how does the USA school system work?

I’m sure there was a topic about different school systems somewhere but i can’t find it :grin:

Anyhow, could someone please enlighten me on the USA school system?

what does it mean when somone is a junior in highschool?

what classes do you progress at what ages?

thanks :smile:

Q

Hi there PasQuale, I think on this Wikipedia article you’ll find what you’re looking for:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_ … ted_States

thank you very much higo! :happy:

Replying to the topic:

Crookedly :dark:

When someone is a Junior in high school that means they were a sophomore the previous year and will be a senior the next year. :tongue:

I hope that helps. :gni:

Which means they’re in year 2 out of 3. :cool:

Year three out of four =P

It goes like this:

First Year:Freshman
2nd:Sophmore
3rd)Junior
4th and last: Senior

3 out of 4.

Most highschools consist of 4 years.
The 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades, or freshman, sophomore, junior, sernior, respectively.

But in the US, that means they’re in year 3 out of 4. The first year is Freshman. :wink:

[color=#0000BB][/color] Aaaah! Three people just simultaneously posted the same thing! Now we’re repeating ourselves! :cheesy:[color=#0000BB]</BB edit>[/color]

i will learn this someday :razz: i thought junior was the first year in highschool. Funny you have names for that, we just say i’m in the 1st/2nd/whatever class :tongue:

although the first year is called brugklas sometimes and the last year ‘graduation year’ but that’s only on one kind of highschool, we have different kinds of paths you can follow after you have done your first 8 years. :nuu: it’s too complicated to explain. And then the dutch school system is probably different now compared to when i still was in there. :razz: waves cane

Well I suppose that they are called freshman because they are first years into highschool. Soph is a greek affix that means “wisdom” so I guess it is meaning that they are a little wiser than the previous year…and junior because they are graduating the next year and senior because its their last year of high school. Yeah, I’m sure you could just assume most of that…but yeah, I am bored so I thought I would type it.

As for WHY we have names for the years…hmm, I dunno. It could be because throughout the school year we do fun things involving the whole school, which each grade or “class” on a teams. The Juniors vs. The Seniors vs. The Freshmen vs. The Sophomores.

Noted that in the your years of undergraduate college study, there are also freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Then there are the post-graduates (who are working on their masters degree or Ph. D. (Permanent head damage) degree.

We have “primeira a oitava” (“first to eighth,” with the ordinals in the feminine declination) for second grade to eighth (the first year we call “pré”), and “primeiro a terceiro” (“first to third,” masculine ordinals this time) for the three high school years.

Someone from the first first grade is “da primeira”, “from the (feminine) first,” while someone from the first highschool grade is a “primeiranista,” “first–year–ist.” Myself, I’m a senior: in Portuguese, terceiranista (third–year–ist).

Yikes…this is all much simpler in the Great White North :content: …all the grades are done by number up until Post Secondary, which is when you get into the Diplomas, Bachelor’s degrees, Honours degrees, Masters degrees, Doctorates, etc…except in Quebec (a province in Canada), I believe High School and post secondary stop and start at different levels; for example, they have middle school, then after that, what would be the last two years of highschool are actually done at a college…at least, I think that’s how it works :eh:

I can second that, Huey! If I recall correctly, you spend some time living in Oakland, so you know how fu*ked up the California school sysytem is, and the rest of the contry is almost as bad. Superintentents and politicians stealing our money, violence, damn…

Can the two of you develop the point? What exactly about the US school education are you criticizing? :eh:

:lol: I never knew that Ph.D. stood for that! :happy:

I’m sorry, I just had to say it. :tongue:

In order to give this post somewhat of a point, I’m asking the same question as Bruno. I’m sure there may be plenty of holes in the school system, but rather than dislike it in general, what is it that you think needs to be changed?

Sometimes I wonder if some people are out to criticize the society they live in just because it is in their nature to do so.

What a very wise and thoughtful comment, BB. This is how I often see it as well. It’s a shame.

Well, I think there are some very good reasons to criticize the American school system, it’s certainly not perfect. But no education system is truly perfect, and of course it’s not just the system itself which can be flawed, but also the people working in it. Don’t get me wrong, most teachers and principals are very dedicated professionals, but every once and a while you’ll get a bad one which can really spoil the whole experience.

That’s my take on it anyway :smile:

the massive, grossly obvious problem with the U.S. school system is the direction it is headed. in recent years, it has become almost a fad in government positions to look at (damn them all) standardized test scores, take note of the fact that they arnt very well, and then make things easier so scores go up. Just look at the “no child left behind” act. with that in place, we are taking blame away from negligent parents and lazy, good for nothing kids who want a free ride in life and placing all that blame on the teachers, telling them they arnt doing their jobs. while all this blame is going around, things are made easier for that kid and he is basically given his highschool diploma after he is done. it is pathetic the way things are going and i can honestly say i am not looking forward to the future of this country.