American Education

American Education:

The First 12 Years

American elementary and secondary education is a vast and complex enterprise from kindergarten through high school about 72 million students are enrolled in school to educate this huge number of students more than 3 million teacher are employed. They are by far the largest professional group in the country.

In the U.S.A everyone has both the right and obligation to become educated even children with physical or mental disabilities are entitled to be educated to whatever extent they can be. A lot of money is spent to provide specials services and equipment for student who need extra help, foe example specials assistance is provided to children who speak little or no English in some schools, they attend English as second languages (ESL) classes for part of their school day and study other subjects in classes with English speaking students. In school where a sizable number of students speak language other than English, bilingual program may be offered. Student study English but some academic subject are taught in the native language. Students stay in these bilingual program until there are fairly fluent in English (usually one to three years) some bilingual program continuo to teach students at list one subject in the native language indefinitely to help them maintain fluency and literacy in their native language as well as English.

In order to develop and educated population (a necessity in a democracy). All state have compulsory school attendance laws. These laws vary from one state to another. but the generally require school attendance from age 6 to 16. However most students attend school at least until high school graduation. About 86% of American children receive their elementary and high school education in public school. These schools have important characteristics in common:

·               They are supported by state and local taxes and don’t charge tuition.

·               Most are neighborhood school open to students who live in the district

·               They are coeducational, which mean that boys and girls attend the same school and have nearly all their classes together. by providing girls with equal educational opportunity, public school have helved to create self sufficient American women.

·               They are locally controlled the individual state, no the federal government are responsible for education. Public school are require to follow some state guide line regarding for example curriculum (what student study) and teacher qualification but most decision about a school district are made by an elected board of education and the administrator date board hires. This system creates strong ties between the districts school and its local community.

·                    American believes in separation of church and state. There for American public schools are free from the influence of any religion. As a result, children of different religion fell comfortable attending public school. This secular public school system help as diverse population share a common culture heritage.

Private school can be divided in two categories parochial (supported by particular religious group) and independent.

            American education has been greatly influence by John Dewey, famous 20^th philosopher. Dewey believed that the only worthwhile knowledge was information that could be used. He considered it pointless to make student memorize useless fact that they would quickly forget. Rather, he felt school should teach thinking process and skill Dewey also influenced techniques.

            Free public educations begin with kindergarten, usually half-day classes for five years old. At one time, the purpose of kindergarten was to teach children to get along with each other and to get used to classroom life. However, today at least half of the children who enter kindergarten have already had these experiences in nursery school or daycare setting. Therefore, kindergarten teachers have taken on the job of introducing some academic for example, teaching letters, number, colors, and shapes. Still there is a lot of time for play

            The first academic institution that a student attends is called elementary school or grammar school. In some school system elementary goes through eight grades in other, there is a second division called junior high or middle school. It usually includes grade 6-8, 5-8, or 7-9.

            The typical school day is about six hours long end about 3 pm. Classes are in session Monday to Friday. Traditional vocation periods include a two weeks winter vocation, a one-week spring vocation and two-month summer vocation. In addition, there are several one-day holydays.

            In elementary school, students are grouped into classes that stay together for the school year. In the primary grade the class generally has the same teacher for most subject, although specialists in these area usually teach art, music, and physical education. In the upper elementary grade students in some school system have different teacher for each major academic subject.

            American high school have a commitment to offer both a general college preparatory program for those interested in higher education and vocational training for students who plan to enter the work force immediately after high school graduation in American high school, college bound student find the courses they need for college entrance and in addition, an opportunity to take Advanced Placemen (AP) course for which they can earn college credit but in the same building other student may find the work / study program ( to earn high school credit for own the job training ).

            Subjects are more specialized in high school then elementary school. Social science is divided into American history, European history, and psychology. Math course include algebra, and trigonometry. Science is divided into biology, chemistry, earth science and physics. Most high school students study foreign language, usually Spanish, French or German. As in elementary school, health and physical education (gym) classes are generally required.

            The quality of a child education depends largely on where he or she goes to school facilities and resource vary lot from one school district to another in education (as in many other areas). Money is both part of the problem and part of the solution. Most of the money to operate American school comes from local property taxes. As a result, poor communities have less money to spent on book, equipment, and teacher salaries. All these factor affect the quality of education in areas where the community is stable, the funding good, and the school environment orderly, a hard working student can get an excellent education. But school in poor neighborhoods in the nation large cities are usually less successful. They don’t always have the resources necessary to support students with special needs. For example, some student may need help in learning English in some neighborhoods; the student in one classroom may have dozen different native languages! In poor neighborhoods, children move often ad therefore change school often, which interferes with their education.

            Would public school improve if they had more competition?  Some people think so some parents, politicians, and educator support the idea of giving parents the grater choice in selecting their children school. One such plan involve giving parent voucher that can be used to pay part of the tuition at private school. Tuition tax credit (deduction from state taxes) have also been provided to help parent effort private school tuition

            Parent who dissatisfied which the regular public school in their community may choose carter school or event homes calling. Carter schools have special agreements with their state board of education that freedom from some of the restriction placed upon regular public school. Therefore, there are able to experiment with new teaching methods there are about 1700 carter school in the U.S.A to day, the number are growing. Home schooling is popular movement as well. About 15 million American children are taught at home.

            Improving the school system is one of the nation top priorities in most state teachers and school administrator are developing standards statements of exactly what children are suppose to learn each grade. They are also improving assessment of finding out if students have met the standards. Tests that evaluate students also evaluate school. Schools with low pass rates are expected to make changes that we lead to improve. While American look for ways to make elementary and secondary education better, there are encouraged by the fact that 65% of the nation high school graduates choose to continue their formal schooling at college or University.