USA: American High School (24 photos)

Last October, I was offered to speak at a local high school - during the “Languages of the World” lesson, to talk about Russia and about studying at Notre Dame. It was a long-time desire to be in an American school and see what was happening behind the impenetrable school walls. Below are photographs of a high school in a small American town in the outback.

Safety.

The school doors are closed. To enter the building you need to call the video intercom. Many schools have a metal detector at the entrance.

A secretary sits at the entrance, she asks clarifying questions, checks her lists, lets the visitor fill out a form, signs a badge and asks to wait.

Change begins. A few minutes later the teacher comes up and we go into the classroom.

Coordination

An American school is a very difficult place to get into. All this was possible thanks to a good friend in the international department at Notre Dame; without her help, nothing would have happened. The agreement took place in several stages. The first question on my part was about taking photographs, to which the answer was given - you cannot take photographs at school. After several emails, we agreed that we couldn’t take pictures of children in the hallways, but we could take pictures of the classroom.

Each classroom is equipped with a projector. The presentation consisted of a large number of photographs of places in Russia and Moscow. In pictures and in words, I compared two completely different peoples, two cultures, two ways of thinking. He talked about historical nuances, differences in urban planning, and approaches to the same problems. Children of twelve years old listened attentively and asked a huge number of questions.

Some lessons, such as "Sex education", are taught separately to boys and girls. At this school, this practice extends to many other subjects, so there are only boys in the class and for some reason one girl.

Graduation of schools

First, the child goes to elementary school - Elementary school - and studies there from first to fifth grade. Primary schools are small and there may be several in one area.

From the sixth to the eighth grade, the student studies at a secondary school - Middle school. The secondary school is larger than the primary school and in most cases there is only one per district. From all primary schools, children move to the secondary school of their district and there they continue to study together for three years - grades 6-7-8.

A person cannot study at a school from another district. In disadvantaged areas, with a low standard of living and low rental costs, the quality of schools is also low. In order for your child to attend a good school, you need to move to a more expensive area.

In the ninth grade, students move to a high school - High school. In most cases, there are only a few high schools in the city; if the city is small, then there may be one large school.

In the city of one hundred thousand South Bend there are about thirty elementary schools, fifteen middle schools and five high schools.

Lockers.

The names of schoolchildren are embroidered on the backs.

School buses.

Children are transported to school by a school bus or driven by parents/nannies by car. The bus driver has a precisely laid out route, he knows who to pick up where and at what time. The bus stops at the house or at the nearest intersection.

From a story about Quebec:
When a school bus stops, a mini-barrier is pulled up in front to prevent students from crossing the road in front of the bus. And on the driver’s side, a sign with a “Stop” sign is moved aside so that drivers driving behind will stop and let children pass.

Immediately after the presentation, the children went to lunch, many of them had bags from home.

Dining room. Behind us stood a huge line of hungry, screaming children.

Music class.

Issuance of children.

Children whose parents prefer to pick up their children themselves line up in a line near the school exit after school. At the exit, a line of cars with parents lines up along the road. The handover of children occurs under the guidance of one or more teachers to ensure that the child recognizes the people in the car.

Library. To the left is an open computer lab, where the lesson was also taking place. There is wireless Internet throughout the school.

Painted glass in the corridors.

Toilet.

Class difficulty levels.

The public approach to personality in the states is very simple - every person should feel comfortable. This can be seen at all levels, and begins at school. If a child does not master the curriculum of a particular subject, he is transferred to a class with a reduced level of difficulty. However, this class is not called a class for lagging behind; on the certificate next to the name of the subject there will be a number 1, 2 or 3. A child can also get an A, but this A cannot compare with the one received in a class with the highest level of difficulty. The level of difficulty passed will matter when entering the university.

Gym.

Treadmill.

A game of dodgeball.

Exercise equipment.

School record board.

School awards.

Why study?

The best students get the opportunity to study for free at the best universities in the state. My neighbor Rob, who drank two packs of Red Bull in three days, was born in Berkeley, California and graduated in the top 1% of his area in high school, resulting in the state paying his full tuition at UC Berkeley - about $30,000 a year. year.