32 Seemingly Normal Things About American Schools That Confuse The Hell Out Of Non-Americans

I don’t ever know what A levels etc. are. One of these days I need to look it up.

mine starts at 8:00 till 3:00

Yes, but the cheerleaders were just normal students, not stuck up and they didn't wear their uniforms in class.

Yes, because if you're in the hall without one, then you MUST be commiting murder (Sarcasm lads)

In Sweden it starts in august and ends in june. Nothing odd about it, to me.

Yep and we decorate them too!

Yes, don't you?

They used to have E as a failing grade, but people thought it meant Excellent, so they changed it to an F.

Yep, even a snowboard & skiing club in the Midwest.

huge, loud, head-ache inducing cafeterias.

Yes sadly

Aunt Messy

Aunt Messy

Community Member • points

posts

comments

upvotes

FollowUnfollow

Premium

Premium user. Get details.

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

Because a gallon would be too heavy on the lunch tray.

They aren't cool it sucks

I wish I had school lunch that good

Yep. ours was awesome!

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

one word to answer this- ICE

To be very honest, I'm English and I usually do page count rather than word count

yeah i wondered this and are the woman stale or something lol

my elementry did

No they force students to do it

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.

yes we do

My school have a rivalry school but the students started the rival not the teachers.

Yeah they do, and there was an arranged Schofield vs Silvestri thing in my town after school. The teachers showed up and stopped it

I'd say that at my high school we have a "rivalry" with escanaba. its a small town so this is like the only excitement we get.

Depends on the area, my HS was very 'prideful' and though it was usually a superficial in its rivalry, there were times when Teenagers would get into fights if they were at a party, or a show, and a rival group from another HS was present. I believe each town has its own personality, and this applies the school as well. I've been to High Schools that were 'Chill', and I've been to others (like the one I remembered above) that are xenophobic, and cocky. PS: Again, my age, I graduated in '88. It was also a different time.

I went to HS in a district with (at the time) three major high schools. The schools had a rivalry with each other, as well as rivalries with competing HSes from other districts.

I have a rivalry school and we need police men at our games and a fence so we can’t go over to the other teams side

Mastbaum had some serious rivals in Frankford High. We were worse than Eagles fans during a Dallas game at some places.

Yes, we do. Or did.

Not like you see. Just bragging rights for who wins the football games.

Our school did for homecoming

Competition's a pretty big thing in the US. It sucks!

Depends - My HS had to rivalries that got very heated and resulted in vandalism. One school's senior class had its prom money taken by the district to pay for damage at my school. This is money the class had raised for 4 years to pay for prom and reduce the cost of tickets. The class officers were caught vandalizing our school so the whole class was punished. It was the adults' fault. Both the rival schools were being closed due to the low population. The lines were being redrawn and kids from those schools would go to my HS. The thing ist they could have kept those schools open but dropped them from Super 5A to 5A or 4A schools. That would have offended the great god football. (Super 5A, 5A, 4A down to 1A are sizes of schools. schools the same size compete against each other in sports. )

Yes! Beat Dovah! (ORHS)

My local high school does....

Some rivals can be pretty intense, but it usually is all in good fun.

Ooooooh yeah. The rivalry is real around here.

No

Canadian here, and yes my high school had a rival school they were pulling stunts on us and us on them

Usually yes, sports matter more than academics and rivalries sell tickets.

me and my older brother absolutely despise our 'rival' school for literally no reason

Yes...yes we do. It helps keep everyone competitive and wanting to do their best to 'beat' the rival school in sports, leagues, ect.

definatly at our school. we HATE Snake River

The really nasty rivalries are saved for college. My dad went to University of Texas, which has a rivalry with Texas A&M that has been going on since before he was born. He would tell me stories of the things they'd do to Aggies, as the A&M students are called (the A stands for "Agricultural), who they'd catch on the U of Texas campus. Nothing truly evil, just crazy college pranks, but they really put their hearts into them. The school I went to didn't have any long-term rivalry like that.

Yes yes yes I loved it because my brother went to my rival school.

my school has the battle of 287, ennis vs waxahachie, and they are our rivals even though they suck