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32 Seemingly Normal Things About American Schools That Confuse The Hell Out Of Non-Americans
Growing up in a European country and never witnessing what it's like to go to an American school, watching American high school comedies, to me, has always been a pretty surreal experience. I'm sure that most of you fellow non-Americans reading this article could relate to me on this.
There are so many things about American schools that have always seemed utterly fascinating to me. For instance, you get letter grades instead of number ones, schools have swimming pools inside them, there's a club for almost anything, you have to get a hall pass to go to the bathroom during class, and lunch meals are usually pretty bizarre. The list goes on. With that being said, Bored Panda invites you to look through this list of tweets from non-American Twitter users in which they share things that they find the strangest about American schools. Feel free to explain to us the things we don't understand or add your own in the comment section!
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Yes, but the cheerleaders were just normal students, not stuck up and they didn't wear their uniforms in class.
In Sweden it starts in august and ends in june. Nothing odd about it, to me.
Yes -- since America is mostly rural, many students can live anywhere between 10, 20, 30 miles from the school they need to attend. Personally my school district was two different towns. Why would you make all of the parents shuttle kids between towns? That would be a lot of traffic for no good reason when you can just use a few busses to move the kids around.
Yes so that there is a free way to get to schools and more students are able to attend
Kids also do that in the US, the ones that live too far to do it take the bus.
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yes, and s**t goes down in the back of the bus, it's a universal rule
And full of germs. Argh I'm so glad I don't need to go on the bus anymore......
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Since most parents work in the United States most schools have a policy of bussing the students to school except for in the cities. You have to realize the United States is a huge country of diverse populations. Urban areas have schools that have public transportation whereas world schools a student may live as far as 20 miles away from the school. They also will bus for sports or if a student stays after for extracurricular activities. Usually by junior year many kids have their own cars and drive. For the others the bus is reliable transportation.
Yes, because often the children live miles away from the schools or would have to walk through dangerous conditions. There are kids in my area, which is a small town surrounded by rural area and farmland, that live 10 miles or more outside of town.
Not everywhere. But in many places, yes. A couple of reasons. We, sadly, don't have the public transportation infrastructure that many other countries have and in many rural parts of the country houses can be miles apart and kids are so far away from their school that they can't walk or bike.
How far would they have to live to not be able to bike, though? I mean, I biked 20K to school (12 miles) and I know a lot of other kids who did too. Then again, bike safety isn't the same everywhere and we've pretty much got that down here (the netherlands are famous for the bikes, right? haha).
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Until high school, I walked. Since the high school was 10 miles by road, and 7 miles as the crow flew, well, yes, we needed buses to get there on time. Our parents didn't have half an hour to drive us to-and-fro every morning, then do it again in the afternoon. And nobody expected ayone to walk more than 2 miles one way to school. Mind, this is in my long-departed childhood.
Yes, and it’s a good thing. It means that parents don’t have to take the time out of their day to drive their children to school, which could make it difficult to get to work, and that all students can get to school on time.
I rode a bus to elementary school (from Kindergarten all the way to 6th grade) because it was "so far" away -- even when my parents had to go to my school for a teacher meeting or something, they drove. It wasn't until I became an adult that I realized that the school was really only about half a mile (1 km) away, I could have walked all the way to school in less time than I spent walking to the bus stop and waiting for the bus.
Yes. It didn’t used to be that way… PARENTS were responsible for getting their kids to school. Then, in the 70s, more parents worked full time, and had to be at work BEFORE school started, so busing was required. Busing also increased for integration purposes… students went to schools that were NOT in their neighborhood, to balance racial makeup in classeooms.
Depends on where you live: in a city with good public transport like NYC there are now school busses unless you have special needs/ disability. Where I live just outside in NYC there are school busses only if you live a mile or more away. Otherwise you walk or bike to school.
I would have loved that... I had to cycle for 40 minutes to get to my high school. And 40 minutes back in the afternoon. It's pretty normal in the Netherlands to cycle to school, there is no special transport system. And using the regular public transport daily would be really expensive. By the way, I see many high school students on e-bikes lately... wimps! ;-) Only as a college student you are compensated to use trains and buses to get to your classes. No, on-site campuses are not really a thing here, very few colleges have them. You live either with your parents and travel by public transports (not many students own a car), or you rent a room in the city where you are studying. The last option is hard nowadays, with the current housing crisis student rooms are scarce and expensive.
In Colorado, rural/mountain areas experience very cold and snowy winters, so school busses are needed. School started at 8, finished at 3. It took an hour for my bus ride each way.
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Think this one confuses a lot of Europeans because they realize that just one of our counties in a state are as big as some of their entire countries.
Retired and living in Ecuador now. Kids take transit for 30 cents each way. There is some talk of giving the kids bus passes and the government or municipalities paying the bus companies X number of dollars per months for providing the kids transportation. Too many kids missing school for lack of money to get to school and a parent unable to take them. I have seen Dad and as many as 3 kids on a bicycle.
In Canada my kids had a school bus pass for regular transit use. There are school buses for those areas beyond a certain distance so that kids are not having to take more than one bus to get to school. I went to school in the Far East ( Singapore , Malaysia ect.) and attended RAF schools where we either walked if we lived on base of if off base military buses or covered trucks were sent to pick us up. Usually a parent (mother) joined the kids to ensure there were no distractions for the driver. In the U.K we again either walked, biked or took a regular bus at reduced rates. I remember the requirement was to pay a fare for two kids max, per family over two and the the rest were free. RAF gave my Mum the required number of tickets.
Yes, literally to the front of your house in Texas. It's pretty spread out here and the school could be many miles away. Not many side walks and no public transportation here.
Country Australia buses pick kids up at the bus stop, which may or may not be close to home so kids walk or get a lift to the bus stop ,then catch the bus.
Our children have free government school buses that run a route, but so many are driven to school now and collected. Some still can walk if within reasonable distances.
Yes. In most cases the only exception is when the child stays less than 2 miles away from the school and then they have to either walk or get a ride.
yup. Had to wake up at like 5:30 to catch mine. it was usually late.
they do actually! but it's a lot warmer here than it was in Russia. I miss Russia.
Well, I never had a school bus pick me up back in the 60's and early 70's but we could take public trans for a reduced fare. I walked most times and saved my bus and lunch money to buy records on Friday at the record shop I walked past every day! I would, however, buy a bag of 10 tokens and take 2 with me at all times just in case the weather got really nasty but otherwise... I have one hell of a vinyl collection today! (And I'm now 62! lol)
Many of our schools are in a district, not just in our neighborhoods.
Where on earth do you live, of course school buses pick up students. How else do they get to school.
Only if they live too far to walk or considered unsafe with traffic. My kids (and even I) used to walk to school.
I think it';sa normal thing to do. We have it here in cyprus as well. Not all parents can drive their kids to school for various reasons
Yes, students in our schools can come from many miles away from the school.
Depends on the area. In the city I walked, but after we moved I lived 5 or 6 miles from school, some kids lived 20 -30 miles up the sparsly populated coast, so yes we had busses.
We have no public transport and we have a lot of rural areas, I lived an hour away from my school because it was all farm land and since it is a right for all children to have access to a public education it was also determined that transportation was considered part of that right. America is huge and communities are spread out. In Florida they have one public school for the deaf and the blind in St. Augustine and children who live in Miami get bused home every weekend. The school in St. Augustine is freaking amazing by the way. Best public school I have ever seen.
In Greece schools in the city are really close, you have to walk for 5-10 minutes max. Schoolbuses are only for private or special needs schools. In rural areas children have to ride the public bus or go to school by taxi (one for 3-4 kids) paid by the government.
it's also due to the size of the us. a lot of European folks don't realize how stupid big the US is. example: screen_sho....05_pm.png 
School busses operate like city busses and have a route with predetermined bus stops. If your child lives more than a certain distance (about a mile I think), they make sure a bus stop is near by for those students.
Depend on the city, the school, how close you live to the school. I live is a city they bussed all kids if the parents wanted it and lived more than a mile away. then one that you had to live outside of the city limits.
buses theyre so dirty and gross i just hate buses (you can prolly tell im germiphobic)
Greece here. Only private schools do. Kids either walk or use public transportation.
When I was a kid (80's-90's) both parents worked and public transportation was too far away to get to school.
I live in a medium sized US city, 250K. HS students mostly take public transport. Middle schoolers get bussed if more than 1 mile from school. Elementary students (K-5) get bussed if more than 1 mile from school OR hazardous route to school (i.e. busy road with no crossing guard). We live just under 1 mile from school but across a 4-lane road so my son qualifies for the bus
In Bogotá, Colombia, we have school buses. Most of our schools are out of the city or far from where we live so there's no way we can walk to school.
We had this in England in the 90s for sure, a free coach would stop at certain places to pick all the kids up.
Public Schools do, Private Schools depends on the local. The Federal Government gives money to school districts to provide bussing for children under 14, and states are required to have programs for bussing for kids under grade 8. However High School some places do, some do not. In NYC where I live they give bus passes to students to take public transit. It all depends where and what ages
When I was in high school (grades 9-12), there were kids who lived far enough away from the school (in a long, narrow county with the school near one of the narrow ends) that they rode the bus nearly 2 hours both morning and afternoon. Crazy! I never rode the busy because the first bus stop was where I lived, and then that bus route would go meandering all over the county . So I'd have to catch the bus before 6:00 a.m. to get to school by 8:00! Instead, I would walk -- right over a hill; I lived on one side, the school was straight over on the other side -- and it would take me 20 minutes. But the farm kids who lived farther out were really screwed.
I'm surprised anyone outside the US even knows about school buses. In almost every show in the US, they show the parents having to drive their kids to and from school. I don't understand that. How can they work an 8 hour day and do that? They would only have maybe 5-6 hours to work in between. It's ridiculous. Where I live, the kids take a bus or walk if they are within perhaps 1/2 a mile.
I guess that's a safer option considerung the many homocides in US. Who would let his kid ride to school by bicycle then?
Homicide. What you said sounds like a hate crime, lol!
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Here, some parents, who own a van, offer that service, they get paid, obviously, but schools don´t do that.
they don't send them, but you can go to a bus stop and the bus'll come that way if you contact the school
No good transportation system, and everything is super spread out, so yes.
I lived rural. If our parents drove us to school, they'd have to drop us off around 615 to make sure they weren't late to work or to farm chores; school started at 8. School let out at 3. If you lived within 2 miles, you walked. If you were 10 miles away by road, as I was, you got on a bus and were grateful you didn't hike 20 miles in Up North weather to go to school. Twenty miles of walking a day wouldn't leave kids a lot of time for, y'know.... school!
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They used to have E as a failing grade, but people thought it meant Excellent, so they changed it to an F.
Canadian here. They don't close schools in Canada unless it's been colder than -40C for three days in a row.
Because we put all our budget into our announcements and lockers
Yes, teachers want you in class to learn, not loitering in the bathroom.
yep...at least in the suburbs because most of us start driving at 16
To be very honest, I'm English and I usually do page count rather than word count
So we aren't "distracted". Even rooms with windows usually had the blinds closed.
Not really. We have nearby schools we compete against in sports, but any rivalry is very light-hearted.
Candy was usually a very tiny part, if it was there at all. But it was the most exciting part!
I'm European and I read each one of these facts thinking "wait... they do *what*??!"
im american and reading these were like: wait other schools dont do that. its pretty cool to read this post and see other people's perspectives
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I have no idea what anyone does outside exactly three countries, one of them US, and I think it's a case of "whatever is unfamiliar is weird" here. BTW, clubs at US schools were a great way to pad your CV to get into college/uni, and to not go home to shi**y circumstances. So I'm for the clubs. That 7 AM thing, eh, I grew up in farm country. We were up anyway!
Some of the questions were odd even to me in the UK. In most instances, in many countries, we all have various versions of similar things. Pools in some schools, water fountains in some, after school activities are common place (but not called clubs), ditto lockers. The only thing that stuck out for me was the time of day lessons started and that has pros and cons. Younger children are (usually) naturally earlier risers but there are studies that show older children benefit from later starts. I like hearing how other countries do things but I'd really like another country to take a turn. Bored Panda - why not take the focus OFF the US, just for a moment, and pick countries that are less known and maybe we can share info from them?
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but how is having a parking lot wierd ??????????????????
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Jeezzz relax!! Just because things are done differently here doesn't necessarily mean it's weird. I had the opportunity to go to schoo in different countries because of the nature of my parents work. I can tell you with great assurance that every one had their own way of doing things and that's all okay.
A lot of the questions are "do American schools ___?". Which is a fair question... since these people's perception of American schools is from TV. Take cheerleaders for example. Do all American schools have cheerleaders? Or is it just a few of them, but cheerleaders make a good character for a TV show or a movie, so they get over-represented. Same with cafeterias, maybe only like 30% of schools have one, but since it makes such a convenient set, 100% of schools on TV have one.
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One trend I'm noticing, which is a frequent thing on 'People in the U.S. *insert here*' is that a lot of people posting don't seem to understand just how BIG the U.S. is. Cars are a culture here but of necessity. Public transportation may work in major cities but we have vast areas where you need a car. There is so much diversity in even what is available. I went to a K-12 school once where there were 22 of us my freshman class and we were one of the largest classes they'd had in years, and I've been to a school where my graduating class was over 2,000 people. Both those schools were in the same State just opposite ends of it. Canada gets it, but still, it's something people keep forgetting.
Australia - nearly the same size as the USA and public transport does work for students - dedicated school buses.One school I taught at (P-12) had the first student picked up before 7:30 and dropped off by around 5 - a long day if you're 5! All except three students came by bus (those three lived next to the school and were always late!) Our catchment area was well over a thousand square kilometres. In suburban areas where, especially in primary school (P-6) most parents will drop off and pick up, traffic is horrendous at those times and far more dangerous. Walking, riding or public transport is far safer for everyone.
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im not from the States but think this is super silly. Ofcourse Sweden doesnt cancel school when it snows, pretty sure they wont in Alaska either, pretty sure not only schools close, but all hell breaks lose if it will ever snow on Hawaii.... :-D
You can say that again. If you are FORCED to pledge allegiance, then are you really "free"?
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I live in Canada... we do some of these. Some of these just seem... plain weird...
I don't live in the USA, but I would wager that most of the people here aren't comparing "US schools vs other schools in the world" so much as "US schools vs THE SCHOOLS IN MY OWN COUNTRY because actually I have no goddamn clue what schools in other countries/continents are like". Some of the posts are true for Germany, or at least not totally unseen, and I definitely know of other countries that do some things in schools differently than we do... different countries are different, who'd have thought.
Here's one that they didn't list: SROs (Student Resource Officer) at high schools. We had a police officer assigned to my high school, hypothetically to help students out. In reality, he harrassed some students and was basically useless (I literally reported being threatened by another student with a gun, and he didn't take a statement, register a complaint... nothing).
This just makes me think the U.S. is the only normal country and European countries are weird.
This is weirdly,assuming that all European schools are exactly the same and we all find the exact same things about American schools strange.
I’m American and I am just now learning some of these things. My school did not have hall passes, a cafeteria, dances, vending machines, buses, and whatnot.
US here. What your school has also depends on the wealth of your school district. These can be extremely different from school to school. My elementary-Jr High was in a very well funded system and we had a lot of opportunities and resources in school. Breakfast and lunch was provided and both were awesome. In High School, I moved states and was in poorer district. The school was small, over crowded and underfunded. We had "open lunch" because not all the students could fit in the caf, so we could leave campus for lunch hour. This school was in the mountains so yes the bus took me from home 27 miles to school everyday. If it was too cold, the diesel in the bus would gel and half the kids who lived on the other side of the pass got a snow day because the bus couldn't go.
So true! If you lived in a very prosperous district, your school benefitted from that. If you own a house in that district, it's worth more because the schools are usually a cut above the rest, and most Americans want their children to go to the best school possible even if the taxes there are higher.
Load More Replies... Maybe it's just my state of mind this morning but it seemed like most of those were "look what dumbf*cks they are in America" statement and not really "you do this and it's different from us. Why?" And a lot of the questions were just strange. Lockers? Water fountains? Lunch rooms?
Well in my school in Germany we really didn't have lockers, lunchrooms or waterfountains. Everyone brought thier food and water and just ate in the hall or outside. Also I don't think the questions are meant menacingly. It's more of a "wait, it's really like that and not just a clichee we see in movies?!"
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I'd like to know, how often do they 'pledge their allegiance to the flag of the United States of America'?
My elementary school did it occasionally, my middle school never did it, my high school did it every single day. It just depends.
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The most terrifying thing is lessons from 7 a.m!! )) some other things made me jealous... but not nurse: we have medical rooms and nurses at schools and pediatrician + nurse are in kindergardens . In my childhood there were even weeks of dentist's care, not any more. But still first aid and some vaccination like against flue can be done there
I have never been or heard of a school that had classes starting at 7:00 am most have it start at 8:00 - 8:30 am.
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Most of these are just due to the fact that american schools are usually huuuge. I went to a big business school in Europe when I was 16 and we had almost all of the same "anomalies" listed above. When you have 5000+ students you need to organize stuff on another scale.
I did a placement in a US school about 10 years ago. I was so shocked by how old fashioned the teaching was. All the classrooms were just grim lines of individual desks facing front, and it was pretty common for kids to just sit there in total silence while a teacher lectured at the front. The schools were absolutely obsessed with quantative assessments (such as useless multiple choice tests). A lot of teachers were very poorly qualified and not really learning specialists in any modern sense. That sort of treat-everyone-the-same "talk and chalk" teaching style disappeared in the 1980s in my home country. It was a real shock.
As an Australian, our public schools don't supply lunches or cafeterias (although some country schools have them). Our students eat their lunch sitting in the yard, or if very young, in the classroom before being allowed out to play. I did work in a private school where staff had a room to eat lunch and had soup supplied if wanted. Swimming pools? Only in private or similar schools. Clubs? Voluntary and in everyone's own time (staff and students). Bathroom passes? We expect our students to wash themselves outside school time. Toilet visits? Usually up to the individual teacher, and refused when too frequent with no reason. Buses to school? I worked at one school where all except three students came to school by bus. The furthest boarded the bus at 7:30 and got home around 4:45 - a long day for a 5 y.o. in Prep. Many students in suburban schools are driven by their (usually) mother - resulting in traffic jams around 8:30 to 9 a.m. and the equivalent in the afternoon.
It all comes down to money and government. All of it. I used to have a difficult time understanding why my parents put me in private schools. Turns out public schools are, at best, just weak.
Deja vu. You guys had basically the same post (most of the same entries) last week. And two weeks ago. And a month ago.
I don’t miss those school lunches but I feel like everyone would always get super excited when it was chicken strip day. Those weren’t bad. I like the mini breakfast pizza it was tasty. But that’s about it. As a kid I absolutely loved snow days and when there was no school. Kids today won’t be able to experience it because there’s virtual learning. Anyways I’m so glad to be finished with school. I hate getting up so early.
Some of these I found odd. Is it really only America that has buses, lockers and clubs?
Canada has all three! My school even had a D&D club, before Covid.
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i live in nh i go to kersharge we have nurses mental health people mostly women and lots of over teachers that help the kids its a very ice school with also has many groupes and clubs and a black market for pokymon cards
yes we have a black market becuse the cards arnt allowed but we dont care right now they have in and at home learning
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America's number 1 export is "media". TV shows, movies, etc. People from other countries watch it, and form their ideas of what "America" is from that... considering that TV & Movies are designed to be entertaining, it is understandable that foreigners see America as being an entertaining place.
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oh no i have a nurse in case someone has an asthma attack oh no i have clubs were i can expand my social circle....save me lol
Load More Replies... I'm European and I read each one of these facts thinking "wait... they do *what*??!"
im american and reading these were like: wait other schools dont do that. its pretty cool to read this post and see other people's perspectives
Load More Replies... I have no idea what anyone does outside exactly three countries, one of them US, and I think it's a case of "whatever is unfamiliar is weird" here. BTW, clubs at US schools were a great way to pad your CV to get into college/uni, and to not go home to shi**y circumstances. So I'm for the clubs. That 7 AM thing, eh, I grew up in farm country. We were up anyway!
Some of the questions were odd even to me in the UK. In most instances, in many countries, we all have various versions of similar things. Pools in some schools, water fountains in some, after school activities are common place (but not called clubs), ditto lockers. The only thing that stuck out for me was the time of day lessons started and that has pros and cons. Younger children are (usually) naturally earlier risers but there are studies that show older children benefit from later starts. I like hearing how other countries do things but I'd really like another country to take a turn. Bored Panda - why not take the focus OFF the US, just for a moment, and pick countries that are less known and maybe we can share info from them?
Load More Replies... but how is having a parking lot wierd ??????????????????
Load More Replies... Jeezzz relax!! Just because things are done differently here doesn't necessarily mean it's weird. I had the opportunity to go to schoo in different countries because of the nature of my parents work. I can tell you with great assurance that every one had their own way of doing things and that's all okay.
A lot of the questions are "do American schools ___?". Which is a fair question... since these people's perception of American schools is from TV. Take cheerleaders for example. Do all American schools have cheerleaders? Or is it just a few of them, but cheerleaders make a good character for a TV show or a movie, so they get over-represented. Same with cafeterias, maybe only like 30% of schools have one, but since it makes such a convenient set, 100% of schools on TV have one.
Load More Replies... One trend I'm noticing, which is a frequent thing on 'People in the U.S. *insert here*' is that a lot of people posting don't seem to understand just how BIG the U.S. is. Cars are a culture here but of necessity. Public transportation may work in major cities but we have vast areas where you need a car. There is so much diversity in even what is available. I went to a K-12 school once where there were 22 of us my freshman class and we were one of the largest classes they'd had in years, and I've been to a school where my graduating class was over 2,000 people. Both those schools were in the same State just opposite ends of it. Canada gets it, but still, it's something people keep forgetting.
Australia - nearly the same size as the USA and public transport does work for students - dedicated school buses.One school I taught at (P-12) had the first student picked up before 7:30 and dropped off by around 5 - a long day if you're 5! All except three students came by bus (those three lived next to the school and were always late!) Our catchment area was well over a thousand square kilometres. In suburban areas where, especially in primary school (P-6) most parents will drop off and pick up, traffic is horrendous at those times and far more dangerous. Walking, riding or public transport is far safer for everyone.
Load More Replies... im not from the States but think this is super silly. Ofcourse Sweden doesnt cancel school when it snows, pretty sure they wont in Alaska either, pretty sure not only schools close, but all hell breaks lose if it will ever snow on Hawaii.... :-D
You can say that again. If you are FORCED to pledge allegiance, then are you really "free"?
Load More Replies... I live in Canada... we do some of these. Some of these just seem... plain weird...
I don't live in the USA, but I would wager that most of the people here aren't comparing "US schools vs other schools in the world" so much as "US schools vs THE SCHOOLS IN MY OWN COUNTRY because actually I have no goddamn clue what schools in other countries/continents are like". Some of the posts are true for Germany, or at least not totally unseen, and I definitely know of other countries that do some things in schools differently than we do... different countries are different, who'd have thought.
Here's one that they didn't list: SROs (Student Resource Officer) at high schools. We had a police officer assigned to my high school, hypothetically to help students out. In reality, he harrassed some students and was basically useless (I literally reported being threatened by another student with a gun, and he didn't take a statement, register a complaint... nothing).
This just makes me think the U.S. is the only normal country and European countries are weird.
This is weirdly,assuming that all European schools are exactly the same and we all find the exact same things about American schools strange.
I’m American and I am just now learning some of these things. My school did not have hall passes, a cafeteria, dances, vending machines, buses, and whatnot.
US here. What your school has also depends on the wealth of your school district. These can be extremely different from school to school. My elementary-Jr High was in a very well funded system and we had a lot of opportunities and resources in school. Breakfast and lunch was provided and both were awesome. In High School, I moved states and was in poorer district. The school was small, over crowded and underfunded. We had "open lunch" because not all the students could fit in the caf, so we could leave campus for lunch hour. This school was in the mountains so yes the bus took me from home 27 miles to school everyday. If it was too cold, the diesel in the bus would gel and half the kids who lived on the other side of the pass got a snow day because the bus couldn't go.
So true! If you lived in a very prosperous district, your school benefitted from that. If you own a house in that district, it's worth more because the schools are usually a cut above the rest, and most Americans want their children to go to the best school possible even if the taxes there are higher.
Load More Replies... Maybe it's just my state of mind this morning but it seemed like most of those were "look what dumbf*cks they are in America" statement and not really "you do this and it's different from us. Why?" And a lot of the questions were just strange. Lockers? Water fountains? Lunch rooms?
Well in my school in Germany we really didn't have lockers, lunchrooms or waterfountains. Everyone brought thier food and water and just ate in the hall or outside. Also I don't think the questions are meant menacingly. It's more of a "wait, it's really like that and not just a clichee we see in movies?!"
Load More Replies... I'd like to know, how often do they 'pledge their allegiance to the flag of the United States of America'?
My elementary school did it occasionally, my middle school never did it, my high school did it every single day. It just depends.
Load More Replies... The most terrifying thing is lessons from 7 a.m!! )) some other things made me jealous... but not nurse: we have medical rooms and nurses at schools and pediatrician + nurse are in kindergardens . In my childhood there were even weeks of dentist's care, not any more. But still first aid and some vaccination like against flue can be done there
I have never been or heard of a school that had classes starting at 7:00 am most have it start at 8:00 - 8:30 am.
Load More Replies... Most of these are just due to the fact that american schools are usually huuuge. I went to a big business school in Europe when I was 16 and we had almost all of the same "anomalies" listed above. When you have 5000+ students you need to organize stuff on another scale.
I did a placement in a US school about 10 years ago. I was so shocked by how old fashioned the teaching was. All the classrooms were just grim lines of individual desks facing front, and it was pretty common for kids to just sit there in total silence while a teacher lectured at the front. The schools were absolutely obsessed with quantative assessments (such as useless multiple choice tests). A lot of teachers were very poorly qualified and not really learning specialists in any modern sense. That sort of treat-everyone-the-same "talk and chalk" teaching style disappeared in the 1980s in my home country. It was a real shock.
As an Australian, our public schools don't supply lunches or cafeterias (although some country schools have them). Our students eat their lunch sitting in the yard, or if very young, in the classroom before being allowed out to play. I did work in a private school where staff had a room to eat lunch and had soup supplied if wanted. Swimming pools? Only in private or similar schools. Clubs? Voluntary and in everyone's own time (staff and students). Bathroom passes? We expect our students to wash themselves outside school time. Toilet visits? Usually up to the individual teacher, and refused when too frequent with no reason. Buses to school? I worked at one school where all except three students came to school by bus. The furthest boarded the bus at 7:30 and got home around 4:45 - a long day for a 5 y.o. in Prep. Many students in suburban schools are driven by their (usually) mother - resulting in traffic jams around 8:30 to 9 a.m. and the equivalent in the afternoon.
It all comes down to money and government. All of it. I used to have a difficult time understanding why my parents put me in private schools. Turns out public schools are, at best, just weak.
Deja vu. You guys had basically the same post (most of the same entries) last week. And two weeks ago. And a month ago.
I don’t miss those school lunches but I feel like everyone would always get super excited when it was chicken strip day. Those weren’t bad. I like the mini breakfast pizza it was tasty. But that’s about it. As a kid I absolutely loved snow days and when there was no school. Kids today won’t be able to experience it because there’s virtual learning. Anyways I’m so glad to be finished with school. I hate getting up so early.
Some of these I found odd. Is it really only America that has buses, lockers and clubs?
Canada has all three! My school even had a D&D club, before Covid.
Load More Replies... i live in nh i go to kersharge we have nurses mental health people mostly women and lots of over teachers that help the kids its a very ice school with also has many groupes and clubs and a black market for pokymon cards
yes we have a black market becuse the cards arnt allowed but we dont care right now they have in and at home learning
Load More Replies... America's number 1 export is "media". TV shows, movies, etc. People from other countries watch it, and form their ideas of what "America" is from that... considering that TV & Movies are designed to be entertaining, it is understandable that foreigners see America as being an entertaining place.
Load More Replies... oh no i have a nurse in case someone has an asthma attack oh no i have clubs were i can expand my social circle....save me lol
Load More Replies... 