If you went to school in USA…

[Princesspuppy]

Sorry for the stupid question. But I am watching 10 things I hate about you and it got me wondering. Do schools in the US really have car parks for the students? And do the rich kids show up in expensive cars?

I would love to hear your experiences!

Yes most high schools have parking lots for the students in the USA. So they can drive themselves to school ages 16 and up. I got a learner’s permit at 15, driver’s license at 16 and my own little car I saved up for doing cleaning jobs and after school jobs. I drove myself to school in that little car my junior and senior years (16-17 and 17-18). It meant independence and ability to move about freely. Loved it. Lots of teens do this. My son’s school is the same and many students drive themselves to school. A car is a necessity in most places.

In grammar school (grades 1-8, ages 5-12) I walked to school because I happened to live six blocks away. And there are more grammar schools in any given area with the high school taking in students from a group of those grammar schools so students live farther away then.

hold on, age 5 is kindergarten. Ages 6-14 years grammar school, grades 1-8.
Ages 14-18 years high school and grades 9-12 (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior).

I lived in US many moons ago. Pledging was normal. I think every day. High school kids driving was pretty defo normal, albeit I was in a city suburb. Schools were bigger (2000+) and areas big.
All kids got yellow school buses until then

Kids in US don't finish high school til 18

@tadpolecity DS goes to a relatively small High school and has approx 400 parking spots for pupils (that's enough for all 10th, 11th & 12th graders) then the same again for staff and visitors.
The school is in quite a built up area and needed more land so bought the neighboring churches parking lot for pupils to use Monday through Saturday then the church can use it on a Sunday!

Yes, there are car parks for student and staff cars. Where I live, there are also permits thst you buy for street parking. Students come to school in a variety of cars. Obv those who are better off sometimes arrive in more expensive cars, but it's not a hard and fast rule. Hundreds of students walk or ride a bike to school daily too.

It depends on the rules in the state and school district & the school itself.

m my private high school did not allow early graduation but many many schools do. You can graduate early and go to college (Uni) or take college AP classes at the local tech or even at your school. Or you can simply go to work.

lots of kids I knew graduated early. It’s not unusual at all.

This was certainly true in the school my DCs attended.

They had the same daily schedule every day for a semester at a time. Their schedule changed every semester. Best schedule had PE last period, especially if they were swimming for the semester.

My son’s timetable depends on whether it’s a blue or white day. At the end of each semester the timetables change as their subjects change.

Excluding people who don't drive for medical/disability reasons, are there many non-drivers in the USA?

Just comparing the driving lessons forming a normal part of school curriculum in the US with paying a fortune for lessons in the UK and having to fit them round your academic education or work; and (currently) people here having to wait months for a driving test.

The school district is very compact here but densely populated. Bus routes only take the main streets. School busses are only for Special Ed students. The rest have to make their own way to school.

Walking to a bus stop in terrible weather, and waiting there (we have fierce winters here) isn't practical. Also, students who do a sport often have very early morning practices - beginning at 5:30am when school started at 8 in tbe case of one of my DDs who did swimming - and it's nice not to have to schlep them there yourself, though I did that because none of my DCs had a car. People tend to carpool a lot too - a lot of kids drive a car full of friends to and from school or pick up teammates for practices.

Driving lessons are not part of the school curricula where we are in the US.

Typically here in our bit of the US it’s about $400 for the initial Drivers Ed lessons which also includes 10 hours of driving instruction in the car. They then have to do another 60 hours of driving which typically they’d do with their parents.

The wait for a test is usually less than a couple of months. About 30% pass their test first time - it’s not as easy as people imagine.

That’s just my bit of the US. Obviously it varies all over.

They can finish earlier. They might graduate early or they might just not graduate at all. They can go on to get a GED later in life if they want or need to.

My DCs had been doing this daily for years in elementary school before I became aware of it. It was a RC elementary school, and they had classroom prayers before the Pledge. By the time they got to about 12, the juxtapoaition began to strike them all as odd .

In high school, the morning announcements on the loudspeaker invites students to rise and recite the Pledge, but nobody ever did, apparently.

In my State, no driving lessons at all are required, the only requirement is a signed letter from school to confirm attendance is at an acceptable level. The test itself lasts less than 10 minutes then you have 16 year olds on the road driving huge powerful cars, no wonder road traffic accidents are at an all time high!
We did make DS do a weeks intensive driving school as well as taking him out ourselves several hours a week before his test but that's not the experience of many of his peers.

Lockers: my DCs' elementary and high schools had a locker for every student. Kindergarten and PK4 students had cubbies. Lockers lined the halls in both schools. In elementary school the DCs got a new locker every year, outside their classrooms.

In high school, they were assigned a locker to last them all four years. The worst locker assignments were on the top floor. One of my DCs didn't wear a coat all winter because she knew she wouldn't get to the top floor in time to stow her coat and down to her first class.

Yes and yes, and we also had driving lessons and got our driving tests arranged through school. This was a hundred years ago (80s) though so no idea what they do now.

My school had the pledge every day but it is unconstitutional to force a child to day it. Lots of kids don't know that though.

There is no "United States" driving test - each state has its own. I'm from NY where you have to drive on the road with the tester in the car with you. It's fairly straightforward although a lot of people don't pass. I have heard there are states where you drive in a parking lot, which is ridiculous.

Excluding people who don't drive for medical/disability reasons, are there many non-drivers in the USA?

@GroovyGangConscript The vast majority of people drive. The exception might be people who have always lived in large cities with good public transportation. It would be really challenging to live in the suburbs and not be able to drive. Buses often run infrequently and neighborhoods tend to be quite a distance from essential shopping (food etc.)

In the state where I live, you have to pass drivers ed in order to get your high school diploma.

Lessons take place during PE periods, and the driving teachers also teach PE. First semester students are those sophomores with autumn and winter birthdays, and second semester students are those with spring and summer birthdays.

The local HS has a fleet of drivers ed cars and also a driving simulation lab. Each car contains three students and a teacher. Students drive for a bit and then switch places so everyone gets a chance to drive during each class. Students must also practice in the family car on evenings and weekends. Part of the paperwork each student brings to the DMV on completion of the drivers ed course includes a log of 50 hours of driving with a qualified driver in all sorts of road, light, and weather conditions.

There are always more students than places in drivers ed, so the school doesn't let students take the course if they fail the state written exam, which they have to study for and which is taken in the first week of the semester, or if their parents fail to show up for a mandatory evening drivers ed meeting, or if they don't bring required paperwork (birth cert and consent document signed by parents) to school by a deadline. Students who are excluded have to take private lessons at their own expense.

The lessons take the entire semester, with daily theory, simulator, or in-car practice. There is theory homework, based on a state issued textbook. As the weeks progress, student cars travel further from the school onto busier and busier streets, culminating in driving on the highway. People driving near the high school take their lives in their hands in the first two weeks of each semester...

The driving test is done by the drivers ed teacher, with the final grade consisting mainly of driving performance, but with elements of simulator and theory work too. You take your paperwork to the DMV after passing the test at the end of the semester, and there you can be spot tested in the car your mother drives you to the DMV in. DS got spot tested and passed. This is how the DMV does quality control too.

@tadpolecity

My local HS has 3500+ students, so there are far more than 100-300 cars parked in the vicinity of the HS every day. Plus probably a thousand bikes.

Hall monitors:
Security guards are hall monitors in my local HS. There are machines where students must swipe their IDs if they're in the hallways after class starts, thanks to an outcry about African American students being unfairly targeted by teachers for arriving late to class. The machines were a way to establish whether certain groups were being let off for tardiness and others disproportionately punished.

Show and tell:
A very important part of PK4, kindergarten, and first grade, though presentations to the whole class (projects, papers, recitals) continue to be a part of school all the way through, in my experience.

DS did online kindergarten during covid (was as horrific as it sounds)and they pledged allegiance every morning. They had specific kids film it and send it in from home while they were online. He wanted to volunteer to do it and I told him no since we’re not American. Also the whole thing is just so cringe with “liberty and justice for all” - unless you want an abortion or don’t want to be gunned down in school or by the police!

His head teacher also did tannoy announcements every morning and said who had a birthday that day and any other news. That part was actually quite cute.

The high schools definitely had car parks for the students and the kids did drivers ed as a class. Then all they had to do was go sit their test as soon as they turned 16.

I sat my Illinois driving test and it was definitely easier than a Uk one. The theory part was much the same kind of idea. Multiple choice theory questions. You had to pass that first, but you just did it on the computer at the test center. Then you basically waited your turn and then drove the examiner round the block. If you passed they took your photo and that was you done! It was on busy public roads though (test center was on a busy main road. I assume in some quiet areas it would be easier), but it only lasted about 10 min. The worst part was having to wait in a queue for ages at every step of the way so the whole process took hours, but I didn’t make an appointment, just showed up.

American from northern state in Midwest. Yes. We have car parking lots at high school. My daughter had a car at 17. In the 80s I didn't but my bff had a convertible at 16, my high school boyfriend had his parents' hand me down station wagon. Ditto for another high school boyfriend. I learned to drive at 13 on my family's farm but as we lived in the city I couldn't drive there until 15 with adult in car then got license at 16. The wealthier kids had nicer, newer cars but it wasn't uncommon for middle and lower income kids to get their parents' older cars. I was expected to drive my parents (we had 2) cars to help with errands and picking up my little sisters.

Oh. We live in a very progressive area and my kids say the pledge of Allegiance in the morning at their public school and at high school games there's also singing of the national anthem. Like your God Save the Queen (weird you have to say king now :(