Originally Posted by neil

You really can make statistics say what you want. For example, a third of all accidents are caused by drunk drivers, that means two thirds are caused by people who are sober. Therefore it must be safer to drive drunk, right?

Originally Posted by CaliforniaBride

Oh, and statistics are a comfort to a fool!

Originally Posted by Ray

Ok Ok... I start the diet next week.......

Originally Posted by GeoKorBarton

Hello,
I know it is hard for the English to understand our custom of graduation from high school. My husband is new to the U.S. and he could not understand why we celebrate it. I had to explain that the reason Americans make such a big deal out of graduation from high school is that parents think that their children worked hard for the diploma. Most children just scrape by with education in this country some are barely able to read and understand.

I am American and I feel really feel sad for some of the children of this country. If you live in a prosperous town or city in America and you pay a lot taxes your children might get a good education. I have a cousin in England who is 16 years old. I was blown away by her knowledge and I looked at her books from school and i felt a bit ashamed because we don't have anything that close in America in teaching our children. I lived in England for two years and the children that I met in England are very mature for their ages. I am truly impressed with English education. I think America needs to lessons from it cousins from across the pond.

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark

People turn a year older every year, too, yet we celebrate birthday parties. Every 365 days the year ends and we start a new one, year after year, yet we celebrate New Year's Eve all the same. So what's your point?



Firstly, if you think graduating from high school has comparable significance to waking up in the morning, then there's nothing I can say to make you understand my point of view.

Secondly, while it may be illegal for British children not to graduate from high school (I don't know if it is or not), it is NOT illegal for a child not to graduate from high school in the US. In fact, many (most?) states allow students to voluntarily drop out of school at 16 years old. Not the smartest move to make, but it's permitted all the same.



Hundreds of dollars of cash?!?! You must share the same social circle as the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers if you see people spending hundreds of dollars on graduation ceremonies!!

Cap & Gown -- $15-20
Diploma -- provided and paid for by the school
Ceremony -- provided and paid for by the school

After my high school graduation, our family and friends went back to our house for hors d'oeuvres, then sat around chatting for a couple of hours. Later my friend picked me up to go to the All-Night Graduation party arranged (and paid for) by the PTA for all the graduates to attend if they wanted to. They had a "casino" (with fake money) and door prizes, a luau and swimming (it was held at the local rec center). Mostly it was an opportunity for me to spend time with my friends one last time before our lives took us in different directions.

I just find it a bit bizarre that people are finding something negative about celebrating one of life's milestones -- graduating from high school. I guess because it's an American tradition that automatically means it's frivolous, right? If this was a typical British custom then it would be seen entirely differently, I suspect...

~ Jenney

Originally Posted by chukka

so what is done for the less academic kids??????????,made to feel worse by the average ones that celebrate.If everybody was academic the world would be fudged.So i say lets teach the "real" workers there trade from an earlier age and give them a break from "traditional" teaching methods,once they have grasped the 3 main ingredients,the 3 R's,which arent really 3 R's

Originally Posted by GeoKorBarton

Hello,
I know it is hard for the English to understand our custom of graduation from high school. My husband is new to the U.S. and he could not understand why we celebrate it. I had to explain that the reason Americans make such a big deal out of graduation from high school is that parents think that their children worked hard for the diploma. Most children just scrape by with education in this country some are barely able to read and understand.

I am American and I feel really feel sad for some of the children of this country. If you live in a prosperous town or city in America and you pay a lot taxes your children might get a good education. I have a cousin in England who is 16 years old. I was blown away by her knowledge and I looked at her books from school and i felt a bit ashamed because we don't have anything that close in America in teaching our children. I lived in England for two years and the children that I met in England are very mature for their ages. I am truly impressed with English education. I think America needs to lessons from it cousins from across the pond.

Originally Posted by ImHere

I agree with you but the trouble is they just hold them back a grade or two and force them to have extra tuition after school and through the holidays so not only are they humiliated by being a couple of years older than their classmates they are frustrated and worn out too...a recipe for some poor kid to go postal and shoot up his school I would say. Funny how you dont get kids in the UK - who generally hate school anyway - going in and murdering half their classmates and a few teachers.

Originally Posted by chukka

so what is done for the less academic kids??????????,made to feel worse by the average ones that celebrate.

Originally Posted by chukka

exactly my point,alienates the less academic,which doesnt mean the less academic kids are useless to society.Who built your house ?,who repairs your car ?, and so on...............

Originally Posted by Jenney & Mark

You don't have to be the brightest star in the sky to graduate from high school. You only need to pass the minimum requirements set up by the state. There were plenty of people in my year who were not academically inclined and absolutely hated school but who graduated. So if anyone deserved to celebrate, it was those kids.

On the flip side, I knew a guy who was probably the smartest one in our school -- scored a 1580 on his SATs -- yet did not graduate because he slacked off so much that he didn't pass the required course in US Government. All the classes he took were advanced -- AP calculus, AP chemistry, AP English, AP French, etc. -- but because he hardly ever did homework he barely passed them. Our AP Government teacher decided to fail him, which meant he couldn't graduate unless he completed another year OR completed a GED. As I went off to college I never found out what happened to him...

~ Jenney

Originally Posted by chukka

You don't have to be the brightest star in the sky to graduate from high school.


What an accomplishment to celebrate then

Originally Posted by ImHere

Perhaps they are celebrating the fact they made it through high school without actually going mental and shooting the place up.

Originally Posted by chukka

You don't have to be the brightest star in the sky to graduate from high school.

What an accomplishment to celebrate then

Originally Posted by Guelder Rose

In years gone by, only a small percentage of people went on to University in the UK, this mainly being due to the fact that not everyone was of the academic standard required. Now, it would seem that education standards have fallen to a level where it is accepted that you are only considered to have a good education if you spend several years at Uni. Leaving school at 16 (UK) and 18 (US) almost seems to be regarded as some kind of failure these days. Nevertheless, of the people I have known, the most successful all left school at 16 years old!

I saw some of the UK examination papers for 14 and 16 year olds from many years ago ... when compared to the current papers it made you realise just how well educated children were back then. Seeing the current papers also made you realise that the children of today had not suddenly all become smarter ... everyone was getting first class examination results because the standards had been dropped.