You seem to be making the assumption that every single wannabe trainer in the Pokemon world, their parents, and their entire life up until the point where they either get a Pokemon or go to the Academy are all the same. They are not. Perhaps you couldn't think of why someone would want to go to the Academy, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't exist such people.
Please read what I'm saying. I never said there wouldn't be a good reason for someone to go to an academy, but that reason has to be logical. Someone going to an academy because they want to study the behaviour of pokémon in the wild isn't.
Let me repeat:
Like I said, you'd have to come up with very clear reasons why someone would want to go to a school.
Yes, scientists would want to go to school. That is one of those 'good reasons' I mentioned. However, this is not relevant for this character, because the writer explicitly mentioned that he/she wanted to journey around and is thus not interested in the academics as much as the actual travelling.
Like I said, there are good reasons for going to a school. There aren't many I can think of, but they're there. What I'm doing is countering the ones Strawbearry_PANDA gave us.
Perhaps the person wants to be a trainer, yes, but is more thoughtful and wants to take their time. Instead of leaping into it right at 10 (or, well, 12 in the fic of mine where I have an Academy. It has to do with the schooling system I thought up. Namely, a required six years starting at age six...)
Then why not just go slow, or start training at home? It's not a law that everyone should go out on a journey. I'm sure there are people who prefer training in their immediate area, but that wasn't relevant here because the writer told us she wants to explore the world and research pokémon behaviour.
Your fic's reasoning doesn't make sense to me either - because, hey, if that is suddenly necessary, then something drastic must have happened to the pokémon world for it to change that much - but going into that in someone else's thread would take up too much space.
It's sort of like lots of stuff in real life. You CAN jump into plenty of activities, but for more complex ones it's a rather good idea to actually learn about it first.
Trainers leave at age ten all the time. If that was a 'good idea' and necessary, then everyone would be doing it. They're not. Or, hey, they could spend the first ten years of their life learning about those things and prepare themselves and then leave.
The same could be said of our real schooling, particularly college. Learning what has already been discovered is very important in further research as it provides a framework. There are certain fundamentals, particularly in the maths and sciences, that you really have to learn to actually be able to fully understand and interpret the data you gather.
This doesn't apply to what she wants to do. If something was so fundamentally researched that it's taught at a random academy, then there can't be much left. Unless she wants to research specific areas or species, or whatnot, which would means she has to - again -
get out there and go to these places. It doesn't make sense to stay in school when you want to learn about something happening somewhere far away from you.
If this Academy is anything like the one I have in TFC, it's an either or scenario. Either you get your first Pokemon and start journeying, or you go to the academy, do your four years, then get your first Pokemon when you graduate.
Look, you can think of rules all you want, but they don't always agree with canon and they don't always make sense. I've explained plenty of times why it doesn't make sense for someone who wants to journey to stay at a school. Living in a world where everyone has pokémon, it also wouldn't make sense for someone to wait four years to get a pokémon when they could get one immediately. Practical teaches better than theoretical. Your fourteen year old could know all there is to know about the toenails of a psyduck, but he'd still lose spectacularly to someone three years his junior.
There's nothing really wrong about a Pokemon Academy, especially since it does have canon basis in the anime at least. The games too, but it's hard to tell exactly how they're formatted.
In the anime all we see are kids who look ten or younger. Ash, Brock and even May positive
tower over them all. The only exception is the doctor's class, which would make sense since you can't learn about medical procedures in the wild. However, researching the behaviour of pokémon doesn't work like that. You need actual, wild, pokémon for that.
They also mention that it has a class for 'future' pokémon coordinators there, meaning they're younger than ten and don't own a pokémon yet.
The other school mentioned, Pokémon Tech, is for those who don't want to go around to beat gyms. This is an alternative for travelling, which means that those who want to journey around the world researching pokémon habits wouldn't fit here. It also showed that theoretical knowledge is always going to fall flat against practical knowledge. (Misty beating her opponent, even though she had a type disadvantage.) In fact, they inspired one of the main characters of that episodes, Joe, to give up his school career and start travelling.
The latest school to be mentioned in the anime seems populated by just one class of people who are adults, already have a different job - judged by their outfits - and don't have the option of travelling anymore.
In the games you come across schools, but those are also populated by kids who look ten or younger. 'Schoolkids' look a lot younger than that and wouldn't be expected to travel around yet.
Edit.
Jeesh, I keep having to edit. XD
Silawen, you're contradicting yourself.
Ehm, you're not pointing out instances where I'm contradicting myself. : P
Have you ever heard of ethology? It's the study of animals and their behaviour and is taught in universities. Yes, they study animals in their natural habitats, and yes, they do it in a concrete building. Why? Because someone else has already studied those animals, and it makes no sense for you to go out there to observe them before you know what is already known about them. What kind of a scientist researches things that have already been researched a thousand times before? Moreover, we're talking about someone who's 14 years old. I'll bet she doesn't know everything there is to know about Pokémon yet, and therefore, her research in the wild would be largely fruitless.
I have, but that doesn't make sense for someone who
wants to journey through the world to discover things about pokémon. And yes, I think such an endeavour doesn't make much sense for a fourteen year old, but I'm not the one who came up with the idea. If that were the focus of the story - a young kid who wants to become a scientist - then by all means, have her start in school, but this is not the case. It's about her journeying and finding pokémon, which you can't accomplish by being in school.
Studying indoors from books and pictures does serve a purpose, or otherwise there would be no universities or any higher education in this world. How do you think Nurse Joys are trained? They just march into the closest Pokémon Center at the age of ten and become nurses? Or, maybe they're just born as fully educated nurses? I think not.
Again, I've said that there are actual reasons for staying in school. Please don't make me quote them again. : P A nurse can't learn about medical practises by going into the wild. Someone who wants to learn about pokémon behaviour and wants to befriend them, however? They'd be better off in the wild than they'd be in school.
Also, again, not everyone in the Pokémon world is a trainer. I have no idea why every school would automatically include obligatory battling lessons in their curriculum. There are coordinators, rangers, researchers, nurses, and people who just don't battle with Pokémon all over the place, so why should they make a subject like that obligatory? Maybe the school does offer battling lessons, but the character doesn't have to take them. You're generalising way too much.
This is a pokémon academy. So it's an academy about pokémon and probably the main things you deal with when around pokémon. Seeing as battling with your pokémon - and I mean that more than just gym battles, or whatnot, but also fighting against wild pokémon - is a necessary part of that. Rangers need to know how to battle to guide others, because if they came across wild pokémon they'd have to protect them, just as coordinators would need to know how to battle to show off their attacks. Because it's an integral part of their universe - you need to have a pokémon to protect you to go out into a forest, for example - it'd safe to assume it'd be taught at an academy claiming to be about pokémon. Even so, my main point isn't that I think those who don't like to battle shouldn't go to a pokémon academy, but that those who don't like to battle don't have to suffer through trainer battles if they want to go on a journey. (Which is what the character wants.)
Moreover, you keep contradicting yourself with what canon things you accept as real and what are just "gameplay features" (which reminds me strongly of a certain other member). If you accept the games' main character's life as the standard life in the universe, why don't you accept the way you can't say no to trainers who challenge you?
Again, how am I contradicting myself? Moreover, there is a difference between following canon and following things set in place by the game designers to make the game work. Like I said, people are writing about their characters eating all the time, but there's no evidence that your character ever eats in-game. That's because the game designers left that out to speed up the game, just as countless other things. Should we therefore assume that in canon people don't eat? (And don't mention anime canon there, because in that canon it's never the case that whenever trainers meet they are bound by law to battle. Ash has walked past countless other trainers in towns, cities, at festivals, in parks, on roads, and not challenged them.) I have yet to read a story where whenever two trainers meet a special music goes off and they are sucked into a battle. Have you?
I'm simply making a distinction between canon and game-mechanics.
Likewise, you can't say no to trainers who challenge you in the games, but that does not mean you couldn't possibly refuse to battle.
Which is exactly what I've been saying?
You seem to ignore the parts of the canon that seem inconvenient for you, and that is not a good reason to ignore them. At least try to be consistent with your arguments.
*points up* Game-mechanics and canon distinction. ^^ That and logic. Basic logic states that characters should eat. Basic logic does not state that someone who wants to journey around studying pokémon should stay in school.
That said, while you could refuse trainer battles, I don't think those wild Zubat would leave you alone even if you asked them to.
Which is why it's important to know about battling and why I expect that trainer schools in the games and anime - populated by kids younger than ten, looking at their size and whether or not they own pokémon - would teach battle-courses to their kids prior to them being able to go on a journey.
Also, not every child would be willing to run away from home just because their parents want them to go to school. I wouldn't, for one. I'd want to keep in touch with my parents, so I'd please them by going to that school like they want me to and leaving later on, when they want to let me leave or when I stop being a minor.
Again, not relevant when talking about a character that wants to leave on a journey. Also, becoming a minor doesn't change your parents anger at you leaving. Nor does it make much sense for you parents to be so vehemently against you leaving. However, if there's a good reason for it, then I'm all for it. So far, though, none of the reasons the writer has given me have made sense.
Just because the main characters in Pokémon games are all similar doesn't mean everyone in the world is the same. There are shy people, people who want to avoid conflict, people who are scared of being independent, and people who don't like battling.
Shy people wouldn't do better after classes, though. People who don't want conflict could choose not to battle. (As could those who don't like battling.) Those scared of being independence wouldn't go on a journey in the first place. Trainers can easily choose to stay at home if they want to and only train in their immediate area. However, this isn't relevant to the writer's story idea.
Just because you wouldn't want to go to school in Pokémon world doesn't mean everyone else is like you.
I'm giving clear-cut reasons why the writer's character wouldn't be in a pokémon school. I've said that there are some good reasons why someone would. This was never about my personal tastes, but what makes sense for the character and the situation the writer introduced.
*wipes brow* Pwew. XD
