back to school in space…?
The last two weeks have been a bit of a typhoon. The kids went back to school. Since my husband and I both teach at a local college, we went back, too. There has been running around like poultry sans heads. There have been tears and agita. There were also two last minute road trips, which have thrown what little school routine we have all out of whack.
In short, the past two weeks have kicked my heinie to the moon and back.*
Which got me to thinking: what are some science fiction titles that best capture the giddy back-to-school season, with all of its excitement and dread? Fantasy does a great job of evoking that sense (think Harry Potter, if nothing else) but SF doesn’t seem to be as interested in it. A couple of titles leap to mind, like Ender’s Game and Starship Troopers, but my mental list gets thin after that. Are there schools in space? Heck, are there school-aged children in space?
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* This is figurative, not literal. Please don’t comment that there is no possible way that could actually happen. Although, for extra credit, you could figure out how many kicks it would take to get my heinie to the moon, assuming (heh) that my tuchas is of average size and that the kicker can kick an average length. Show your work.
Pauline Ashwell's "Unwillingly to School" (and sequels, though that's the best one) works nicely in that vein.
I suspect YA fiction in general is the place to look (both Ender's Game and Starship Troopers, after all, though originally published as adult fiction, were either later reissued in YA packaging (Ender's Game) or were (allegedly) written by the author as YA (Starship Troopers).) But right now I'm drawing a blank …
The space-school story is something of a subgenre of its own. Most examples are young-adult fiction, but even then they're often YA in name only; quite a few can be enjoyed by adult readers.
The classic (and possibly first) example is *Space Cadet* by Robert Heinlein. Published in 1948, it's not only the template for much that followed, but also the source for "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" (both TV series and subsequent YA book series by "Cary Rockwell"). Heinlein would return to the theme in 1955 with *Tunnel in the Sky*, which holds up a bit better by today's standards.
*There Is No Darkness* by Joe Haldeman and Jack C. Haldeman II reads much like an updated Heinlein YA novel; in my opinion, though, the brothers Haldeman outdid Heinlein at his own game. The novel was published in paperback in 1983 after first appearing as a series of novellas in the short-lived "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Adventure Magazine," but has been out of print for the last decade or so. Worth tracking down.
*Star Rebel* by F.M. Busby, published in 1984, is another Heinlein-inspired novel (so much that it's dedicated to him). While not a YA novel, its treatment of the idea of space schools is much more grim than Heinlein's. Not recommended for kids — the sadism in some scenes is way over the top — but an interesting variation on the theme all the same.
At risk of being accused of self-promotion, I'll point to my own novella "Escape From Earth", the title story of the YA anthology edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann that came out in 2006. No doubt there must be more examples — Isaac Asimov's 'Lucky Starr" series comes to mind as I finish up — but I'll let others fill in the gaps.
How about Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage? John Barnes' Orbital Resonance and The Sky So Big and Black come to mind, as well.
Susan Loyal
Actually, since you bring it up, I have a counter-question for the creative masses, if I may. We're designing a school…a good, green, looking to the future sort. The behind-the-scenes vision is Havenstead in Brooks' Elfstones, the resources of a Star Trek NG room, with the overall feel of an elven village…community-based (really really,) arts rich & as interactive with nature (& kind to this happy planet on which we find ourselves) as possible. Our great program ("Options" it is called, "…@ Gordon Elementary") is very Human…service oriented, kid-driven, w/ wise, self-directed learners and a great deal of compassion…politics, humanity, creativity. We're trying to design the building to suit the people, novel as that crazy notion is, & the space…positive ions, Olympic Peninsula vistas, greenery. I'd love the Speculators of the World to contribute their two-cents (Heck, I'd take three) to what the Vision should look like…What is the school of the Future? How should we make it?