Schooled

School is now in full swing, along with homework, after school programs and all kinds of growing up goodness.  Schools are awesome, besides being somewhere to learn all kinds of stuff, it is the perfect story setting.  You have a huge pool of people with a variety of backgrounds, personalities, and issues to choose from.  You have various settings, classes, and of course a ton of "major events".  Here are a couple of my favorite literary scholarly institutes.

Hogwarts - I don't think there is a single literary person who does not want to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from the Harry Potter Series.  Who wouldn't want to take a class where you can brew a potion to shrink your enemies head, or learn how to care for a Hippogriff.  I would love to explore the various secret passages and find all the weird and wonderful things that have been stuffed into this castle of awesome...all while getting a quality magical education of course.

One Room School House - The Little House on the Prairie series made the idea of a cozy one room school house seem absolutely awesome.  In this series we see it from both the student and the teacher perspective.  I like the idea of everybody learning together, listening as all the various ages help each other learn and interact.  The idea that the teachers need to know enough to teach everything from 1st grade on up is kind of cool.  I also really want to take my lunch to school with me in a literal lunch pail.

Harper Hall - In the Pern Series there is an amazing place called Harper Hall.  This is a place that music is at the center of most education and most peoples basic knowledge comes in the form of Teaching Songs.  Add this to the fact the the Healer Hall is in the same area I am pretty sure I could find plenty to learn for a very very long time.  I like how even though music is the central tenet of the Hall is music, the students and staff are taught to think outside of their group and consider the whole world of Pern in their dealings.

Winding Circle - The four protagonists in the Circle of Magic series attend specialized classes at Winding Circle and let me tell you I just want to go and watch all the classes.  This school specializes in all the different types of magic and the insane number of ways you can use them.  I feel this school give a person a chance to be creative with the various types of magic.  I also like how the school encourages the various practitioners to learn to work together to create awesome and new feats of magic.

Battle School - In Ender's Game the prospective commanders and other war personnel are sent to the Battle School at an impossibly young age.  These kids use their lack of pre-conceived notions to come up with battle strategies that an adult who is stuck in their ways would never come up with.  As brutal as this school is I REALLY want to play in the battle room.  I want to have an epic game of capture the flag in the zero-g environment...and maybe freeze a few people as well.

These are just a few of the many school settings that make me want to go back to school...well any school that teaches magic or involves dinner pails.  Happy Reading Everybody!