"Junior high school is a holding pen designed to help us through our formative 'snotty' years. By isolating us from grade school kids, we will be less likely to torture them. By isolating us from high school kids, we will be less likely to receive the beatings we so richly deserve." -Matt Groening
That has got to be the absolute best description of "junior high" that I have ever encountered. For me, they were easily the worst years of my life (especially 7th and 8th grade).
I went to grade school in the early 70s in Wisconsin, USA and after four years of grade school we sent over to an old stone building for two years of education and discipline by Vietnam vets and shop teachers missing body parts, thus keeping us from bullying the little kids but not sending straight into the fray that was junior high. The junior high, by the way, was mostly underground and heated by the student body, jackets on first couple of classes. Student had to check in and out each day as well as checking into each class, study hall, library and lunch. This was in a 20k paper mill town not some big city..
@@mournblade1066 Mine were 8th and 9th. Eighth grade Physics was a required subject (too early, not sufficient math prep) and in 9th they decided to do an experiment and gave us Calculus (again insufficient math prep).
@@Tlyna1952 Holy hell! Calculus in the 9th grade??? I had it in 12th, and still got my ass kicked. (And I was really good at most mathematics courses, especially algebra.)
@@mournblade1066 Yeah. This was at James Madison Jr High in Pontiac Michigan back in the 60s. We were the only year they had it. I somehow managed a 'D' in the class. Most got 'E's. Those two classes seriously gave me a mental block on math for years. Pisses me off that that grade ended up on my high school transcript.
A quiz is like "Let's see if you were paying attention today, or yesterday." A test is like "Let's see if you understood this chapter before we move forward." And an exam is "Let's see if you are able to remember a whole unit of the textbook."
As I recall, Exams were for the end of a unit (through 8th grade), and for the end of a semester through high school. Tests were anything smaller, and quizzes were often unannounced, thus not studied for, and usually quite short.
Halfway through the semester, or term, you would take an important test called a "mid-term". Then at the end you take a "final exam". This may be more my recollection od college rather than high school.
Usually a quiz had 10 questions or less. An exam had those hated essay questions included and you used those Blue Books. I had a talent early on for B.S. and could take an essay question and turn it into a stunning statement of wisdom. Always got an A on those ;-)
I admit I was in first grade in 1963. Even though some of my brain cells are numbed by adult woes, I do seem to remember the pencil mark removal device being called a rubber. This was in I kid you not, Lawrence Elementary #3, Indiana, Marion county. The school closed and was remodeled into a posh retirement apartment center. How uplifting.
One thing that totally confused me as an American kid reading the Harry Potter books was when Hermione Granger would talk about revising. I was picturing her editing her essays and didn't realize that in British vernacular, revising means studying, whereas in America it means to edit your writing.
That’s something a lot of Americans are shocked by, when they find out that a lot of stuff in Harry Potter (like the education system and terms) is actually inspired by British culture
@@mandystory4275 - Oh no. Ohhh no. So many flashbacks. I HATED when teachers did that, but I guess it worked since we still remember the difference between "can" and "may."
Teachers in the UK weren't much different in that sense. "The bell is for me, not for you" "Mr Johnson? Can I go to the toilet?" "Well I hope so by now" "..... _May_ I go to the toilet?" "No, you should have gone at break (recess)!" "Yeah, but uh.... maybe I didn't need to go _then_ but I do need to go _now_ huh?" Seriously, I never understood that rule of "you should have gone earlier". I mean, do they actually expect hundreds of students to _all_ be queuing up to use every toilet in the school (of which there are probably only 10 _at the most_ in most UK schools?
So my father during the 80's oil crash got a job in England for about a year. He told us a story a few years ago about his first day on the job. He was shown to his office and then shown the supply office and the lady started gathering him paper, pens and pencils. Then she stopped looked in the face and exclaimed "OH and you'll need rubbers!" Needless to say my dad was very shocked and was about to ask why when she handed him some erasers.
That’s hilarious! 🤣 I had a professor in my sophomore year of college who worked in Scotland during the ‘80s oil boom on their offshore rigs. He said that they were infatuated with him because he introduced himself as being “from Texas.” He wondered why until one of them came up to him and asked “d’ye know J.R.?” He realized “Dallas” was the most-watched show in Scotland! Thus, as we Americans formulated our perception of Brits via Monty Python, Scots formulated their perception of Texans via Dallas. It didn’t help that, even though he was a Vietnam Navy vet, he was still a Texan through-and-through with his plaid shirt, jeans, belt buckle, and cowboy hat. It became a running joke for them to ask him how J.R. was doing, and he would say “Oh, I just talked to him yesterday! He’s a sneaky bastard!”
RushFanatic87 - if you know the Scots, ‘infatuated’ would not be the word I would use..... This is what’s known as banter in Britain and Ireland - playful piss-taking, normally with an edge to make sure someone doesn’t take themselves too seriously. In Scotland it’s almost compulsory in my (limited) experience.
In my mother's first year of teaching first grade, (1951), she had thirty 6-year-olds who had never been away from their mothers before. She always remembered one little girl patiently explaining to her, "But Miss Dickerson, you don't understand. "I don't want to!"
Great topic. Please discuss: 1. Methods of discipline at school (detention, suspension, spanking) 2. Length of the school day 3. Homework expectations 4. Yearbooks, proms, Homecoming, school sports, school clubs/activities 5. Bullying 6. Teacher credentialing 7. Teacher tenure 8. Does England have "continuation high schools" or alternative schools? 9. What are the complaints about English schools by parents, schoolkids, and citizens? 10. Do English schools have 'mascots'? 11. What is P.E. like in England? 12. Lunch foods at English schools? Cost? Breakfast served too? 13. Campus police at English schools? 14. What color are English school buses? 15. English equivalent to a GED? 16. English equivalent to saying the Pledge of Allegiance? 17. How long are the English summer and winter school breaks? 18. Class parties (give classmates Valentines, e.g.)? Holiday events/plays? 19. School subjects taught in England but not the U.S.A, or vice versa 20. Your fondest/craziest school memories
@Tube_trance, check out the videos by Joel and Lia and Evan. Edinger , they all discuss prom becoming integrated into British culture. In Even Edinger's video from a few years go, he has two female British friends that say depending on whether a person goes to a state school ( US public school) or a public school boarding school) prom can go by prom or Ball. EE actually has,several videos comparing different aspects of the American and English educational systems that cover subjects such as PE, standardized test taking , SAT/ GCSES / A Levels , the process applying to college/ university in the UK/US. Etc.
On one topic English kids don't get all summer off. They get 2 weeks around xmas. 2 in the spring. 2 in the summer. Makes sense to avoid long periods between studies.
@@Ozzy_2014 English kids do get six weeks off for summer. But I do agree with you. Breaking up the time away from school in smaller periods is much smarter!
I felt the same way when I discovered his videos! Then his wife was in a video and she is so super cool. I actually became a patreon for the first time after she came on. I’ve never donated to any youtuber but these guys are awesome.
Even tho I’m dying in California cuz of Covid, the earthquakes, wildfires, storm, fire tornadoes, flash floods, evacuations, black outs, and wearing 2 masks bc you need n95 for the fire smoke and a regular mask for COVID, I’m just watching Lawrence. He’s literally so funny and it’s like fun to watch him even when everything is falling apart.
"In England a rubber erases a mistake, in America it prevents one." Also, youtube needs to chill with the midroll ads... I could handle one in a 10-15 minute video, but 3 in a 13 minute video? At least creators get some of that but it's so annoying and breaks up the flow so badly and I'm pretty sure Google is just being greedy and trying to get people to pay to have ads removed...
When in Jr High near the end of the year the school had a Fun Day. After the days activites the maintnence men trying to figure out what do with the mud pit they dug for the tug o' war. The science teacher, who was wearing the powder blue 70s tux he always wore for the tug o' war said, "Wait! I have an idea!" He rushed to his class, brought back some vials and bottles. He poured several chemicals into the pit. Everyone gathered to watch and the pit began to boil and bubble. Then, *"BOOOM!!"* The mud exploded into a mini mushroom cloud and everyone was splattered with mud. The whole crowd shouted COOOL!! The science teacher said he'd wait till we reached 12th grade before telling us what he put in the mud.
Flashforward to senior year. _"Oh that, I had several bottles of chemicals that I ordered for the year and was required to get rid of them before the end of the school year. I figured that was the quickest way to get rid of most of them..." Obviously this was the pre sending teachers to prison for every little thing years.
I know a lot of people don't want useless things to be taught in schools. But they have to teach all of that, so you can decide for yourself which subject you are passionate about and which path you want to persue.
My mother’s first (and only) job in America was working for the State of SC. On her first day she was given an office that had a desk, chair, telephone, pad of paper and a pencil without an eraser. She went to the main office and asked if the state provided rubbers or did she have to provide her own. Needless to say, she received many strange looks and was told she had to buy her own.🤣
My late husband worked for a very UK owned company. I have missed the varied accents and tales from across the pond. Thank you for giving me a chance to remember a part of him and the world he worked in.
Another confusing item of US education is the community college (CC) which in the 1960s were sometimes referred to as "junior colleges" Community colleges are public funded schools originally designed to teach the first 2 years of college or "uni". They are local "commuter" (no on campus housing). The tuition is usually less than even public/state universities. The class sizes are usually smaller. One would attend community college for one's basic/core curriculum receive one's Associate and then transfer to a 4 year uni to for last 2/ years and receive one's B.A./B.S. degree. Now CC's also offer a multitude of services. CC's offer remedial classes for people that need to learn skills before taking college credit classes, offer programs for health/ medical careers (nursing, dental hygienist,etc), technical/trade (computer coding, automotive techs, etc), and continuing ed. classes (non college credit) for subjects like genealogy, arts & crafts, hobbies, learning computer programs as MS Word, Excel etc. CCs work with a lot of "nontraditional" (older) folks who may need to learn new job skills because their job has been sent overseas or to acquire more skills to move up at their job or change careers.
I work for a junior/community college. Our "sister" campus is residential, but ours is not. Besides career technical education and non-traditional students, we also offer GED classes and ESL/ELL (English as a Second Language).
Somewhere in time in the US, 7th & 8th grade changed from being Junior High to Middle School. Grades 9,10,11. & 12 were Senior High. Now I find myself being a Senior Citizen.
I lived it. Only attended Jr. High for 2 years. When I was an 8th grader, the high school was a 3 year school and the Jr. High included 9th grade. When I started 9th grade the Jr. High was now called Middle school and had students from 6th grade to 8th grade. I attended the high school in 9th grade. My friend's brother was one grade older then us and was mad that we moved up the same year as his class.
@@builtontherockhomestead9390 -We were in a combined Jr./Sr. High School, on 1/2 day sessions.Finally in our Senior year the new High School was opened. Such was the life of a suburban Baby Boomer, the school was already over crowded from day 1.
Grade school for me was 1st through 6th, Junior High was 7th and 8th finally Senior High was grades 9-12 or freshmen, sophomore , junior and senior. Seniors ruled, freshmen drooled.
In the US, a University contains a number of colleges. Or that degree could be taught in a specialized College. So degrees in Education are grouped in one Colllege. degrees in Information Technology in another. Fine Arts has a College. Business has a Colleege. Nurses have a College. Colleges are grouped together in Universities because many of there disciplines overlap and/or you might want degrees in two areas. Colleges can also be just a generalized Course also, where you study a little bit of everything like advanced High School. Then don’t start with Trade School or Technical Collage
My grand niece got a double major chemical engineering and German. She took an extra year and went to Germany first to the University. Then went to work at Bayer for the rest of the year. It was a great learning experience and it allowed her to see much of Europe.
Whether a school is a college or Uni mostly depends on size and organizational factors. My “college” offered 4 years bachelor degrees as well as masters and doctorate programs. As the college grew, it became a university because of it organization still offering the same programs.
Universities and colleges in the US also sometimes call their diffent courses, schools. My university had a School of Education, School of Nursing, School of religion and School of Business; however the general liberal arts were referred to has departments, such as Department of History, Department of English, Department of math, department of science, department of Art and Department of theater. Eventually each one of these will be turned into a full-fledged school but my University was just granted University status in 2009 which was the year I graduated because they had added on a full-fledged Master's and doctoral program for business, nursing and education they further had also recently acquired the Lutheran Southern Seminary. It was a little college when I started but now its quite big.
@@ybunnygurl Example: I attended the State University of New York (a system of 64 campuses in different towns and cities across the state that includes 5 large Universities, and 59 smaller State Colleges and Universities. My degree is from the State University of New York, College at Geneseo, School of Performing Arts. If you want some confusing layers of educational beaurocracy, New York has got you covered.
As an American, entering a colonial British school (KGV, H.K.) at age 13, I was most impressed by the span of the curriculum. I found myself smack in the middle of classes in biology, chemistry, physics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, English, French, world history and scriptures. In America most of those come later, year-by- year. Fortunately I was eager to learn and had well-educated parents who helped me catch up pretty quickly. Ironically, I already knew how to use a circular slide-rule but wasn't allowed to use it ~ trig tables only for multiplication. Because of my two years there, high school back in Connecticut was a piece of cake. Side-note: American proctor, or hall monitor, British prefect.
While there is an estimation of how each school system is structured that is considered the norm, there are lots of school systems that vary from that norm. I’ve been in systems that only had K5 kindergarten that was all day systems that also had k4 that were half day and systems that had a k3 that was two days half of a day. Oddly enough these systems also had a day care program that the student could be sent to for the rest of the day, rest of the week I went to a school system that had one school for the entire city’s k5 and first grade students, then had two separate elementary schools. In this school system second grade wasn’t in a school building but in a village of mobile home structures whose interiors interiors hade been converted into a classroom. They were carpeted so my second grade was done barefoot. The full bathroom and kitchen were also intact and they even came with an built in washer and dryer unit. This came in handy because at that age their were still children that had “accidents” and would find themselves wearing pajamas while their clothes dried. Also our teacher made us popcorn and cookies at times. I’ve been to schools where there were not kindergarten plus twelve grades each representing a year but kindergarten and 24 grades each representing half of a year. This meant it was easier for advanced students to on the middle years skip forward by half year marks, or struggling students to be held back with less detriment, many even being able to catch back up again. I even when to a elementary school that was in two different building ... kindergarten through second grade were normal enough but 3-4 and 5-6 had their own separate wings and each pair were almost their own little school. There were two classes of each year with each class being nearly 50 students, but having 2 teachers. The four class rooms were arranged in a three by two L much like the path a knight takes on a chess board. The connecting walls were panels on tracks such that each panel could be rotated 90 degrees... then stacked up against the outer wall. Furthermore the classrooms themselves had curtains that could also divide the rooms into small sections. By adding a 9 associated principal to each group this meant there was all sorts of variation that students could be taught by small groups or by converting the entire thing to an assembly hall
Also for some areas Junior High is 9th and 10th grade and Senior High are 11th and 12th grade this is normally in the Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and states in that areas
AP Exams are not like A Levels - they are actually tests that will give you college credit. If you pass enough of them you can test out of an entire year of college (uni). SAT/ACT are more like A Levels determining which school or program you are qualified to enter.
Like I see that, but there is a large group of colleges in the US at which AP credits are not accepted as credits, but AP scores are taken into consideration during the admissions process. Someone may matriculate to said college with any number of AP credits, but will still be required to take a certain number of courses/hours.
AP tests only qualify as college credits to the same degree as any transfer credits. Not all schools accept all credits from other institutions so they may be treated as testing out prerequisite classes without actually counting for earned credits in a major program, for completing a general education requirement without counting for required credit hours to graduate, for additional merit for acceptance to a specific major program or for full equivalent credits depending on the school. This is something that has bitten many people in the ass when transferring from one college/university to another whereby they had to retake classes that effectively didn't transfer.
@@alexandermiller2975 if you want to get technical the colleges or unis only accept a score of 4 or 5, rarely a 3 in order to get college credit. The original post is correct. You can skip a year's worth or more of your 100 and 200 level courses or first two years based on your AP exam scores. Where AP course credit is of benefit is in calculating your HS GPA. E.g. a B is 3. But in an AP course it's a 4. Obviously this improves your GPA, which is looked at for college/uni admission.
Except...over here in England (I can only speak as to ours, not sure about Scotland and Wales), there are some A-levels which do cover university-level subjects (which, of course, vary by university). For example, the Oxbridge A-levels (because, naturally, there are varying difficulties of A-level from different exam boards, which all have the same value because...no idea, really, it's bloody unfair) in maths and further maths between them pretty much covered all of my maths degree's first year. That didn't mean I could skip the first year, though. It just meant that I coasted for a year and forgot how to think, then got a rude awakening in the second year.
A co-worker told me that when she was five her father was transferred from NYC to Manchester for a couple of years. She was unable to understand the Manchester accent and came home after her first day of school to tell her mother, "Mom, everyone speaks Spanish at school!"
From one of Canada's favourite TV characters Red Green (aka Steve Smith), an American couple were sitting in the Miami Airport waiting for some friends to arrive. The woman noticed a family waiting to board a flight wearing snow boots, parkas, and other cold weather gear and asked her husband "I wonder where they're from?". "Go over and ask them" was his reply. "Excuse me" she say's to them, "my Husband was wondering where you folks were from". One of the family turns to her and in a very loud and proud voice says "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan". She goes back and sits with her husband who asks "well, where are they from?" "I don't know" she replies, "they don't speak English".
Try understanding the Glasgow accent or Glaswegian accent. That is the most difficult accent to understand as they speak so fast. Sometimes I struggle so god knows how a American would get on😂
The important thing to know is that each of the 50 states have different standards, divisions, etc. And various areas are divided into 'school districts'. My state has a couple hundred districts and each has a school board which determines how each school is run and what is taught. American education is a VAST patchwork of very different cultures.
very important to know and understand this when comparing American education to that if European countries which tend to be controlled from a higher tier of government.
This is true, but it's also true that most states set guidelines each district is required to follow....if they want state funds, and they all do. Most states have a testing program that all students are required to take and pass. The Iowa Basics Skills Test or the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness are two examples.
YES! My parents moved us around so much that I attended high schools in four different districts. I almost could not graduate because each district required different classes and offered different classes. Small counties often could only afford one language and if you had a year of Spanish and moved there to where French was the only language, you lost the Spanish. Many colleges required two years of a language to be accepted. I'm a great believer in nationwide minimal standards among schools. It will never happen because the voters believe in local control, because they THINK they know best for their own kids.
I remember going to school with a friend in Florida when I was 5 and a year younger than them and how shocked they were I could do maths (not math) and my grammar skills as we started earlier in the UK The real difference though is State/religion. In the US swearing allegiance to the flag seemed so weird to me, yet in the UK we sing hyms every day at school. Yet in the UK most of us are non-religious and don't attend church. Far more people in the US are religious but school services aren't religious.
Part 2 needs to include grades part 2. In America, a grade isn't just a child's year in school, it's also an alphabetic code denoting a score a student got on an assignment or test (A-F, but skip the E). In England, assignment/exam scores are called marks, if I'm not mistaken, and I have no idea if they use an alphabetic code. In America, kids bring home report cards every quarter, showing the various grades they've gotten in different subjects or classes. What's the English equivalent of a report card? American students who get straight A's get put on the honor roll. What recognition do English students get for having top marks? American students can expect pop quizzes at any time in their classes. Do English teachers drop spontaneous, brief tests on their students? If so, what do they call them? Students in America looking to boost their grades may take on extra assignments for extra credit. Do English kids have the same opportunities if they need to pad their marks a bit? And let's talk about school choice. In America, if a certain public school doesn't suit a child's needs, parents can sometimes get a voucher to send their child to a better school, be it a public school in another district, a charter school that specializes in certain subjects, a private school or even homeschooling. The voucher allows parents of any income level to choose the best educational opportunities for their child. What does school choice look like in England?
When my children were in primary school, they would take literacy and numeracy (English and Maths) tests each term. I think some formula may have been applied to take into account their actual age in months (born at start of school year vs born at end) to give a fairer assessment (!). The teachers then had Standardised Score for each pupil each term or half term, so they could track progress. A score of 100 was the middle of the average range. The highest mark available was 139, although applying the formula would give 139+. My son achieved this in maths in Yr5 (4th grade). We were usually told these at Parents Evenings (Autumn and Spring terms) and on end of year reports (recap of Autumn and Spring term results plus Summer term). Following the change from letters for GCSE grades to numbers, secondary schools use numbers to track a child's progress through their academic journey against children in similar schools and of similar backgrounds nationally. Odd, but they do. The numbers predict end of each secondary school year targets (Yrs 7 -11) with a letter denoting if the child is Developing in knowledge or skill in that score bracket, Secure in knowledge, or has Mastered knowledge and is preparing for the next knowledge bracket. These increase with school years as the child learns more. My son did exceptionally well in his Yr 6 SATs. One of the youngest in his year group, he was still 10 at the time. Using this system, all if his Yr 11 targets are 8S, and his end of Yr 7 targets were 4S (Covid school closures have messed this year up). As SATs only assess English and Maths, it is very unfair to use this for other subjects. We get a report every half term letting us know where our child is academically and their Attitude To Learning,marked between 1 (poor, terrible) and 4 (exceptional). Continuing with my son, at Christmas his marks were mainly 3M and 4D for most subjects, with a higher 4D for IT and lower 3S for art 3D for Spanish and 2M for PE (he's not sporty at all); his attitude to learning for all subjects was 4. So while we don't have report cards as such, schools inform parents of a child's progress every term.
TheRenaissanceman65 Actually these days children need to be in education or training until the age of 18. Training can be an apprenticeship which usually includes lessons a day a week, or full time technical courses in a subject such as plumbing, construction or hair and beauty.
@@momkatmax I think the reason they don't use E if they are going to use F is because an enterprising student can change an F into an E with a little stroke of the pen, and thus make it seem like he at least attended class occasionally.
In the U.S., the terms "primary school" and "secondary school" are sometimes official terms to describe Elementary School and High School (Jr. High + Sr. High), but no one actually uses them except for the highest formality. The word "term" is actually common in the U.S. as well, but "semester" is more common in everyday conversation. Schools occasionally have a trimester format (Fall/Winter/Spring terms rather than Fall/Spring) or an additional Summer Term (for those who want to get ahead or catch up). "Exam" is also fairly common, but moreso at higher levels of education. One such example is a "mid-term exam", which happens in the middle of the term, as opposed to a "final exam".
One of my professors (US) objected strenuously to calling an exam a "midterm" if it wasn't in the middle of term or if there was more than one of them per term (he was a math/computer science professor, so rigor was important to him). Instead, he called them "prelims", a term I've never heard before or since (looking it up now, this use seems to be unique to Cornell, which is not where I went to school, but, sure enough, he did!).
@@boriszakharin3189 Okay, so you can have prelims, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals. Sounds like we should start taking bets on who gets the highest grades!
These days in the UK, it seems that most school kids are referred to as "students" & that no one uses the term "pupils" anymore. When I was growing up, a "student" was someone at university and that's still where my mind goes at first when I hear the term.
It's true. It's an Americanism that has crept in. I wouldn't say that no one uses the term pupils, but it has certainly become less popular. Just checked a BBC article and it uses the term "pupils".
Things such as lunches, if students have after school jobs, or clubs/sports. I know it varies a lot in even just the US, so I'd be interested in hearing what the UK's view on those are.
1) there's usually a canteen, though some kids bring "sandwiches" from home 2) kids do have part time jobs but it's by no means universal. You don't get one if you can afford not to as you can then concentrate on your studies. 3) Yes there are extra curriculars / sports but they vary massively from school to school. Also it's really hard to be multi-talented. I was in the orchestra and that meant I could do no extra curricular sports or drama. so there was really no crossover between the sports people, the musicians and the performers. At least if you wanted to do any of those seriously.
@@rachelburgin1160 Thanks for your comment. From what it sounds, it sounds almost exactly like the high school I went to. I was on a competitive robotics team and also worked at a deli washing dishes, all while taking a bus to a separate tech school 30 miles from the high school for advanced classes each day. It was very challenging, but I enjoyed it. The one thing that I noticed was different from your comment was that you said the different groups of clubs didn't really interact with each other. Maybe it was just my school but different teams and clubs did interact a lot. It was uncommon for a person on a track team to also be in the band or choir. Our robotics team had people on the track, band, and choir. Other than that, US and UK schools seem to have a good middle ground.
John Garrett on the mixing of groups, it may just have been my school. We were very strong on music and I was very involved. I’m always struck by American kids having their fingers in so very many pies! Incidentally we had a “build a hovercraft” team and there was some crossover there-mainly because there were some boyfriends/girlfriends going on!!!
@@johngarrett434 You just dinosaured me - "competitive robotics team"! I had an Erector set with a motor, built a hoist, felt like a genius (was 8 at the time, 1950-ish).
@@haroldwilkes6608 🤣 Well that's how I started as well. I recieved an Erector set when I was 7 and loved it. When I entered high school, they were starting a robotics club. During my sophomore year, it had four people on it and we were using the back of the Language Art's storage room. By the end of my senior year we had 25 people with four high school teams and a middle school team, now having an actual workshop. I look back on it and now know that was the time of my life there.
In the Tone Blare years there was a major push to lower class size in the UK. I hear that in South Korea they were pushing for larger classes. Their thinking was really great teachers are rare, we need to get as many students as we can in front of them.
Good to watch this! My daughter and husband always gets muddled about the British education system, and since i went through it, i have had to explain many a times, but no more - i will share this video with them!! Thank you!
I think what what you're doing is extremely important to what America really is. Me, as a native american think that what you're doing is nice to hear. We friggin need you.
I went to Junior high. In earlier days Jr. High was 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. The summer after I finished 8th grade, the school's in my area switched from Jr. High to Middle school (6th, 7th, and 8th). High school had been 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. But high school changed to a 4 yr school that same year. So I only attended Jr. High for 2 years while the grades older then me attended for 3 years and and those younger then me attended Middle school. My class was the first class of kids to attend that high school for 4 years instead of 3 years.
@@jwb52z9 I'm from Texas and I remember when my elementary they gave our 6th and 5th graders a goodbye ceremony at the end of the year because both were moving to jr. high next year. I think that was 87 or 88.
I was in high school when they switched from grade courses being 101 or 100 through 301/, 300 to 10G/G for grade 9 through 40G/S. G being less advanced than S as 01 was less than 00.
I think you also need to cover in the United States there are something called the magnet schools, which are specialty high schools and sometimes junior high or middle schools that specialize in art science, engineering or trades. But also in high school we have the Athletics programs and clubs. We have basketball homecoming and football homecoming. Most high schools also offer multiple studies such as band music and theater as part of the normal High School curriculum. I have a daughter that was in choir M another daughter who was in FFA and went to National training. My son also took welding and trades along with culinary.
I took O (ordinary) levels at high school, but they were replaced by GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education). These are two year course exams taken at the end of Year 11, at 16 years old (15 if your birthday is between May and the end of August). Students usually take around 7 exams, sometimes up to 10. They have to take English Language (and usually Literature as well), Maths, and Science. I think that ICT is no longer compulsory, and RE is only compulsory in religious schools. A levels (advanced) are taken in sixth form at schools or colleges, in Year 13, after studying for two years. Students choose which subjects they want to take, and they usually take three or four (which is recommended). A levels lead to university.
So a few years ago when I was doing an MA at a university in London I got a side job teaching a 4th year English class at a CoE primary school in West London. On day 1 I was sure I'd lose my job because I couldn't help myself from laughing too hard when a bunch of the students started asking me if they could borrow my rubber... fond memories.
@@johnp139 the point is that they are there to study and learn, not to be critical of one another or look down on someone with less or admire someone with more money.
@@JohnDCrafton very true. Especially with internet and sns. Everyone may wear the same uniform but the vacations, cars, and lifestyles are v. different.
Point taken. But a counterpoint is that it feeds into the notion of churning out identikit minds off an assembly line. We shouldn’t need them to dress alike for the same reason we shouldn’t want them to all think alike. Like Thomas Hardy and Pink Floyd said...just more bricks in the wall.
As an exchange student to France in high school, I attended the English class to provide “American” flavor to the British English they were learning. The first time my classmate asked me if I had a rubber I fell out of my chair. Made for an interesting discussion…
Another potential confusing item is that in both the US and UK some, but not all, universities are subdivided into colleges. For example I attended the University of Washington, College of Architecture. I also spent a term at Kings College, Cambridge.
Yes, I went to the University of Rhode Island, College of Resource Development. My BS is in Food Science and Nutrition. One of my professors was very proud he helped develop Tang.....
Also in the US, a University offers a doctorate program whereas a College stops at a masters. There are a few exceptions like Boston College, which offers a JD but Boston University as a name was already taken.
Yes you beat me to it. Interestingly enough English and American universities are structured quite similarly. Despite that they say they’re going to uni/university and we are going to college but even when they go to a university in the UK they are attending a specific college. And then there’s what they call college we probably would call a trade school.
PJ Schmid but there are also community colleges in the US that offer Associates Degrees. Some students attend community college to save money while taking their prerequisites and general education classes before transferring to a university to earn a Bachelors Degree. Others attend community college to learn a skill or get a certificate.
Yep, my undergrad was at Texas A&M University, College of Architecture, Department of Environmental Design. Post-grad I was at Texas A&M University, College of Graduate Studies, Department of Architecture. That's how you turned your B.ED. into an M.Arch. Bureaucracy breeds bureaucracy :) The Naval Post Graduate School was much simpler :)
"Elementary" school is also one of the rare times that Americans abbreviate the ending ("element'ry"), when they normal pronounce all those 'A's that the Brits skip in "military," "library," etc,
As a baby boomer in the U.S., the typical elementary school class sizes that you mentioned seem astounding small. I attended 3 different elementary schools in 3 different states and the class sizes were 30 to 40 students per classroom. They crammed us in like sardines in a can. Institutions in the U.S. that call themselves universities are typically those that offer graduate programs leading to masters degrees or doctoral degrees, in addition to offering undergraduate programs leading to bachelor degrees.
In the US, "college" generally refers to an institution which offers only Associate and Bachelor degrees, while "university" is one which also offers higher degrees. Several schools that used to be colleges began offering Masters of Business Administration degrees and the like just so they could call themselves a university (for example, Strayer Business College, which became Strayer College and eventually Strayer University). It's no longer as hard and fast a rule as it used to be, but it's still mostly true. That said, colloquially it's "going to college" regardless of what type of institution you're attending. I don't know anybody who says "going to university."
Makes it very hard to answer the "what's your highest level of education" when the European and Canadian systems call different levels by different names!
@@matttaylor678 and just to complicate matters, often US universities are similarly broken down into "colleges." In which case the "college" represents an administrative group of one or more related degree-granting departments - e.g. "College of Behavioral & Social Sciences," which at my alma mater comprised the departments of Psychology, Sociology, Economics, and a few others.
The US is actually somewhat split. Some areas have middle school, and some have jr. High. The grades in them differ, with one comprising grades 6-8, and the other grades 7-9.
When I went to middle school in the early 90's my middle school was 7th and 8th grade but now a lot of middle schools are 6th to 8th grade so it's changed over the years.
In my area the two words are interchangeable. For instance, the school district I graduated from had a Jr High, but the neighboring school districts all have middle schools. They're all 6-8.
I've found it varies quite a lot in smaller suburbs that have experienced growth, at least in Ohio. Like the school district I grew up in had to keep adding buildings thru the years because so many people moved to the city. And all the surrounding cities had different variations of grades in buildings as well. The only thing consistent was high school was 9-12. My middle school was a building of 5-8, but then after they built the new building thy moved 5th over with 3rd & 4th. (Shifted things so that 1st & 2nd were in a different building, and K had a whole building to itself.)
I can't speak for other states, but here in Minnesota we have both tests and exams. Tests are more frequent and less important (but still generally important), while exams only happen at the end of the term (we use term and semester interchangeably) and tend to be much more important to your grade (over all score). Which leads me to the question, what about grading/scoring? Does England use the A-D and F system or something else? Do what about pluses and minuses on the first four?
England up until the last couple of years used letters for the GCSE's but randomly decided to change to a numbered system of 0-9 (9 being the highest grade). But when we had the letters there was no plus and minus, just A* (said 'A star') which was for almost perfect scores. The letters also went all the way down to a G, and then there was U for un-gradable. The A Level exams to get into uni still use the lettered system for grades though.
And as usual the words we use in Canada is a mix of both countries. Great video as always. For example grades we go the US route 1st grade, 2nd grade, except we stick to numbers when we get to high school. On the other hand we call the period from kindergarten to 6th grade Primary School, the period after High School we actually have both college and university. Although what we call college is what Americans call community college.
I went to a comprehensive I understand why you didn’t go into that explanation as well!!! Really well explained especially as my great nephew starts pre school this year xx
The schools where my daughters attended have an unusual system. K-4 was elementary, 5-6 was intermediate, 7-8 was middle, and then 9-12 high school. Homestly, it was nice having the 5th and 6th grades separate; it's when they started an instrument if they wished, and it made them feel more important and "big kid."
We had almost the same thing when I was in school. Only difference was we further split 9th and 10th into high school, and 11th and 12th grade was senior high. I hated it since every 2 years when we switched schools we'd lose half our friends to a different school. 😢
Your posts always brings a chuckle so thank you. I was brought up within the British educational system and am Caribbean born and bred. Looking back at my education during the late 60s and early 70s I think one of the things I treasure now is having had to wear uniforms. When I was old enough I had to wash and iron them every week and was quite pleased with my pleated skirts which we wore with pride, and I think this helped me to develop some structure in my life. I was quite aghast when I first realized that this was not required in American schools.. lol
When I first moved back to the States (lived in Scotland from age 5-11), my dad kept telling me to remember NOT to ask the teacher for a rubber. I, of course, forgot. Asking for a rubber in front of a class full of middle school children was embarrassing, especially since I was very sheltered and did not know at all what they thought I was asking for. I was also mortified when a teacher jokingly told me to "sit my fanny down" . He was talking about my back side. I thought he was talking about my private parts in front of everyone. It was a very confusing time for me. Not to mention I had to learn feet and inches, which I still don't know well. I'm now a teacher living in TX.
Can you go into extracurriculars? I was educated in Florida where after-school sports (and by extension: band, color guard, and cheerleading) are a big deal. They are an even BIGGER deal in Texas. Would love to hear your take on how England does the extras
in England when i was at school, there were no extras at all, such as sports, and being good at only sport would never get you into university, you had to study academic subjects (such as a science or two, maths, English literature, a foreign language,) and you had to pass 3 or 4 A levels, which were 100% written exams to get into uni. Universities would not accept anyone whom were only good at sports, and did not pass A levels in academic subjects, and many universities would not consider certain subjects studied at A level, such as sociology, an academic subject. our high schools and universities are not like yours when it comes to sports, the emphasis here is on traditional academic subjects. we have professional football (soccer) teams, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham, etc, and other sports, such as tennis, rugby, snooker, boxing, cricket, etc, that the public go to watch, and that's about it, football is the most popular, and the rival teams stadium can be literally just down the road from your teams stadium. the general public don't go watch a football match at a school, most schools don't have them, even if they do, the only people that go would be a parent of one of the players, and only if the parent had the time to go watch, and they would be standing in the mud and rain at the edge of the pitch, and that's it. our schools don't invest money into sports. Also people have the opinion why go watch a school team, an amateur team, when your town has a professional team, or if you live in a city, it will have several professional teams. the equivalent would be every state in america having about 100 professional football teams, i.e adults above the age of 21 ( with only the rare occasional exception being under 21), playing football as their career/ their professional job. we also have Sunday league football teams, which are, putting it basically, adults whom have the usual 9 -5 job from mon to fri, such as an office job, or working in a pub, and they play football on a Sunday, and don't get paid for playing, which is usually played on a public park, half mud n half grass, either soaked with rain or covered with snow, uneven ground, not in a stadium, and if in London its usually played on hackney marshes.
Always enjoy and learn something from your videos! Thank you for sharing them, you’re a great teacher. Make me laugh and that helps me remember! Unlike my experience with school?
Thanks for explaining the differences. I still find it strange when people in the US are attending uni/college but call it school. Sometimes when they say that I can’t work out why someone aged 25 + would still be going to school.
I stumbled across your video for the first time last night. I want to say from the bottom of my heart, Thank You! I'm not lying when I say, I haven't laughed in months and for the first time in a long time my sides hurt from laughing. Seriously, thank you!
I live in an area of the UK where instead of primary and secondary we had first (reception to year 4), middle (year 5 to year 8) and high (year 9 to year 11 + sixth form) schools. I didn't realise that my town's schools weren't normal until I was about 7 or 8. One thing my grandma liked to say to me when I was in year 7 was that "A few miles down the road and you'd be in secondary school. I don't know if it's true or not but I was told back then (I say back then but it was literally a year ago, I'm in year 9!) that there is 150 middle schools in Britain.
I think Louisiana and maybe Mississippi are the only states to require uniforms for public schools. It happened when I started 8th grade. They told the parents to vote for uniforms to curb bullying, but that was horseshit. We still got bullied, and kids who usually never got in trouble started to if they had the wrong kind of shirt or something. It just caused more problems. They also said it would be cheaper for parents, but it wasn't. They had to buy clothes for everyday AND now uniforms. It's all about conformity. Even before that, we had dumb outdated dress codes down here. Starting in junior high, you had to tuck in your shirt and wear a belt and a student ID. No shorts were allowed, which is dumb in hot humid ass Louisiana. Also, for some odd reason, some school districts have middle schools (usually grades 5-8) and others have junior high schools (7 & 8). I think some include 8th with high school and maybe some variation, but they're the exceptions. My school district is really weird. I guess because of past segregation, we just have a bunch of schools. There's the Kindergarten called Perrin Early Learning Center, which I think used to be the black high school in the past. There's a school for 1st and 2nd called Tucker Memorial Elementary School, the school for 3rd and 4th called D.C. Reeves Elementary School , and 5th and 6th are Martha Vinyard Elementary School. The junior high is named after the town (Ponchatoula) like the high school, but oddly, the mascot is a pirate and the mascot at the high school is Green Wave. Both have the same school colors. I grew up in a lot of weirdness. My childhood home is in a place that's oddly both suburban and rural. Like you could walk to a friend's house, but we had huge back yards and woods. My mom's from NOLA and has its accent, and we were Catholic and not really religious unlike the mostly Baptist people in the area. We were in an unincorporated area and had the phone numbers from one nearby town, address from the one I'm currently in, and a different school district. This just adds to the stuff that was already weird about living in Louisiana.
When i went to school we had elementary k-6, then Jr. High 7, 8, 9 then High School. The school that was the Jr. High is now a middle school and the High School was enlarged to take the 9th graders.
@@SuperDrLisa the school district that I went to in Wisconsin had: primary school - preschool and kindergarten Elementary school - 1st to 3rd grade Middle school - 4th to 8th High school - 9th to 12th
I can sympathize with the address and phone number being from 2 different towns. I've had that more than once in NC. Also the changing schools every 2 years I went through, just grouped a bit differently than yours.
Wow I sure am glad we never had to wear uniforms to school! I thought it was unfair to make the girls wear skirts rather than pants, esp when it was cold. So socially outdated. Ugh.
Generally... in America: Colleges and Universities are separated by type of degree... A "Community College" or "Junior College" is taken before going on to a university (often to "test the waters" to see if the student likes college or to get some of the prerequisite courses out of the way at a much cheaper price), and at most you can get an Associates (2-year) degree. A school with "College" is usually a 4-year degree granting institution where you can get an Associates or Bachelors Degree. (Though "College" in the colloquial is used for saying things like "are you going to college next year?" And an appropriate response is "Yes, I am going to the University of____." A "University" is an overachieving college. It not only can grant Associates degrees, and Bachelors degrees, but also Masters Degrees (extra 2+ years) and Doctorates (an extra 4+ years) and, as such, with most of their classes/lectures being taught by assistant professors or TAs because the actual professors are out chasing tenure...or already have it) are (usually) much more expensive.
Also “college” can mean area of speciality within an educational facility. Some high schools group students into colleges or groups of students pursuing similar interests/ goals - like Fine Arts, Engineering, Computer Sciences, and such. My upper education degree was at a University, but a Bachelors granted by the College of Fine Arts of University.
Speaking of grades, or marks of my understanding is correct, passing in the US can vary: 70% in some areas, 60% in others. I believe "marks" in the UK are quite different. Might be interesting in part 2.
Also, we don't pass high school, in the UK. We take from 7 to 10 exams at 16 years of age and will achieve a certain grade for each one, depending on ability. For example, GCSEs are graded 1 to 9 (9 being the highest). In order to achieve a grade 4 in the English language exam, students needed to achieve roughly 50%. That's the lowest pass mark. How grades 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 were worked out, whether it was an extra 10% for each one, I have no idea.
@@miaschu8175, the percentages needed are different every year and it depends on how well students did in an exam. If lots of students found the exam easy and did really well, a pass could be 60% but if it was a really difficult exam that students struggled with, a pass could be 30%
I grew up in Pennsylvania and went to a primary school after kindergarten. Then it was onto elementary school for 4th to 6th grade. 7th and 8th were called junior high and then 9th to 12th was high school. The terminology and organization vary from region to region.
I'm an american. My partner is British. We have such fun and some confusion when it comes to the differences between our two homes. Thanks for your videos. We love them.
Thank you for this. I was talking to an online friend that lives in the UK, and when she said that English students normally start college around 16, I was stunned. I don't know how this would translate in the UK, but we also have things called community colleges, which are usually two years and you get an Associates Degree (either of arts or science-- abbreviated as an AA or AS.) These degrees essentially mean you've completed the general education portion of college/university focussed either toward the arts (english, art, communications, etc) or sciences (math, science, engineering, etc.) An associates degree is extremely useful if you'd like to transfer to another college/university to finish your BA. Community colleges tend to be cheaper than going straight to a 4-year school, the degree means that you've completed all your general ed courses (which makes you exempt from having to take some general ed courses that might be different from your previous school), and it's far easier and a lot less hoops to jump through to get into more prestigious colleges as an incoming junior. I never took my SATs, because I knew I was going to a community college first (which didn't require them) then transferring to a 4-year university (which only looked at my grades from my transcript when accepting my application.) Also, because I did my higher education this way, I was able to graduate debt-free.
Think you got mixed up. Your “college” is what we call University. “College” here is for vocational courses and lasts the final 2 years (until your 18)
@@ProtocolAbyss Not just vocational courses, A-levels too. You can’t get into University without A-levels, usually 3 and at an acceptable standard. Some Secondary Schools still have their own sixth form (which is an odd name since they changed to the year numbering system) but it’s the last two years of school whatever it’s called.
Just to muddy the water EVEN further, when I finished American 8th grade in 1971, I received a diploma certifying my graduation from _elementary_ school. The diploma is no doubt still banging around a drawer in my mother's house.
One term you may not be familiar with is a central school. Central schools are typically found in small rural towns. It is when there is one campus for all students kindergarten through 12th grade. I went to a central school and therefore with the same students from the time I was 4 until 17.
This really helped with my confusion over uk vs USA schooling 😂 public schools, private schools, sophomore, year 11, eraser, rubber, math, maths.... the list goes on and on 😂
B G WOW. 17? I would have guessed more than that by now, but I suppose with so many families making an effort to get at least one, if not two, years of preschool in... I guess you don’t have to require (force) what most are doing voluntarily.
@@tanya5322 "preschool" wasn't a "thing" when I entered Kindergarten (1967) "Preschool" is the modern replacement for what WE called "Grandma's house".😊
@@tanya5322 It's not 'required" in my state, (PA). BUT, I don't know of ANY district that does not have it. Then,too PA was populated by A LOT of people (like my folk) that came here from Germany, So Kindergarten is expected. Hell, I remember Kindergarten "graduation" ceremonies in the '60s and '70s! (yeah that was..Is? a thing!)
That model at 8:29 is the spitting image of a youngJohn Travolta! (and I love the pointy collars!). I wonder if he became a famous actor or dancer (or UA-cam star)...
To be fair, it's my understanding that there used to be more High Schools like that a generation ago. I live in Ohio. My parents had high school 10 -12 in Ohio and were surprised that my high school (just 1 hour north of where they grew up) was 9-12. But I've never heard of a modern high school in Ohio having the 10-12.
@@cassieberringer7427 my kids grow up here in Utah now, it is 10-12 which is crazy. I grew up in Ohio and it was 9-12 like most other places. Still baffles me, can't really be a freshman if you are the top of the food chain in a middle school.
The high school building itself is 10-12, but high school credit is earned 9-12. If your district does Elementary, Jr. High, High School, the last year of Jr. High (9th) is technically high school because it goes on your official high school transcript.
I went to Catholic schools back in the day. We had 55-60 kids in each classroom. One nun, usually elderly. No assistants. Eighth grade girls monitored lunch for younger kids. Lunch was brown bags, at our desks.
I went to Catholic schools back in the day. We had 55-60 kids in each classroom. One nun, usually elderly. No assistants. Eighth grade girls monitored lunch for younger kids. Lunch was brown bags, at our desks.
My schools were Catholic schools too, so maybe it’s just a thing with them? We usually didn’t have all teachers or hired employees who monitored lunch either, it was typically just parent volunteers who did so to help pay for tuition. The kids from the older grades were the ones who did the cleaning up after lunch tho
You should also talk about PSEO (post secondary enrollment option) it's where you take college classes while still in high school for free. I know not a lot of states offer it, but they should.
"Junior high school is a holding pen designed to help us through our formative 'snotty' years. By isolating us from grade school kids, we will be less likely to torture them. By isolating us from high school kids, we will be less likely to receive the beatings we so richly deserve." -Matt Groening
That has got to be the absolute best description of "junior high" that I have ever encountered. For me, they were easily the worst years of my life (especially 7th and 8th grade).
I went to grade school in the early 70s in Wisconsin, USA and after four years of grade school we sent over to an old stone building for two years of education and discipline by Vietnam vets and shop teachers missing body parts, thus keeping us from bullying the little kids but not sending straight into the fray that was junior high. The junior high, by the way, was mostly underground and heated by the student body, jackets on first couple of classes. Student had to check in and out each day as well as checking into each class, study hall, library and lunch. This was in a 20k paper mill town not some big city..
@@mournblade1066 Mine were 8th and 9th. Eighth grade Physics was a required subject (too early, not sufficient math prep) and in 9th they decided to do an experiment and gave us Calculus (again insufficient math prep).
@@Tlyna1952 Holy hell! Calculus in the 9th grade??? I had it in 12th, and still got my ass kicked. (And I was really good at most mathematics courses, especially algebra.)
@@mournblade1066 Yeah. This was at James Madison Jr High in Pontiac Michigan back in the 60s. We were the only year they had it. I somehow managed a 'D' in the class. Most got 'E's. Those two classes seriously gave me a mental block on math for years. Pisses me off that that grade ended up on my high school transcript.
When I went to school years ago a quiz was a small test. a test was a medium test and a exam was a very large test. Hope that makes sense.
A quiz is like "Let's see if you were paying attention today, or yesterday."
A test is like "Let's see if you understood this chapter before we move forward."
And an exam is "Let's see if you are able to remember a whole unit of the textbook."
As I recall, Exams were for the end of a unit (through 8th grade), and for the end of a semester through high school. Tests were anything smaller, and quizzes were often unannounced, thus not studied for, and usually quite short.
Halfway through the semester, or term, you would take an important test called a "mid-term". Then at the end you take a "final exam".
This may be more my recollection od college rather than high school.
Usually a quiz had 10 questions or less. An exam had those hated essay questions included and you used those Blue Books. I had a talent early on for B.S. and could take an essay question and turn it into a stunning statement of wisdom. Always got an A on those ;-)
I admit I was in first grade in 1963. Even though some of my brain cells are numbed by adult woes, I do seem to remember the pencil mark removal device being called a rubber. This was in I kid you not, Lawrence Elementary #3, Indiana, Marion county. The school closed and was remodeled into a posh retirement apartment center. How uplifting.
One thing that totally confused me as an American kid reading the Harry Potter books was when Hermione Granger would talk about revising. I was picturing her editing her essays and didn't realize that in British vernacular, revising means studying, whereas in America it means to edit your writing.
wait that makes so much sense why didn’t I get that
I never picked that up thanks for the info
I never even heard the word revise in America.
The American term is 'review'. We talk about doing our revision for the exams!
That’s something a lot of Americans are shocked by, when they find out that a lot of stuff in Harry Potter (like the education system and terms) is actually inspired by British culture
American teachers: the bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do
They were the same teachers who when you asked if you can go to the restroom , they would reply with, "I don't know Can you"😒
This is even a problem in college!
Same teachers who give you detention for not being in your seat before the bell rings
@@mandystory4275 - Oh no. Ohhh no. So many flashbacks. I HATED when teachers did that, but I guess it worked since we still remember the difference between "can" and "may."
Teachers in the UK weren't much different in that sense.
"The bell is for me, not for you"
"Mr Johnson? Can I go to the toilet?"
"Well I hope so by now"
"..... _May_ I go to the toilet?"
"No, you should have gone at break (recess)!"
"Yeah, but uh.... maybe I didn't need to go _then_ but I do need to go _now_ huh?"
Seriously, I never understood that rule of "you should have gone earlier". I mean, do they actually expect hundreds of students to _all_ be queuing up to use every toilet in the school (of which there are probably only 10 _at the most_ in most UK schools?
High school: "This is typically when students begin their development into humans"
You win the internet today 😂
Deanna Lancaster unfortunately, some children never make that transition.
@@ronsparks7887 Most.
Some just turn into bigger azzholes than they already were.😒
@@FNJ720 Kids just follow the parents example :))))
@@nikkazs4424 not sure how true that is. My parents are nice upstanding citizens and I became a dirtbag. I blame The Simpson’s.
"In England, a rubber erases a mistake. In America, it prevents one."
Brilliant
Wait what does that mean, explain
@@standupyak In England, a slang term for an eraser is a "rubber", while in America "rubber" is a slang term for a condom.
I have a tear in my eye from laughing to hard when he said that. x'D
@@donsmith325 *oh*
LOL!!! Good one!!
So my father during the 80's oil crash got a job in England for about a year. He told us a story a few years ago about his first day on the job. He was shown to his office and then shown the supply office and the lady started gathering him paper, pens and pencils. Then she stopped looked in the face and exclaimed "OH and you'll need rubbers!" Needless to say my dad was very shocked and was about to ask why when she handed him some erasers.
That’s hilarious! 🤣 I had a professor in my sophomore year of college who worked in Scotland during the ‘80s oil boom on their offshore rigs. He said that they were infatuated with him because he introduced himself as being “from Texas.” He wondered why until one of them came up to him and asked “d’ye know J.R.?” He realized “Dallas” was the most-watched show in Scotland! Thus, as we Americans formulated our perception of Brits via Monty Python, Scots formulated their perception of Texans via Dallas. It didn’t help that, even though he was a Vietnam Navy vet, he was still a Texan through-and-through with his plaid shirt, jeans, belt buckle, and cowboy hat. It became a running joke for them to ask him how J.R. was doing, and he would say “Oh, I just talked to him yesterday! He’s a sneaky bastard!”
In a more innocent time in my life, I would have thought “golashes”...you know...rubber shoe covers for protecting one’s shoes from puddles.
RushFanatic87 - if you know the Scots, ‘infatuated’ would not be the word I would use.....
This is what’s known as banter in Britain and Ireland - playful piss-taking, normally with an edge to make sure someone doesn’t take themselves too seriously. In Scotland it’s almost compulsory in my (limited) experience.
@Mr. & Mrs Smith Golashes are rubber rain coverings for shoes.
@Mr. & Mrs Smith They're like Trojans for shoes....
In my mother's first year of teaching first grade, (1951), she had thirty 6-year-olds who had never been away from their mothers before. She always remembered one little girl patiently explaining to her, "But Miss Dickerson, you don't understand. "I don't want to!"
Great topic. Please discuss:
1. Methods of discipline at school (detention, suspension, spanking)
2. Length of the school day
3. Homework expectations
4. Yearbooks, proms, Homecoming, school sports, school clubs/activities
5. Bullying
6. Teacher credentialing
7. Teacher tenure
8. Does England have "continuation high schools" or alternative schools?
9. What are the complaints about English schools by parents, schoolkids, and citizens?
10. Do English schools have 'mascots'?
11. What is P.E. like in England?
12. Lunch foods at English schools? Cost? Breakfast served too?
13. Campus police at English schools?
14. What color are English school buses?
15. English equivalent to a GED?
16. English equivalent to saying the Pledge of Allegiance?
17. How long are the English summer and winter school breaks?
18. Class parties (give classmates Valentines, e.g.)? Holiday events/plays?
19. School subjects taught in England but not the U.S.A, or vice versa
20. Your fondest/craziest school memories
Good list.
That would be great! All very interesting topics!
@Tube_trance, check out the videos by Joel and Lia and Evan. Edinger , they all discuss prom becoming integrated into British culture. In Even Edinger's video from a few years go, he has two female British friends that say depending on whether a person goes to a state school ( US public school) or a public school boarding school) prom can go by prom or Ball. EE actually has,several videos comparing different aspects of the American and English educational systems that cover subjects such as PE, standardized test taking , SAT/ GCSES / A Levels , the process applying to college/ university in the UK/US. Etc.
On one topic English kids don't get all summer off. They get 2 weeks around xmas. 2 in the spring. 2 in the summer. Makes sense to avoid long periods between studies.
@@Ozzy_2014 English kids do get six weeks off for summer. But I do agree with you. Breaking up the time away from school in smaller periods is much smarter!
You are a blast to listen to. Your diction and facial expressions make my day. Thanks for the chuckles. Cherrio
I just love his dry sense of humor. So witty!
So true. He’s truly a fantastic internet personality. I love him!
I agree, but it’s Cheerio* like the cereal. This on the education vid is just *chef’s kiss*
I felt the same way when I discovered his videos! Then his wife was in a video and she is so super cool. I actually became a patreon for the first time after she came on. I’ve never donated to any youtuber but these guys are awesome.
Even tho I’m dying in California cuz of Covid, the earthquakes, wildfires, storm, fire tornadoes, flash floods, evacuations, black outs, and wearing 2 masks bc you need n95 for the fire smoke and a regular mask for COVID, I’m just watching Lawrence. He’s literally so funny and it’s like fun to watch him even when everything is falling apart.
"In England a rubber erases a mistake, in America it prevents one."
Also, youtube needs to chill with the midroll ads... I could handle one in a 10-15 minute video, but 3 in a 13 minute video? At least creators get some of that but it's so annoying and breaks up the flow so badly and I'm pretty sure Google is just being greedy and trying to get people to pay to have ads removed...
Use an ad blocker.
"In England a rubber erases a mistake, in America it prevents one."
It'll erase a mistake if you stretch it enough.
adblockerplus ;it makes the internet tolerable
There are 5 for me...
Oh you only got 3? Lucky you!
"Who like many people of the 6th century, resemble a sketch of someone from the 6th century.." hahaha
The only thing that stuck with me from American education is "Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell"
Great! A science teacher got through to you!
When in Jr High near the end of the year the school had a Fun Day. After the days activites the maintnence men trying to figure out what do with the mud pit they dug for the tug o' war.
The science teacher, who was wearing the powder blue 70s tux he always wore for the tug o' war said, "Wait! I have an idea!" He rushed to his class, brought back some vials and bottles. He poured several chemicals into the pit.
Everyone gathered to watch and the pit began to boil and bubble. Then, *"BOOOM!!"* The mud exploded into a mini mushroom cloud and everyone was splattered with mud.
The whole crowd shouted COOOL!! The science teacher said he'd wait till we reached 12th grade before telling us what he put in the mud.
Flashforward to senior year. _"Oh that, I had several bottles of chemicals that I ordered for the year and was required to get rid of them before the end of the school year. I figured that was the quickest way to get rid of most of them..."
Obviously this was the pre sending teachers to prison for every little thing years.
I know a lot of people don't want useless things to be taught in schools. But they have to teach all of that, so you can decide for yourself which subject you are passionate about and which path you want to persue.
Can't forget your literary and basic math!
My mother’s first (and only) job in America was working for the State of SC. On her first day she was given an office that had a desk, chair, telephone, pad of paper and a pencil without an eraser. She went to the main office and asked if the state provided rubbers or did she have to provide her own. Needless to say, she received many strange looks and was told she had to buy her own.🤣
My late husband worked for a very UK owned company. I have missed the varied accents and tales from across the pond. Thank you for giving me a chance to remember a part of him and the world he worked in.
Another confusing item of US education is the community college (CC) which in the 1960s were sometimes referred to as "junior colleges"
Community colleges are public funded schools originally designed to teach the first 2 years of college or "uni". They are local "commuter" (no on campus housing). The tuition is usually less than even public/state universities. The class sizes are usually smaller. One would attend community college for one's basic/core curriculum receive one's Associate and then transfer to a 4 year uni to for last 2/ years and receive one's B.A./B.S. degree.
Now CC's also offer a multitude of services. CC's offer remedial classes for people that need to learn skills before taking college credit classes, offer programs for health/ medical careers (nursing, dental hygienist,etc), technical/trade (computer coding, automotive techs, etc), and continuing ed. classes (non college credit) for subjects like genealogy, arts & crafts, hobbies, learning computer programs as MS Word, Excel etc. CCs work with a lot of "nontraditional" (older) folks who may need to learn new job skills because their job has been sent overseas or to acquire more skills to move up at their job or change careers.
I work for a junior/community college. Our "sister" campus is residential, but ours is not. Besides career technical education and non-traditional students, we also offer GED classes and ESL/ELL (English as a Second Language).
Somewhere in time in the US, 7th & 8th grade changed from being Junior High to Middle School. Grades 9,10,11. & 12 were Senior High. Now I find myself being a Senior Citizen.
I lived it. Only attended Jr. High for 2 years. When I was an 8th grader, the high school was a 3 year school and the Jr. High included 9th grade. When I started 9th grade the Jr. High was now called Middle school and had students from 6th grade to 8th grade. I attended the high school in 9th grade. My friend's brother was one grade older then us and was mad that we moved up the same year as his class.
@@builtontherockhomestead9390 -We were in a combined Jr./Sr. High School, on 1/2 day sessions.Finally in our Senior year the new High School was opened. Such was the life of a suburban Baby Boomer, the school was already over crowded from day 1.
Our area switched from Junior High (7-8 grades) to Middle school (6-8 grades) about the same year i graduated high school, 1989. Or thereabouts.
Grade school for me was 1st through 6th, Junior High was 7th and 8th finally Senior High was grades 9-12 or freshmen, sophomore , junior and senior. Seniors ruled, freshmen drooled.
I also might add that before kindergarten, we had nursery school school NOT pre-school.
In the US, a University contains a number of colleges. Or that degree could be taught in a specialized College. So degrees in Education are grouped in one Colllege. degrees in Information Technology in another. Fine Arts has a College. Business has a Colleege. Nurses have a College. Colleges are grouped together in Universities because many of there disciplines overlap and/or you might want degrees in two areas. Colleges can also be just a generalized Course also, where you study a little bit of everything like advanced High School. Then don’t start with Trade School or Technical Collage
My grand niece got a double major chemical engineering and German. She took an extra year and went to Germany first to the University. Then went to work at Bayer for the rest of the year. It was a great learning experience and it allowed her to see much of Europe.
To put it simple, US colleges award 2 and 4 year degrees (there are a few exceptions to this). Universities award Master and Doctoral degrees.
Whether a school is a college or Uni mostly depends on size and organizational factors. My “college” offered 4 years bachelor degrees as well as masters and doctorate programs. As the college grew, it became a university because of it organization still offering the same programs.
Universities and colleges in the US also sometimes call their diffent courses, schools. My university had a School of Education, School of Nursing, School of religion and School of Business; however the general liberal arts were referred to has departments, such as Department of History, Department of English, Department of math, department of science, department of Art and Department of theater. Eventually each one of these will be turned into a full-fledged school but my University was just granted University status in 2009 which was the year I graduated because they had added on a full-fledged Master's and doctoral program for business, nursing and education they further had also recently acquired the Lutheran Southern Seminary. It was a little college when I started but now its quite big.
@@ybunnygurl Example: I attended the State University of New York (a system of 64 campuses in different towns and cities across the state that includes 5 large Universities, and 59 smaller State Colleges and Universities. My degree is from the State University of New York, College at Geneseo, School of Performing Arts. If you want some confusing layers of educational beaurocracy, New York has got you covered.
As an American, entering a colonial British school (KGV, H.K.) at age 13, I was most impressed by the span of the curriculum. I found myself smack in the middle of classes in biology, chemistry, physics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, English, French, world history and scriptures. In America most of those come later, year-by- year. Fortunately I was eager to learn and had well-educated parents who helped me catch up pretty quickly. Ironically, I already knew how to use a circular slide-rule but wasn't allowed to use it ~ trig tables only for multiplication. Because of my two years there, high school back in Connecticut was a piece of cake. Side-note: American proctor, or hall monitor, British prefect.
Sometimes we also call elementary school, "grade school." Middle school can also be called "Jr. high." Your middle school description is on point.
Yeah except usually middle school is grades 6,7&8 and junior high is only 7&8 after an elementary school going up to grade 6 instead of 5.
Or Grammar School.
@@lynnes1864 junior high for me was 6, 7, 8.
While there is an estimation of how each school system is structured that is considered the norm, there are lots of school systems that vary from that norm.
I’ve been in systems that only had K5 kindergarten that was all day systems that also had k4 that were half day and systems that had a k3 that was two days half of a day. Oddly enough these systems also had a day care program that the student could be sent to for the rest of the day, rest of the week
I went to a school system that had one school for the entire city’s k5 and first grade students, then had two separate elementary schools.
In this school system second grade wasn’t in a school building but in a village of mobile home structures whose interiors interiors hade been converted into a classroom. They were carpeted so my second grade was done barefoot. The full bathroom and kitchen were also intact and they even came with an built in washer and dryer unit. This came in handy because at that age their were still children that had “accidents” and would find themselves wearing pajamas while their clothes dried. Also our teacher made us popcorn and cookies at times.
I’ve been to schools where there were not kindergarten plus twelve grades each representing a year but kindergarten and 24 grades each representing half of a year. This meant it was easier for advanced students to on the middle years skip forward by half year marks, or struggling students to be held back with less detriment, many even being able to catch back up again.
I even when to a elementary school that was in two different building ... kindergarten through second grade were normal enough but 3-4 and 5-6 had their own separate wings and each pair were almost their own little school.
There were two classes of each year with each class being nearly 50 students, but having 2 teachers. The four class rooms were arranged in a three by two L much like the path a knight takes on a chess board. The connecting walls were panels on tracks such that each panel could be rotated 90 degrees... then stacked up against the outer wall. Furthermore the classrooms themselves had curtains that could also divide the rooms into small sections. By adding a 9 associated principal to each group this meant there was all sorts of variation that students could be taught by small groups or by converting the entire thing to an assembly hall
Also for some areas Junior High is 9th and 10th grade and Senior High are 11th and 12th grade this is normally in the Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and states in that areas
Just missed out on graduating cactus prickilus.
AP Exams are not like A Levels - they are actually tests that will give you college credit. If you pass enough of them you can test out of an entire year of college (uni). SAT/ACT are more like A Levels determining which school or program you are qualified to enter.
Like I see that, but there is a large group of colleges in the US at which AP credits are not accepted as credits, but AP scores are taken into consideration during the admissions process. Someone may matriculate to said college with any number of AP credits, but will still be required to take a certain number of courses/hours.
AP tests only qualify as college credits to the same degree as any transfer credits. Not all schools accept all credits from other institutions so they may be treated as testing out prerequisite classes without actually counting for earned credits in a major program, for completing a general education requirement without counting for required credit hours to graduate, for additional merit for acceptance to a specific major program or for full equivalent credits depending on the school. This is something that has bitten many people in the ass when transferring from one college/university to another whereby they had to retake classes that effectively didn't transfer.
@@alexandermiller2975 if you want to get technical the colleges or unis only accept a score of 4 or 5, rarely a 3 in order to get college credit. The original post is correct. You can skip a year's worth or more of your 100 and 200 level courses or first two years based on your AP exam scores. Where AP course credit is of benefit is in calculating your HS GPA. E.g. a B is 3. But in an AP course it's a 4. Obviously this improves your GPA, which is looked at for college/uni admission.
I believe the SAT and ACT or more like the British GCSE'S?
Except...over here in England (I can only speak as to ours, not sure about Scotland and Wales), there are some A-levels which do cover university-level subjects (which, of course, vary by university). For example, the Oxbridge A-levels (because, naturally, there are varying difficulties of A-level from different exam boards, which all have the same value because...no idea, really, it's bloody unfair) in maths and further maths between them pretty much covered all of my maths degree's first year. That didn't mean I could skip the first year, though. It just meant that I coasted for a year and forgot how to think, then got a rude awakening in the second year.
A co-worker told me that when she was five her father was transferred from NYC to Manchester for a couple of years. She was unable to understand the Manchester accent and came home after her first day of school to tell her mother, "Mom, everyone speaks Spanish at school!"
That's great!
Manchester England England, across the Atlantic sea. Claude Hooper Bukowski wants a word with you.
From one of Canada's favourite TV characters Red Green (aka Steve Smith), an American couple were sitting in the Miami Airport waiting for some friends to arrive. The woman noticed a family waiting to board a flight wearing snow boots, parkas, and other cold weather gear and asked her husband "I wonder where they're from?". "Go over and ask them" was his reply. "Excuse me" she say's to them, "my Husband was wondering where you folks were from". One of the family turns to her and in a very loud and proud voice says "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan". She goes back and sits with her husband who asks "well, where are they from?" "I don't know" she replies, "they don't speak English".
Try understanding the Glasgow accent or Glaswegian accent. That is the most difficult accent to understand as they speak so fast. Sometimes I struggle so god knows how a American would get on😂
@@matty6848 I watched the entire series of Still Game and managed to get pretty much all of it, but I have a good ear for accents.
In many parts of the US, you'll find elementary school and grammar school used interchangeably. Likewise with students and pupils.
In the US, primary school is K-8 regardless of what it's called or which building it's in, Secondary school is grades 9-12.
The important thing to know is that each of the 50 states have different standards, divisions, etc. And various areas are divided into 'school districts'. My state has a couple hundred districts and each has a school board which determines how each school is run and what is taught. American education is a VAST patchwork of very different cultures.
very important to know and understand this when comparing American education to that if European countries which tend to be controlled from a higher tier of government.
This is true, but it's also true that most states set guidelines each district is required to follow....if they want state funds, and they all do. Most states have a testing program that all students are required to take and pass. The Iowa Basics Skills Test or the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness are two examples.
And Texas takes it a step further by designating them as "Independent School Districts (ISD)
@@jackhogston6119 Yeah, but they aren't as long as they accept state funds.
YES! My parents moved us around so much that I attended high schools in four different districts. I almost could not graduate because each district required different classes and offered different classes. Small counties often could only afford one language and if you had a year of Spanish and moved there to where French was the only language, you lost the Spanish. Many colleges required two years of a language to be accepted. I'm a great believer in nationwide minimal standards among schools. It will never happen because the voters believe in local control, because they THINK they know best for their own kids.
Students: how do I do my taxes? how do I apply for a loan?
American Education System:
*mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell*
Did you watch "boy in a band " don't stay in school.
@@shelbybennett5090 yeah and I agreed with it fully
And what is the circumference of said cell if it's a neutron?
I remember going to school with a friend in Florida when I was 5 and a year younger than them and how shocked they were I could do maths (not math) and my grammar skills as we started earlier in the UK
The real difference though is State/religion. In the US swearing allegiance to the flag seemed so weird to me, yet in the UK we sing hyms every day at school. Yet in the UK most of us are non-religious and don't attend church. Far more people in the US are religious but school services aren't religious.
Yeah, singing hymns at schools definitely needs to die. I hate how obsessed with tradition we are in this country
Part 2 needs to include grades part 2. In America, a grade isn't just a child's year in school, it's also an alphabetic code denoting a score a student got on an assignment or test (A-F, but skip the E). In England, assignment/exam scores are called marks, if I'm not mistaken, and I have no idea if they use an alphabetic code. In America, kids bring home report cards every quarter, showing the various grades they've gotten in different subjects or classes. What's the English equivalent of a report card? American students who get straight A's get put on the honor roll. What recognition do English students get for having top marks? American students can expect pop quizzes at any time in their classes. Do English teachers drop spontaneous, brief tests on their students? If so, what do they call them? Students in America looking to boost their grades may take on extra assignments for extra credit. Do English kids have the same opportunities if they need to pad their marks a bit?
And let's talk about school choice. In America, if a certain public school doesn't suit a child's needs, parents can sometimes get a voucher to send their child to a better school, be it a public school in another district, a charter school that specializes in certain subjects, a private school or even homeschooling. The voucher allows parents of any income level to choose the best educational opportunities for their child. What does school choice look like in England?
When my children were in primary school, they would take literacy and numeracy (English and Maths) tests each term. I think some formula may have been applied to take into account their actual age in months (born at start of school year vs born at end) to give a fairer assessment (!). The teachers then had Standardised Score for each pupil each term or half term, so they could track progress. A score of 100 was the middle of the average range. The highest mark available was 139, although applying the formula would give 139+. My son achieved this in maths in Yr5 (4th grade). We were usually told these at Parents Evenings (Autumn and Spring terms) and on end of year reports (recap of Autumn and Spring term results plus Summer term).
Following the change from letters for GCSE grades to numbers, secondary schools use numbers to track a child's progress through their academic journey against children in similar schools and of similar backgrounds nationally. Odd, but they do. The numbers predict end of each secondary school year targets (Yrs 7 -11) with a letter denoting if the child is Developing in knowledge or skill in that score bracket, Secure in knowledge, or has Mastered knowledge and is preparing for the next knowledge bracket. These increase with school years as the child learns more. My son did exceptionally well in his Yr 6 SATs. One of the youngest in his year group, he was still 10 at the time. Using this system, all if his Yr 11 targets are 8S, and his end of Yr 7 targets were 4S (Covid school closures have messed this year up). As SATs only assess English and Maths, it is very unfair to use this for other subjects. We get a report every half term letting us know where our child is academically and their Attitude To Learning,marked between 1 (poor, terrible) and 4 (exceptional). Continuing with my son, at Christmas his marks were mainly 3M and 4D for most subjects, with a higher 4D for IT and lower 3S for art 3D for Spanish and 2M for PE (he's not sporty at all); his attitude to learning for all subjects was 4.
So while we don't have report cards as such, schools inform parents of a child's progress every term.
When my Dad was a boy, he was born in 1918, they used E and not F. I guess F is more logical meaning FAILURE
TheRenaissanceman65 Actually these days children need to be in education or training until the age of 18. Training can be an apprenticeship which usually includes lessons a day a week, or full time technical courses in a subject such as plumbing, construction or hair and beauty.
@@momkatmax I think the reason they don't use E if they are going to use F is because an enterprising student can change an F into an E with a little stroke of the pen, and thus make it seem like he at least attended class occasionally.
I loved your explanation of the word "rubber!" Your videos are so fun!
In the U.S., the terms "primary school" and "secondary school" are sometimes official terms to describe Elementary School and High School (Jr. High + Sr. High), but no one actually uses them except for the highest formality.
The word "term" is actually common in the U.S. as well, but "semester" is more common in everyday conversation. Schools occasionally have a trimester format (Fall/Winter/Spring terms rather than Fall/Spring) or an additional Summer Term (for those who want to get ahead or catch up).
"Exam" is also fairly common, but moreso at higher levels of education. One such example is a "mid-term exam", which happens in the middle of the term, as opposed to a "final exam".
One of my professors (US) objected strenuously to calling an exam a "midterm" if it wasn't in the middle of term or if there was more than one of them per term (he was a math/computer science professor, so rigor was important to him). Instead, he called them "prelims", a term I've never heard before or since (looking it up now, this use seems to be unique to Cornell, which is not where I went to school, but, sure enough, he did!).
@@boriszakharin3189 Okay, so you can have prelims, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals. Sounds like we should start taking bets on who gets the highest grades!
It seems British term is not a semester, because there are three: Winter/ Spring/ Summer.
English schools tend to have trimesters ie the terms that end with Christmas, Easter and summer holidays respectively.
That cabinet is gorgeous! (Not the point, I know.)
These days in the UK, it seems that most school kids are referred to as "students" & that no one uses the term "pupils" anymore. When I was growing up, a "student" was someone at university and that's still where my mind goes at first when I hear the term.
It's true. It's an Americanism that has crept in. I wouldn't say that no one uses the term pupils, but it has certainly become less popular. Just checked a BBC article and it uses the term "pupils".
Things such as lunches, if students have after school jobs, or clubs/sports. I know it varies a lot in even just the US, so I'd be interested in hearing what the UK's view on those are.
1) there's usually a canteen, though some kids bring "sandwiches" from home 2) kids do have part time jobs but it's by no means universal. You don't get one if you can afford not to as you can then concentrate on your studies. 3) Yes there are extra curriculars / sports but they vary massively from school to school. Also it's really hard to be multi-talented. I was in the orchestra and that meant I could do no extra curricular sports or drama. so there was really no crossover between the sports people, the musicians and the performers. At least if you wanted to do any of those seriously.
@@rachelburgin1160 Thanks for your comment. From what it sounds, it sounds almost exactly like the high school I went to. I was on a competitive robotics team and also worked at a deli washing dishes, all while taking a bus to a separate tech school 30 miles from the high school for advanced classes each day. It was very challenging, but I enjoyed it. The one thing that I noticed was different from your comment was that you said the different groups of clubs didn't really interact with each other. Maybe it was just my school but different teams and clubs did interact a lot. It was uncommon for a person on a track team to also be in the band or choir. Our robotics team had people on the track, band, and choir. Other than that, US and UK schools seem to have a good middle ground.
John Garrett on the mixing of groups, it may just have been my school. We were very strong on music and I was very involved. I’m always struck by American kids having their fingers in so very many pies!
Incidentally we had a “build a hovercraft” team and there was some crossover there-mainly because there were some boyfriends/girlfriends going on!!!
@@johngarrett434 You just dinosaured me - "competitive robotics team"! I had an Erector set with a motor, built a hoist, felt like a genius (was 8 at the time, 1950-ish).
@@haroldwilkes6608 🤣 Well that's how I started as well. I recieved an Erector set when I was 7 and loved it. When I entered high school, they were starting a robotics club. During my sophomore year, it had four people on it and we were using the back of the Language Art's storage room. By the end of my senior year we had 25 people with four high school teams and a middle school team, now having an actual workshop. I look back on it and now know that was the time of my life there.
Hearing that the average class size was 22 or 27 makes me question when. 27 was considered a small class and I was not in a large city.
In the Tone Blare years there was a major push to lower class size in the UK. I hear that in South Korea they were pushing for larger classes. Their thinking was really great teachers are rare, we need to get as many students as we can in front of them.
Good to watch this! My daughter and husband always gets muddled about the British education system, and since i went through it, i have had to explain many a times, but no more - i will share this video with them!! Thank you!
I think what what you're doing is extremely important to what America really is. Me, as a native american think that what you're doing is nice to hear. We friggin need you.
I went to Junior high. In earlier days Jr. High was 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. The summer after I finished 8th grade, the school's in my area switched from Jr. High to Middle school (6th, 7th, and 8th). High school had been 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. But high school changed to a 4 yr school that same year. So I only attended Jr. High for 2 years while the grades older then me attended for 3 years and and those younger then me attended Middle school. My class was the first class of kids to attend that high school for 4 years instead of 3 years.
Junior High and High School are tow of those "vary by state" examples. In a lot of Texas, 7th and 8th are Junior High, while 9th begins High School.
@@jwb52z9 I'm from Texas and I remember when my elementary they gave our 6th and 5th graders a goodbye ceremony at the end of the year because both were moving to jr. high next year. I think that was 87 or 88.
Ours is the exact opposite. Middle school is 7/8/9 or 6/7/8 and Jr. High is just 7 and 8.
You from NC?
I was in high school when they switched from grade courses being 101 or 100 through 301/, 300 to 10G/G for grade 9 through 40G/S. G being less advanced than S as 01 was less than 00.
I think you also need to cover in the United States there are something called the magnet schools, which are specialty high schools and sometimes junior high or middle schools that specialize in art science, engineering or trades.
But also in high school we have the Athletics programs and clubs.
We have basketball homecoming and football homecoming.
Most high schools also offer multiple studies such as band music and theater as part of the normal High School curriculum.
I have a daughter that was in choir M another daughter who was in FFA and went to National training.
My son also took welding and trades along with culinary.
Love your sense of humor!!!! This gave me some much-needed laughs. Thank you 😊
I would like to understand A vs O levels in the UK.
I took O (ordinary) levels at high school, but they were replaced by GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education). These are two year course exams taken at the end of Year 11, at 16 years old (15 if your birthday is between May and the end of August). Students usually take around 7 exams, sometimes up to 10. They have to take English Language (and usually Literature as well), Maths, and Science. I think that ICT is no longer compulsory, and RE is only compulsory in religious schools.
A levels (advanced) are taken in sixth form at schools or colleges, in Year 13, after studying for two years. Students choose which subjects they want to take, and they usually take three or four (which is recommended). A levels lead to university.
So a few years ago when I was doing an MA at a university in London I got a side job teaching a 4th year English class at a CoE primary school in West London. On day 1 I was sure I'd lose my job because I couldn't help myself from laughing too hard when a bunch of the students started asking me if they could borrow my rubber... fond memories.
There's a lot to be said for school uniforms. If everyone dresses the same it takes the focus off the difference in students financial wherewithal.
Then they’ll be in for a real shock when they graduate, because there ARE GREAT DIFFERENCES.
@@johnp139 the point is that they are there to study and learn, not to be critical of one another or look down on someone with less or admire someone with more money.
@@roxismith6122 They still do it. Uniforms do nothing to stop that.
@@JohnDCrafton very true. Especially with internet and sns. Everyone may wear the same uniform but the vacations, cars, and lifestyles are v. different.
Point taken. But a counterpoint is that it feeds into the notion of churning out identikit minds off an assembly line. We shouldn’t need them to dress alike for the same reason we shouldn’t want them to all think alike. Like Thomas Hardy and Pink Floyd said...just more bricks in the wall.
I enjoy sharing your delightful videos with my advanced ESL-English as a Second Language students. Thanks!
As an exchange student to France in high school, I attended the English class to provide “American” flavor to the British English they were learning. The first time my classmate asked me if I had a rubber I fell out of my chair. Made for an interesting discussion…
Another potential confusing item is that in both the US and UK some, but not all, universities are subdivided into colleges. For example I attended the University of Washington, College of Architecture. I also spent a term at Kings College, Cambridge.
Yes, I went to the University of Rhode Island, College of Resource Development. My BS is in Food Science and Nutrition. One of my professors was very proud he helped develop Tang.....
Also in the US, a University offers a doctorate program whereas a College stops at a masters. There are a few exceptions like Boston College, which offers a JD but Boston University as a name was already taken.
Yes you beat me to it. Interestingly enough English and American universities are structured quite similarly. Despite that they say they’re going to uni/university and we are going to college but even when they go to a university in the UK they are attending a specific college. And then there’s what they call college we probably would call a trade school.
PJ Schmid but there are also community colleges in the US that offer Associates Degrees. Some students attend community college to save money while taking their prerequisites and general education classes before transferring to a university to earn a Bachelors Degree. Others attend community college to learn a skill or get a certificate.
Yep, my undergrad was at Texas A&M University, College of Architecture, Department of Environmental Design. Post-grad I was at Texas A&M University, College of Graduate Studies, Department of Architecture. That's how you turned your B.ED. into an M.Arch. Bureaucracy breeds bureaucracy :)
The Naval Post Graduate School was much simpler :)
"Elementary" school is also one of the rare times that Americans abbreviate the ending ("element'ry"), when they normal pronounce all those 'A's that the Brits skip in "military," "library," etc,
I never noticed that before. So true.
I live in the SE of England and pronounce the "a" in those words. Perhaps it's a particular accent that doesn't?
Love it.. patiently waiting for part 2!
Thank you, you answered several questions I had about the different terms used.
As a military brat I went to about 14 different schools, both in Australia & America. I learnt enough to keep my mouth shut.
As a baby boomer in the U.S., the typical elementary school class sizes that you mentioned seem astounding small. I attended 3 different elementary schools in 3 different states and the class sizes were 30 to 40 students per classroom. They crammed us in like sardines in a can.
Institutions in the U.S. that call themselves universities are typically those that offer graduate programs leading to masters degrees or doctoral degrees, in addition to offering undergraduate programs leading to bachelor degrees.
Thank you! This was very helpful.
This was super interesting.
Thank you!
I was very confused by a levels and o levels when my husband talked about it.
In the US, "college" generally refers to an institution which offers only Associate and Bachelor degrees, while "university" is one which also offers higher degrees. Several schools that used to be colleges began offering Masters of Business Administration degrees and the like just so they could call themselves a university (for example, Strayer Business College, which became Strayer College and eventually Strayer University).
It's no longer as hard and fast a rule as it used to be, but it's still mostly true. That said, colloquially it's "going to college" regardless of what type of institution you're attending. I don't know anybody who says "going to university."
Makes it very hard to answer the "what's your highest level of education" when the European and Canadian systems call different levels by different names!
Colleges in England tend to be sub-units of universities (like the Imperial college mentioned which is part of the University of London).
And if you are going to Such and Such Institute of Technology.
@@matttaylor678 and just to complicate matters, often US universities are similarly broken down into "colleges." In which case the "college" represents an administrative group of one or more related degree-granting departments - e.g. "College of Behavioral & Social Sciences," which at my alma mater comprised the departments of Psychology, Sociology, Economics, and a few others.
UK here- I remember there being about 33 children in my class in primary school, and about 30 in secondary school.
How do you not crack yourself up. The intro ( yes, everything becomes slang) had me chuckling out loud. Well done Laurence!
That was interesting thanks for the lessons.
The US is actually somewhat split. Some areas have middle school, and some have jr. High. The grades in them differ, with one comprising grades 6-8, and the other grades 7-9.
When I went to middle school in the early 90's my middle school was 7th and 8th grade but now
a lot of middle schools are 6th to 8th grade so it's changed over the years.
In my area the two words are interchangeable. For instance, the school district I graduated from had a Jr High, but the neighboring school districts all have middle schools. They're all 6-8.
I've found it varies quite a lot in smaller suburbs that have experienced growth, at least in Ohio. Like the school district I grew up in had to keep adding buildings thru the years because so many people moved to the city. And all the surrounding cities had different variations of grades in buildings as well. The only thing consistent was high school was 9-12. My middle school was a building of 5-8, but then after they built the new building thy moved 5th over with 3rd & 4th. (Shifted things so that 1st & 2nd were in a different building, and K had a whole building to itself.)
Some districts have 5th year centers. Basically schools full of nothing but 5th graders.
Our middle school here is 5-8.
I can't speak for other states, but here in Minnesota we have both tests and exams. Tests are more frequent and less important (but still generally important), while exams only happen at the end of the term (we use term and semester interchangeably) and tend to be much more important to your grade (over all score).
Which leads me to the question, what about grading/scoring? Does England use the A-D and F system or something else? Do what about pluses and minuses on the first four?
England up until the last couple of years used letters for the GCSE's but randomly decided to change to a numbered system of 0-9 (9 being the highest grade). But when we had the letters there was no plus and minus, just A* (said 'A star') which was for almost perfect scores. The letters also went all the way down to a G, and then there was U for un-gradable. The A Level exams to get into uni still use the lettered system for grades though.
Totally love your videos. They make my day. Thank you!
Love your channel! Keep them coming!!!
And as usual the words we use in Canada is a mix of both countries. Great video as always. For example grades we go the US route 1st grade, 2nd grade, except we stick to numbers when we get to high school. On the other hand we call the period from kindergarten to 6th grade Primary School, the period after High School we actually have both college and university. Although what we call college is what Americans call community college.
WE HAVE HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE UK !
I went to a comprehensive I understand why you didn’t go into that explanation as well!!! Really well explained especially as my great nephew starts pre school this year xx
UA-cam sensation is actually an excellent description for you! You are just hysterical! Love love love!!!
We wore uniforms in catholic school in Chicago snd my children wore uniforms in international school in London.
The schools where my daughters attended have an unusual system. K-4 was elementary, 5-6 was intermediate, 7-8 was middle, and then 9-12 high school. Homestly, it was nice having the 5th and 6th grades separate; it's when they started an instrument if they wished, and it made them feel more important and "big kid."
We had almost the same thing when I was in school. Only difference was we further split 9th and 10th into high school, and 11th and 12th grade was senior high. I hated it since every 2 years when we switched schools we'd lose half our friends to a different school. 😢
Your posts always brings a chuckle so thank you. I was brought up within the British educational system and am Caribbean born and bred. Looking back at my education during the late 60s and early 70s I think one of the things I treasure now is having had to wear uniforms. When I was old enough I had to wash and iron them every week and was quite pleased with my pleated skirts which we wore with pride, and I think this helped me to develop some structure in my life. I was quite aghast when I first realized that this was not required in American schools.. lol
Laurence, Thanks for doing this video. It explains a lot of things about schools in England and the United States, both similar and different.
When I first moved back to the States (lived in Scotland from age 5-11), my dad kept telling me to remember NOT to ask the teacher for a rubber. I, of course, forgot. Asking for a rubber in front of a class full of middle school children was embarrassing, especially since I was very sheltered and did not know at all what they thought I was asking for. I was also mortified when a teacher jokingly told me to "sit my fanny down" . He was talking about my back side. I thought he was talking about my private parts in front of everyone. It was a very confusing time for me. Not to mention I had to learn feet and inches, which I still don't know well. I'm now a teacher living in TX.
Can you go into extracurriculars?
I was educated in Florida where after-school sports (and by extension: band, color guard, and cheerleading) are a big deal. They are an even BIGGER deal in Texas. Would love to hear your take on how England does the extras
in England when i was at school, there were no extras at all, such as sports, and being good at only sport would never get you into university, you had to study academic subjects (such as a science or two, maths, English literature, a foreign language,) and you had to pass 3 or 4 A levels, which were 100% written exams to get into uni. Universities would not accept anyone whom were only good at sports, and did not pass A levels in academic subjects, and many universities would not consider certain subjects studied at A level, such as sociology, an academic subject. our high schools and universities are not like yours when it comes to sports, the emphasis here is on traditional academic subjects. we have professional football (soccer) teams, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham, etc, and other sports, such as tennis, rugby, snooker, boxing, cricket, etc, that the public go to watch, and that's about it, football is the most popular, and the rival teams stadium can be literally just down the road from your teams stadium. the general public don't go watch a football match at a school, most schools don't have them, even if they do, the only people that go would be a parent of one of the players, and only if the parent had the time to go watch, and they would be standing in the mud and rain at the edge of the pitch, and that's it. our schools don't invest money into sports. Also people have the opinion why go watch a school team, an amateur team, when your town has a professional team, or if you live in a city, it will have several professional teams. the equivalent would be every state in america having about 100 professional football teams, i.e adults above the age of 21 ( with only the rare occasional exception being under 21), playing football as their career/ their professional job. we also have Sunday league football teams, which are, putting it basically, adults whom have the usual 9 -5 job from mon to fri, such as an office job, or working in a pub, and they play football on a Sunday, and don't get paid for playing, which is usually played on a public park, half mud n half grass, either soaked with rain or covered with snow, uneven ground, not in a stadium, and if in London its usually played on hackney marshes.
Loved this video!! U R always entertaining & informative 👍
Always enjoy and learn something from your videos! Thank you for sharing them, you’re a great teacher. Make me laugh and that helps me remember! Unlike my experience with school?
Cactus priculus is just a formal version of my favorite insult.
Thanks for explaining the differences.
I still find it strange when people in the US are attending uni/college but call it school. Sometimes when they say that I can’t work out why someone aged 25 + would still be going to school.
In the US "school" is generic for anything from "Mrs. Smith's nursery school for cute bunnies" through Harvard Medical School.
While it's confusing, one of our best universities is the London School of Economics, which is a college of the University of London.
I stumbled across your video for the first time last night. I want to say from the bottom of my heart, Thank You! I'm not lying when I say, I haven't laughed in months and for the first time in a long time my sides hurt from laughing. Seriously, thank you!
Love your videos and your sense of humor!
And here in 🇨🇦 we have a hybrid of BOTH UK n US systems. Then from province to province there are many variations just to keep it all spicy! 😉
I love that Toronto had a grade 13 : )
I live in an area of the UK where instead of primary and secondary we had first (reception to year 4), middle (year 5 to year 8) and high (year 9 to year 11 + sixth form) schools. I didn't realise that my town's schools weren't normal until I was about 7 or 8. One thing my grandma liked to say to me when I was in year 7 was that "A few miles down the road and you'd be in secondary school.
I don't know if it's true or not but I was told back then (I say back then but it was literally a year ago, I'm in year 9!) that there is 150 middle schools in Britain.
Great video!!! I really now understand the differences between English and American schools.
I always get excited when i see your videos on my reccomended
ive been waiting YEARS for someone to explain this to me.
I think Louisiana and maybe Mississippi are the only states to require uniforms for public schools. It happened when I started 8th grade. They told the parents to vote for uniforms to curb bullying, but that was horseshit. We still got bullied, and kids who usually never got in trouble started to if they had the wrong kind of shirt or something. It just caused more problems. They also said it would be cheaper for parents, but it wasn't. They had to buy clothes for everyday AND now uniforms.
It's all about conformity.
Even before that, we had dumb outdated dress codes down here. Starting in junior high, you had to tuck in your shirt and wear a belt and a student ID. No shorts were allowed, which is dumb in hot humid ass Louisiana.
Also, for some odd reason, some school districts have middle schools (usually grades 5-8) and others have junior high schools (7 & 8). I think some include 8th with high school and maybe some variation, but they're the exceptions.
My school district is really weird. I guess because of past segregation, we just have a bunch of schools. There's the Kindergarten called Perrin Early Learning Center, which I think used to be the black high school in the past. There's a school for 1st and 2nd called Tucker Memorial Elementary School, the school for 3rd and 4th called D.C. Reeves Elementary School
, and 5th and 6th are Martha Vinyard Elementary School. The junior high is named after the town (Ponchatoula) like the high school, but oddly, the mascot is a pirate and the mascot at the high school is Green Wave. Both have the same school colors.
I grew up in a lot of weirdness. My childhood home is in a place that's oddly both suburban and rural. Like you could walk to a friend's house, but we had huge back yards and woods. My mom's from NOLA and has its accent, and we were Catholic and not really religious unlike the mostly Baptist people in the area. We were in an unincorporated area and had the phone numbers from one nearby town, address from the one I'm currently in, and a different school district. This just adds to the stuff that was already weird about living in Louisiana.
When i went to school we had elementary k-6, then Jr. High 7, 8, 9 then High School. The school that was the Jr. High is now a middle school and the High School was enlarged to take the 9th graders.
@@SuperDrLisa the school district that I went to in Wisconsin had:
primary school - preschool and kindergarten
Elementary school - 1st to 3rd grade
Middle school - 4th to 8th
High school - 9th to 12th
I can sympathize with the address and phone number being from 2 different towns. I've had that more than once in NC. Also the changing schools every 2 years I went through, just grouped a bit differently than yours.
Wow I sure am glad we never had to wear uniforms to school! I thought it was unfair to make the girls wear skirts rather than pants, esp when it was cold. So socially outdated. Ugh.
Ty.. that straightens up alot!
Thank you! This clears things up!
Generally... in America:
Colleges and Universities are separated by type of degree...
A "Community College" or "Junior College" is taken before going on to a university (often to "test the waters" to see if the student likes college or to get some of the prerequisite courses out of the way at a much cheaper price), and at most you can get an Associates (2-year) degree.
A school with "College" is usually a 4-year degree granting institution where you can get an Associates or Bachelors Degree. (Though "College" in the colloquial is used for saying things like "are you going to college next year?" And an appropriate response is "Yes, I am going to the University of____."
A "University" is an overachieving college. It not only can grant Associates degrees, and Bachelors degrees, but also Masters Degrees (extra 2+ years) and Doctorates (an extra 4+ years) and, as such, with most of their classes/lectures being taught by assistant professors or TAs because the actual professors are out chasing tenure...or already have it) are (usually) much more expensive.
Also “college” can mean area of speciality within an educational facility. Some high schools group students into colleges or groups of students pursuing similar interests/ goals - like Fine Arts, Engineering, Computer Sciences, and such. My upper education degree was at a University, but a Bachelors granted by the College of Fine Arts of University.
@@christinelandreville1042 True.
Speaking of grades, or marks of my understanding is correct, passing in the US can vary: 70% in some areas, 60% in others. I believe "marks" in the UK are quite different. Might be interesting in part 2.
I think that he was talking about "8th grade" versus "year 8", rather than the grades students achieve in exams.
Also, we don't pass high school, in the UK. We take from 7 to 10 exams at 16 years of age and will achieve a certain grade for each one, depending on ability.
For example, GCSEs are graded 1 to 9 (9 being the highest). In order to achieve a grade 4 in the English language exam, students needed to achieve roughly 50%. That's the lowest pass mark. How grades 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 were worked out, whether it was an extra 10% for each one, I have no idea.
@@miaschu8175, the percentages needed are different every year and it depends on how well students did in an exam. If lots of students found the exam easy and did really well, a pass could be 60% but if it was a really difficult exam that students struggled with, a pass could be 30%
I grew up in Pennsylvania and went to a primary school after kindergarten. Then it was onto elementary school for 4th to 6th grade. 7th and 8th were called junior high and then 9th to 12th was high school. The terminology and organization vary from region to region.
I'm an american. My partner is British. We have such fun and some confusion when it comes to the differences between our two homes. Thanks for your videos. We love them.
Thank you for this. I was talking to an online friend that lives in the UK, and when she said that English students normally start college around 16, I was stunned. I don't know how this would translate in the UK, but we also have things called community colleges, which are usually two years and you get an Associates Degree (either of arts or science-- abbreviated as an AA or AS.) These degrees essentially mean you've completed the general education portion of college/university focussed either toward the arts (english, art, communications, etc) or sciences (math, science, engineering, etc.) An associates degree is extremely useful if you'd like to transfer to another college/university to finish your BA. Community colleges tend to be cheaper than going straight to a 4-year school, the degree means that you've completed all your general ed courses (which makes you exempt from having to take some general ed courses that might be different from your previous school), and it's far easier and a lot less hoops to jump through to get into more prestigious colleges as an incoming junior. I never took my SATs, because I knew I was going to a community college first (which didn't require them) then transferring to a 4-year university (which only looked at my grades from my transcript when accepting my application.) Also, because I did my higher education this way, I was able to graduate debt-free.
@Nicky L Actually, it's quite common to call sixth form "college" here
Think you got mixed up. Your “college” is what we call University. “College” here is for vocational courses and lasts the final 2 years (until your 18)
@@ProtocolAbyss Not just vocational courses, A-levels too. You can’t get into University without A-levels, usually 3 and at an acceptable standard. Some Secondary Schools still have their own sixth form (which is an odd name since they changed to the year numbering system) but it’s the last two years of school whatever it’s called.
Just to muddy the water EVEN further, when I finished American 8th grade in 1971, I received a diploma certifying my graduation from _elementary_ school. The diploma is no doubt still banging around a drawer in my mother's house.
There are definitely elementary schools around here that go k-8, though they're mostly private schools.
My two older brothers actually had graduation ceremonies when they finished 8th grade. My sister and I didn't. I felt slighted for a while.
We had a kindergarten graduation when I was little. I still have the diploma. It says I have a " Bachelor of Rhymes" degree, lol.
One term you may not be familiar with is a central school. Central schools are typically found in small rural towns. It is when there is one campus for all students kindergarten through 12th grade. I went to a central school and therefore with the same students from the time I was 4 until 17.
This really helped with my confusion over uk vs USA schooling 😂 public schools, private schools, sophomore, year 11, eraser, rubber, math, maths.... the list goes on and on 😂
Kindergarten is a "thing" in US because, although we were a British colony, The LARGEST European derived population is German.
And as recently as the 1980s, kindergarten was not /required/, that probably explains why grade 1 in America is the counterpart to year 2 in England.
B G WOW. 17? I would have guessed more than that by now, but I suppose with so many families making an effort to get at least one, if not two, years of preschool in... I guess you don’t have to require (force) what most are doing voluntarily.
@@tanya5322 "preschool" wasn't a "thing" when I entered Kindergarten (1967) "Preschool" is the modern replacement for what WE called "Grandma's house".😊
@@tanya5322 It's not 'required" in my state, (PA). BUT, I don't know of ANY district that does not have it. Then,too PA was populated by A LOT of people (like my folk) that came here from Germany, So Kindergarten is expected. Hell, I remember Kindergarten "graduation" ceremonies in the '60s and '70s! (yeah that was..Is? a thing!)
In English, it literally means "children's garden."
That model at 8:29 is the spitting image of a youngJohn Travolta! (and I love the pointy collars!). I wonder if he became a famous actor or dancer (or UA-cam star)...
Very informative and said in a funny way. I love it!
Great humor and very informative
Here in Utah like with many other things, we do education differently than most of the States. High school here only includes 10th-12th grade.
To be fair, it's my understanding that there used to be more High Schools like that a generation ago. I live in Ohio. My parents had high school 10 -12 in Ohio and were surprised that my high school (just 1 hour north of where they grew up) was 9-12. But I've never heard of a modern high school in Ohio having the 10-12.
@@cassieberringer7427 my kids grow up here in Utah now, it is 10-12 which is crazy. I grew up in Ohio and it was 9-12 like most other places. Still baffles me, can't really be a freshman if you are the top of the food chain in a middle school.
The high school building itself is 10-12, but high school credit is earned 9-12. If your district does Elementary, Jr. High, High School, the last year of Jr. High (9th) is technically high school because it goes on your official high school transcript.
Me, an American, remembering being in classes of 30-34 kids my entire school life: 🤚👁👄👁
I went to Catholic schools back in the day. We had 55-60 kids in each classroom. One nun, usually elderly. No assistants. Eighth grade girls monitored lunch for younger kids. Lunch was brown bags, at our desks.
I went to Catholic schools back in the day. We had 55-60 kids in each classroom. One nun, usually elderly. No assistants. Eighth grade girls monitored lunch for younger kids. Lunch was brown bags, at our desks.
My schools were Catholic schools too, so maybe it’s just a thing with them? We usually didn’t have all teachers or hired employees who monitored lunch either, it was typically just parent volunteers who did so to help pay for tuition. The kids from the older grades were the ones who did the cleaning up after lunch tho
My high school's graduating class had 996 kids. Classes often had over 45. The school was overwhelmed in the late 70s/early 80s
You should also talk about PSEO (post secondary enrollment option) it's where you take college classes while still in high school for free. I know not a lot of states offer it, but they should.
Humorous and entertaining as always!!