I can't understand the american school system either, over here in england it seems so simple.

thats due to the startling reason that...it is

School here has changed over the years. I grew up, the 1964/65 school year in 1st grade. Elementry school had grades 1-7th. High school had 8th, refered as sub-freshmen , 9th freshmen, 10th, sophmore, 11th, Junior, and 12th senior.

These days, they have Elementry, 1st - 5th, Middle school , 6th - 8th, and High school, 9th through 12th. So freshmen would be 9th graders these days.

I miss the old days, no computers, only a slide rule, little disipline problems, and everyone that graduated, knew how to read. These days, we have kids graduation, who can't read or even fill out an employment app.

Edited by - Finalday on 9/8/2006 4:16:47 PM

true true, i had classmates who couldn't read out loud without stuttering and they hated reading period. Sad really, reading is a great hobby.

Edited by - dragonborn on 9/8/2006 10:31:55 PM

he's right about high school - all it will do is suck your creativity dry, with endless essays about the symbology of dead mocking birds, and what miss havisham's motive is - IMO they place way too much emphasis on english and biology in highschool and totally neglect math and the real sciences (get this - around here you have to pass biology to take chemistry or physics... WTF? here i thought biology was laden with chemistry and physics, but apparently biology is the root of the other sciences.. )

what practical use does biology have for joe shmoe outside of farmers, biologists and doctors? and who needs to know some basic physics and chemistry? yeah thats right, A. nobody B. everybody

as you can tell, i'm quite bitter about my whole HS experience - on the whole it reminded me of every other level of school back to kindergarten (on the average day i would color at least one busy-work xerox assignment, or fill out a crossword puzzle while the teacher graded the last classes' busy-work) and i didn't get much out of it, except for the vocational programs and maybe english - i actually do enjoy the subject (except grammar, but you knew that) and sometimes enjoyed an essay when i was given the latitude to form my own opinions - i had two very wonderful english teachers, and two FROM HELL - one of those two bad teachers was an ex drill sergeant and the other was a prudish old lady about 1 year from retirement (her voice was so weak she had a PA system installed in the classroom!)

there's good teachers, and bad teachers, and terrible assignments and assignments that will challenge your intellect and stimulate your imagination. the best program in high schools right now is running start - free tuition, get off the school grounds for most or all of the day, and you get an education that counts for something in the real world

Edited by - Cold_Void on 9/9/2006 12:29:01 AM

If you guys want to screw over your educational career, be my guest, but i, for one, am going to get a 3.5 GPA or higher if its the last thing i do. Our school system is screwed to hell, but do i have a choice? No. The only choice i have is the collage i go to. And to go to collage, i have to do well in high school. Collage is what is important, so i'm making sure my chances of getting there are as high as possible. To complicate matters more, i'm trying to go to Digipen, a private collage that focuses on game design and accepts only 10% of its applicants.

"Fail" is not in my vocabulary.

EDIT: To confuse you guys even more, in my school district, Junior High spans from 7th grade to 9th grade, and high schools go from 10th grade to 12th grade, even though high school credit is still 9th-12th grade. So i'm actually a sophomore, but even so its my first year in the high school.

Edited by - blackhole on 9/9/2006 12:44:06 AM

I started school on Aug 21st. I had my camp last weekend, where I taught two 7.5 hour workshops on basic camping with a friend of mine. It was an amazing experence.

Now I just have one year untill I get mt Rec Tech DEC!

Blackhole, if you live in the US(which i'm assuming you do) you can get a GED at the age of seventeen which is just as good as a highschool diploma. Heck i'm not even 17 yet and the college i'm going to accepted me anyway, i just have to have it before i graduate. Highschool is a waste of time. period. If i were you i'd find a nice community college nearby and take an entrance exam and as it sounds like you're getting very good grades would probably have no trouble entering. Then you could get your 'geneds' and head off to some bug university and cut off an extra three years of worthless schooling. But thats up to you. I'm lucky and have a community college right in the town i live in so its only like a twenty minute drive every morning. I doubt this will change your mind but highschool truly is a utter waste of time that destroys your brain by having to deal with biased teachers, arrogant jocks that think they own the school, bullies, and teachers who should have their teaching license revoked as well as subjects that are absolutely worthless but now needed because of some of the morons in highschool nowadays.