School Education systems in the USA.

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SCHOOL EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN THE USA

1. Word study. Read the following words and phrases you will need while

listening to the text.

elementary school - grade school assistant

patriotic on the playground

crackers nature - study

microphone physical training

American flag technical aid

2. Listen to the text and find answers to the following questions.

1. When do the lessons begin and when do children come to school?

2. What do they do at school?

AMERICAN SCHOOLS: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Children in the USA go to school at the age of six. They begin to study at the elementary schools. They are also called a grade school. Children study in elementary schools to the age of 12.

In elementary schools the children have lessons from Mondays to Fridays. No lessons on Saturdays and Sundays. So the children study five days a week. They come to school at 8.30. Before beginning of lessons at 9.00 children sing patriotic songs about the American flag.

Each lesson lasts half an hour. At 10.30 children have mini-lunch.

At 11.00 they have a lesson of writing.

A teacher uses a technical aid, she writes the new words and all pupils can see and copy the words.

As the teacher writes at the same time she (or he) speaks into microphone so that all the pupils can hear her (or him).

Teacher’s two assistants walk about the classroom and correct the children’s writing.

At 11.50 the pupils prepare for lunch. They eat from 12 to 12.30 after which they have 20 minutes of physical training on the playground.

After that one more lesson. This is a lesson of nature study and then the lessons are over. It is half past one and all children go home.

(From “Education in the USA'', p. 20)

3. Read and learn to translate.

• Mark Hopkins was a noted nineteenth-century educator in the United States.

Mark Hopkins (February 4, 1802 – June 17, 1887) was an American educator and Congregationalist theologian, president of Williams College from 1836 to 1872. An epigram - widely attributed to President James A. Garfield, a student of Hopkins - defined an ideal college as "Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other"

• More public money is spent for education than for the nation’s defence.

• Knowledge is still the ultimate objective of education.

• Harvard College (USA) was founded in 1630;

• it followed the Oxford and

• Cambridge models.

• Why do we study? What is our purpose of studying? The main purpose is to help ourselves get ahead in life.