I've set my most recent story in the USA but all of my knowledge about the school system there has been picked up from Hollywood and American tv. Are there any Americans around who fancy being interviewed about their high school experience? I have like ten questions at the most but I'd rather have a direct conversation about it than try to write it all up here. Cheers
It's worth noting that the high school experience will be quite different depending on if it's a prestigious private school in New York City versus an inner city school in Los Angeles versus a rural school in the Midwest. If you want the rural Midwest high school experience, I'd be happy to answer some questions.
Oh, it's more like the mechanics of it all... like what year 'freshman' is and when prom/final exams are. That sort of thing. Does that change depending on the school/area?
Freshman is 9th grade. Prom is usually only for Juniors and Seniors except if they bring a date that is younger. Prom is usually in May and finals are usually in May also. Seniors most of the time get out of school sooner than the rest of the grades.
Picture prison. No windows. Low ceilings. Middle aged mothers paid to watch over you while you eat five dollar frozen breadsticks in a shitty "cafeteria."A bell system only an assembly line worker could tolerate. Detention for having an individual thought. Massive amounts of pointless homework.Intense grade inflation. A mafia oriented standardized testing that will dominate the last four years of school. Teachers who don't know jack. Little people who get off being mean to each other. School buses...probably the most degrading experience for us suburban types.
You forgot the stratification of classes within the school. Jocks, nerds, goths, and preppies just to name a few.
Thats changed. In my day it was just preps, dirtbags, and jocks. Now I believe it's just preps (P.C drones). Watch Jump Street 22.
I only sent you the photo shopped ones that make me look hung like a horse. I'm actually hung like a hamster.
Well now I feel like an idiot for sending that photo to National Enquirer. A magazine of that repute will never be able to live down publishing false news!
You know they say that if you close your hand with your middle finger extended, then take the point where it touches your hand/wrist and measure from there to the tip of your middle finer out stretched, it will show the length of your penis.
I'm fine with being messaged, though I find that I'm not all that reliable about keeping up conversations.
That's all good @ChickenFreak @Lewdog has been super helpful so far. I'll message you if there's anything I need to cross reference though, as obviously not all schools are the same in any country (well, maybe North Korea...) but if anyone would actually fancy reading the whole story, that would be amazing! I figure most people are too busy to give a 50,000 word unpublished novel a go, though. I just feel that no matter how many questions I ask there's always the possibility that I slipped up with some little detail I didn't even think about. Then my readers would know I wasn't American and the whole spell would be broken I'm self publishing it at some point, so I'll definitely PM all of you guys who offered if/when I have more doubts.
I grew up in rural Indiana. If you want any info I'd be glad to help! Rural schools are going to be slower paced, have different kinds of issues with facilities, classes, and social environments than some of the other people have posted. When I say "rural", I mean the entire county goes to one highschool and it's surrounded by farms. It took until 2002 for us to decide to say that your gun rack in your pick up couldn't have your hunting rifles in it on school grounds....
Unless your high school is a "regular high school USA" kind of school and you use elements that are clearly from another culture like the "houses" of a British public school, you should be fine. I went to two different high schools because of military life and they had their differences. The high school I went to in Hawaii was 9th - 12th, but when we moved to Florida 9th grade was not part of high school, but instead the highest grade of middle school. The school in Hawaii had a rotating schedule, and of the 6 classes you had, only 5 were gone to on any given day. You would hear students say things like: "Hey, what's today?" "Today's 5-6-1-2-3. No... Wait... I'm wrong. It's 4-5-6-1-2. Yeah, I had math last yesterday so today's 4-5-6-1-2." When I moved to Florida, the schedule was always the same and all classes were attended on every day, of which there were only 5. The above conversation would have sounded alien to anyone there. The school in Hawaii was VERY well funded and we had pep-rallies and events and all kinds of shit that made the school a very dynamic place. The school in Florida - land of golf and osteoporosis - was not well funded and it was just class. No events. No pep rallies. No super-awesome Rhythmettes Dance Team performing in the gym during the rallies. None of that. Both schools had JROTC, in which I was involved my entire high school track. It was the only saving grace in the Florida school because I joined the exhibition drill team and we were really good and went to competitions and went to nationals and all that good stuff. I was the commander of the drill team in my senior year and I've got a bunch of trophies in a box somewhere from those days. It also got me a school "letter". We got sponsorship from Patrick AFB (where my dad was stationed and worked) so the school's general lack of funding was mitigated by this and we got to do some fun things. The school in Hawaii (Radford High School) had a much higher standard of education than the school in Florida as well (Eau Gallie High School). When I went from 10th grade in Hawaii to 11th grade in Florida, I felt like I had taken a time-warp back to 8th grade. My mom almost pulled my brother and I out of our respective schools to send us to the local Catholic school because she was gobsmacked at how behind the classes were. I got placed into AP classes shortly after starting my 11th year just to get back to where I had been in the school in Hawaii. AP (advanced placement) classes are classes where you can earn college credit during high school. But those classes are only offered for core subjects and I quickly got very, very, very bored with the school. Shitty classes, no extras, just JROTC. As you can see, students from either school would have found written descriptions of the other school quite different from what they had experienced. Such is life in America.
While I was in Highschool we used trimesters. That would mean that a lot of your classes would have a part A and a part B. This also, however, meant that some classes had to be sort of...broken up. So first trimenster you might take several part A classes as well as an elective that was only a one trimester class. Second trimester you'd take a lot of those B classes....but you wouldn't be able to get into all of them. So you'd have 1/3 of the year between Algebra 101 A and Algebra 101 B. Then they'd do that on purpose to your Senior classes so that you couldn't "graduate" a trimester early by virtue of finishing all of your required classes for your diploma. After I graduated they switched to a block schedule that would be more like what you're talking about. I fail to see how either are supposed to be easy to understand!
The rotating schedule and additional 6th class in Hawaii were intended to promote early graduation. Rotating meant that no single class always fell in 1st period (still waking up) or after lunch (nap time!). Tiny island, large population of relatively young citizens with lots of high school aged kids, and a HUGE Asian population with parents very focused on a rather hardcore educational trajectory for their children coupled with exceptional funding made graduating early a desirable goal for the school and the general population.
