Post what you are thinking right now, part two

["couldbecousin"]

  I have to work on my communication deficiencies. 

Whaaaa? you mean you're autistic, weeble ? oh noes.

  I have to learn to speak up directly when I am insulted, and to take criticism without tears. 

["couldbecousin"]

PS. Anybody who still believes in British Education, stop it. It's just an empty  glossy package that we're selling to the rest of the world, because we haven't got anything else to sell.  I am only half  joking.

  As an American, I am intrigued by British Education, the O levels and A levels and whatnot.
  It sounds as if a British kid can take exams on his own schedule and leave school as young as 15 or 16?
  Maybe I'm missing something.  In the U.S., we have to attend four years of high school in order to
  graduate, though a very few manage to finish a little early.  British education seems more flexible. 

[Walkie]

PS. Anybody who still believes in British Education, stop it. It's just an empty  glossy package that we're selling to the rest of the world, because we haven't got anything else to sell.  I am only half  joking.

  As an American, I am intrigued by British Education, the O levels and A levels and whatnot.
  It sounds as if a British kid can take exams on his own schedule and leave school as young as 15 or 16?
  Maybe I'm missing something.  In the U.S., we have to attend four years of high school in order to
  graduate, though a very few manage to finish a little early.  British education seems more flexible. 

I belong to  the last generation to take "O" levels. They've been replaced by GCSE, which is a whole lot easier to pass. These are usually taken at age 16, which is the standard school leaving age.  After that,  staying on at school to take "A" levels is optional, assuming you got decent grades at GCSE.  Most kids sit 3 "A "level subjects.  Some of the "A" level curriculi have also ben dumbed-down, since I was at at school.  The science textbooks in particular read more like coffee-table books, because they tried to make the science more accessible to kids who are not so good at maths. To my surprise,   Maths "A" level is still just as challenging, as before , IMO. Perhaps more so, because it squeezes in all the stuff that used to be in the "o" level syllabus, but got dropped in the switch to GCSE.

Anyways, the kids sit "A" levels at 18, normally.  So I guess  that's equivalent to your "High school" education? Good grades at "A" level will get usually get you an automatic place at Uni.  Bare passes at "A" level will work for  some Unis.  Probably a letter of recommendation scribbled on a bit of spare toilet paper will work with my local Uni.

But that's where  our free education.ends, these days.   English kiids no longer get maintainence grants for Uni , no longer get their fees paid by the state, they need wealthy parents or else a bloody great loan (I hear it's different in Scotland, which is why I said English, specifically). This frees up more places for fee-paying foregn students, i suppose, and helps the Economy.  (All hail!) . British Universities continue to expand exponentially. At least, the local one does. (Grrrrrr)

Enough?

["couldbecousin"]

PS. Anybody who still believes in British Education, stop it. It's just an empty  glossy package that we're selling to the rest of the world, because we haven't got anything else to sell.  I am only half  joking.

  As an American, I am intrigued by British Education, the O levels and A levels and whatnot.
  It sounds as if a British kid can take exams on his own schedule and leave school as young as 15 or 16?
  Maybe I'm missing something.  In the U.S., we have to attend four years of high school in order to
  graduate, though a very few manage to finish a little early.  British education seems more flexible. 

I belong to  the last generation to take "O" levels. They've been replaced by GCSE, which is a whole lot easier to pass. These are usually taken at age 16, which is the standard school leaving age.  After that,  staying on at school to take "A" levels is optional, assuming you got decent grades at GCSE.  Most kids sit 3 "A "level subjects.  Some of the "A" level curriculi have also ben dumbed-down, since I was at at school.  The science textbooks in particular read more like coffee-table books, because they tried to make the science more accessible to kids who are not so good at maths. To my surprise,   Maths "A" level is still just as challenging, as before , IMO. Perhaps more so, because it squeezes in all the stuff that used to be in the "o" level syllabus, but got dropped in the switch to GCSE.

Anyways, the kids sit "A" levels at 18, normally.  So I guess  that's equivalent to your "High school" education? Good grades at "A" level will get usually get you an automatic place at Uni.  Bare passes at "A" level will work for  some Unis.  Probably a letter of recommendation scribbled on a bit of spare toilet paper will work with my local Uni.

But that's where  our free education.ends, these days.   English kiids no longer get maintainence grants for Uni , no longer get their fees paid by the state, they need wealthy parents or else a bloody great loan (I hear it's different in Scotland, which is why I said English, specifically). This frees up more places for fee-paying foregn students, i suppose, and helps the Economy.  (All hail!) . British Universities continue to expand exponentially. At least, the local one does. (Grrrrrr)

Enough?

  Excellent, thanks for the explanation!  I guess I wish I had found a way to leave school myself
  at a young age, already skilled and employable.  I should have gone to a trade high school.  Oh well ... 

[odeon]

I'm bored.

[rock hound]

Carla and Amber are on their way home from Puerto Rico.  Then a bus trip to the city near me from Logan where I can pick them up!   

[Al Swearegen]

Carla and Amber are on their way home from Puerto Rico.  Then a bus trip to the city near me from Logan where I can pick them up!   

Nice. Good stories to share with you.

[rock hound]

Carla and Amber are on their way home from Puerto Rico.  Then a bus trip to the city near me from Logan where I can pick them up!   

Nice. Good stories to share with you.

I'm sure they will!   

[Lestat]

16 is the minimum leaving age.  Or it might have been increased to 18 since I left.

[renaeden]

Sometimes unis have enabling courses. I did one called Ontrack. Means anyone who couldn't get in the traditional way (straight after high school) has a chance to prove themselves worthy to get in by doing uni level work. I had to do two essays and two presentations. They were hard but fun.

[Walkie]

We have similar courses here. British education is messed up right the way through, though. We have kids emerging dfrom 12 years compilsory schooling  as illiterate as when they went in. There are a lot of complementary theories as to why this is.  increasing child poverty, for one  (hungry children can't learn well); lack of discipline; over-large class sizes; over-regulaton, over-standardisation  and over-testing ( a huge problem, , if you pay attention to what the teachers are saying); and the absurd  poiicy of putting migrant/immigrant children who can't speak english straight into mainstream classes, at all levels , even up to GCSE level. Add  an inflexible testing regime on top of that, and it's not  hard to imagine  the demotivating effect on teachers and pupils alike; they are all faced with an impossible task. 

[Walkie]

Actually, Govenment policies down the years have been so consistently destructive in the field of Education, that you have to suspect a secret agenda to back-pedal towards Victorian times, when the working class were too uneducated to raise awkward questions. Alternatively  you might suspect that the politicians are just plain stupid, on account of their messed-up schooling, but you'd be wrong there; most of them emerge from our so-called Public Schools (which is Britspeak for private schools) which are still just as effective as ever.

[renaeden]

Uni used to be free here in Australia, not anymore. I used HECS which means that when I get a job and earn over a certain amount, money will be taken out of my pay to gradually pay off my HECS debt.

With college it is different. I either had to pay up front or choose a payment plan. I chose the latter as I don't have over $1000 to pay up front. Still, the payment plan has me broke every fortnight.

[Walkie]

Exactly the same here. With the effect that working class people are discouraged from going into higher educucation, even supposing that they manage to qualify academically (increasingly unlikely) . So much for the "classless society". It was a lot closer to being  classless back when I was a kid , and nobody was banging any drum about it being classless. Genuinely free education, and honestly well-motivated Education policies were enabling intelligent working-class kids to move up into the middle class,   to the point that the boundary between the two was becoming pretty meaningless.  That's not happening now. Everything's  based on money, nowadays, and the middle class is now being populated with overprivileged oiks.
 

[Walkie]

16 is the minimum leaving age.  Or it might have been increased to 18 since I left.

If you mean Britain, it's still 16,. There was a brief attempt to encourage underpriveleged kids to stay on past 16, by offereing them an "Education Maintainaence Allowance" (about £30 pw) but that got dropped. I think the Government realised there were cheaper ways of doctoring the unemployment figures.

So, where you living now? I noticed that Hyke  listed you as a Brit, which suprised me, on account of one or two things you'd said (can't recall what)  which suggested to me you were somwhere in the States .