To think behaviour in USA schools is better than UK?

[NowIknowMyEFGs]

Any Americans on here who can tell me what behaviour is like in high schools in the states? In the UK it's pretty dire, bad language is rife, treatment of girls by boys is obscene, vaping in the toilets, rogue students wandering corridors, uncontrollable classes etc

Not sure of the difference between US and UK schools, I’m sure both have their +s and -s, but I think the Americans on this thread are mistaking our utter bafflement and fear of the frequent school shootings in the US as anti—American sentiment. I think they have become inured whilst it is incomprehensible for us.

I was in America for 3 months and saw about 6 school attacks on news, one in a nursery due to argument with staff. Load of toddlers shot sooooooo yeah interesting..

The description of the UK schools is just as bad as many of the PPs claiming everyone gets shot/raped in most US high schools 🙄 stereotypes much?

@evuscha

In 2022 there were at least 177 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 57 deaths and 148 injuries nationally

19 Countries with the Most School Shootings
United States — 288
Mexico — 8
South Africa — 6
Nigeria & Pakistan — 4
Afghanistan — 3
Brazil, Canada, France — 2
Azerbaijan, China, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Russia, & Turkey — 1

You know how many in England since we banned guns? None. So yes I don't think it's a stereotype.

@evuscha that amount is also increasing at a drastic amount. In 2013 there were only 52 shootings but every year it's been going up and now it hits the 200s per per

It takes 3 great britains and a wales to match the area of Texas. - yes, and that is just one state of 52
Population is 300million
A very wealthy country unlike us
It is nonsensical to compare the US to the UK.

The school shooting issue is real but it's also very easy to get a distorted picture of the problem. the numbers are not just shootings like Sandy Hook and Parkland but shootings that are the result of background violence in the city or neighbourhood. As such they are not at all randomly or evenly distributed. Someone in Baltimore or the south side of Chicago is going to have a very different experience from someone in suburban Virginia (don't get me started on that case with the 6yo: both the parents and the school dropped the ball very very badly, the child had significant issues and they were not handled appropriately. the mother has been indicted as a result). This is reflected in overall crime and gun violence statistics. The disparities are really shocking. Even gun ownership has an immense variation: 5% in Delaware, 61% in Alaska.

There were 17 homicides in my county in 2022. In the city of Baltimore, same state, there were 333. My county has nearly twice as many people as Baltimore.

I worry about the fools who now think it's a good idea to answer the front door with a gun.

I’m not saying the gun issue isn’t real and I’m obviously pro gun control.
But to say “every high school in the US had a stabbing/shooting/raping incident in the last 5 years” as implied in one of the PPs is a bit of a stretch and yeah a stereotype.

I have lived across 7 US states before ending up in the UK, and I have family with kids in school across more than that, and none of us (including those in Deep South) have ever experienced gun violence. It is a major problem in US society, but the implication that US kids face daily danger and are afraid to go to school is just wrong. It would be like asking why everyone in London isn’t constantly terrifying of getting stabbed or facing an acid attack - two crimes that get a lot of hype in US (mainly conservative) media coverage of London.

if you have no direct experience, and can only rely on stereotypes from the media, I don’t know why you think you have anything meaningful to contribute

My child has severe autism and learning disabilities and goes to!a special school here in the UK , im, on an American Facebook group.for parents of children with similar needs ,s lot struggle with the education system ,are there special school,s in the US ?
because many of the kids seem to.be in mainstream schools but in special education classe,s obviously the quality of SEN,education us variable across the UK too with some areas having more provision than others .

Yes, I’ve actually been to USA High. Every student is well behaved, smartly dressed, and always hands homework in on time. It’s lovely there.

Or, as in reality, there is a wide variety of areas and schools just as there is in the UK. Which I’m sure you know.

And I’m struggling to see why you would post something so ridiculous. I mean behaviour in the UK schools can definitely be bad but (touch wood) nobody at my school has ever shot any of their classmates. Do you really think American schools have no problems whatsoever and do school shooting drills for fun?

I don’t think that’s true. It’s not people being naive about schools in Britain, it’s op being naive about schools in the USA. I absolutely believe all those behaviours take place in most schools in the UK (even if only by a minority in some schools). However, I’m also aware that they happen in most other schools around the world too.

Yes but this is mumsnet ,this rest of the world does everything better than the UK including Teen behaviour apparently🙄

School shootings anyone? How many in USA just this year? As if.

@x2boys

You mean you can’t instantly spot Brits in any foreign country by their slobby appearance, brash mannerisms, and ugly children? Shocked!

I have 2 kids with ASD.
there are special schools in the US, however IDEA requires that students be kept in the "least restrictive environment" and mainstreaming is emphasised. Hence there are special education classes in mainstream schools.

this isn't perfect; some kids do better in specialist schools (they can be private and like the UK you then have to get it paid for). On the other hand, I've had friends & family back in the UK talk about their kids being permanently excluded, left without a school, or told to only attend part time because they "can't cope" which are things that can't happen here. For some disabilities it is more likely to be specialist: severe ASD that requires a very low ratio class, blind students who need Braille instruction, Deaf students who want full-time ASL classes, students who need intensive emotional support would be things that are more likely to go to a special school that would have a much larger catchment area.

At some level all parents of kids with ASD fight the system to get their kids what they need, and parents who are having a good experience are less likely to post about it in a Facebook group. I would say, though, that the legal protections in the USA seem better. And at the moment, it's absolutely easier to get a child assessed & diagnosed here -- it's much harder for the school system to refuse, and even if they did, you can have it done via the health care system without them. When I wanted mine assessed I simply called up and put them on the list and it took a few months to get scheduled.

I have certainly had to be proactive and ask the school system for things -- but in the end I have generally gotten what my kids need.

I wouldn't want to send my dc to school in America. It would freak me out them having to do active shooter drills and go through metal detectors just to go to school.

Schools in Scandinavian countries sound nice.

Exactly this.

@hummingbirdsinmygarden if you read my post again you will see I said that there are 27,000 HIGH SCHOOLS as the OP mentioned High Schools specifically in her post.

Of course in total there are 100,000 of public schools because that counts all the elementary and middle schools. I mentioned public and private High Schools.

Weirdly, nobody at my local high school has ever shot any of their classmates either. The high school was founded back in 1873. That's 150 years of everyone rubbing along pretty well together.

If that's all you've bothered to learn about life in the US, then it is actually anti-American sentiment.

It would be akin to me deciding never to live in the UK and deciding the British must spend a lot of their time shrugging their shoulders because I've heard about county lines and the level of knife crime, seen scenes of football hooliganism, and footage of certain city centres on New Years Eve.

I do think some Americans are in denial.

This chart is scary, watching from abroad.

I’d rather the initial post than school shooters to be honest….

@MinervaSaidThat i don’t think anyone on this thread has indicated they find the gun situation in the US acceptable. It is a major cultural divide in the US, and a solid majority of Americans favour more gun control (democracy <> representative).

what we object to is reducing the entire educational system in the US down to guns. There are so many absolutely brilliant aspects to the US educational system, which many of the posters with actual direct experience have attested to.

while I and a majority of Americans would love to see more restrictions on guns, my kids are more likely to be injured in an automobile accident on the way to school than an American kid is likely to experience by gun violence.