foreign equivalent of a HS diploma

[homesick_american 1]

I did take the placement test!! I did, I did!

The college promptly ignored it. Maybe they looked at me and thought, "nah, she looks dumb. She couldn't have" or something, but c'est la vie. I'm at a CC because I'm not in a financial position to take courses at the state university. It's a long story, but suffice to say I've just taken a second job to pay for my CC education.

Did you take *a* placement test, or *their* placement test? You should take theirs if you haven't.

I agree that both US and UK systems need an overhaul - one of my biggest pet peeves is Tony Blair's obsession with getting every 18 year old through university. There are kids that should never go to university! I think much more needs to be made of vocational education; make them damn fine tradesmen instead of third-rate media studies graduates. Perhaps it's unfair of me to base my opinion of US secondary education on the freshmen I've met in college, but they are the only benchmark I have. Based on that, I can fairly say that high schools in Maine must truly suck.

Yep, it's definitely unfair to base your opinion on that, particularly if the ones you are basing your opinion on are community college students. Since CCs almost always have an open admissions policy, they take all comers from the smartest to the dumbest.

I have heard of teachers being told to "only mark the mistakes that a child can learn from at that time, because it's discouraging to get a piece of work back covered in red ink". My feeling is that if they don't know about mistakes, they'll go on repeating them until they are habit and much harder to correct in the future. Likewise, I think that streaming kids is a good idea, because it enables teachers to more accurately focus their level of teaching. Once one accepts that not every child is going to be the next Mozart, Einstein or Shakespeare, it's much easier to prepare them appropriately for the real world. Like it or not, life is competitive and being told that you're the best when you're not is not helping anybody. My parents always maintained that it was ok if I wasn't THE best, as long as I had done MY best. The push now seems to be all about not hurting anyone's feelings, which IMHO is woefully inadequate when it comes to "the big, bad world".

My husband passed his 11-plus and was sent to a grammar school back before it became politically incorrect to do so, and thank god he did. I shudder to think what would have become of him if he'd been thrown into the local sink school. I think the more politicians tinker with the British school system, the worse it's going to get since it's based on a false ideal of equality. There's no such thing as intellectual equality...there is only equality in opportunities and by taking away grammar schools they're screwing the bright children. The bright ones are the ones you really DON'T want to screw.

American schools are internally streamed, but we don't let kids leave at 16 (though they often do anyway) and we don't have special schools for them to go to. Your high school is chosen for you based on where you lived; there was no school choice in Dallas, though you could request a curriculum transfer if a course you wanted was not offered at your local school. We also had the now-defunct "M&M" transfer, which allowed you to transfer from a school where you were in the majority ethnic group to one where you were in a minority ethnic group. It was a leftover from a desegregation lawsuit and was only dropped when all of the high schools in Dallas were less than 50% white. :lol: :lol:

But I digress...I think there should be accelerated education for bright children, but I was lucky. My high school offered the full range of AP courses so those of us who were very motivated could get a head start on college. They also separated the college-bound kids from the non-college-bound crowd by separating core classes into regular and 'PH', or 'pre-honors' designations. That way, the smart kids weren't distracted by the dummies shooting craps and throwing spitballs.

But we have deviated far from topic. I am sorry that we hijacked your thread!!

No joke...it's an interesting convo though.

[ChristinaM 0]

There's no such thing as intellectual equality...there is only equality in opportunities and by taking away grammar schools they're screwing the bright children. The bright ones are the ones you really DON'T want to screw.

Agreed - from another grammar school kid. Dorset is one of the last counties to hang on to them absolutely doggedly - or at least it was.

Such an interesting convo, in fact, that I don't have time to go to Walmart tonight now

[homesick_american 1]

There's no such thing as intellectual equality...there is only equality in opportunities and by taking away grammar schools they're screwing the bright children. The bright ones are the ones you really DON'T want to screw.

Agreed - from another grammar school kid. Dorset is one of the last counties to hang on to them absolutely doggedly - or at least it was.

Such an interesting convo, in fact, that I don't have time to go to Walmart tonight now

Yours isn't open 24 hours a day? :blink:

[ChristinaM 0]

NOTHING in ME is open 24 hours. Not even 90% of the gas stations. Tesco in Blandford Forum, Dorset had better opening hours. I miss being able to do my shopping at 2am.

[homesick_american 1]

NOTHING in ME is open 24 hours. Not even 90% of the gas stations. Tesco in Blandford Forum, Dorset had better opening hours. I miss being able to do my shopping at 2am.

Yikes. I don't think I'd like living in Maine; I like convenience.