How have schools and classrooms been portrayed in science fiction?

I’ve written a new article here where I discuss some things closely related to this article’s topic, especially about how science fiction might be used in school development & research.

I’ve written before about how science fiction shapes our visions of the future; for ex. Asimov’s Laws of Robotics and the Star Trek communicator as inspiration for the cellphone. But, how have schools and classrooms been portrayed in science fiction? Is there anything there that might give us some ideas about how we might want to shape education? I can’t remember a lot of examples of schools or classrooms in science fiction except for a meager handful that aren’t very inspiring.

I remember seeing a Star Trek episode (don’t remember which series or which show – but I’m going to guess that it was Deep Space 9) where there was some imminent danger and a bunch of children had to be confined to their classroom. I was surprised that, despite all the attention paid to the evolution of technology in Star Trek, the classroom that was shown was pretty much exactly as you would expect to see if you walked into a classroom in the US today.

I came across another reference to school in Star Trek; this time a Vulcan school. Karen Henke, on the Future of Education Network website, describes a scene in one of the Star Trek movies where Vulcan children sat alone in pods and repeated what was said to them by a disembodied voice.

Other examples that I can think of are mostly intended to be critical of schools and thus portray them as staid institutions where facts and acceptable knowledge are forced upon children. For example, Bradbury’s Farenheit 451:

With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word ‘intellectual,’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.

In Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld series describes a world where everyone from Earth is resurrected, except for young children. In one of the final books it is finally revealed that the young children have been resurrected on another planet, named Gardenworld, where they are raised as “Ethicals” and eventually help transform Riverworld into a suitable home for the resurrected humans.

I have vague memories of some other mentions of schools and classrooms in science fiction but, because of my habit of moving from country to country every few years, I don’t have access to my sci-fi library right now. So, I can’t leaf through the books to check.

Do you remember any interesting portrayals of schools or classrooms or other forms of education from science fiction? Post them here. Help me get a collection of examples together.