WORLDBUILDING: The Education System in Pokémon Fics

[canisaries]

Again, surprised that there seemed to be no thread focusing on this as I searched for it... one on this forum section and after 2007, that is. That was over ten years ago. I feel old.

Anyway: how exactly does the education system work in the Pokémon world, given journeys happen? In the mainline games, school seems to be pretty much absent from the mind and close surroundings of the preteen protagonist. One could make the argument that the journeys only take place in summer, but in Unova, the seasons change, and a lot of journey fics stretch the distances between towns. Yet, given that there are people working actual jobs in the Pokémon world and the technology is very advanced, there must be a school system to teach the young. There have been schools in the games, though they appear to focus on Pokémon a lot.

In the PMD games, there seems to be basic education for the youngins from what I remember, so good for them. For the PMD people out there, though, I'm also interested in hearing about the way you design your PMD education, if you do.

I also had a problem relating to this I wanted to ask help for here, but I already realized how I could solve it while writing this, so yay for me I guess.

My work here is done. Discuss away. *disappears with swipe of a cape*

 

[Greninjaman]

It seems that it's because people just use Pokemon to do things. Also, there are schools. They teach them how to be trainers.

 

[canisaries]

It seems that it's because people just use Pokemon to do things. Also, there are schools. They teach them how to be trainers.

In the main games, few Pokémon have enough intelligence to even understand human speech. Are you saying those mon would know how to plan and construct modern buildings, develop pokéballs, the pokédex and the PC, or create laws and enforce them all on their own? We've seen plenty of human NPCs with jobs that would require at least basic education, so they have to have gotten it from somewhere.

For the schools: why would you teach someone to be a trainer instead of, I don't know, learn math or languages and how to run a business? If all schools only taught you how to battle and take care of your animal-grade companions, who would there be to create all of the technology and infrastructure? The food and pure water safe to ingest? The mass-produced clothes? It makes no sense, and a large part of us want to make the Pokémon world we write more realistic.

 

[Greninjaman]

In the main games, few Pokémon have enough intelligence to even understand human speech. Are you saying those mon would know how to plan and construct modern buildings, develop pokéballs, the pokédex and the PC, or create laws and enforce them all on their own? We've seen plenty of human NPCs with jobs that would require at least basic education, so they have to have gotten it from somewhere.

For the schools: why would you teach someone to be a trainer instead of, I don't know, learn math or languages and how to run a business? If all schools only taught you how to battle and take care of your animal-grade companions, who would there be to create all of the technology and infrastructure? The food and pure water safe to ingest? The mass-produced clothes? It makes no sense, and a large part of us want to make the Pokémon world we write more realistic.

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Guess I didn't really consider that...
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[unrepentantAuthor]

In the normal setting, I choose to interpret the classic pokémon journey as a kind of vocational 'gap year' type thing any person is eligible to choose to do. In the Kanto region, the age at which this is permitted is 10, apparently. There's no reason for the anime or games to focus on it, but I can only assume that younger kids get primary education, and that returning trainers or kids who put off their journey til later life have secondary educations. People needn't actually go on a journey either. After all, if every single kid went on a pokémon journey, the setting would be absolutely flooded with trainers. There must be plenty of kids who continue with education instead.

Also, under what actual circumstances would all children be educated as professional pokémon trainers? Are the schools state-funded institutions of public education? If so, why would the government set a curriculum like that? How the hell would anyone become a banker, doctor, engineer, software developer, whatever? It's a little like the common fandom trope of having the League be the government and gym leaders be mayors even though there's no reason whatsoever to believe the League is anything more than a combat sports regulatory body.

In the canon of Different Eyes, the purrloin protagonist's human carer is an older teen named Laura. She elects to apply to university to study finance instead of going on a pokémon journey because her parents — both working professionals — have persuaded her that only a handful of trainers ever manage to make a paying career of it and she'd be more successful in life after higher education. The implication here is that pokémon journeys are hardly universal experiences.

As for PMD, I think the small populations shown lend themselves more to small-scale apprenticeships and ad hoc education from respected elders. In European history, general education was first provided by clergy or by private tutors rather than by professional teachers, and modern schooling institutions for the young only popped up after the industrial revolution.

The whole question of pokémon world education reminds me of how in Harry Potter, there are classes in potions, charms, divination, herbology and so on, but no classes in literacy, numeracy, or any life skills beyond magical practice. It's such nonsense, honestly it is. Still, one can hardly expect kid readers to fall in love with maths classes for wizards.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

The way I always thought of it is that all kids get your standard education up until a certain point. There then comes an age where traditional schooling is no longer mandatory and kids are allowed to suspend or outright halt their education to head out on a Pokemon journey (I'm personally not a fan of the "10 years old" thing, so I'd personally put the point a few years later at the least). Students are by no means obligated to suspend education, and even with the ones that do, several of them get one or two towns deep into the journey, decide it's not for them, and head home to keep on with schooling. Not everybody can handle the eternal camping and territorial wild Pokemon.

The ones who don't head off on journeys continue on with normal schooling and wind up in one of your "traditional" jobs. Even most of the ones who do finish their journeys come back afterwards and continue on. Most people in the world live with Pokemon and use them to make a living to some degree (Gurdurr and Machoke in construction work for example), but the number of people who continue as professional trainers is comparatively low.

As far as schools to teach Pokemon training, I'd say that some basic lessons about Pokemon and training them would be a part of the standard curriculum before the "you can legally journey now" point, just so kids don't go and get themselves killed when they start a journey. Those basic classes would be what we're walking into whenever we enter a "Trainer School", it's just your normal school having a Pokemon lesson. There would be more advanced schools in existence for when people want to take that path in higher education, but they're more like Pokemon centric universities with battling based courses as one of the options, in addition to stuff like Pokemon based sciences.

 

[diamondpearl876]

I haven't planned this out in meticulous detail or anything, but I imagine that "traditional" classes cover Pokémon-related topics naturally (ie., history classes incorporating legendary mythos, literature classes where students are assigned novels featuring Pokémon as characters, biology covering Pokémon in place of or in addition to animals, geography covering a Pokémon species's native location(s), and so on). Those who major or study Pokémon past high school may end up with a "traditional" job with a specialization in Pokémon, but I imagine there are degree options to prepare people for coordinating or competitive battling or breeding or whatever else.

As for the age conundrum, I imagine it having evolved over time, slowly but surely. Kinda like how marriage was legal for kids/young teenagers way back when but isn't anymore in most places.

 

[Juliko]

Oooh, now this is a topic I like! I actually did put some thought into this when I started writing MarJour, though not too much.

The way I always thought of it is that all kids get your standard education up until a certain point. There then comes an age where traditional schooling is no longer mandatory and kids are allowed to suspend or outright halt their education to head out on a Pokemon journey (I'm personally not a fan of the "10 years old" thing, so I'd personally put the point a few years later at the least). Students are by no means obligated to suspend education, and even with the ones that do, several of them get one or two towns deep into the journey, decide it's not for them, and head home to keep on with schooling. Not everybody can handle the eternal camping and territorial wild Pokemon.

The ones who don't head off on journeys continue on with normal schooling and wind up in one of your "traditional" jobs. Even most of the ones who do finish their journeys come back afterwards and continue on. Most people in the world live with Pokemon and use them to make a living to some degree (Gurdurr and Machoke in construction work for example), but the number of people who continue as professional trainers is comparatively low.

That's pretty much my thought process on it as well. As an example, in my story, it is possible for kids to request time off from school to go on a journey, but it's highly recommended that they do it during the summer, when school is officially let out so kids don't just leave halfway through the school year or the beginning of it, thereby interrupting their studies and having to make sudden changes on the fly. In the event that they do so, they're required to take makeup classes and stay after school three times a week to catch up with their peers, and then go to summer school a few times a week for an unprecedented amount of time if they haven't caught up by the end of the school year. My main character originally had no plans to go on a journey, but after her sister goes on the run, she just decides she wants to go after her, a few weeks after school starts. I didn't really elaborate on this too much in the story, but I do plan on clarifying and addressing this near the end of the story, which isn't too far off. But other than that, schools in my story still teach basic subjects like English, math, history, social studies, science, and so on, with a few Pokemon related subjects here and there for good measure. At least, that's my take on it.

 

[Ambyssin]

I'd given thought to an idea for if I ever got around to writing a trainer fic. Basically, the various regions have roughly the equivalent of your typical grade school setup. Initially, it was a lot like what Lone_Garurumon mentioned. And then Teams Plasma and Flare happened. Young trainers were injured, there were psychological stresses, protests rose up, lawsuits were swiftly filed, and the end result was that the different Pokémon Leagues were brought under strict governmental oversight. In this case, some equivalent to the United Nations that I haven't come up with a name for, assuming I don't go with the UN.

The end result is that a Pokémon journey is now integrated into the educational curriculum, essentially replacing twelfth grade in your prototypical American K12 institution. You proceed through school, taking courses in various subjects. As you go up through the grades, you learn more about how Pokémon factor into the world. Higher grade levels offer different levels of course work, so more driven students can take advanced-level courses to make them attractive to colleges or certain jobs. All schools offer extracurricular activities, including Pokémon-related ones that let students get hands-on experience before becoming trainers. This way, they're not going in completely blind.

At the end of eleventh grade, students are prompted to take two standardized tests: the GTSA (Global Test of Scholastic Achievement) and the PTLE (Pokémon Trainer Licensing Examination). Students that fail to achieve the minimum score to pass on one or both of these exams are put into remediation (i.e. they repeat eleventh grade). Students that pass undergo a full physical and psychological assessment to ensure they can be entrusted to care for a Pokémon. When the licensed medical professionals sign off on the tests, the student gets their trainer's license. Naturally, each League has an Office of Disability Services with resources that can help students with any sort of disability.

Twelfth grade is then focused around a Pokémon journey. Based on a student's interest, they're assigned a mentor with ties to the school who helps oversee and coordinate their journey. For example, a student thinking of going to law school someday could be assigned a judge or a civil litigator or an Assistant District Attorney. Some journeys can be short and some of the can be long; depends on the student. The idea is that the student will, with their Pokémon partner, go out and explore the region for themselves. This can include visiting universities, taking shadowing opportunities with different professions, volunteering in the community, or focusing on a competitive circuit (a badge challenge, Contest Spectaculars, Showcases, Pokémon Baccer, PokéBase, etc.) in the hopes of attracting a scholarship or corporate sponsorship to compete at the professional level. The journey (both the travel and the caring for Pokémon) helps prepare students to move into the adult world and live independently. Students are generally given two years to take their journey, but if they're satisfied they've gotten what they can out of their journey, they can meet with their mentor, who will sign off on the appropriate paperwork so the student can get their diploma.

 

[CrystaI]

I don't quite remember which thread it was, but I answered a similar question in another thread in the past as well. I might just repeat my previous two cent again.

For me personally, I don't really like the take of making Pokemon School the sole education system in the Pokemon World, nor making the journeying some kind of extracurricular course that ones do during summer vacation time. Because both has their illogicality if compare it to our current Real-Life education system of many 1st world countries.
I rather take the method of making Pokemon Trainer a kind of normal athletic profession specific to the world of Pokemon. Especially if one decided to enter the Pokemon League, one needs to journey through cities and towns for the gym challenge to demonstrate themselves as a true professionals. But, no one force you to leave your home onto the journey of League challenge if you don't want to, and just because you hold a few pokemons and like to do some battles, that doesn't mean one is enforced to challenge the League as some kind of responsibility or necessity. This is the same comparison with the Real-Life professional FIFA soccer player entering the World Cup, the hobbyists soccer player in your nearby community sport club, and the everyday school kids playing soccer as a game of fun and use it as a method of socialize with his/her friend.

In the world of my fic, Pokemon Trainer is merely one option among the many thousands job in the market (Though, it is probably the most popular job when it comes to the athletic sector, because Pokemon Battle is the most popular sport in my world). There are normal school that teaches students normal basic knowledge (Though, because this is the world of Pokemon, there will be things where pokemons are involved or exchanged in place of animals, such as biology class will include knowledge of pokemons, social science class will include some basic knowledge of social status of pokemon and how to taking care of them. But that's it. Learning about knowledge of pokemons is nothing different from learning about knowledge of animal in our Real-Life, it is nothing special). If one wanted to be a professional pokemon trainer, one then go to the private college called Trainer School for further in-depth specialized knowledge specific for this profession (Note: Despite I called it "college", it is not any tertiary education, it is just a kind of specialized education, not age-restricted). Though, also like Real-Life, going to Trainer School is not really some compulsory requirement, one can also become a professional trainer by self-study and begin as a hobbyist amateur, but that is only possible for the passionate genius.

I shall mentioned this again. Pokemon Battle in my fanfic world is a kind of professional sport, Pokemon League is thus the official national sport tournament, the Pokemon Association is thus the sport organization that regulates all the game rules of this sport. Regarding on the laws of usage of pokemons, although Pokemon Association will be the one that does most of the lobbying of legislation, that actual legislation is done by the regional government, and that is something different. The government is also the one that decides the educational system in normal school of its region. I shall stop here because not only it is a different topic, but also because not even I planned to use such setting in my fic despite the background is already fully designed.

TBH I do took a lot of Real-Life reference into the background setting of my fic. In my opinion, this is possibly the most logical structure with the most plausible explanation and feasible translation from the game series.
In the game, despite the game itself was designed in such a way where player will only get to contact and explore pokemon-related people/locations/items/events, hence it creates an illusion that every single thing of Pokemon World is centered around pokemons. Yet, there still exists quite a significant amount of things that are not directly pokemon-related or possibly nothing to do with pokemon at all. Also do not forget, all NPC trainers have trainer classes, such as Bug Catcher, Bird Keeper, Fisherman, even the professional titles like Engineer, Scientist, Guitarist, Chef, Firefighter, Driver, Actor, Movie Star, etc. Why they are not purely Pokemon Trainer? If they are the kind of people as described by their classes, where do they obtain the knowledge in order to accomplish their jobs? This is obviously not possible in a school that only teaches students to become pokemon trainer. Therefore, there must be some kind of normal school of a normal education system where not only teaches students these basic life knowledge, but are responsible to cultivate and nurture the fundamental humanities and scientific mindset of human being.

BTW just a little side note. It was only until M21, a normal school system in Pokemon World is finally canonically confirmed (Lisa is a normal high school student). Before that, such background world setting was never confirmed nor mentioned nor even slightly hinted. So it is understandable why fanfic writers ran wild in the background imagination.