Thread: SCHOOL

Originally Posted by Mockingbirdflyaway

A friend of mine in Moscow and I got into a discussion about secondary schools a few weeks ago.

After discussing the subject at length, we figured the biggest difference was that in Canada, high school students are allowed to pick and choose the majority of their courses in the last two years of high school, whereas at his school, they didn't have any choices when it came to subjects - they did everything it seemed.

it depends on your school...in my gymnasium we can choose the majority of our courses)

Originally Posted by flowforever

it depends on your school...in my gymnasium we can choose the majority of our courses)

But in the regular public school you have no choice.

Yeah.... He was surprised to learn that I only took Biology for a science course and that I could choose which language to learn (My school district offers French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Spanish and Punjabi...and I take Mandarin and Japanese).

The only course that everyone has to take in my province in Grades 11-12 is English. All other courses are free choice, though you have to be careful that you get enough credits and that you complete the courses required by whichever University you're aiming for.

If school finishes at lunchtime, who looks after the children in the afternoon, if both parents work and no relatives are available to look after them? Do you have a system of after school clubs? If so, are they free?

Are you obliged to send your child to the local school of your catchment area (unless you're paying for private education) or can you apply to different state schools, choose the one you would prefer to have?

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by benace401

Rostova siad something about ОБЖ , whats that?

That's what Rtyom mentioned - basics of safe life (ОБЖ - Основы Безопасности Жизнедеятельности, sometimes it's called БЖД - Безопасность ЖизнеДеятельности). That's the most stupid subject I'v ever had (we studied it at the University too).
That's political correct name for suject we had in the USSR, which was called "military training" or smth like that. We were instructed to fall on the ground when nuclear bomb falls and learned how to use gas-mask. Later they added infomation on accident prevention and health life. But usually schoolchildren and even other teachers don't take it seriously.

In school I was also taught how to assemble and disassemble AK-47 and also how to throw a hand grenade and basics of terrain orientation.
I also remember we were told to pick an operational gas mask filter from a dead body in case ours were exhausted.

Useful skills in our times, wouldn't you say?

Originally Posted by N

I remember one funny thing - nobody asked what language did you want to study - they just divided list of pupils in two and one half had to study French the others - English. In reality very few of graduated student could speak foreign language. There was no practical need in it at the times. Probably today with the internet and such, things have changed.

In my school was the same, where did you learn in what school?