USA – School system
· elementary and secondary education involves 12 years of schooling, the successful completion of which leads to a high school diploma
· the first possible school children can attend is a Kindergarten (actually nursing school), than elementary school and high school
Elementary schools :
· the first elementary school was established in 1630 in Masachussets, because the Puritans wanted to read the Bible
· basic subjects are : math, language, geography, history, arts, science …
· about 85% are public schools and 15% privat schools – they are sometimes religious
High schools :
· 90% of students go to public schools, they can’t choose which school they want to attend
· sport plays an important role in schools as well as the spirit (which is big in small cities)
Colleges :
· the first college founded in America was Harvard and was founded in Massachusets in 1636
· in 1944 the GI Bill of Rights was issued, which helped veterans from the WWII to get higher education (government paid their scholarships) and in 1960’s the Affirmative Action Program was introduced – certain numbers of minotity students had to be admited on colleges
· every students takes an SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) from math and English on which bases they are admited to college or not
· the trend of 1970’s and 1980’s was to be educated in technical subjects
· there is not any difference in quality of education between public and privat schools, the privat ones require much higher fees; all schools are funded from student fees, donations and government funding
· colleges are based on a credit system, science program and research makes the university of a high or low prestige
