5 ms·

"High School" as an educational trifurcation is very USA, most of the world seems to bifurcate into pre-teen and teen. No concept outside the USA of going to a

by VLM 10y ago

"High School" as an educational trifurcation is very USA, most of the world seems to bifurcate into pre-teen and teen. No concept outside the USA of going to a separate building for ages 14-18. For a good time there's also no enforced standard in the USA for middle school (older elementary) vs Junior High (youth high school). I went to a middle school that operated internally like a junior high, which was interesting. Construction/logistical reasons resulted in my high school experience being only 3 years sophomore to senior, freshmen year was the last year of middle school. Everyone who graduated with me had a middle school as their first year of high school on their transcript. When I was young enough for anyone to care about my education this sometimes led to bizarre conversations with HR people about why I transferred schools or why did I skip a grade, etc.

cunac 10y ago
When I was growing up what we had was (direct translation of terms) - basic school (grade 1-8) --> elementary - middle school (9-12) --> high school - high school --> 3yr college - university -> 4+ years so I got really confused most of the time :-)
zokier 10y ago
> "High School" as an educational trifurcation is very USA, most of the world seems to bifurcate into pre-teen and teen. No concept outside the USA of going to a separate building for ages 14-18. Division of secondary education into separate upper and lower stages is actually pretty damn common, and definitely not unique just for USA. For example in Finland (and I think in Norway too) we have 6 years in primary, 3 in lower secondary and 3 in upper secondary school. Both EU and UN classification have three levels for this range.
- pacaro 10y ago
  The division certainly exists, but most of the rest of the world uses the concepts of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. The US tends to distinguish between before high school, high school, and college. Which puts the demarcation lines in different places. International comparisons are further complicated by the different focii that exist in different countries. For example, my final two years of secondary education in the U.K. were entirely focused on a very academic approach to Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. While the school payed lip service to the idea of well-rounded students, that was really left to the kids. At university, my first mathematics lecture was on surface integrals — if you weren't ready for that there had been a catch-up summer class, but the implication was that you'd be ready.

by VLM 10y ago

cunac 10y ago

When I was growing up what we had was (direct translation of terms) - basic school (grade 1-8) --> elementary - middle school (9-12) --> high school - high school --> 3yr college - university -> 4+ years so I got really confused most of the time :-)

zokier 10y ago

> "High School" as an educational trifurcation is very USA, most of the world seems to bifurcate into pre-teen and teen. No concept outside the USA of going to a separate building for ages 14-18. Division of secondary education into separate upper and lower stages is actually pretty damn common, and definitely not unique just for USA. For example in Finland (and I think in Norway too) we have 6 years in primary, 3 in lower secondary and 3 in upper secondary school. Both EU and UN classification have three levels for this range.

pacaro 10y ago
The division certainly exists, but most of the rest of the world uses the concepts of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. The US tends to distinguish between before high school, high school, and college. Which puts the demarcation lines in different places. International comparisons are further complicated by the different focii that exist in different countries. For example, my final two years of secondary education in the U.K. were entirely focused on a very academic approach to Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. While the school payed lip service to the idea of well-rounded students, that was really left to the kids. At university, my first mathematics lecture was on surface integrals — if you weren't ready for that there had been a catch-up summer class, but the implication was that you'd be ready.