistake in grading!’, etcetera,
etcetera. So, she came up with an idea to help get her non-profit off the
ground. After a test was graded, whoever took it had one day to decide if they
wanted to pay a fee of one hundred dollars to renege their efforts, not post
the score.
The
money started pouring in and she was able to hire people to review recommended
readings and write tests. Soon there were tests to earn all kinds of
certificates: hair stylist, mechanic, food safety. As far as a multiple-choice
test could qualify a person for a job, the certificates were available for
free, so long as you were willing to either publicly post an embarrassing
attempt or pay not to.
Certain
tests were required for certain jobs, internships, and apprenticeships. Alabama
became a place where it was almost impossible to lie on a resume, at least as
far as education went. Soon, the rest of the country caught on and the United
States started leading the world in education. It became a great subject of
debate among educators: what questions should be on what tests, what tests
should qualify for what certificates.
The
real revolution began in the healthcare field. People began to flock to the
doctors with the best scores on the hardest tests. What upset the status quo
was when nurses and medical assistants began scoring better on harder exams
than licensed doctors. Education had evolved into a constant, current and
public thing. It was no longer just a plaque on a wall.
Americans
got frustrated with trying to get a prescription from a doctor when they’d
already sought advice from someone who had proved to be more qualified. Then America
decided to live up to its name as the “land of the free and the home of the
brave.” Parents decided to be brave enough to talk to their children about
drugs, rather than try to get the police to do it for them. The age of
over-criminalization and mass-incarceration ended with the liberation of the
drug market. It became recommended to get a doctor’s recommendation, but no
longer required. Crime dropped seventy percent as the black market was brought
to light.
Back
in Alabama, Samantha and Marvin’s lives remained relatively unchanged. Samantha
was a leader in the American Free Education Union, but she just did that part
time as she still taught at the same high school. She loved the kids she got to
teach and loved the way education had changed in the past couple years. Her
tenth-grade class was an interesting mix of ages as more and more kids started
to test their way to skip grades. She liked how the course work had changed to
primarily preparing kids for apprenticeships. Sure, colleges still existed, but
they were on the fast decline. With free education for every level of learning,
work experience became more important than what country club your parents could
pay for.
Marvin
now had a team of engineers working for him. He started showing strong
leadership and ethics that both surprised and excited Samantha. Marvin’s main
job was keeping everyone in the system honest. From day one, the Union was a
non-profit organization. As the earnings and donations grew and grew, it was
Marvin’s strength of character that helped all this money go right back into
improving the education offered. He kept the engineers and educators at modest
wages.
“Honey,”
Marvin said to Samantha one day after dinner, “The network is getting very
secure. It’s under almost constant surveillance by some extremely qualified
individuals. Now, I know you’re not the biggest fan of social media, but I
think we could create a social network that could be positive for local
government.”
“How,
my love?” Samantha said with a smile.
“Well,
I think we should have the option for people to post who they vote for and why.
So long as anonymous voting is also an option, I feel like some people would
like to be public about their political opinions and others would be interested
in the opinions of people who have proved to be well versed in say law and
history. Maybe some people would just like to see who their friends voted for,
but I think others would like to see who the best educated are voting for.”
The
network that Samantha and Marvin had helped create became a place where
everyone could vote either anonymously or publicly from anywhere they had an
internet connection. Educational requirements were universal; agreed upon by
educational professionals. Local politics were agreed upon by locals, who now
had a way to view the opinions of other locals and to view how qualified other
locals were in subjects that applied to issues.
Soon
the American Free Education Union just became the Free Education Union. More
and more countries began participation in this official way to let people
choose their own field and fight to excel in that field.
In
the fall of 2100, a couple years after Marvin had passed away, Samantha’s
wheelchair was pushed by her nurse to an honorary seat in the council of
nations. With tears streaming down her face she got to witness the day It was
voted to unite under one currency and one legacy of respect and peaceful
co-existence. The United States of America was dissolved, each state became a
country in the United Countries of Earth.
