Its been a while since I had time to post but I’ve been really busy lately with several things (also guitar hero has been eating away a lot of my time )
Anyway I’m working on a project I hope to be able to tell more about soon but before I can really begin I need some help.
Mainly how does the US school system work?
I’ve been digging trough Wikipedia for a while now but I’m finding public schools, city, state and private schools, elementary, high schools, colleges and universities etc. etc.
But what exactly is what?
I know that usually one would go trough elementary, high school and then college and perhaps university after that (I think) but at what eges and what would the level of education be there?
If you could help me I would be eternally thankfull!
I’m homeschooled, so I’m probably not the best source of info on the public school system.
However, I think that most kids start kindergarten at around five or six years old. Elementary school starts the year after that with the 1st grade, Jr. High School is next with the 7th and 8th grades, and finally High School finishes the required education with the 9th-12th grade students. Kids are usually 17 or 18 at High School graduation.
Public schools are the schools that are provided by the government and are financed through tax money. Private schools are schools that are not provided by the government. They are usually expensive, but generally thought to be of a higher quality than public schools.
Colleges and universities are optional schools that one would go to after high school. As far as I know, there isn’t really any difference between a college and a university.
For a comic I am working on, Ive got the first 30 or so pages on scenario written down and I am working on the characters right now. and since they are around the ages of 17/18 they are still at school (high school it seems)
Uh. I’m not sure as I went to Catholic (simialr to private shcool), for the majoriy of my eduacation, and only went to public for college.
For instance, I went to the same school for kindergarden all the way to 8th grade. Then I went ot high school at a different school. The main difference between Catholic and others is that they teach religion. I have also heard from teachers, that the enviorment is different, but I can’t say how since I never attended public school.
There are differences from state-to-state, but generally, Elementary school is from Kindergarten(age 4-5) through fifth grade(age 11-12), and Middle School(what is still known as Jr. High in some states) consists of grades 6-8(ages 12-14), while High School consists of grades 9-12. Most High School seniors graduate when they are around 18 or 19, depending on when their birthday falls. Once out of High School, there are several education options. There are “community” colleges, which are small and offer only two-year, or Associate, degrees, or a stepping-stone to a bigger college or university with a four-year, or Bachelor, program. Many young folks around here do start out going to a small local community college just to get a feel for “stretching their wings”, then transfer their credits to a bigger university further from home. There are also technical colleges, which offer two-year degrees and more importantly, real hands-on training for specific skills/careers, such as small engine repair, cosmetology, nursing, automobile repair, etc. And then, of course, there are regular colleges and universities which offer four-year degrees, and the universities offer post-graduate degrees, like a Masters or Doctorate, as well. In some chosen professions, such as mine(teaching)post-graduate courses are mandatory throughout the duration of employment; I have to earn a minimum of six post-graduate credit hours(a single course is usually awarded 3 credit hours)every five years, at my own expense, usually.
It’s rather odd to many people not from the US that in our system, in most states, real vocational training-that is, the hands-on training needed to perform a particular job-does not begin until college or university. Many High Schools offer career/technology courses, but these are largely only available to students who are struggling with “traditional” course work and would otherwise probably drop out, at least in my home state.
Yeah. My sister went to a public school for kindergarten and then transferred to a private school. She pretty much learned nothing at all and had a year of catching up.
And private schools seem to be usually more strict (for example, there’s just a dress code at the city schools here whereas the private school I attended was a uniform). After all, you can’t toss a bad student out of public school while you can a private.
Of course this all does vary school to school and state to state.
I went to public school and actually don’t know anyone who went to private so I can’t exactly speak of the differences in terms of actually attending them. You do have to pay to go to private school, I believe, as opposed to public school and they are a bit stricter, wear uniforms, etc. Some private schools are specialized academies too (or “magnet schools”). Not all of them though…like what’s been said, it all varies between states, even counties!
“Boarding schools” are quite rare in the US. These are all private schools, with high tuitions, that accept only a certain type of student. Usually, boarding schools are for two types: rich kids of rich and influential parents, and kids who are severe trouble-makers who simply cannot stay in a regular school, and some boarding schools are run like the military in the hopes of straightening those kids out. A boarding school means that the kid stays at the school, lives there, in other words, in a dorm or barracks and does not get to go home at all except at certain times, like at Christmas, for example. Some, especially those established for disciplinary purposes, do not even allow family to visit except at certain times, either. These are usually for kids in the Middle School age bracket, are single-gender, and again, are virtually a thing of the past in this country, with a few exceptions. They used to be quite fashionable among the upper crust of society, like, around the turn of the 20th Century, and the ones that do still exist are likely to be found where there is lots of “old money”, or generational wealth. They are also called “prep schools”(for preparatory), since they are supposed to prepare kids for some white-collar career, like a lawyer or bank executive.
That IS essentially what “prep schools” do-prepare youngsters for college, but focusing on a specific career, rather than just a “generic” education. Some prep schools focus on careers in the financial sector, others in the legal/judiciary sector, and so on. Schools that have similar focuses on a particular academic area, like Math or Science, but in which the students do not actually live there, are called “magnet schools”, though magnet schools are not necessarily private schools. Some public schools classify themselves as magnet schools, too. Most prep schools ARE private schools, though, meaning that they are not funded by either the state or Federal government, but depend entirely on tuitions and donations/grants from companies or individuals. Don’t confuse preparatory SCHOOLS with college preparatory COURSES offered at most high schools. The latter are simply advanced academic subject courses, like English LIterature or Calculus, designed to give students college credits and exemptions in freshman college/university courses at the college/university of their choice, in any chosen major. Prep schools usually concentrate on preparing students for attending certain colleges/universities which specialize in certain degrees in order to get them ready for a specific career. One of the reasons that most prep schools at least offer room and board is to get students accustomed to staying away from home for extended persiods, too, since that’s what most do when they attend a college/university.
I’ve been in private elementary and middle school, and I’m currently in a private Catholic all-girl school. I can’t say from experience which is better, private or public. However, I do have friends who attend a variety of public schools and I do read the schools’ standardized test scores whenever the opportunity presents itself in the newspaper.
I hypothesized that schools will do better depending on how strict their standards are and what kind of students they receive. Private schools did well in general in my area, my school was under average for some reason (private schools take different standardized tests I think). For public schools, the scores varied. Some schools that did poorly had students that outnumbered teachers by great amounts or had students that did drugs, alcohol, negative peer pressure in general. For schools that scored an average, the student population was smaller, their text books were better, and “negative” peer pressure was not as rampant.
The high school that scored an excellent around my area was the “California Academy of Math and Science” which is one of the best high schools in America I think. Their standards are super strict, they only want the right kind of person to be there, and they’ll kick you out real fast if you can’t meet up with their standards (heard this from friends’ experiences with CAMS).
You can’t generalize if public or private is better. I go to a very good public school, better then most of the private schools in my area (which I heard are not very good). However, 20 minutes down the road there are absolutly horrible public schools in which the only way to get your kid a decent education is to put them in private. Public schools can have terrible teachers and bad kids, but that truly depends on where you live. I think a problem with private schools that I’ve heard is that if your family is rich and pays the school more, the schools can treat your kid better since they aren’t stopped by state law.
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