12 features of the American school: impressions of a Russian-speaking immigrant

Author of the channel Art is an answer on Yandex.Zen told that her youngest son came to the United States in 2016 and studied for a year in elementary school. The adaptation was slow and difficult, although he was only 8 years old. The author shared her first impressions of the school.

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1. Most of the children come to school by yellow buses. Parents put the kids on the bus outside the house.

The school day in an American elementary school begins with children sitting on the floor outside the classroom and waiting for an invitation from the teacher. They enter the classroom after greeting the teacher and shaking his hand. In middle and high school, I can even address a student with the prefix “sir.”

2. The first thing in class is the oath of allegiance to the flag and the people. Every day everyone gets up and, putting their right hand to their heart, says an oath. This is the first thing that immigrant children remember, even without knowing the meaning of the words.

3. During a lesson in elementary school, you can chat, walk, or sit somehow. During the lesson, classes are often divided into small groups, each given their own task. Sometimes children gather on the floor in front of the blackboard to play games with the teacher.

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4. The directors of the American school (I have already seen two) look like clowns from a cartoon and strive to shake hands with all students, speak in a funny voice, as if their task is to amuse everyone, and not to teach discipline and respect.

5. In schools, students study until approximately 15:00, with a long break for lunch; most people bring lunch in special bags - lunchboxes. The stores even have ready-made sets for lunchboxes: cheese, cookies, sausage. You can get breakfast from the cafeteria, but it's not very healthy.

6. Same subjects at the same time every day (ie language, math, science - every day), some subjects change after a few weeks. Physical education is also every day.

7. All American schools have special lessons for those who do not speak English (ESL lesson), the rest of the lessons are held with everyone. They say that after six months everyone begins to understand and speak. With Vanya, his teacher communicated with the help of a google translator, since he did not understand English well. But she has students every year who don't speak English.

8. In ordinary American schools it is better not to wear a shirt and tie, they may not understand. Everyone wears T-shirts and shorts. Clothes in America are rarely paid attention to. Often I saw children in different socks, unkempt, dressed casually. Only flip flops are not allowed. The uniform is only available in private schools.

9. Main working documents - folders with files, homework, printouts from lessons for each day are placed in them. Textbooks on some subjects can be bought or borrowed from the library, but rarely anyone does this.

10. School life (a few days before the start of school) does not begin with a rehearsal of the ruler (as we are offered in Moscow), but with the fact that the student is invited to come, find his class, greet the teacher, meet classmates. High school had an ice cream party in the cafeteria, all new students were given ice cream each, the rest were sold.

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11. One parent committee for the whole school, charitable donation $ 25 at will. Work in it is called volunteering and is included in the resume, is quoted as seniority. I worked as a volunteer for a little, but for this you need to pass a test admission.

12. There are two main holidays in schools: Halloween and Valentine's Day. Religious holidays are not promoted, since everyone has their own religion here: there are many Chinese, Japanese and Jews in our area. On Valentine's Day, all the children of the elementary school gave each other gifts. There is a big party at school on Halloween. All classrooms will be converted into game rooms or dread rooms. Children come in costumes and participate in various games and contests.

In general, the elementary school is child-friendly and the workload is very moderate.

Original column published on the blog. Art is an answer on Yandex.Zen

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