From: Sean.Kelleher@f406.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Sean Kelleher)
Newsgroups: k12.chat.senior
Subject: US Schools
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 92 20:26:00 PST
Organization: FidoNet node 1:105/406

Ian -

IH>I have been reading through all these messages in K12 and after seeing
IH>messages saying "I am in the nn'th grade" am wondering exactly what these
IH>grades are ?
IH>What sort of age group fits into each grade and what sort of work do you do ?
IH>Which qualifications do you get at the end ?

        Well, the origin says you are in zone 2, but this being a Sunday
I don't remember if that is Australia or Europe!  I think Europe.
Anyway....  Ninth grade is (usually) the beginning of high school (or
Australian secondary college).  Most ninth graders ("freshman" because
they are fresh to high school, of course) are 14 years old.  Freshman
can be easily identified by the fact that they wander the halls with
their faces swinging from the schedule in their hands to the numbers
over the doors.  Most at my school are getting SMALLER each year (the
trend this year is to kids who look like ten year olds, no joke).  Many
are without lockers, because upperclassmen will steal them.
        Tenth graders are called Sohpomores.  Sophmores are sometimes
annoying because they now know their way around the school, and tend to
think they are mature god-like beings.  This is probably a global thing.
        Eleventh graders are Juniors.  Juniors tend to be all right,
except of course for the fact that they used to be Freshman.  :->  Also,
they are getting BORED beyond the capacity for sane thought, and the
ones who get better grades are now concentrating on what college to go
to so they can get Bachelor's degrees and (hopefully) get high paying
jobs.  At my school, required physical education ends with sophomore
year, so the Juniors have more freedom with their class schedule.
        Year 12 is the Senior year.  Seniors are REEEEEEAL easy to pick
out.  They tend to fall into two groups.  Half are incredibly lazy,
arrogant, and stupid...you often wonder how in God's name they made it
this far when they cannot read a paragraph out loud in English class
without stuttering, missing periods, and without altering the tone of
their voices!!!  The illiteracy, as it were, in my Senior english class
is appaling.  But then again these are the same people who care *ONLY*
about trucks, hunting, and getting drunk.
        The other Seniors have made it this far and somehow managed to
get something like superhuman grades, because they want to go on to
college (if you somehow don't know, the next four years of edu, which
are optional and quite expensive, although absolutely necessary.  I
don't know what the university situation is like in other countries).
        Classes are generally the same ffrom year to year, at least in
my neck of the woods.  You take English all four years, starting with
grammar and basic literature in Freshman year, working up to more
advanced stuff later.  In Senior year at my school, you are required to
take one semester of English Lit, and the second semester can be
anything you want.  Most people take Composition because they need the
skill for college.  But I took Short Story because I like to read them
and occasionally write them.  Sciences run form Biology in Freshman year
to Chemistry in Junior year and Physics Senior year.  But this is only
for the college-bound ones.  The others are only required to take two
years of lab science, which usually means Biology and some wannabe
science class like environmental science.  I took 5 years of science
though...my school offers honors courses in Biology, advanced Biology,
Physics, Chemistry, Geology (that wasn't too fun).
        The science is WAY outbalanced by the math at my school.  In
short, you can't learn math in my city.  The general trend in my state
is Algebra I, Geomety, Algebra II,a dn then Trig or pre-Calculus.  But I
ended up taking THREE years of Algebra (I did very poorly because the
homework assignments weren't applied, like in science.  It was just 50
bland equations to solve every night, adn so I didn't do them).  I'm
only getting to Geomety this year,a dn I'll be going into college with
NO experience in Calculus, Trig, or Probablity.
        OK, so THIS is damned long enough, ey?  Also, we take lots of
elective courses here and there.  By Senior year, only English and half
a year of American Government are required, so some students use all
those extra electives to take four hours of wood chop per day.  Real
dumb way to end high school, if you ask me.  I tried to keep it all
balanced...LOTS of science, no study periods, electives in journalism,
Russian, computer classes, history, Marriage and Parenting, etc.  What's
education like in YOUR area?

                - Sean


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