While watching Spongebob today (judge me, don't care) I came to an interesting thought: the society portrayed in the series seems very odd and at times very communistic or capitalistic, depending on what area of the society you are looking at. So, here begins a mini-series where I will be looking at the different aspects of Spongebob's society and trying to come to conclusions about these aspects. Feel free to comment on my finding and offer some of your own to help. This analysis will look at bit at the Spongebob Movie as well as the TV show, and it's only based on the episodes that I have seen, so the data is not totally complete. That being said, please try to bear with me and respectfully share information that I may have missed. First off, let's look at the educational system of Bikini Bottom.
We know that there is some sort of system in place and that the teachers are licensed, because Spongebob attends boating school with Mrs. Puff, who was analysed and fired from her teaching job in one episode because she is deemed an unfit teacher due to Spongebob's constant failing of the class. We also know that Spongebob attended regular school at one point, because he is referenced as a fellow kindergarten classmate of another fish.
The fact that there is an entire school and obstacle course for teaching students to drive suggests that the educational system of Bikini Bottom receives massive funding from the government body, or the school could be privately owned by Mrs. Puff, who receives funding from businesses or other sources. Whatever funding the school is receiving, it must be massive in order to pay for the damages the property incurs every time Spongebob fails his test. The average amount of time required to spend in a driver's education class is 48 hours of classroom and driving time before you may obtain your driving permit (which we will assume is the license given in Bikini Bottom, since they don't seen to require a permit before hand). If the boating classes are from 9:00AM to 3:00PM, 6 hours total, every Monday through Friday, then that would be 8 days (so approximately 2 weeks) of classes. If Spongebob has taken every class, then he would be failing the class 26 times every year. Even if the classes are only once a month (which seems more likely because of Spongebob's demanding job at the Krusty Krab), then he is still failing 12 times a year.
If Spongebob is constantly failing the class, then in our educational system he would eventually not be allowed to test again (in a regular school). However, Mrs Puff constantly states that she cannot get rid of him until he passes. Also, we must take into account Spongebob's best friend: Patrick Star. He clearly would not ever pass a high school class, or even an elementary school one, yet he is not constantly going to school as Spongebob is.
The only conclusion that I can draw is that while education receives a lot of funding, it also has a very idealistic "no child left behind" policy, stating that as long as the student wishes to continue taking the class, then the school must allow him/her into the class. However, if the student doesn't wish to continue, then they may drop out of the school at their own free will. Clearly, Patrick is a drop-out, while Spongebob is the student who continues to take the class.
Also, the system doesn't seem to cost the student any money, nor does it keep close track of who is enrolled. In one episode, Patrick joins Spongebob's class and doesn't have to fill out paperwork or pay any tuition. More importantly, when he shows up, Mrs. Puff just goes along with it as if students dropping in out of nowhere are common. Likewise, when Squidward teaches an art class, he has no clue who is on his roster. If he did, he would have known beforehand that Spongebob was his only student, and likely cancelled the class. That said, remember that Mrs. Puff loses her job because Spongebob constantly fails her class, leading me to believe that the system only records whoever takes the final proficiency exam, and leaves the teachers to organize, publicize and possibly fund their own classes.
Final conclusion: the educational system of Bikini Bottom is one that incurs no cost to the student, does not kick them out of class, and allows them to drop-out at their own discretion. The system does not keep track of the attendance of the classes themselves, but instead only records the names of the students who take the proficiency exam and how they score. The source of the funding of these courses is still a mystery, however, and will require further research.
Next subject: work/labor system of Bikini Bottom.
