Kapitel 9 !

Chapter 9

The Establishment of Public Schools in America

Americans believe that everybody deserves an equal opportunity to get a good education. In 1825 the United State began to establish schools for children with equal opportunity regardless of family background. The Americans were not only getting wiser, the public education did also help them to improve themselves in other ways and help them to help themselves. During the next century and a half, the schools were expanded to include grades 9-12, colleges and universities.

The Educational Ladder

A child normally start school at age five to six in kindergarten but some schools have preschool programs which starts at age three or four. They go 12 years in school, six years of elementary school, two years of middle school and four years of high school. After that it’s college and so on, depending of what you want with your life. This they call The Educational Ladder.

About 10 percent of children in the United State are sent on to private schools. A lot of these schools give religious instruction which the public schools don’t give. A lot of parents who lives in large cities choose to send their children to Catholic or other religious schools because they think they are safer and have higher academic standards.

There are also elite private schools which only a wealthy family can afford. At these schools scholarships are offered to talented students. Parents often send their children to these schools so they can maintain the upper-class position which they have from their parents.

Schools in districts with middle-class or wealthy families have more tax money to spend on the school than families in poorer districts have fewer money to spend on them, so they don’t have the fancy computers and the latest equipment like the rich schools.

Attending an American University

It costs to go to college; so many Americans can’t afford to go to expensive private schools so many have a job during their college years, just to pay the school, the books and the fact living away from home. And therefore many choose a community college in their hometowns because it is so much cheaper for two years and then some transfer to a state university later on. For those how come from a wealthy family and can afford the private schools they have more choices in school.

Today over half of all Americans have entered college, and those parents who couldn’t go to college when they were young really want to see their daughter or son go to college. Before World War 2 Harvard was only for elite students, but today also students from public high schools come to Harvard.

The Monetary Value of Education

About education the belief in the United States is that the more schooling you get the more money you’ll earn then you finish school. In the past it was possible to get a high-paid factory job without a college education. Unlike most of the jobs in the United State today require a college education or higher education, or you will only get a low-paid job such as in fast food restaurants and small stores.

Many public and private schools are making it easier to take classes; even if you’re not on the campus through something they call distance learning.

Educating the Individual

The goal of the American Education system is to teach children how to learn and to help them reach their maximum potential. There are clubs for the students outside the school for almost every student interest, art, music, drama and so on. And they are all to help the student become successful later on in life and the parents’ interests in the things they do is just as high as for the ordinary studding.