Взгляд изнутри: American high School
Я попросила одного из своих бывших соклассников из Америки написать его видение Американской школы и образования в целом. Мне понравился его ответ. Скажите после прочтения было ли что то в этом рассказе что удивило вас?Меня лично сама трезвая оценка школы и системы в целом. Казалось, что пфтриотичный среднестатический американец должен признавать свою школу лучшей на свете.
Ну что ж читатйте и комментируйте=)
Toll Gate High School is a good sampling of Public Schools. The thing to remember about public Schools is they usually don't feature the cream of the crop (top students). You have a really good "melting pot" of people. The odd thing about Public Schools is that the programs that get cut first are usually the honors programs (classes for smarter students). The reason for this is there is a larger population of students with a lower intellect. So it really isn't fair for us, but we're the minority so we have to deal with it. In addition to classes getting cut, we also have a lot of extracurricular activities that get cut. The school did offer a lot of clubs, but no one shows any interest in that and so they end up getting cancelled. For example, we have several dances every year but this year two of them got cancelled because no one wanted to go. I don't know if it is because we are in a recession and there is no money for it, or if perhaps everyone just could care less about activities that involve school.
I'd bet on the latter, because school has gotten more touchy these days. When I was a first year student at Toll Gate, I would go to a dance and watch people grind with each other for five hours. It was basically sex on the dance floor. By the time I went to my Senior Prom, people couldn't get within a foot of each other or they were asked to leave. That was the actual rule. I can understand that it is inapproriate, but the school has gotten very very touchy about these and several other matters. I think that they feel as if they are losing control of the students, but by enforcing all these weird new rules they are only making things worse. For example, we have this crazy late policy where if you are a minute late to school you have to sit in a room and miss a whole class. Well that backfired because kids who knew they were going to be a minute late said "well, we're going to miss class, we might as well go get breakfast and then just come back right before the first class period ends."
The main problem with Toll Gate is no one cares anymore. Kids don't give a damn about authority and they don't care about getting a good education. Kids don't know anything about the United States Government or even about affairs within the school. I hear students tell teachers to go screw themselves all the time. The worst part is, sometimes teacher's don't do anything about it. Kids walk around the corridors in baggy jeans and sweatshirts with hip-hop stars embroidered on the front and act as if they are the best there ever was. They'll get out in to the real world and see how meaningless their popularity was in high school, but while they're in that school they feel extremely important.
The school day is from 7:23 until 2:51 every day for 180 days. Other schools have one less week of vacation but their school days are shorter. In the end, every school must have gone through the same number of hours. All of High School is general education. In other words, we don't go to High School and take classes that focus on whatever profession we're thinking about specializing in for the rest of our lives. We take classes specializing in Science, Math, English, and History.
typical four year math course includes: Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Prob Stat
typical four year History course includes: World History, U.S. History, Western Civilization, and either Eastern Civilization or Current Events
typical four year science is: Biology, Chemistry, Physics 1 and 2
There are electives that you can take to fill the remainder of your class rotation, so you are allowed to take classes that interest you like writing or an extra math or science class.
teachers are hit or miss. You might get an intelligent teacher, or you might get a teacher who doesn't know the subject she's teaching but needed a job so agreed to just do it for the money. Some teachers are there to help students, and others are just there because they have to be. That's the problem with public schools.
The upside of public schools is you get a very good idea about what life is like in the real world. Kids as well as teachers, don't put up with any crap. Many kids are ready for a fight, and some like creating fights for no reason at all. Kids are constantly picked on. People are always making out and grabbing each other in the hallways like it's a party.
The downside is, you are either a predator or prey in the hallways and your size, race, and age plays a big part (three things you cannot control) in whether you are one or the other.
But, if you can get through the public school experience and you are determined enough, you can do whatever you want with your life. Even though saying you went to a private school gives you a slight upperhand, colleges are always looking for individuals who can put together a good resume regardless of what high school they attended.