CARDASSIAN DICTIONARY-ENCYCLOPEDIA
EDUCATION

(extrapolated from A Stitch in Time)

Cardassian children are taught at an early age to mask their emotions behind a secretive calm mask to allow their senses to perceive the truth about their surroundings. They are trained to remember every detail of what they see or hear, enhancing their natural tendency towards an eidetic memory. They are taught to focus completely on a problem and to use all resources and methods at hand until an answer is found. These learned behaviors make the Cardassians seem cunning, devious, and ruthless to humans.

Children receive a basic six-year year education which is followed by an Emergence Ceremony, which generally coincides with puberty and is the passage into "adulthood."

During this schooling, students of all classes are watched for special aptitudes, as the adults in charge begin recommending each child for the actual job within his class will do.

Based on thorough testing, both physically and mentally, and observation, each student is taken from his parents after the Emergence Ceremony and enrolled in the appropriate Institute for his social class.

 Students’ educations are paid for by a sponsor who will monitor, encourage, and ensure their performance in the selected Institute. Most students will follow their parents' training and careers. Students that show unusual aptitude may be chosen for careers higher than their class and even for the secretive and prestigious Obsidian Order.

Institutes are run by a First Prefect and Docents teach the subject matter, assisted by upper level students.

Females tend to dominate the sciences, the judicial system, and intellectual professions. Males tend to dominate the physical professions and their military is almost completely male. This is not a gender bias. It is the way their brains are hardwired. There are exceptions, of course, but as a species, the tendency holds true.

 

 "A Stitch in Time" by Andrew Robinson, Star Trek Encyclopedia 1999.
 
BACK TO DICTIONARY  

Updated September 2008 by the webmaster Carol Thompson.