Nicola and I finished our road trip with 6600 miles on the clock. Pretty darn good huh?
Well we thought so.
Mike (Sybil’s husband) drove with me to the airport to drop Nic off for her flight to L.A. and on the way back we stopped by the high school he used to teach at (he’s retired), to show me around. It was very American. Naturally. They’re so different to our schools, the main thing being that all the rooms are essentially in one big building or are at the very least, connected by walkways. I guess the main reason is the weather. Can you imagine walking outside each time you went to a different class, like we usually do, and having to trudge through piles of snow in winter?
No. Me either.
They also had the cafeteria, gym and individual seats with a desk attached to them. Just like they do on tv. See, not everything you watch on tv is made up.
The other thing that is really different is the actual school system. They basically study everything (with a few electives) all the way through high school whereas we choose subjects based on what we want to study at university. I’m in two minds about this system. The teenager in me is horrified to imagine having to do geography and history (not to mention P.E - or gym as they call it) through to Year 12. But the grown up in me thinks it’s a great idea as it keeps your options open and you don’t feel forced to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life in Year 9 like we do.
Their college/university is set up differently also. Your first two years are spent trying all different types of subjects and then you decide what you want to major in. It’s great as it allows you to get a taste of a variety of different subjects and then decide what you want to get a degree in. Apparently one of the major universities in Melbourne are changing over to the U.S. system. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
So while I think there are many areas that the U.S. are behind in (let’s move to the metric system people, for crying out loud) I think their university system sounds a lot better than ours.
Apart from the cost of course. No HECS system here.
Well we thought so.
Mike (Sybil’s husband) drove with me to the airport to drop Nic off for her flight to L.A. and on the way back we stopped by the high school he used to teach at (he’s retired), to show me around. It was very American. Naturally. They’re so different to our schools, the main thing being that all the rooms are essentially in one big building or are at the very least, connected by walkways. I guess the main reason is the weather. Can you imagine walking outside each time you went to a different class, like we usually do, and having to trudge through piles of snow in winter?
No. Me either.
They also had the cafeteria, gym and individual seats with a desk attached to them. Just like they do on tv. See, not everything you watch on tv is made up.
The other thing that is really different is the actual school system. They basically study everything (with a few electives) all the way through high school whereas we choose subjects based on what we want to study at university. I’m in two minds about this system. The teenager in me is horrified to imagine having to do geography and history (not to mention P.E - or gym as they call it) through to Year 12. But the grown up in me thinks it’s a great idea as it keeps your options open and you don’t feel forced to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life in Year 9 like we do.
Their college/university is set up differently also. Your first two years are spent trying all different types of subjects and then you decide what you want to major in. It’s great as it allows you to get a taste of a variety of different subjects and then decide what you want to get a degree in. Apparently one of the major universities in Melbourne are changing over to the U.S. system. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
So while I think there are many areas that the U.S. are behind in (let’s move to the metric system people, for crying out loud) I think their university system sounds a lot better than ours.
Apart from the cost of course. No HECS system here.
I didn't have my camera with me to take a photo of the school so here's one of Sybil's dogs. Molly is on the left and she has different coloured eyes. Buddy is on the right and has "issues".
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