Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
192Kviews
32 Seemingly Normal Things About American Schools That Confuse The Hell Out Of Non-Americans
Growing up in a European country and never witnessing what it's like to go to an American school, watching American high school comedies, to me, has always been a pretty surreal experience. I'm sure that most of you fellow non-Americans reading this article could relate to me on this.
There are so many things about American schools that have always seemed utterly fascinating to me. For instance, you get letter grades instead of number ones, schools have swimming pools inside them, there's a club for almost anything, you have to get a hall pass to go to the bathroom during class, and lunch meals are usually pretty bizarre. The list goes on. With that being said, Bored Panda invites you to look through this list of tweets from non-American Twitter users in which they share things that they find the strangest about American schools. Feel free to explain to us the things we don't understand or add your own in the comment section!
This post may include affiliate links.
#3
Caitlin Davenport 3 years ago
Yes, but the cheerleaders were just normal students, not stuck up and they didn't wear their uniforms in class.
#5
Charlotte A. 3 years ago
In Sweden it starts in august and ends in june. Nothing odd about it, to me.
#7
#8
Caitlin Davenport 3 years ago
They used to have E as a failing grade, but people thought it meant Excellent, so they changed it to an F.
#12
Aunt Messy 3 years ago
Canadian here. They don't close schools in Canada unless it's been colder than -40C for three days in a row.
#13
Imtiredandiwannagotobed 3 years ago
Because we put all our budget into our announcements and lockers
#18
Eva Bryson 3 years ago
Yes, teachers want you in class to learn, not loitering in the bathroom.
#19
SimplySarcastic40 3 years ago
yep...at least in the suburbs because most of us start driving at 16
#21
The Zooble 3 years ago
To be very honest, I'm English and I usually do page count rather than word count
#25
Caitlin Davenport 3 years ago
So we aren't "distracted". Even rooms with windows usually had the blinds closed.
#26
Caitlin Davenport 3 years ago
Not really. We have nearby schools we compete against in sports, but any rivalry is very light-hearted.
GC 3 years ago
Not when I was in school. Rivalry was real and strong. When my parents were in school it was worse. My Dad went to an extremely large school in Southern California. He was a stereotypical “greaser” with the cigarettes in the sleeves and his hair slicked back. A real trouble maker. On game night he and his buddies went to the rival school and poured a C ( for Chaffey High) in gasoline on their lawn and lit it on fire. Yeah. Not too smart. Luckily nothing happened.
Load More Replies...
David Paul 3 years ago
We had a rivalry with two schools -- but no one ever got crazy like they show in the movies. Amother stereotype pf America.
Girl_In_Red 3 years ago
My school have a rivalry school but the students started the rival not the teachers.
The Harry Potter person 3 years ago
Yes. I have 2 high schools in my town. It's basically democrats vs republicans here.
Layla Holston 1 week ago
I'd say that at my high school we have a "rivalry" with escanaba. its a small town so this is like the only excitement we get.
Lauretta Payne 1 year ago
This is an outgrowth of sports competitions, and of social/economic disparity between school districts. In America, there are federal, state,, and local school district regulations - all of which may be different. So, schools in the city of Chicago may run very differently than schools in, for example, Adair, Iowa.
Bill Skinner 2 years ago
Depends on the area, my HS was very 'prideful' and though it was usually a superficial in its rivalry, there were times when Teenagers would get into fights if they were at a party, or a show, and a rival group from another HS was present. I believe each town has its own personality, and this applies the school as well. I've been to High Schools that were 'Chill', and I've been to others (like the one I remembered above) that are xenophobic, and cocky. PS: Again, my age, I graduated in '88. It was also a different time.
Nightshade1972 2 years ago
I went to HS in a district with (at the time) three major high schools. The schools had a rivalry with each other, as well as rivalries with competing HSes from other districts.
Philly Bob Squires 3 years ago
Mastbaum had some serious rivals in Frankford High. We were worse than Eagles fans during a Dallas game at some places.
Susan Egan 3 years ago
Our schools have very diverse teams and there were some communities that we played against that were pretty racist. There was a real rivalry there.
Susan Thomas 3 years ago
Not like you see. Just bragging rights for who wins the football games.
Patti Renwick Parrish 3 years ago
OH MY GOSH YES! There were 4 public high schools in my city and the rivalry was very real
Kimberly Herbert 3 years ago
Depends - My HS had to rivalries that got very heated and resulted in vandalism. One school's senior class had its prom money taken by the district to pay for damage at my school. This is money the class had raised for 4 years to pay for prom and reduce the cost of tickets. The class officers were caught vandalizing our school so the whole class was punished. It was the adults' fault. Both the rival schools were being closed due to the low population. The lines were being redrawn and kids from those schools would go to my HS. The thing ist they could have kept those schools open but dropped them from Super 5A to 5A or 4A schools. That would have offended the great god football. (Super 5A, 5A, 4A down to 1A are sizes of schools. schools the same size compete against each other in sports. )
Charlotte Shortt 3 years ago
YES THEY DO I AM IN MIDDLE SCHOOL AND THE. HIGH SCHOOLS HAVE BIGGGGGG RIVALRYS
beautiful plumage 3 years ago
all depends on how seriously your school takes certain sports. the two largest and most hotly contested sports in the usa are typically: football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and/or hockey. if you have a legacy of being good at any of those, you're likely to seriously care about your team's performance. you then often have a school rival in that sport.
Blueberry Woofle 3 years ago
me and my older brother absolutely despise our 'rival' school for literally no reason
Dippin Dot 3 years ago
Rivalries are a definitely thing - high school, college, professional sports.
Eric Lafleur 3 years ago
I know we had. It was about sports and ratings; there even was a high school where the rejects and expulsed students ended up to. And there was THAT school in a rich neighbourhood that every kids hated...
Whawhawhatsis 3 years ago
The really nasty rivalries are saved for college. My dad went to University of Texas, which has a rivalry with Texas A&M that has been going on since before he was born. He would tell me stories of the things they'd do to Aggies, as the A&M students are called (the A stands for "Agricultural), who they'd catch on the U of Texas campus. Nothing truly evil, just crazy college pranks, but they really put their hearts into them. The school I went to didn't have any long-term rivalry like that.
Antonia Schofield 3 years ago
Yes yes yes I loved it because my brother went to my rival school.
Antonia Schofield 3 years ago
It really just depends on the area u are in
Load More Replies...
Cassy Michael 3 years ago
Depends on the school, my high school in Arizona's rival was also our sister school (we kinda had a fine arts school and an academia school, I went to fine arts) so the rivalry was super friendly and we had a cute painted river rock we traded to whoever won the big football game. My Pennsylvania school burned the rival school's mascot (and sometimes best player) in effigy at the big bonfire before the big game, and we had to set guards to keep someone from setting off the fire before bonfire night. It was crazy. I liked the rock better.
JustAWeirdoGirlChild 3 years ago
my school has the battle of 287, ennis vs waxahachie, and they are our rivals even though they suck
Gwenda Christenson 3 years ago
at the College/University level mostly. rival schools/towns do happen, but as stated, it is pretty light hearted.
Hello Dolly 3 years ago
Depend on the part of the USA. Some schools do but it usually in smaller rural areas.
First Name Last Name 3 years ago
Weedland is what other schools call woodland (my school) and we call Heron Creek heroin crack...
Roadkill The Brave 3 years ago
Oh if you think our Pro or College sports are competitive 😂😂 They start that off young. In the town I spent most of my childhood in there were 3 public high schools and 1 private high school. Every year they have a massive football thing where all 4 schools play each other before the season officially starts and whoever wins gets bragging rights. Yes they still face each other during season but seriously the 4 school game is insane.
Betsy Knox 3 years ago
For me, growing up in So. California in the 70s and 80s, we would call the schools we played against in sports our rivals but it was friendly. I played AYSO soccer and many of my team mates there were "rivals" from other schools when we played for our school teams.
Emily Ducat 3 years ago
That was a thing about growing up on the north coast of NSW Australia was their are so many tiny little schools with deep bitter primary school rivalries but then all the kids have to go to combined high schools which make for a frictious start to high school. Fortunately things settle down pretty quickly and it was nice to be able to rely on the older kids from the same primary school to kinda look out for you.
Csilla Kaszas 3 years ago
not just in America. I'm guessing you live in either a city, or a small town, so there were either way too many, or too few schools to develop a rivalry with. (in my country though, we don't have mascot animals, and even if we did, we wouldn't have gone stealing it from another school as a prank... well... some of us might have had.)
Ana Vaquer Perez 3 years ago
Depends, most schools kinda do. Like we compete against other schools but we dont really have rivals. Except in college/university you do have rival schools
3 years ago
At my high school we had a cross-town rival school and it was... intense. I didn't normally go to games but I stayed for a highly talked-about boy's basketball game and one of the COACHES threw a chair! I'm dead serious! No more games for me!
Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 3 years ago
Yes. Just like college football teams. Alabama crimson tide vs. Auburn tigers. And more. The coaches of the college teams get paid millions.
Hailey Scullen-Miller 3 years ago
its not really normal for that but these 2 towns that ive been/are in (been in 1, is still in 1) they hate each other lol
LJ Robinson 3 years ago
Yes, we have rival schools. It is usually the closest school to yours, and it's a very active thing. It used to be fun, but has gotten dangerous.
#32
Caitlin Davenport 3 years ago
Candy was usually a very tiny part, if it was there at all. But it was the most exciting part!
Add New Image
What do you think ?
Shelp 3 years ago
I'm European and I read each one of these facts thinking "wait... they do *what*??!"
Doggo 3 years ago
im american and reading these were like: wait other schools dont do that. its pretty cool to read this post and see other people's perspectives
Load More Replies...
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I have no idea what anyone does outside exactly three countries, one of them US, and I think it's a case of "whatever is unfamiliar is weird" here. BTW, clubs at US schools were a great way to pad your CV to get into college/uni, and to not go home to shi**y circumstances. So I'm for the clubs. That 7 AM thing, eh, I grew up in farm country. We were up anyway!
Alex Bailey 3 years ago (edited)
Some of the questions were odd even to me in the UK. In most instances, in many countries, we all have various versions of similar things. Pools in some schools, water fountains in some, after school activities are common place (but not called clubs), ditto lockers. The only thing that stuck out for me was the time of day lessons started and that has pros and cons. Younger children are (usually) naturally earlier risers but there are studies that show older children benefit from later starts. I like hearing how other countries do things but I'd really like another country to take a turn. Bored Panda - why not take the focus OFF the US, just for a moment, and pick countries that are less known and maybe we can share info from them?
Load More Replies...
angie but who cares 3 years ago
but how is having a parking lot wierd ??????????????????
Load More Replies...
spirit wolf 3 years ago
Jeezzz relax!! Just because things are done differently here doesn't necessarily mean it's weird. I had the opportunity to go to schoo in different countries because of the nature of my parents work. I can tell you with great assurance that every one had their own way of doing things and that's all okay.
Aliquid A 3 years ago
A lot of the questions are "do American schools ___?". Which is a fair question... since these people's perception of American schools is from TV. Take cheerleaders for example. Do all American schools have cheerleaders? Or is it just a few of them, but cheerleaders make a good character for a TV show or a movie, so they get over-represented. Same with cafeterias, maybe only like 30% of schools have one, but since it makes such a convenient set, 100% of schools on TV have one.
Load More Replies... Roadkill The Brave 3 years ago
One trend I'm noticing, which is a frequent thing on 'People in the U.S. *insert here*' is that a lot of people posting don't seem to understand just how BIG the U.S. is. Cars are a culture here but of necessity. Public transportation may work in major cities but we have vast areas where you need a car. There is so much diversity in even what is available. I went to a K-12 school once where there were 22 of us my freshman class and we were one of the largest classes they'd had in years, and I've been to a school where my graduating class was over 2,000 people. Both those schools were in the same State just opposite ends of it. Canada gets it, but still, it's something people keep forgetting.
Doug Mullett 3 years ago
Australia - nearly the same size as the USA and public transport does work for students - dedicated school buses.One school I taught at (P-12) had the first student picked up before 7:30 and dropped off by around 5 - a long day if you're 5! All except three students came by bus (those three lived next to the school and were always late!) Our catchment area was well over a thousand square kilometres. In suburban areas where, especially in primary school (P-6) most parents will drop off and pick up, traffic is horrendous at those times and far more dangerous. Walking, riding or public transport is far safer for everyone.
Load More Replies...
Petra Schaap 3 years ago
im not from the States but think this is super silly. Ofcourse Sweden doesnt cancel school when it snows, pretty sure they wont in Alaska either, pretty sure not only schools close, but all hell breaks lose if it will ever snow on Hawaii.... :-D
Aliquid A 3 years ago
You can say that again. If you are FORCED to pledge allegiance, then are you really "free"?
Load More Replies...
AnInrovert 3 years ago
I live in Canada... we do some of these. Some of these just seem... plain weird...
Dynein 3 years ago
I don't live in the USA, but I would wager that most of the people here aren't comparing "US schools vs other schools in the world" so much as "US schools vs THE SCHOOLS IN MY OWN COUNTRY because actually I have no goddamn clue what schools in other countries/continents are like". Some of the posts are true for Germany, or at least not totally unseen, and I definitely know of other countries that do some things in schools differently than we do... different countries are different, who'd have thought.
Colin L 3 years ago
Here's one that they didn't list: SROs (Student Resource Officer) at high schools. We had a police officer assigned to my high school, hypothetically to help students out. In reality, he harrassed some students and was basically useless (I literally reported being threatened by another student with a gun, and he didn't take a statement, register a complaint... nothing).
Benjamin Lensgraf 3 years ago (edited)
This just makes me think the U.S. is the only normal country and European countries are weird.
Martha Meyer 3 years ago
This is weirdly,assuming that all European schools are exactly the same and we all find the exact same things about American schools strange.
Maximum Ride 3 years ago
I’m American and I am just now learning some of these things. My school did not have hall passes, a cafeteria, dances, vending machines, buses, and whatnot.
Mal 3 years ago
US here. What your school has also depends on the wealth of your school district. These can be extremely different from school to school. My elementary-Jr High was in a very well funded system and we had a lot of opportunities and resources in school. Breakfast and lunch was provided and both were awesome. In High School, I moved states and was in poorer district. The school was small, over crowded and underfunded. We had "open lunch" because not all the students could fit in the caf, so we could leave campus for lunch hour. This school was in the mountains so yes the bus took me from home 27 miles to school everyday. If it was too cold, the diesel in the bus would gel and half the kids who lived on the other side of the pass got a snow day because the bus couldn't go.
Joy Stowe 3 years ago
So true! If you lived in a very prosperous district, your school benefitted from that. If you own a house in that district, it's worth more because the schools are usually a cut above the rest, and most Americans want their children to go to the best school possible even if the taxes there are higher.
Load More Replies...
Angela Jester 3 years ago
Maybe it's just my state of mind this morning but it seemed like most of those were "look what dumbf*cks they are in America" statement and not really "you do this and it's different from us. Why?" And a lot of the questions were just strange. Lockers? Water fountains? Lunch rooms?
Mii 3 years ago
Well in my school in Germany we really didn't have lockers, lunchrooms or waterfountains. Everyone brought thier food and water and just ate in the hall or outside. Also I don't think the questions are meant menacingly. It's more of a "wait, it's really like that and not just a clichee we see in movies?!"
Load More Replies...
Csilla Kaszas 3 years ago
I'd like to know, how often do they 'pledge their allegiance to the flag of the United States of America'?
A.M. Pierre 3 years ago
My elementary school did it occasionally, my middle school never did it, my high school did it every single day. It just depends.
Load More Replies...
Botox 3 years ago
The most terrifying thing is lessons from 7 a.m!! )) some other things made me jealous... but not nurse: we have medical rooms and nurses at schools and pediatrician + nurse are in kindergardens . In my childhood there were even weeks of dentist's care, not any more. But still first aid and some vaccination like against flue can be done there
Bellatrix Lestrange 3 years ago
I have never been or heard of a school that had classes starting at 7:00 am most have it start at 8:00 - 8:30 am.
Load More Replies...
Jason Doakes 3 years ago
Most of these are just due to the fact that american schools are usually huuuge. I went to a big business school in Europe when I was 16 and we had almost all of the same "anomalies" listed above. When you have 5000+ students you need to organize stuff on another scale.
Wilf 3 years ago
I did a placement in a US school about 10 years ago. I was so shocked by how old fashioned the teaching was. All the classrooms were just grim lines of individual desks facing front, and it was pretty common for kids to just sit there in total silence while a teacher lectured at the front. The schools were absolutely obsessed with quantative assessments (such as useless multiple choice tests). A lot of teachers were very poorly qualified and not really learning specialists in any modern sense. That sort of treat-everyone-the-same "talk and chalk" teaching style disappeared in the 1980s in my home country. It was a real shock.
Doug Mullett 3 years ago
As an Australian, our public schools don't supply lunches or cafeterias (although some country schools have them). Our students eat their lunch sitting in the yard, or if very young, in the classroom before being allowed out to play. I did work in a private school where staff had a room to eat lunch and had soup supplied if wanted. Swimming pools? Only in private or similar schools. Clubs? Voluntary and in everyone's own time (staff and students). Bathroom passes? We expect our students to wash themselves outside school time. Toilet visits? Usually up to the individual teacher, and refused when too frequent with no reason. Buses to school? I worked at one school where all except three students came to school by bus. The furthest boarded the bus at 7:30 and got home around 4:45 - a long day for a 5 y.o. in Prep. Many students in suburban schools are driven by their (usually) mother - resulting in traffic jams around 8:30 to 9 a.m. and the equivalent in the afternoon.
Don't Look 3 years ago
It all comes down to money and government. All of it. I used to have a difficult time understanding why my parents put me in private schools. Turns out public schools are, at best, just weak.
Jules Caldwell 3 years ago
Deja vu. You guys had basically the same post (most of the same entries) last week. And two weeks ago. And a month ago.
Mimi777 3 years ago
I don’t miss those school lunches but I feel like everyone would always get super excited when it was chicken strip day. Those weren’t bad. I like the mini breakfast pizza it was tasty. But that’s about it. As a kid I absolutely loved snow days and when there was no school. Kids today won’t be able to experience it because there’s virtual learning. Anyways I’m so glad to be finished with school. I hate getting up so early.
Phoenix 3 years ago
Some of these I found odd. Is it really only America that has buses, lockers and clubs?
HyacinthTheRainWing 3 years ago
Canada has all three! My school even had a D&D club, before Covid.
Load More Replies...
Owen Salmon2028 3 years ago
i live in nh i go to kersharge we have nurses mental health people mostly women and lots of over teachers that help the kids its a very ice school with also has many groupes and clubs and a black market for pokymon cards
Owen Salmon2028 3 years ago
yes we have a black market becuse the cards arnt allowed but we dont care right now they have in and at home learning
Load More Replies... 
Aliquid A 3 years ago
America's number 1 export is "media". TV shows, movies, etc. People from other countries watch it, and form their ideas of what "America" is from that... considering that TV & Movies are designed to be entertaining, it is understandable that foreigners see America as being an entertaining place.
Load More Replies...
the pan with a plan 3 years ago
oh no i have a nurse in case someone has an asthma attack oh no i have clubs were i can expand my social circle....save me lol
Load More Replies... Shelp 3 years ago
I'm European and I read each one of these facts thinking "wait... they do *what*??!"
Doggo 3 years ago
im american and reading these were like: wait other schools dont do that. its pretty cool to read this post and see other people's perspectives
Load More Replies... Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I have no idea what anyone does outside exactly three countries, one of them US, and I think it's a case of "whatever is unfamiliar is weird" here. BTW, clubs at US schools were a great way to pad your CV to get into college/uni, and to not go home to shi**y circumstances. So I'm for the clubs. That 7 AM thing, eh, I grew up in farm country. We were up anyway!
Alex Bailey 3 years ago (edited)
Some of the questions were odd even to me in the UK. In most instances, in many countries, we all have various versions of similar things. Pools in some schools, water fountains in some, after school activities are common place (but not called clubs), ditto lockers. The only thing that stuck out for me was the time of day lessons started and that has pros and cons. Younger children are (usually) naturally earlier risers but there are studies that show older children benefit from later starts. I like hearing how other countries do things but I'd really like another country to take a turn. Bored Panda - why not take the focus OFF the US, just for a moment, and pick countries that are less known and maybe we can share info from them?
Load More Replies... angie but who cares 3 years ago
but how is having a parking lot wierd ??????????????????
Load More Replies... spirit wolf 3 years ago
Jeezzz relax!! Just because things are done differently here doesn't necessarily mean it's weird. I had the opportunity to go to schoo in different countries because of the nature of my parents work. I can tell you with great assurance that every one had their own way of doing things and that's all okay.
Aliquid A 3 years ago
A lot of the questions are "do American schools ___?". Which is a fair question... since these people's perception of American schools is from TV. Take cheerleaders for example. Do all American schools have cheerleaders? Or is it just a few of them, but cheerleaders make a good character for a TV show or a movie, so they get over-represented. Same with cafeterias, maybe only like 30% of schools have one, but since it makes such a convenient set, 100% of schools on TV have one.
Load More Replies... Roadkill The Brave 3 years ago
One trend I'm noticing, which is a frequent thing on 'People in the U.S. *insert here*' is that a lot of people posting don't seem to understand just how BIG the U.S. is. Cars are a culture here but of necessity. Public transportation may work in major cities but we have vast areas where you need a car. There is so much diversity in even what is available. I went to a K-12 school once where there were 22 of us my freshman class and we were one of the largest classes they'd had in years, and I've been to a school where my graduating class was over 2,000 people. Both those schools were in the same State just opposite ends of it. Canada gets it, but still, it's something people keep forgetting.
Doug Mullett 3 years ago
Australia - nearly the same size as the USA and public transport does work for students - dedicated school buses.One school I taught at (P-12) had the first student picked up before 7:30 and dropped off by around 5 - a long day if you're 5! All except three students came by bus (those three lived next to the school and were always late!) Our catchment area was well over a thousand square kilometres. In suburban areas where, especially in primary school (P-6) most parents will drop off and pick up, traffic is horrendous at those times and far more dangerous. Walking, riding or public transport is far safer for everyone.
Load More Replies... Petra Schaap 3 years ago
im not from the States but think this is super silly. Ofcourse Sweden doesnt cancel school when it snows, pretty sure they wont in Alaska either, pretty sure not only schools close, but all hell breaks lose if it will ever snow on Hawaii.... :-D
Aliquid A 3 years ago
You can say that again. If you are FORCED to pledge allegiance, then are you really "free"?
Load More Replies... AnInrovert 3 years ago
I live in Canada... we do some of these. Some of these just seem... plain weird...
Dynein 3 years ago
I don't live in the USA, but I would wager that most of the people here aren't comparing "US schools vs other schools in the world" so much as "US schools vs THE SCHOOLS IN MY OWN COUNTRY because actually I have no goddamn clue what schools in other countries/continents are like". Some of the posts are true for Germany, or at least not totally unseen, and I definitely know of other countries that do some things in schools differently than we do... different countries are different, who'd have thought.
Colin L 3 years ago
Here's one that they didn't list: SROs (Student Resource Officer) at high schools. We had a police officer assigned to my high school, hypothetically to help students out. In reality, he harrassed some students and was basically useless (I literally reported being threatened by another student with a gun, and he didn't take a statement, register a complaint... nothing).
Benjamin Lensgraf 3 years ago (edited)
This just makes me think the U.S. is the only normal country and European countries are weird.
Martha Meyer 3 years ago
This is weirdly,assuming that all European schools are exactly the same and we all find the exact same things about American schools strange.
Maximum Ride 3 years ago
I’m American and I am just now learning some of these things. My school did not have hall passes, a cafeteria, dances, vending machines, buses, and whatnot.
Mal 3 years ago
US here. What your school has also depends on the wealth of your school district. These can be extremely different from school to school. My elementary-Jr High was in a very well funded system and we had a lot of opportunities and resources in school. Breakfast and lunch was provided and both were awesome. In High School, I moved states and was in poorer district. The school was small, over crowded and underfunded. We had "open lunch" because not all the students could fit in the caf, so we could leave campus for lunch hour. This school was in the mountains so yes the bus took me from home 27 miles to school everyday. If it was too cold, the diesel in the bus would gel and half the kids who lived on the other side of the pass got a snow day because the bus couldn't go.
Joy Stowe 3 years ago
So true! If you lived in a very prosperous district, your school benefitted from that. If you own a house in that district, it's worth more because the schools are usually a cut above the rest, and most Americans want their children to go to the best school possible even if the taxes there are higher.
Load More Replies... Angela Jester 3 years ago
Maybe it's just my state of mind this morning but it seemed like most of those were "look what dumbf*cks they are in America" statement and not really "you do this and it's different from us. Why?" And a lot of the questions were just strange. Lockers? Water fountains? Lunch rooms?
Mii 3 years ago
Well in my school in Germany we really didn't have lockers, lunchrooms or waterfountains. Everyone brought thier food and water and just ate in the hall or outside. Also I don't think the questions are meant menacingly. It's more of a "wait, it's really like that and not just a clichee we see in movies?!"
Load More Replies... Csilla Kaszas 3 years ago
I'd like to know, how often do they 'pledge their allegiance to the flag of the United States of America'?
A.M. Pierre 3 years ago
My elementary school did it occasionally, my middle school never did it, my high school did it every single day. It just depends.
Load More Replies... Botox 3 years ago
The most terrifying thing is lessons from 7 a.m!! )) some other things made me jealous... but not nurse: we have medical rooms and nurses at schools and pediatrician + nurse are in kindergardens . In my childhood there were even weeks of dentist's care, not any more. But still first aid and some vaccination like against flue can be done there
Bellatrix Lestrange 3 years ago
I have never been or heard of a school that had classes starting at 7:00 am most have it start at 8:00 - 8:30 am.
Load More Replies... Jason Doakes 3 years ago
Most of these are just due to the fact that american schools are usually huuuge. I went to a big business school in Europe when I was 16 and we had almost all of the same "anomalies" listed above. When you have 5000+ students you need to organize stuff on another scale.
Wilf 3 years ago
I did a placement in a US school about 10 years ago. I was so shocked by how old fashioned the teaching was. All the classrooms were just grim lines of individual desks facing front, and it was pretty common for kids to just sit there in total silence while a teacher lectured at the front. The schools were absolutely obsessed with quantative assessments (such as useless multiple choice tests). A lot of teachers were very poorly qualified and not really learning specialists in any modern sense. That sort of treat-everyone-the-same "talk and chalk" teaching style disappeared in the 1980s in my home country. It was a real shock.
Doug Mullett 3 years ago
As an Australian, our public schools don't supply lunches or cafeterias (although some country schools have them). Our students eat their lunch sitting in the yard, or if very young, in the classroom before being allowed out to play. I did work in a private school where staff had a room to eat lunch and had soup supplied if wanted. Swimming pools? Only in private or similar schools. Clubs? Voluntary and in everyone's own time (staff and students). Bathroom passes? We expect our students to wash themselves outside school time. Toilet visits? Usually up to the individual teacher, and refused when too frequent with no reason. Buses to school? I worked at one school where all except three students came to school by bus. The furthest boarded the bus at 7:30 and got home around 4:45 - a long day for a 5 y.o. in Prep. Many students in suburban schools are driven by their (usually) mother - resulting in traffic jams around 8:30 to 9 a.m. and the equivalent in the afternoon.
Don't Look 3 years ago
It all comes down to money and government. All of it. I used to have a difficult time understanding why my parents put me in private schools. Turns out public schools are, at best, just weak.
Jules Caldwell 3 years ago
Deja vu. You guys had basically the same post (most of the same entries) last week. And two weeks ago. And a month ago.
Mimi777 3 years ago
I don’t miss those school lunches but I feel like everyone would always get super excited when it was chicken strip day. Those weren’t bad. I like the mini breakfast pizza it was tasty. But that’s about it. As a kid I absolutely loved snow days and when there was no school. Kids today won’t be able to experience it because there’s virtual learning. Anyways I’m so glad to be finished with school. I hate getting up so early.
Phoenix 3 years ago
Some of these I found odd. Is it really only America that has buses, lockers and clubs?
HyacinthTheRainWing 3 years ago
Canada has all three! My school even had a D&D club, before Covid.
Load More Replies... Owen Salmon2028 3 years ago
i live in nh i go to kersharge we have nurses mental health people mostly women and lots of over teachers that help the kids its a very ice school with also has many groupes and clubs and a black market for pokymon cards
Owen Salmon2028 3 years ago
yes we have a black market becuse the cards arnt allowed but we dont care right now they have in and at home learning
Load More Replies... Aliquid A 3 years ago
America's number 1 export is "media". TV shows, movies, etc. People from other countries watch it, and form their ideas of what "America" is from that... considering that TV & Movies are designed to be entertaining, it is understandable that foreigners see America as being an entertaining place.
Load More Replies... the pan with a plan 3 years ago
oh no i have a nurse in case someone has an asthma attack oh no i have clubs were i can expand my social circle....save me lol
Load More Replies... You May Like “It Wasn’t Nice”: Man Ruins High School Tormentor’s Student Life With The Perfect Revenge Bro’s Chronic Lateness Affects Whole Family, Livid Sibling Decides To Do The Same To Him
Indrė Lukošiūtė
Rūta Zumbrickaitė
Related on Bored Panda
