The World Assembly Academy Act

[The Palentine]

Good question Nigel. I'm also wondering about the curriculum. Apart from the arms industry, the two largest job sectors in the Palentine are those of Mad Scientist and Lab Assistant. Would said curriculum even come close to the type of education that the Palentine Polygnostic University provides for its students. Some of the core curriculumm classes are as follows....
Fleeing from a Angry Mob 101
Things Man was not Meant to Know 301
The Care and Feeding of Monstrosities 101
Choosing the Perfect Brain in a Jar 102
Lab Expolsion Survival 101
Maniacal Laughter 201
Body snatching 101
How to Show them All 401

Excelsior,
Sen. Horatio Sulla

[Ract]

TROUBLED by the tendency of nations to cut education in times of crisis, when higher education is likely the easiest way to solve the problems of a nation;

I didn't bother to read any further. You lost me here as that is a very debatable statement.

Not just debatable, downright disingenuous, and without a shred of proof offered other than the assertation that it is "fact".

Also, "TROUBLED by the tendency of nations to cut education in times of crisis," seems like a RL reference to me.

[Philimbesi]

Also, "TROUBLED by the tendency of nations to cut education in times of crisis," seems like a RL reference to me.

OOC: It's not, not a mod, but a real life reference would be saying the Tendency of nations like [insert real life nation] to cut education....

[Topid]

[OOC: I wrote this like an hour and a half ago, but NS appears to have shut down. I couldn't get on NS at all, but all other websites worked fine (i played on candystand and facebooked). So I don't know what's up with that, but I hope I'm not the only one because it's slowing down my ability to keep up with this thread.]

Ambassador of Serrland, seeing as there isn't a school in every nation anymore, if the nation didn't have enough police/other peace keeping officers to protect one campus they probably would not be the proper nation to place a Academy in. And as for your concerns of mandated safety from earthquakes and other natural disasters, the proposal does not use the word 'safety' it uses 'security', and by my definition of that word, that would mean natural disasters do not apply.

Ambassador Franke,

What about nations that espouse a secular education system? Will the WA schools in those nations also teach the same secular curriculum?

Good question Ambassador Youlkin. The resolution gives the WAAB the power to choose cirriculum. Given that the WA never chooses one religion over another, I am quite confident the members of that organization would choose to have their school operate as a secular education system.

I could be wrong, but I think the ambassador meant what about in nations with religious public schools. [If not I'll address this now in case someone else wonders.] It is important to remember that this academy is not a replacement for any nations public schools. A nation whose public schools teach religious lessons is free to continue to do so. This would simply create another option for the extremely talented students of any WA nation. So, if a student in a nation that teaches religiously in their public schools wishes to attend another school, I do not think the nation has a right to prevent him/her from attending the school just because it offers a secular education.

[Unibot]

Pascal frowned, putting fresh tobacco in his pipe before beginning a discussion...

Establishes the World Assembly Academy Bureau (WAAB) which shall be responsible for:
-constructing academies in strategic locations spread throughout the world financed by the World Assembly,

So is the WA stealing land from its own member nations now? What if Unibot is not interested in having a academy in their nation? Is there some sort of registrar we must sign?

-examining and testing the abilities of students who want to attend the World Assembly Academy in their home nation, and also evaluating the ability to pay tuition and other education related expenses,
-admitting an amount of talented students relative to the population of the nation to each World Assembly Academy,
-ensuring enough World Assembly Academies are constructed to prevent a youth who has taken the exam and met the qualifications to attend a World Assembly Academy being turned away because the academies are at their capacity,

Ahem, in your preamble you talked about underprivileged, and probably illiterate children. Why should those children be denied because their nation did not provide them with an stellar education?

Forbids World Assembly Academies to:
-charge any tuition or admission fee to the family of any student that is higher than the amount the WAAB has evaluated the family to be able to pay,

So are we talking those who can comfortably afford the tuition, or those who could potentially sell their mudhouse, work for sixteen hours a day and sell their first born son to pay for tuition? "Pay" really just means "pay", thus the latter statement seems entirely interpretable, Ambassador. Don't you think its a little devious to suggest that this academy is available to anyone, and then only admit a selection of homeless children (for the publicity) , and a majority of well-off wealthy students. What about everyone in between? Should they have to sell their home, and throw themselves into a situation of economic instability to afford your tuition fees?

Mandates World Assembly Academies to:
-provide free food and board for every student coming from families the WAAB has deemed unable to afford food and board otherwise, and to pay for any other living or educational expense said students face, including books, and supplies for their studies,
-ensure the education received at a World Assembly Academy to be of the highest quality possible, among the best in the world,
-do all that is possible to train each student in a professional field: business, science, politics, law, the arts ect.

*points his finger at the Topidean ambassador*

Once again I'm unconvinced that you aren't using the WA to establish your own elitist league of scholastic blue-bloods.

[Topid]

Establishes the World Assembly Academy Bureau (WAAB) which shall be responsible for:
-constructing academies in strategic locations spread throughout the world financed by the World Assembly,

So is the WA stealing land from its own member nations now? What if Unibot is not interested in having a academy in their nation? Is there some sort of registrar we must sign?

Hmm, I'll address that in my next revision. I hadn't considered now that there isn't a school in every academy we should deal with how to decide where one goes.

-examining and testing the abilities of students who want to attend the World Assembly Academy in their home nation, and also evaluating the ability to pay tuition and other education related expenses,
-admitting an amount of talented students relative to the population of the nation to each World Assembly Academy,
-ensuring enough World Assembly Academies are constructed to prevent a youth who has taken the exam and met the qualifications to attend a World Assembly Academy being turned away because the academies are at their capacity,

Ahem, in your preamble you talked about underprivileged, and probably illiterate children. Why should those children be denied because their nation did not provide them with an stellar education?

Actually the preamble says "APPALLED that in many nations, extremely talented people have no opportunity to get an education because they were born into poverty,"

Forbids World Assembly Academies to:
-charge any tuition or admission fee to the family of any student that is higher than the amount the WAAB has evaluated the family to be able to pay,

So are we talking those who can comfortably afford the tuition, or those who could potentially sell their mudhouse, work for sixteen hours a day and sell their first born son to pay for tuition? "Pay" really just means "pay", thus the latter statement seems entirely interpretable, Ambassador. Don't you think its a little devious to suggest that this academy is available to anyone, and then only admit a selection of homeless children (for the publicity) , and a majority of well-off wealthy students. What about everyone in between? Should they have to sell their home, and throw themselves into a situation of economic instability to afford your tuition fees?

I'll change this to 'reasonably pay'.

Mandates World Assembly Academies to:
-provide free food and board for every student coming from families the WAAB has deemed unable to afford food and board otherwise, and to pay for any other living or educational expense said students face, including books, and supplies for their studies,
-ensure the education received at a World Assembly Academy to be of the highest quality possible, among the best in the world,
-do all that is possible to train each student in a professional field: business, science, politics, law, the arts ect.

*points his finger at the Topidean ambassador*

Once again I'm unconvinced that you aren't using the WA to establish your own elitist league of scholastic blue-bloods.

same.

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

What's confusing me is, if the problem is that talented young people are being denied a quality education because their families are poor, then why can't the WA simply fund a scholarship program for needy families? Why does it need to build and operate entire academies?

[Stuffy Academics]

Now, granted that education is one of the two greatest priorities in the Armed Collegiate (along with guns), we, the College of Stuffy Academics, cannot support this proposal. It should be left to each individual nation to handle schooling; while it is unfortunate that some nations will mishandle this, it is their right to do so.

[Topid]

What's confusing me is, if the problem is that talented young people are being denied a quality education because their families are poor, then why can't the WA simply fund a scholarship program for needy families? Why does it need to build and operate entire academies?

When I started and I thought about that. That has been my plan-B if the GA rejected this bill. Originally that would have helped only one of the problems in the preamble.

But I'm looking at the bill now. Comparing what it does after all the revisions to what the problems in the preamble were. It's so watered down now it wouldn't solve any of these points:

RECOGNIZING the importance of education, both to an individual, and to a nation;

Yeah yeah, needed to be said but it's mainly fluff.

ASSERTING a nation which has highly educated leaders both in the government and in the private sector will be more effective;

This was only relevant when an academy was being built in every nation.

TROUBLED by the tendency of nations to cut education in times of crisis, when higher education is likely the easiest way to solve the problems of a nation;

Again, would have been fixable with a WA Academy in every nation, but without that the WA Academy just becomes another forign school which they can already attend by WA legislation.

APPALLED that in many nations, extremely talented people have no opportunity to get an education because they were born into poverty,

Scholarships would help here.

REALIZING many of the world’s problems, both political and economic, could be solved in each nation, even the poor and small nations, if there existed a core of highly educated and exceptionally talented leaders;

Would only apply with academies in every nation too...

So, Plan-A has had all the teeth kicked out of it by the ambassadors. Might as well go to plan-B. I'll have a new total write-up in either tonight or tomorrow.

[float=right][/float]Signed,
Ambassador Franke
Topid's Ambassador to the General Assembly

[Unibot]

Actually the preamble says "APPALLED that in many nations, extremely talented people have no opportunity to get an education because they were born into poverty,"

And how do you propose we determine who is "extremely talented" -- define "extremely talented"? Are we going to be administrating scholastic quizzes to illiterate children, and grade them with an intelligence quotient that determines their entire future!? Also, some of the slowest children can easily be the most successful, and intelligent adults -- in fact that seems to be trend with many public-proclaimed geniuses. Yet thanks to this resolution, they would be left in a rat-hole, shoveling for their entire life -- as their colleagues who succeeded in counting four triangles out of three would be off to a life of scholastic exploits at the WA's holy elitist academy of witchcraft and wizardry.

[Mad Sheep Railgun]

So, Plan-A has had all the teeth kicked out of it by the ambassadors. Might as well go to plan-B. I'll have a new total write-up in either tonight or tomorrow.

For future reference, you don't have to do everything that other delegations suggest. Sometimes you have to make a judgement call and say "no, I'm not going to do that".

[Enn]

So, Plan-A has had all the teeth kicked out of it by the ambassadors. Might as well go to plan-B. I'll have a new total write-up in either tonight or tomorrow.

For future reference, you don't have to do everything that other delegations suggest. Sometimes you have to make a judgement call and say "no, I'm not going to do that".

Indeed, if you want a proposal to have teeth, sooner or later you're going to have to do that.

[Sionis Prioratus]

So, Plan-A has had all the teeth kicked out of it by the ambassadors. Might as well go to plan-B. I'll have a new total write-up in either tonight or tomorrow.

For future reference, you don't have to do everything that other delegations suggest. Sometimes you have to make a judgement call and say "no, I'm not going to do that".

Indeed, if you want a proposal to have teeth, sooner or later you're going to have to do that.

Indeed, Topid. Sooner or later you'll just have to do that. And some Delegations will hate you for doing that. Some will even persecute you to the ends of the earth. My advice: Do not care, pursue what you feel is just. Filter what is good, and learn to say "No, thanks."

[Grays Harbor]

Our colleague from SP seems to be suffering from his paranoia again.

It is a good thing to listen to delegates about the clauses in a resolution. It is also good to listen to delegates when it is repeatedly pointed out that a particular proposal is not worth pursueing. This proposal, mandating WA run schools at a nations expense, is not worth pursueing.

[Flibbleites]

Also, "TROUBLED by the tendency of nations to cut education in times of crisis," seems like a RL reference to me.

OOC: It's not, not a mod, but a real life reference would be saying the Tendency of nations like [insert real life nation] to cut education....

I am a mod, and I agree with this assessment.

[Topid]

It is a good thing to listen to delegates about the clauses in a resolution. It is also good to listen to delegates when it is repeatedly pointed out that a particular proposal is not worth pursueing. This proposal, mandating WA run schools at a nations expense, is not worth pursueing.

It is also a good idea to read when an ambassador replies to your statements, or at least someone's statements in this talk other than yours. This was never ever at the expense of the nation. Ever.

I have not had time to write the new scholarship draft yet. Although I'm feeling a little like sticking to an older form of this proposal after that comment, I will let it go. I hope to have a draft up later today.

[OOC: I [player] have a conservative rally to attend, so I do not know how long it will last.]

[Topid]

Ambassador Franke takes one final look at the papers on his desk, pauses for a moment, then shoves them all into the floor.

"There is a fundamental flaw with any draft I can make involving scholarships. No matter how it is drafted, if scholarships are given to all poor students nations will naturally pull all funding toward their education -- They can get it free from the WA.

As such, a scholarship program is not going to accomplish anything.

I would go back to the original draft, but I've had another idea for a totally unrelated proposal. So, this education mission is going to be on my to-do list."

[OOC: First, I must find out if my new idea is legal. ]

[Grays Harbor]

It is a good thing to listen to delegates about the clauses in a resolution. It is also good to listen to delegates when it is repeatedly pointed out that a particular proposal is not worth pursueing. This proposal, mandating WA run schools at a nations expense, is not worth pursueing.

It is also a good idea to read when an ambassador replies to your statements, or at least someone's statements in this talk other than yours. This was never ever at the expense of the nation. Ever.

We were not addressing our comment to you. So please stop with the attitude, it wins few converts.