An Education

Even though our teenage daughter has been in school here for the last 18 months I have so been remarkably restrained in making any comment about the American education system. This is mainly because this is my blog and its all about me, but seriously, I'm not the one in the system so I don't think I'm the one actually qualified to comment.
 

However, I do have the urge every now and then to be helpful and informative, so here’s a brief (that’s a joke I don't do brief!) run down on what I think of the show so far….

When we initially sounded out the idea of moving to America, nearly everyone we spoke to cast doubts upon the merits of the US school system.  We were warned its academic standards were generally behind the UK and I was reliably informed that the High School Diploma which is attained by students here at 18, is only considered the equivalent of GCSE's which are taken at age 16 in the UK. 

Obviously concerned because we knew at some point our daughter would have to integrate back into the UK system, I subsequently spent a great deal of time searching the internet prior to our move in an effort to ensure she received the best education possible. I found a wonderful website called  “super-school-moms-dot-com” or something similar, which rather naively became my bible. I became determined that our daughter was only going to attend one of their top 10 out of 10 scoring state (public) schools.

Our first surprise was discovering that at 13 our daughter was not actually eligible for High School and would have to spend her first year here in “Middle” School which immediately confirmed this image of a less advanced school system.  However, far from twiddling her thumbs our daughter came home every night with mountains of homework.

Good Grades appear to be the be-all and end-all of the American education system and by good grades I mean A's and A+'s.  A "B" which would have been considered Bloody Good at my daughter's last school in the UK was now distinctly Below Average.  The majority of the class were going home to two hours private tuition every night and there appeared to be enormous pressure on everyone to "over" achieve.

Our daughter is now at a private High School and whilst this school didn’t score 10 out of 10 on my super-school-moms website, it did give us the freedom to move out of the suburbs and into town. We visited the school, spoke to staff and liked the feel of the place, probably a far better way to judge than looking at statistics on a website, but obviously a lot easier to actually do when you are living locally, rather than having to make decisions from overseas.

So major differences we've found so far between the US education system and the UK?

Behaviour - our daughter has definitely found the discipline in class much better here both in the state school system and the private – this may well be because we live in a very affluent area; it might just be a reflection on her last British school! Generally speaking we have all found American kids to be much more polite and well mannered than their British counterparts - especially the boys! Back home we'd be lucky to be greeted with a grunt - here they shake your hand and refer to you as Mr & Mrs - definitely an improvement!

Obviously sport is very high on the agenda and this really does foster  a feeling of unity, identity and pride.  It's the same for the school band - and every school will have one - along with cheerleaders, flag wavers and lots of kids who just want to march up and down.  Everyone wants to be included; they want to join in; despite the hours of commitment involved with rehearsals and training. You aren’t seen as some kind of geeky freak just because you want to play the trombone five nights a week.  Success is positively encouraged and celebrated – be it sporting or academic; definitely a good thing which a lot of British schools could do with taking on board!

Parental involvement is also much more prominent here than in the UK - there will be a very active Parents Association (headed up by an army of those super-school-moms) and you will be expected to volunteer and take part, be it baking cookies, tossing a burger on the BBQ at the next football game, or donating  large sums of money.

So much for the social scene, what about the actual academics?  Well......California may well be different from other parts of America but a lot of the teaching here is definitely learning by rote. Read a chapter from a text book; memorise facts; have a test; receive a (good) grade; move on.

American High School is very much geared to preparing students for college entry, and for college entry here in California you do need those good grades. During recent end of term exams my daughter's class were allowed to have crib sheets with them; I suppose that’s one way of ensuring everyone hits the right mark. Parental expectations are very high both on the kids, and on the school to produce results. Our daughter has certainly had to work very hard - but I remain to be convinced that it isn't a case of quantity - to appease the parents - over quality.

Lessons here do seem to be more rigid and formal than in the UK; the curriculum is definitely narrower - especially in the private sector. Work has to be presented in a set format and there certainly doesn't seem to be a great deal of scope within the school system for too much free thinking, imagination, creativity, improvisation, and more practical “life” skills!

At the end of the day, coming to America has been education for all of us and if we have harmed or enhanced our daughter's academic prospects because of it, only time will tell. Personally, I would like to think that it will be the lessons learned from the school of life that will prove to be the most valuable lessons of all.