Battle School

From Orson Scott Card Wiki

A military installation, based in a space station orbiting Earth, designed to train and evaluate children as future officers in the International Fleet for the imminent battle against the buggers. It includes both "standard" educational techniques (such as classroom studies), and "games" designed specifically to develop the unique characteristics required of its students. One of the most unique features of the space station was the Battle Room, a large microgravity chamber where different "armies" competed.

The very first glimpse we get of what Battle School will be like for Ender is when he is in the shuttle, going up. We get a taste of what children can be like, and a taste of the manipulation the adults engage in to get the responses they want from the children.

In a lot of ways, Battleschool is like any typical school. Children take classes. They engage in competition. Friendships grow, and groups are formed.

In a lot more ways, Battle School is very very different. The classes are more accelerated. Every child there is of the Earth's best and brightest, so that the slowest child there was probably top of his class on earth. The classes also have a distinct slant towards things military. Strategy and military history, for instance. Ender took a class in self defence. But we also learn that once a child becomes part of an army, classes lose their importance in the eyes of the adults running the school. How one does in the simulators and battlerooms is what is really important.

That is the competition that these children engage in. You are allowed to do all sorts of simulator games, including Free Play, known to the adults as The Mind Game. It's primary function is not to learn strategy and tactics, but to evaluate the psychology of the player. The children, of course, do not know this. At some point though, you are put into an army. The armies are set up with toon leaders, and commanders. They are pitted against eachother in safe battle simulations. What you have set up here, though, are simulations not only of battles, but also of military hierarchies. These heirarchies are encouraged even more by giving commanders special privleges.

The children, while sharing a type of comraderie, are forced into an artificial system, where they are controlled by the group or military authority. As such, social conventions usually passed on through the parents disappear, and others become prevalent. Also, such activities normally engaged in by children, such as pretend or playacting, do not occur at battleschool. There is no structure for it. The games, the simulators, the battle, all artificially created and maintained by the adults are all that matter. Thus, creativity is also supressed. This may have been one of the reasons Ender was able to suprise the other armies so much with new tactics and strategy.

It is not suprising that the children, coming from many different ethnic backgrounds, developed their own slang derived from their diverse native languages. Of course, they had to speak a common language, English, but over time, certain native words showed up in the vocabulary and became a one of the only parts of their culture that was evolved from the children themselves. Here, we have a list of this slang.

In a nutshell, the children dwelled in a highly structured enviroment, and were chosen specifically for their special abilities to function well within that enviroment. As a result, discipline remained high, yet creativity was supressed, for the most part. This may have been an oversight of those who created the program, as it is creativity and individuality which allows the leaps in judgement which makes the military leader genious. On the other hand, perhaps they were looking for the child who could break through this barrier.

There are at least 650 students in battle school. (Armies given to each of Ender's Toon leaders and seconds(so 10), plus Bean, with Dink and others still not having graduated at end of Ender's Shadow (for a total of apx 15 Commanders), x 40 in each army +40 for launchies.)

[edit] History

Some time after Mazer Rackham was sent on his life-extending time-dilated flight, he took himself hostage, seizing control of his ship from the International Fleet and making clear he would not allow it to make the return trip until his handlers met his demands. With the help of an ambitious and devious young Hyrum Graff, he successfully reformed the military bureaucracy, giving Graff a free hand to organize and administrate his Battle School for prodigies that would train them to be commanders for the Third Invasion.

[edit] Going to Battle School

As mentioned in Ender's Game, a one way trip to or from Battle School to Earth costs more than an average person makes in a lifetime. Selected children will get on the shuttle to Battle School with around 19 other children, this group is called the Launch Group. Anyone riding to Battle School is forbidden to eat for either 20 or 24 hours before the launch. (in Ender's Game, Ender mentions that he was forbidden to eat for 20 hours before the Launch, but in Ender's Shadow, it is said that the duration is 24 hours) The shuttle initially carries just enough fuel to get out of the earth's gravity, then it rendezvous with a fuel ship to refuel for the rest of the journey. After sometime, the shuttle will arrive at Battle School and the people disembark.

[edit] Battle School Life

Battle School is similar to the that of contemporary boarding school. The students attend classes and do battle during the day and then go back to their barracks to sleep.

[edit] Times

Battle School makes use of Military Time, that is 2312 instead of 11:12 pm.

Lights out is at 2200 (10:00 pm)
Light on is at 0600 (6:00 am)

[edit] References

Ender's Game
Mazer in Prison