AN: For the General Prompt Challenge: School. Sorry about how I wrote Dawn, I used her as a device to explain why I think Pokemon schools are silly for anyone over the age of 10, and why children leave home at the age of te. But it's just for the Pokemon universe.
Brock never went to school. He was always too busy taking care of his siblings and running a gym to go. He knew that as a pokemon breeder, he have to attend school at some point, but life experience would teach him most of what he needed to know, and he could just cruise through school when he finally decided to go.
Ellie went to a school at one point. It was a local prep school her parents had enrolled he in when she was very young, before they decided to announce her as a future gym leader. She of course didn't remember anything about her experiences there, she just knew that it had happened from looking back at pictures. She would probably never need to go to school, and would likely be fine with all of the basic knowledge she had. She could read and write, and those were the only necessities of being a gym leader. The rest of her knowledge came from battles, and from observing challengers.
School was something Ash looked forward to. He always relished the chance to learn more about pokemon in a professional setting, and the challenges presented where fun to solve. Ever since he'd been a little boy he approached everything with such enthusiasm, it caught people off guard.
Dawn hated school. She preferred to get out into the real world and experience everything for herself. Sure, she knew it was the hard way, but the hard way was more fun. Her pokemon certainly enjoyed her method, and to her that's what mattered. School was just a long winded formality that was completely unnecessary.
St. Carose School of Pokemon was more than welcoming of Ellie and her friends. They knew Ellie wanted to become an official gym leader, and the school wanted to be able to boast one of their students became a gym leader. Classes were free, and the material was left up to the teacher. It would be an interesting experience.
The course for breeders was just silly to Brock. He knew more than the teacher, and would often correct the teacher. By the end of the first day the teacher gave him a test for the entire curriculum, and upon passing, Brock earned a degree in Pokemon Breeding and Handling. Ellie just smiled at him, and Ash clung to him like a limpet. Dawn just gave him a high five and congratulated him.
The class on Official Gyms of Sinnoh was less silly than Brock's class, but it was certainly not a challenge. It covered the basic qualification rules and standard codes for the building all battles would take place in. It was serious, but a quick test gave Ellie her own degree in Officiating and Coding of Gyms. Brock hugged her and promised he'd never make her do something so tedious again. Ash smiled and nodded at her. Dawn didn't do anything.
Ash Complete the curriculum in a week, which not only astounded the professor, but Brock, Ellie, and Dawn. Apparently traveling had left a big impact on the knowledge Ash gained, proving his ignorance as an act, but perhaps not his immaturity. His mother congratulated him over the phone, Brock and Ellie both hugged him, and Dawn cheered for Ash.
Dawn refused to take classes. She knew what she wanted, and she knew that a class wouldn't do anything for her. Look at Ash, he didn't earn a degree and the curriculum was a laugh for him. He wanted to be a pokemon master, there aren't enough classes in the world that could teach someone how to do that. Just as there were not enough classes to teach Dawn how to be the best coordinator in the world. The only way to prep for that is to gain strategy from experience. She would never forget that.