Category talk:Secondary schools

message: According to the article high school the term is synonymous with secondary school and therefore this category should be merged into :Category:High schools. LeaHazel : talk : contribs 18:54, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've just added a comment to the high school page. The high school page is very misleading. High school is not synonymous with secondary school. Secondary school is surely the generic term. High schoool is the name used for the secondary level of education in some countries such as America. The term high school is hardly used at all in England. The category should surely be called secondary education or secondary school with high school as a sub-category. Dahliarose 21:00, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: What is called a high school in the US would be more likely to be called a secondary school in the UK or other anglophilic countries, I know that much. But does this argue against the two terms meaning the same thing? If "secondary school" means a school that follows British structuring conventions (e.g. 13-year education, two-level final exams) while "high school" follows US conventions (e.g. K-12 education), then I can see an argument for both categories being nested under a generic term, such as "secondary education." I'm just not convinced that a high school is a type of secondary school. What makes the latter term more generic? LeaHazel : talk : contribs 19:00, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

text: Are you saying that the term secondary school is not used at all in the US? In that case then perhaps as you say high schools and secondary schools should both be listed under secondary education. From a British point of view secondary school is the generic name used to describe all schools which offer secondary education. Some of these schools, especially in Scotland, are actually called high schools so in the UK high school is a sub-category of secondary school, ie, it is the name used for some secondary schools. The Wikipedia school categories are currently very confusing as they seem to assume that high school is the generic name for secondary schools worldwide which is not at all the case. Dahliarose 19:13, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: What I'm saying is, as far as I know the terms "high school" and "secondary school" mean the same thing in different cultural contexts. I don't live in the US, but in Israel, "secondary school" is usually the archaic, anglophilic translation of the Hebrew term. I think we need more input to provide a more worldwide view, especially from English-speaking countries. 84.94.32.206 10:32, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

text: Sorry, that was me. I was mysteriously signed out. LeaHazel : talk : contribs 10:35, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

text: I think you're right that we do need more input from other perspectives. Usage obviously varies from country to country. It's also complicated by the fact that in North America at least the term high school is in effect used as a synonym for secondary education. I've just had a go at re-writing the introductory paragraph of the high school article. I hope that people from other countries might also be able to add their input so that we can get a proper definition. At the moment we only have the British and American perspectives. Dahliarose 11:19, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Duplication