Schooling.

It's too difficult to have a conversation with quiz postings, so I'm opening it up here.

The question was"Not counting kindergarten, how many years does an American child attend school?" (from memory) To me, kindergarten is the first 2 years of "big school", so I said 10. Finding it wrong, I presumed kindergarten in USA must be preschool. Nalee said no, it's the year before 1st grade. Isn't that pre-school?

When I was in UK, kids started school the term before they turned 5, so thay started early with the basic learning activities, and didn't jump straight into the 3 Rs, as they do here in South Africa, starting at 6.

Nalee thinks "preschool" is a day-care cop-out for parents, but here it is a desirable place for children whose parents don't give them the basic learning encouragement, often through no fault of their own. Those who can afford it can have plenty of learning activities with other children in "Moms and Tots", etc. but the poor and ill-educated don't even know about it, not to speak of being able to pay for it, and their children start school not even knowing how to count to 5, or having seen a picture book.

Having been a teacher, I'm very interested in every country's schooling system. I think school starts too late here, but they have brought in "Grade R", which is a preschool year. There are also school fees, and purchase of all stationery, which is a hardship to poor parents.

Just some thoughts, brought on by the quiz.

Joyce in RSA.

Preschool is generally one or two years of private schooling before entering formal school. Preschoolers are generally 3 or 4 years old, and the emphasis tends to be on basic social skills, color identification, numbers, etc. Children of poor or immigrant families generally did poorly in standard US schools so in 1965. a federal program of preschool for those families was established as an experimental program; it worked so well and the academic gains were enough that it continues as Head Start. Preschool and Head Start are both optional programs, not required of children, so are usually not counted in mandatory schooling. Before the current economic woes, some school districts were offering "pre-Kindergarten", which was essentially preschool paid for by the local school district.

First required year, often a half-day program, is called Kindergarten, usually for 5 year olds. Back in the early Jurassic (late 1950s), we sang songs, learned colors and numbers and shapes, played, learned to line up and not push and shove, and those sorts of socialization exercises. Many kinder- gartens now do early reading and arithmetic. Kindergarten is not required in all states, to the best of my knowledge.

First through 12th grades are the usual (mostly required) grades, typically covering ages 6 through 18. In many states, school attendence is required only to age 16, and many students, unfortunately, drop out of school then, instead of completing the requirements for graduation from high school, which is the usual prerequisite for college/university admission.

So the answer to your question isn't as easy as it seems. In most states, Kindergarten and 12 years of grade school and high school are paid for by the school district and required for graduation from high school, so 13 years, Children younger than 16 must attend, but 16 and older can drop out. In some states, Kindergarten is not required.

Generally, preschool and college/university education (the non-compulsory years) are paid for parents, and the compulsory K-12 years are paid for by the school district, Even that "rule" is a little squishy, though, as school districts pay for early childhood services and education for kids who are judged unlikely to do well in school without extra help -- a child with severe hearing loss, for instance.

This was the genesis of Head Start here... and many of the Head Start programs have a parental involvement component, too, where parents assist the Head Start teacher, and (hopefully) learn more about how talking with your kids, reading to them, asking them to do things like "bring me the red bowl", can help with their later education.

School district funding is a mess right now, made worse by the current economy. Funds are derived from property taxes, from local option taxes (thus, wealthy districts tend to have better funding), from income taxes, from fundraising, etc. This tends to lead to rather unstable funding of schools, so programs just get their sea legs, and are then cut with the next economic downturn. In my area, for instance, class sizes are about

24 students, but once you get to pre-college classes, you may find class sizes of 40-50 in subjects like advanced algebra or calculus -- if those classes haven't been chopped out of the schedule entirely. Music, drama, shop classes, sewing, home ec, and physical education are being chopped out of curricula, and school years are being shortened by as much as 10 instructional days a year.

School stationery and supplies like notebooks, pens, pencils, etc are paid by the parents here, but there are also major drives at the beginning of every school year for donations of supplies (and clothing, and winter coats and shoes) for kids whose families cannot support them. One of the saddest things I know of is a local school district has found a very cheap way to boost student learning... they send home a bag with their poorest students every Friday evening: bread, peanut butter, jam, and canned soup, The kids then have something to eat over the weekend. Those supplies are privately donated. :-(

Kay