NationStates Jolt Archive

Can some explain the names in the US eduaction system. Ones like Freshman, sophomore etc.

I know kindergarten is the lowest, and I think you go to grade 1, btw what is the highest grade too?

Kindergarten is 0
1st grade
2nd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
5th grade
6th grade
7th grade
8th grade
9th grade (also called freshman)
10th grade (also called sophomore)
11th grade (also called junior)
12th grade (also called senior)

here goes,

kindergarden
grades 1-8
freshman
sophomore
junior
senior

Neener neener poo poo

Beat you here.

Neener neener poo poo

Beat you here. Pffffft!!!!! :D by seconds

That's exactly the same as the Australian (well New South Wales at least) education system except we dont get called anything. :D :D

Pre-school (optional, recommended)
Kindergarten
1st grade
2nd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
5th grade
6th grade
8th grade
9th grade (Freshman)
10th grade (Sophomore)
11th grade (Junior)
12th grade (Senior)
College Freshman
College Sophomore
College Junior (?)
College Senior

Why the extra names though. I can understand Freshman (assuming it is the first year of high school) and senior but not sophomore.

public school suck0rz. a home schooled education is where it's at :wink:
I have proof, my IQ is like 15 points higher than the average government issued educated kid my age.

public school suck0rz. a home schooled education is where it's at :wink:
I have proof, my IQ is like 15 points higher than the average government issued educated kid my age.

Yet you use words like "suck0rz"?

Why the extra names though. I can understand Freshman (assuming it is the first year of high school) and senior but not sophomore.

Sophomore is basically your 2nd year in a 4-yr school (10th grade, 14th grade)

Why the extra names though. I can understand Freshman (assuming it is the first year of high school) and senior but not sophomore.

Sophomore is basically your 2nd year in a 4-yr school (10th grade, 14th grade)

Yes I know that, but why the name?

A sophomore is a second-year student. Etymologically, the word means 'wise fool'; consequently sophomoric means "pretentious, bombastic, inflated in style or manner; immature, crude, superficial" (according to the Oxford English Dictionary).

So, it was basically to give second-year students in University a name. However, it also displays that while they are becoming wise, they are still in the foolish early years in their education.

Incidentally, the names began in University, and then trickled their way down to high school.

And I must agree with Sdaeriji, speaking of your high intellegence and then using a term like "suck0rz" seems like a bit of a contradiction.

Why the extra names though. I can understand Freshman (assuming it is the first year of high school) and senior but not sophomore.

Sophomore is basically your 2nd year in a 4-yr school (10th grade, 14th grade)

Yes I know that, but why the name?
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sophomore

Another words, a student who has already been somewhat schooled in the art of sophistry :D

Ha ha ha ha. Exactly. When I was a sophomore, I was well schooled in just that. :wink:

In addition, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior are used for four-year colleges.

Also, schools are generally broken into three phases, usually in separate buildings altogether. The 9th through 12th grades are High School, 7th and 8th are either "Junior High," or as is more common today, "Middle School" (depending on the school district, 6th grade may be included, and sometimes even 5th). Kindergarden through 4th, 5th, or 6th (whatever isn't Middle School) is "Elementary School" (sometimes "Grade School," and way back when, "Grammar School"). Students start in Kindergarden at five years old, so a student who progresses normally (without having to repeat a grade) will graduate High School at eighteen (unless his/her birthday is over the summer, as mine is, in which case he/she will be only seventeen at graduation).

Some schools also only have Kindergarden classes for half of the normal school day (mine didn't), and some parents send their four-year old children to a "preschool," which is a nonmandatory, usually privately-run, organisation which--and my memory of such is a little fuzzy--is basically a childcare center operated sort of like a school (but the children aren't going to learn any significant facts that they couldn't pick up off of Sesame Street*). And a few schools even make Kindergarden optional.

In states that allow parents to homeschool their children, they're generally required to pass exams showing them to be at least as proficient as children who are enrolled in public schools (in America, "public schools" are state-run, and most if not all states allow private organisations--usually Catholic Churches--to run "private schools"). Given the state of public schooling in America, this is not too difficult.

* Sesame Street is a children's educational television program, in case they don't have it in your country (I'm pretty sure most countries have some variant).

Not for the first time am I happy of not having to go through the USA educational system... :wink:

Oh, its not that bad really. When I was going to school in Philadelphia, we were all issued 9mm handguns along with our textbooks. My aim has never been better.

public school suck0rz. a home schooled education is where it's at :wink:
I have proof, my IQ is like 15 points higher than the average government issued educated kid my age.

Yet you use words like "suck0rz"?

and he also seems to think that a single data point makes for a trend. perhaps home schooling isn't doing the trick after all...

At my old school I think it went like this:


K-5 at the Elementary School

6-8 at the Middle School

and 9-12 at the High School