Using life stages instead of ages really makes sense, it is a really old setting and I hope to rework the whole school part at some point, I will see what I can do with the next update, maybe have the start/stop age at least in the new per species setting aswell if life-stages are to complicated to change to.

I have never used that mod, I will have a look at it.

Also, I've encountered another problem. I've assigned all four children to the school area for six hours out of the day for learning. There are two blackboards set up for different stuff depending on who is at them, six desks in front of both (I made a rainbow out of them using the paint mod!) All the adults cycle through the school zones two at a time for two hours each overlapping in one hour intervals. Ideally, this means there's a mix of subject. Each adult is teaching a different subject based on whichever blackboard they wind up at, too.

The problem is the adults don't leave the blackboard after the little bar fills up. They just keep going. Forever. Even if teaching is set to a very low priority. They just stay put until their hunger or recreation need is so low they're about to freak out. For example if Teaching is set to priority 3 and Silver is no longer on teaching duty, she will not go and train the animals, which is her first priority. She will stay there all day long teaching animal handling. All. Day. Long. Despite her two hours being up. Is it possible to have teachers reevaluate what job they should select based on availability each time the bar fills? So if it fills and the teacher finds they're no longer on duty, they'll leave and the next teacher will come in for, say, construction? :)

hmm, usually the opposite is the problem, they only stay a short time and leave based on the priority (which is why the school zone was added as a feature in the first place), maybe they are locked into the school-zone after that time (?), at least with the mods "Better Pawn Control" and "Common Sense" it can currently happen, if that is not the case you could try to have another zone that is the school zone inverted (and have them in that normally) which would lock them out of school if it is not school-time for them. (I suspect this could also be caused by some issue with another mod possibly)

I will have a look if it can be triggered to at least hard stop/interrupt the streak if the school time is over for them.

I plan to have a rework of it in a future update that would have more of a shedule based on the subjects beeing tought and the teachers and rooms beeing assigned to those instead of directly to each other. (maybe that can solve some of the difficulties that exist with it currently)

The paint-mod sounds interesting ^^

Oh I know it happens with better pawn control. I've had it happen. It's just not a big imposition to fix since I have to go into that menu anyway to change modes (I mostly just use it to make them all go into the safety of the colony during an attack) but on that note, could you potentially add options to reduce the frequency of children appearing in raiding groups? It's really not realistic to have that many little kids running around in a war zone and I just feel TERRIBLE. I mean, when about 1/10 people in a raid group of 120 or more are under the age of 12... I usually try to take them prisoner and either release them or recruit them, but I mean, I can only have so many in the colony, and I WANT to stay enemies with some of these guys, lol!

Here, I took a screenshot of my school setup. I wanted to put something like this in the prison since I've taken to sparing and capturing every kid I encounter in battle, but it just doesn't work. The color mod is called Dub's Paint Shop. You can see how the floor is painted (It's just wood!) The three cloaks are painted (They're all insect chitin) and how the desks are a silly rainbow and all the furniture is in fun, kid-friendly colors. I even tinted the blackboards! And also how Silver's animal handling lesson is MUCH more popular with the little ones than Twilight's researching lesson, LOL. Oh, I also have Rimworld of Magic. All the adults are magic users and there are undead laborers and summoned minions going about doing tasks. :3 You can also see how I've got single tile stockpile zones at the bottom of the room to ensure quick access to materials, but it's pretty touch and go. School supplies cabinets would be nice? Also, medicine classes BURN through herbal medicine like crazy. It's extremely uneconomical.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18oAZAN2wMcz4RHe_DGfnAuDGBt8tn7-V/view?usp=sharing

Edit: I don't normally have colored floor tiles like that or technicolor mage cloaks all over the floor, but I wanted to show off the paint mod. ;)

So I also have this mod called "Gain Skill Passions". It gives you a configurable set of settings where you can allow pawns to gain passions or burning passions by leveling up a skill (the percent chance is configurable) and a percent chance (configurable) to lose a skill passion upon level down, as well as max allowed passions and so on. Combining this mod with that mod and allowing the passion gains ONLY for pre-adult pawns studying at school would be a really cool addition, I think. New little ones could have no passions at all, and "Discover" their own talents and loves in the classroom. Whatcha think? <3

Originally posted by The Silver Lady:

... I mean, when about 1/10 people in a raid group of 120 or more are under the age of 12...

I have heard of this every now and then, do you have any other children related mods or just CSL? (Because CSL alone should not change any people that are not born, but if you don't have any other mods which could cause it maybe there is some issue in certain strange cases)

Originally posted by The Silver Lady:

Here, I took a screenshot of my school setup..

^^ it is a nice way of getting more variation with things, the colors would probably be a bit to extreme for me :D but I could also see how a feature like this could also be used to maybe automatically put a slight variation of color or light/darkness to something like the wood tables etc. or if something gets used a lot/ gets older.

I have thought about having books and maybe artifacts (you could find) and monuments like the one you have in between the blackboards improving/aiding certain lessons (some kind of system like the beauty of the room, if they are in there)
(maybe also things like weapons in the room improve combat training etc.)

If it is possible it would be nice to have the item requirements be an optional booster aswell, as they do tend to cause a lot of running around and problems related to that, they are mostly there right now for balancing, but I think if there would be more of a gradual boost due to the room itself and what is in it, that could replace it. (there is a mod linked in the description that removes the item need of my mod)

Originally posted by The Silver Lady:

... Whatcha think? <3

Yeah, I have seen the mod aswell and I also thought something like this would be a good idea ^^ (having the option to limit it to a lifestage or age) my guess is that it would likely need to be an option on that mods side, but if that does not get implemented I could try to do something from my side (it would not be ideal from my side, if at all possible, as that may cause issues/break when mods get updated)

Oh I used very bright colors to show off the mod! And the reason the colors are very bright in the classroom and student lounge are because kids. I'm a teacher IRL. You show me the seven year old who wouldn't want the bright blue desk over the normal looking one, I'll show you a kid who is asleep. :P

"Monument"? It's just a large sculpture that I happened to think looked like DNA, so I thought it'd be great in the classroom. As for the passions thing, I was wondering if you would be able to add that mod's functionality to yours and have it be a factor for growing children that's configurable. Chances for lower inspiration gain for much longer lived races would also need configuring. My Astoriels are apparently taking classes until they're 500, after all.

The only other children mod I have is "Babies and Children" which allows babies to exist, and is recommended alongside this one.

You'll notice the tall shelves in the student lounge stocked with books? That's from a mod that lets your colonists write skill training books that can be read for leisure. A pawn reading a book for leisure slowly gains experience in the skill. The quality of the book determines the rate, and the skill of the writer determines the quality. I forget the name of the mod off the top of my head, but it has great topical congruence with your mod. Adding a functionality to include the use of these books in a classroom would also be awesome. They take a huge quantity of work to create, but only use up some cloth.

I will look into BnC, maybe the raiders that are younger are related to it, who knows.

There could be some kind of event in school that can influence passions, I will see what I can do with that update ^^

I think thiose kind of interactions (like with the books or sculptures) are probably what can add the most, because you would be free to build/arrange those classrooms how you like and it would still have influence for teaching things.

I still have to look into the prison labor + life-stage thing, but I did just add a lot of stuff to let the classroom have a bigger impact on learning (even the books from 'Vanilla Books Expanded') see the main page comments ^^