The Year 2222 Promotion/Relegation

[Wayne23]

2222 Promotion/Relegation

I am writing this as a history, and as though it could be read by people living 200 years ago.

This is about college basketball, and about how we play it, but it’s also about the world we live in, and how we got here.

I’ll start by telling you just a little bit about how we live in 2222 C. E., then we’ll go to basketball. As we move along, I’ll tell you more about my world, and how it got to be the way it is.

The world of your time, say 2020 or so, was rapidly falling apart. None of the systems that hold societies together were working very well. The Great

Depression of December, 2019 destroyed the world’s economy and led to a world filled with chaos. There was mass starvation, looting, theft- a struggle to simply survive for the world’s nearly 8 billion people. Things continued that way, with the population shrinking steadily, and life being a dire struggle, until the Great Epidemic of 2049. That wiped out most of the world’s population. No one at the time had any way of knowing how many people were left alive, but our historians and anthropologists tell us it was about one billion.

Interestingly enough, and for no conceivable reason, the overwhelming majority of the survivors had higher than normal intelligence, and/or possessed valuable skills- valuable in rebuilding and maintaining a working society, that is.

Let’s leave it there for now, with my promise that there is much more to come, and let’s move on to the present.

The world of 2222 in brief: We keep the population of the world at about a billion. More on that later. There are 100 countries in our world, each with a population of as close to ten million as possible, and none are overpopulated. Yes, LOTS of boundaries were redrawn. There is no poverty, and there is no excessive wealth- not anywhere in the world.

Progress, mostly technological, has made work mostly unnecessary. 99% of our people are at an IQ level of 130 or higher (We use a wide variety of measures to define intelligence, and we group and average them together under the term “IQ,” because it was in wide use when all of this started, but it is not actually about IQ at all.) The machines do virtually all of the work in our world, and this frees up the population. People do pretty much as they please, within certain sane limits. Government exists, but it has minimal functions. Big business does not exist, as it is unnecessary. Yes, we have crimes, and yes, we have ways of dealing with them and with the criminals when they are apprehended and convicted.

We have made vast improvements in all sorts of things. I’ll speak of transportation and use that as a segue into basketball.

Here in the former U. S., a plane carrying 500 passengers can fly from New York to San Francisco in about 45-47 minutes. Most of that time is taken up with take off and landing. Most flights take from about 45-47 minutes to about 60 minutes (the very longest distances) because take off, getting into the proper flight pattern, preparing for landing, and landing take about 40 minutes. No, we don’t come anywhere near light speed, but we do not need to. Speeds of 500 miles per minute truly get the job done quickly, and that’s what our major airplanes cruise at. So, a trip to the farthest point from New York, for instance, would take about 60 minutes (20 minutes for the flight, plus the 40 or so mentioned above).

Okay, college basketball: College level sports are the high point of competitive sports, with perhaps the Olympics having more popularity and esteem.

There are no professional sports. Those wishing to continue playing beyond college play on club teams. Since money plays such a miniscule role in our lives they are not paid.

There are always movements to work toward national and world championships in basketball and futbol (soccer), the only remaining team sports that are in any way organized, but this has been stopped so far. Regional titles are as high up as the competition goes. There are, for example, 16 regions in what was the U. S. (now 10 countries), 24 in what was Russia, 32 in the former China, 8 in old Canada… Other sports that remain very popular include track and field, swimming and diving, gymnastics, figure skating, and a few others. There’s lots of volleyball, but almost all of it is local in nature.

College basketball in the former U.S.: 352 colleges play Division I basketball. They are organized into 22 Conferences with 16 teams each, in a Promotion/Relegation system where the top three teams move up one conference, and the bottom three move down one conference at the end of each season. Each conference is weighted so that the teams are as competitive as possible. The very best teams are in Conf. A, the weakest in Conf. V. The teams in Conf. A have the most resources and generally the best facilities, and it goes down with the drop in conference.

Okay, that’s a good start. Now to me, and the team I will coach.

[Wayne23]

5/1/2222: My name is Wyn Offen and I am 45 years old. As I said earlier, we have time. I didn’t say we live to about age 120 in most cases, and are healthy until very near the end, so we are not in the great hurry people were in during earlier times. I decided I want to focus my energies on coaching basketball when I graduated from San Francisco at age 21, and I have spent the past 24 years learning as much as possible. I worked my way up from high school assistant, to high school head coach, to college assistant, taking my time along the way, and working under a wide variety of experienced coaches. I paid very close attention and learned a lot. This spring I decided I was ready to be a head coach in Div. I.

I was lucky enough to be hired by my alma mater, the San Francisco Dons, in Conf. T, and here I am.

I kept the 3 assistants that were here last year. None of them are world beaters but the Dons don’t have a lot of money in the budget, so I didn’t have a lot of choice.

About “money in the budget.” It’s not real money. Each team in each conference is given a certain amount of “money” to spend on assistant coach salaries and recruiting. Salary and recruiting costs are worked into a formula, and when your team reaches zero dollars, that’s it for the season. Again, it’s not real money, but this way of doing things was established in combination with the Promotion/Relegation system to level the playing field, more or less, in each conf.

I will play mostly Princeton and Triangle against zones, and work the man offense. On D I will play about 3/4 man, 1/4 zone- the 3-2. We will only press when we need to. I may play more 3-2 if I find that teams are beating us outside. We’ll see.

I’ve got $78,000 in my recruiting budget. I’ll buy the Western Gold scouting report since I really don’t expect to have much luck recruiting beyond 500 miles of my school.

As for my team, looking at “film” from last season, and going by what I know, I have pretty decent guys at shooting guard, small forward, and center. I have hopes for my power forward. Point Guard could be a problem. I’ve got 12 scholarship athletes. During the early practice period I plan to take a good hard look at everybody, and I plan to give everyone a chance to earn playing time. I expect all of my guys to work hard, to maintain good grades, and to stay out of trouble. I am not afraid to kick ass to be sure that happens.

6/25: I can’t afford to go to any of the regional camps.

6/26: Recruiting starts. We have 4 scholarships. We’d like 2 and 2, but we’ll probably take the best players we can get.

8/21: We offer to 2 PGs, 2 PFs.

9/18: We compile as weak a schedule as we could put together. I want wins.

9/25: We get a recruit, PF #190, and we lose one, a PG.

10/2: Got a PG, #109, and a PF, #306. One to go. We need to get a guard.

1st day of practice. We’re picked 9th in Conf. T.

11/6: 7 man rotation to start:

3 players will be getting about equal minutes at guard, frosh Clif Babb starts at PG, senior Curt Harr starts at SG, and frosh Don Wonn subs at both.
Senior Pete Parr starts at SF. Frosh Mal Carr subs at SF and PF.

Soph Jam Dobb starts at PF, subs at C. Senior Stan Coss starts at C.

The Great Depression of 2019, and even more so, the Great Epidemic of 2049, simply wiped out societies all over the world. It took the better part of 50 years for any sort of community or society to even begin to re-form. When it did, it went in a direction never seen before, at least on any sort of a wide scale. When the internet finally came back up in 2093, worldwide communication became a reality again, and those who had managed to get themselves into leadership positions began to discuss how to put things together in a way that would avoid so many of the problems that had plagued humans… well, forever. This was an amazingly wise group of men and women who were not driven by greed, and not power mad, at least for the most part. The period from 2093 to 2111 saw most of what we now view as modern society begin to develop, and finally, to be put in place.

There were pockets of resistance, of course. A few countries were led by would be dictators who closely resembled what dictators have always been. But these “leaders,” one by one, were displaced, sometimes peacefully, sometimes violently, almost always through international efforts. Finally, a worldwide community began to take shape. In an electronic “League of Nations” or “United Nations” format, rules were set down for all of the various communities of people in the world.

A census, an enormous undertaking, was taken, and the world was divided into those 100 countries of about 10 million people each that I spoke of earlier. Each country organized itself independently, but the worldwide community was committed to eliminating hunger and want in each country. It took time, but it worked. Growing enough food to feed one billion people was not really a problem in the early 22nd century. Nor was transporting the food to where it was needed. The technology had either been in place, or had been emerging when worldwide society collapsed, and now it was simply re-established, or brought up to speed.

Other rules were put in place. It turned out that some technology from the late 20th and 21st centuries had been suppressed in order to control the people, and to keep the wealth in the hands of the very few. This suppressed technology was unleashed, and it led to a world where robots, computers, and combinations of the two did nearly all of the physical labor that was needed- farming, manufacturing, road building and maintenance, infrastructure upkeep and repair, record keeping and statistical analysis, trash collecting, much work in the medical field including the lion’s share of patient care- you name it, the machines did most of it.

While, in many countries, the infrastructure was in disastrous shape, an effort to repair, reconstruct, and replace began, and was continued, until the time came when all that was needed was monitoring and maintenance.

People DID work, mostly making sense of what the machines were doing, checking on and supervising, planning… But few worked more than 20 hours per week, and no more than 25% of the population worked at all.

What did people do? I’ll talk about that later, and I will talk about such things as population control, crime and punishment, education, housing, the financial system, the medical advances and medical care, advances in science and technology, and pretty much every other aspect of our modern society, both as it evolved and as it is now.

[Wayne23]

11/20: 1-1. We won our opener by 2 at home, then lost the next by 3 on the road. Nothing’s going to be easy. Both very high scoring games, 88-86, 86-89. Scoring’s not a problem, defending is. Opponents hit 55% in both games.

All 3 recruits sign. We want to sign #4.

12/4: 5-1, but we’ve played 4 at home, all against Conf. V teams. I want wins so that I can tell recruits that we’re building a good program that they should be part of. So far so good!

12/25: We go to Conf. play at 7-3. Again, lots of home games, and all of the games were against teams in Conf. V or Conf. U. But I got the wins I wanted! RPI #167, which is way too high. +5.1 PPG, +1.2 RBs, +5.6 TOs (We turn the other team over 19.4 times per game, #1 in the country.). Jam Dobb, who when I looked at film in May figured to have zero playing time, leads us in scoring. He worked his butt off in practice and he has produced at PF! Stan Coss is my only good rebounder. He gets 8.5 (12.6 points). We have 5 guys getting 10.1 or more PPG, and 6th man Mal Carr gets 9.8. We’re still playing 7 guys mostly, and it’s working.

Let’s talk about transportation. I’ve mentioned how fast our jumbo jets are. Let’s talk a little more about them, and then about other forms of transportation.

The jumbos are there for long flights. Since an hour is about the maximum time a person will spend in flight, there are few amenities. BUT, the seats are comfortable and there’s plenty of leg room. There is no first class, all 500 seats are the same size, with the same amount of leg room. There are no snacks or drinks served. Passengers must keep seat belts and shoulder harnesses fastened at all times. The lone exception is a trip to the bathroom. This cannot be done except when the plane is at cruising speed. It is prohibited during the take off and landing stages. So a passenger sits in the seat during the flight, reading or watching a video. It’s comfortable, and the seats recline enough to be comfortable if a person wants to nap.

There are not nearly as many flights as there used to be since big business does not exist. San Francisco airport probably has 2-5 planes an hour landing, and the same number taking off taking off. LA, NY, and Chicago have more, but not enormous numbers. There are no airlines; the government owns, maintains, and flies the planes. In the years since this type of flight started there has been exactly one crash, and that was on landing. The brakes failed, and the plane went past the end of the runway. There were lots of injuries, but no deaths. This was truly a fluke, as planes are inspected thoroughly after every flight, and maintenance is as good as it can possibly be.

Oh, the planes are powered by a system that combines electric power with solar power. We can now store solar for later use, so this works very efficiently. The system is environmentally very sound, and it works like a charm.

We have no private ownership of motor vehicles, except for covered electric golf cart type vehicles to take those with disabilities to the nearest bus, subway, or train pick up point. Most people own one of these, which seats two people comfortably. But again, they are not used often. Buses, subways, and trains run on the same combination of electric and solar power as the planes use.

Cities, and even the smallest towns, have bus service that runs 24/7. The buses run as frequently as needed between 8:00 a.m., and 8:00 p.m. (frequency varies by usage and need), and usually hourly between 8:00 p.m., and 8:00 a.m.

Every major city has a subway system. Many of these were built by robotic labor, sometime during the 22nd century.

Rail service is extensive, reaching just about every town within the old U. S. The same is true throughout the rest of the world. Again, the rail system was built and extended during the 22nd century, and, as with everything else, safety is the #1 consideration.

If the trains do not go to a given town, buses will transport the people to the nearest depot.

People travel for business (Again, there are no big businesses, but people do choose to run small businesses- restaurants, antique shops, clothing stores, and many others, and they sometimes need to travel to procure their goods. At other times they don’t, but more about that later.) and for pleasure, but no one travels any more than is necessary. There is plenty to do in every city, town, and village. But still, we live a long time, and most people choose to see something of the world during their lifetimes.

[Wayne23]

1/1/2223: 8-3, 1-0. A 19 point home win. Great start!

1/15: 11-4, 3-1. Lost in OT at home. Still #1 in forcing TOs.

1/29: 13-6, 5-3, RPI #99, which is way, WAY too good. In a 6 way tie for 2nd- 1. It’s early. 2. We were picked 9th and my GM said to just not finish last. I’m thinking we’re doing okay! +4.3 PPG, +0.2 RBs, +5.5 TOs. Dobb still leads us in scoring with 16.7. Cos leads in RBs with 8.0, but he needs some help; he’s doing it alone. 6 of our 7 key players get 9.4 or more. Ted Mann, a forward who doesn’t play much, has looked good lately. I really don’t have minutes for him though.

2/12: 16-7, 8-4. RPI #101. Alone in 3rd, 1 back of 1st.

2/26: We close the regular season at 17-10, 9-7, RPI #136. Tied for 4th, #5 seed.

Let’s talk about housing. In areas of the world that were impoverished before everything changed, it was necessary to build lots of housing. Sometimes raw materials needed to be brought in from outside of the given country, and just as often, so did robotic and human help. Condo or apartment style housing was built. The units were built6 to last, hopefully for centuries, and they were small enough to be practical, but large enough to accommodate family size. I need to talk about family size separately, and I’ll do that, but at the beginning, before family planning became a worldwide reality, some of the more impoverished areas hosted lots of large families. The housing reflected that. Again, it was simple, but definitely adequate. Where necessary, heating and cooling were provided. With the use of solar panels this could be done with little to no environmental impact, and this eliminated any need for people to suffer from extremes of temperature.

In the more advanced countries lots of existing housing was able to be utilized by the reduced population. Limits were set. No single family was allowed to live in a mansion, or in those houses labelled “McMansions.” People moved into, voluntarily or otherwise, houses, apartments, and condo units that, again, were fully adequate to meet the family or individual’s needs, but not larger than was necessary. Such things as wastefulness, opulence, any sort of competition that encouraged extravagance, and anything like all of that, were strongly discouraged by the society. In fact, they were prohibited. For everyone to live decently, no one can live extravagantly. And there was no need anyway. Public entertainment of every conceivable kind was readily available for all.

[Wayne23]

2/28: We play #12 seed Loserby 10-17, 7-9, in the first round of the Conf. V tournament.

3/1: 77-71. 6 players with 10 or more. C Stan Coss had 11 and 12. PF Jam Doss had 16. We led all the way and the final was as close as it got in the 2nd half.

#4 seed MD East, 15-12, 9-7, in the quarter finals. We split in the regular season.

3/2: 62-73. Dobb had 15 and 7, but we didn’t generate enough O, and we didn’t get stops on D when we needed them.

I think our season is over. Given our low conference, I don’t see an invitation coming.

3/12: Shocked! We’re going to the CIT! #3 South. We face #6 UMass Lowell, 16-12, from Conf. V.

3/14: 100-81. 20, 6, 3, 4 for sub forward Ted Mann. 14 each for SG Curt Harr (with 13 assists), PF Jam Dobb, and sub forward Mal Carr; 15 for PG Clif Babb. +9 RBs, +8 TOs.

#2 seed Washington ST, 18-13, from Conf. J. We’ll need a great effort to pick up win #20.

3/16: 85-72. 16 each for Dobb and Harr, 15 for Babb, 14 for SF Pete Parr, 9, 11 for Coss. +11 RBs.

#8 seed Penn, 19-14, from Conf. J, in the round of 8. We can beat these guys if we play well.

3/21: 108-74. We played VERY well. 24 for Parr, 18, 7 for Carr, 4 others had 12 or more. +14 RBs, +6 TOs.

We’re in the CIT Final Four vs. #4 seed West, Florida A & M, 20-15, Conf. P. On paper it’s a toss up.

3/28: 67-85. Not tonight. We trailed all the way, by double figures most of the time. We just weren’t clicking. Dobb had 16, 7, Parr had 17, Coss had 8, 16. But we let them shoot 52.8%.

Oh well, great season!

4/3: #3 Pitt is the champ.

4/4: Clif Babb is Conf. V Frosh OY. Senior Curt Harr makes the 1st team. Senior Stan Coss and soph Jam Dobb make 2nd team. I am Conf. COY.

4/16: We got a GEM! We started going after a PF late, the #36 recruit. Never thought we had a chance. He just committed and signed!

4/23: I ask for a budget increase. I get $7,500.

21-12, 9-7.

Population control: After the world fell apart, as I’ve said, the population went from about 8 billion to about a billion. Despite starvation, people started having babies again- they always do. The population began to grow.

After civilization began to re-form the people in charge, supported by the people in general, decided that uncontrolled population growth would quickly and inevitably bring the world back to chaos.

Drastic measures were implemented worldwide. They were:

1. Again, IQ was used simply as a way to describe intelligence as a whole. It was a composite of many factors and measures. In order to be allowed to reproduce, both biological parents had to have a minimum IQ of 130

2. A newly discovered birth control device was implanted into every newborn, in order to control this.

3. A child born of parents meeting the IQ 130 criteria, was tested early and often. If s/he did not achieve an IQ of 130 or more, s/he would never be allowed to reproduce.

4. A close count of the population in each country was kept. A new baby would only be allowed when it kept the population at very close to the 10 million per country limit.

Given that the technology was already in place to allow people to live long and healthy lives, usually to about age 120 (more about that later), births were infrequent, and they were joyfully celebrated.

There was opposition to this plan, not by a huge percent of the population in any country, but loud and vociferous, for decades. Eventually the new system
became the norm, and most of the opposition faded away. Of course there are always couples who are disappointed that they cannot reproduce.

[PointGuard]

What's The City like in 2222? I need to know if I should try to hang around that long and move back to San Francisco.

[Wayne23]

Stay tuned.

[Wayne23]

5/1: I move San Francisco up to Conf. S. Let’s see how that works out.

#52 recruiting class. Not bad.

6/5: Looking at transfers.

6/12: Went after 2. Didn’t get either one.

6/26: 3 scholarships. We’ll go 2 and 1 either way.

8/21: We offer to a PG, an SG, and a C.

9/18: Weak schedule again this year. I still want wins!

9/25: Got 2, an SG, #61, a PG, #671. Still hoping to land a big guy.

10/2: 1st day of practice. We’re picked 10th in Conf. S.

11/6: 9 man rotation:

Soph CLif Babb is at PG. Soph Don Wonn starts at SG, subs at PG.

Juco junior Art Burr and frosh Stan Myll sub at SG.

Frosh Aron Doll and junior Jam Dobb split time evenly at SF, with Doll starting.

Soph Mal Carr starts at PF, subs at C. Junior Roy Kinn gets lots of minutes at PF.

Juco junior Curt Fakk, who may be our best player, starts at C.

The lineup is far from set. Look for changes.

I want to talk about San Francisco for a moment.

The “city by the Bay” has always been something of a magical place. That disappeared during the darkest days, but once civilization began to re-establish itself, a very strong effort was made to revitalize it as the uniquely beautiful city it had always been. The effort was overwhelmingly successful. The Golden Gate bridge is still there, the cable cars are back, the little neighborhoods have returned to take on each their own unique character. It’s still a very free city, open and accepting, filled with every conceivable type of person, and with some who defy typing at all. The food is wonderful. The temp is a bit warmer, but the worst of the environmental damage is a century in the past, and the planet is renewing itself, here and everywhere else. Scientists tell us this will take some time, but the process is well underway.

I suppose that transitions into discussing the world climate. The 21st century saw the environment reach a disastrous state. By the end of the century there were major coastal areas throughout the globe that had sunk beneath the waves. Temperature had reached highs never seen before in most areas of the world. A few places, due to localized conditions, suffered the opposite- a mini-ice age. But things were bad everywhere. Potable water was difficult to find. The air was all but unbreathable. Crops were ruined by extreme weather events- hurricanes with 150, 175, even 200 mph winds became all too frequent, and they struck every area that was near an ocean. Tornadoes destroyed everything in their paths and struck in places where there had never been tornadoes. Floods hit areas that had never seen flooding. All of this continued for quite some time after the population rapidly fell to the one billion mark. It was not until perhaps 2150 or so that things began to reverse themselves. Again, the process is gradual, but many of the coastal areas have now risen above the receding waters. Fresh water areas are cleaner, almost but not quite as clean as we would like them to be. The oceans are recovering. The air is fit to breathe- not perfect but getting better all the time.

If we can keep the population at about one billion, and we fully intend to do that, there is every reason to hope that the future is bright for both the planet, and the creatures, human and otherwise, who will inhabit it.

[Wayne23]

11/20: 2-0 start. Center Curt Fakk, forward Mal Carr, and guard Clif Babb are scoring, and Jam Dobb is trying to fight his way into the starting lineup. I’m not ready to make changes after 2 games, but I let him know I’m watching, and I like what I’m seeing.

Both recruits sign but we need to grab a big guy.

12/4: 5-1, RPI #100, which is ridiculously high again. Rebounding is a SERIOUS problem, we’re #325, and -2.5.

Time to look at lineup tweaks. Ted Mann is getting Roy Kinn’s minutes. I think he’ll help with RBs, and he’s as good as Kinn in the other areas. Stan Myll gets Art Burr’s minutes as #3 guard. Both may get more minutes if they perform well. Aron Doll is getting some of Jam Dobb’s minutes at SF. Doll is a better defender and a better rebounder; not as good a scorer, but we’re scoring points.

12/11: 38 and 32 RBs in our first 2 games with the new lineup, and we won both.

1/1/2224: We end the pre-conference season at 9-2, RPI #77. +4.5 PPG, -0.7 RBs, +4.0 TOs. Very slight improvement in RBs. Mann is going to get more minutes. He’s playing well.

Let’s talk about war, crime, and punishment. First, war is a thing of the past. There have been no wars, large or small, for at least 75 years. No country has a military presence of any kind. Every country is inspected regularly to be certain that it stays that way but, frankly, nobody seems interested. Life is good when no resources need to be wasted on the military.

There isn’t much crime. Theft of any kind is completely unnecessary, since everyone has all s/he needs (more on this later), so except for the occasional kleptomaniac, and the kids who try it just to see if they can get away with it, it’s not a problem.

There is some violent crime, mostly coming from domestic situations, but occasionally alcohol involved. We discourage the use of alcohol but do not prohibit it.

There is almost no murder, maybe 1 every 2nd or 3rd year.

We have no police forces- not anywhere in the world. At age 21, every able bodied citizen is trained in police work. This is a full time, three month commitment.

Then, every able bodied citizen between the ages of 22 and 49 spends one week every three months getting a refresher. These citizens are on standby police duty for one seven day week every other month. Each district (a city or a group of towns) has a police chief who is on standby duty 24/7/365. There is so little crime that s/he is not even close to overburdened by this; Most weeks there will not be a single incident. When the chief goes on holiday a temporary chief is put on duty.

We punish murder by imprisonment for an indeterminate period of time. The prisoner lives in a restricted area but is treated decently. S/he receives psychiatric help on a regular basis. If the time arrives when the therapist feels the murderer is no longer a threat to society, s/he is freed. Should the freed murderer kill again we use lethal injection immediately upon conviction.

For lesser crimes the perpetrator, once convicted, loses time. That is to say s/he is assigned to the tasks that no one wants to do, for between 10 and 40 hours per week until the debt to society is paid.

In the case of violent crime, a repeat offense leads to the same type of imprisonment as for a first time murderer, under the same conditions. Again, the term ends when the assigned therapist deems the person no longer a threat. A second violent crime leads to life in prison, but the prisons are very much like those in most of Scandinavia were before the dystopia struck- reasonable treatment, parietal hours, opportunities for recreation and education…

We can afford to be lenient, but not with repeat violent offenders.

[Wayne23]

1/15: 11-4, 2-2. Rebounding is improving. I’m starting Mann, and reducing Doll’s minutes. I don’t know if we can be more than a middle of the pack team in Conf. S, but I’m working on it.

1/29: 14-5, 5-3, RPI #80. Still haven’t won a road game in conference. +4.7 PPG, -0.2 RBs (but up to 29.3), +3.5 TOs.

2/12: 15-8, 6-6, RPI #105, But the schedule for the last 4 games is favorable. We have a shot at winning 3, or even all 4.

2/26: We close the regular season at 19-8, 10-6, RPI #70. In a 3 way tie for 2nd, the #4 seed. +4.4 PPG, +0.6 RBs, +3.4 TOs. Fakk leads us with 15.6, 7.6.

Education in our world: When we talk about education we’re talking about childhood education, but we’re also talking about lifelong education, because in our society(ies) that is a fact of life; schooling, formal or informal, never ends.

The old style k-12 education is very different now. Since we have so few children at any given age, there are no public schools. Parents home school, typically gathering all of the children within a reasonable distance, and grouping them together, with different parents taking charge of different aspects of the students’ educations. This takes as many forms as one can imagine. The focus is on developing each child’s abilities to as great an extent as possible, but each child is given a good general education. There is oversight, because we feel that it is important for everyone to know certain things- history, both of our modern world, of how it came to be, and a general history of all that came before. Science is very important, and children all learn general science and basic biology, chemistry, and physics. We have gotten past that old “math phobia” thing and we work hard to see to it that from the very beginning, children are taught math by people who both love and know about math. Of course there is literature and grammar. We value the arts, and arts education is an integral part of every child’s education. We have what we call “practical arts.” Kids are taught cooking, balancing a checkbook, basic household care and maintenance, smart shopping, how to tell a good source of information from a not so good source, the value of data, research…, and other practical, every day skills. Physical education is an every day part of our children's lives. The old world had fallen to the point where obesity was the norm. Our children are fit, and in shape, nearly all of them.

A general exam is given at the end of what used to be eighth grade, and again at the end of what used to be twelfth grade. Grade levels as such do not exist anymore.

We have colleges, although the college basketball (and futbol) set ups do not actually involve real colleges. I haven’t discussed that, but I will soon. In any case, again because of the small number of young people in general, there are not many colleges that have actual campuses. There is only one in the entire Bay Area.

But, students wanting to pursue an undergraduate degree can choose among a very wide variety of on line courses, and apply those credits to their degree at every college campus in the world. There’s a rigorous process involved in getting and in keeping a course accredited.

At the grad school level, there are even fewer choices for students, and most students need to travel in order to attend grad school. Here, too, there are on line courses, but we allow only 50% of grad credits to be taken in an on line format.

As to “adult education,” much of this is on line. A person can find courses, and even full programs “in person,” but there are far more of them on line. Any adult who is willing to take courses on line can find ways to learn anything they may wish to learn,. Often under the guidance of a world renown expert, if they reach the level where that is appropriate.

Most of us are involved in some type of schooling, whether something as simple as cooking or flower arrangement, or gardening, all the way to areas such as astrophysics. We are a people who are interested in learning, and who learn throughout our long lives. Many of us also teach courses of one kind or another, and/or mentor other students.

Education is a vital part of 23rd century society, all over the world.