 July 3, 2011 - 7:02pm | The Family School is an interstellar accredited charity sponsored and
run by the Family of One for clanless and disenherited yazirians. Within yaz society each clan educates its own, thus if the clan has a focus (as seen in the clan article of SFman #8) then it usually produces graduates with that focus- a solid majority will have that focus but not all. For centuries the clanless and dis-inherited have spiralled down to the lowest level of society, partly through the lack of access to organized education. This downward spiral only re-enforced the prevailling preconceptions of the clans against the clanless. Only just recently (since the founding of the UPF) has the Family of One organized this school as a charity. It creates an opportunity for these marginalized yazirians to advance and secure better employment. There is a bit of a stigma on yazirian worlds for attending these schools but outside of the yazirian worlds they are well recieved and even yazirians with proper clan affiliations have sent their children to them to ensure that their children absorb yazirian culture while the parents are living too distant from their home clans. The Family of One has been accused of using the schools as a method of indoctrination and to be fair the cirriculum is very very pro Fam of 1. The Fam of 1 runs a seminary (The Family Seminary) for only its clan members, Clan Anglan, and this school is very prestigous but only open to its clan members. While its called a seminary it would not be labelled so on a human world but rather just a university. Classes in theology are not really about theology; "Theology of Management" is really about management. A school known as the Brotherhood Religious College began on Hentz to provide religious training for non Clan Anglan students and this school has been at the fore front of yazirian theological thought for decades. Many of its graduates actually see the graduates of the seminary as being quite liberal and secular and in recent years the Family of One has expelled the Brotherhood Religious College from Hentz. When this occured two campuses were set up; one on Yast(Athor) which kept the name Brotherhood Religious College and the other on Hargut (Guna Garu) which took the name the Hargut Religious College. The Hargut Religious College adopted a more concilliatory tone and stance toward The Family of One while the Brotherhood Religious School on Yast became even more strident in its criticism. Naturally the F o 1 took a dim view and brought pressure to bear on the Yast school. Eventually it set up the directors of the Hargut school to be its hatchet yaz and the Yast school was forced to close. Its faculty and some students simply moved to Gran Quivera (Prengular) and started new but embraced a revolutionary new theology of the brotherhood of being-hood claiming a universal brotherhood for sentient beings. The Brotherhood Religious School is now on the fore front of theological thought in the whole Frontier, welcoming dralasite philosophers and osakar theologians to guest lecture and teach. Its not a true ecumenical movement but rather takes an open approach to other religious beliefs seeking to find the universal truths that underly them and yazirian beliefs and welcomes different views without losing sight of where it came from. The Brotherhood Religious School publishes a quarterly theological journal called Frontier Theology which, due to the openness toward other religions and philosophies has become THE theological journal of the Frontier, that any minister, priest or religious lay person has heard of. Its noted for its scholarly approach to comparitive religion and theology and almost always includes an article by a guest faculty that is a non yazirian. The journal is considered contraband for ships intending to land on Araks. Within the Brotherhood movement there are still those that strike a hard stand against the F o 1 but the majority of the movment is of the more open stripe and considers the fam of 1 as being in the past an not really worth wasting their breathe over. They have fundamental agreement with the more reactionary branch but just don't see the need to pour energy into attacking the Fam of 1. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 6, 2011 - 9:41am | Ubak'kaa the One Eye over the last 10 years has been able to secretly organize The Clanless into Clan U'buntu. This clandestine organization has yet to reveal its intents.... |
November 7, 2011 - 5:07am | I've been thinking about the education and clan size. 1. If clan size is small, like what you 'd imagine in an old movie depicting people running around with swords then I doubt that the clans could support higher education tracts like medicine and rocket science. But if clans numbered into the tens of thoughsands then it make sense that they would organize schools that taught higher level stuff. Perhaps allied clans work together to maintain a school teaching technical skills. Another possibility is the government running advanced universities. I suppose some visionary rich Yaz could also have endowed a school with a grant so that it operates like a modern ivy league school. Also a possibility that all the surgeons on a planet banded together in an association to maintain standards and have run a school. Its just tough to imagine a small clan being able to effectively teach advanced sciences and skills solely by a mentor program. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
