Growing up in another country, my friends and I used to talk about things that we thought were true about American schools. Fast forward a few years (well, more like many years) and now that I am living in the States, I can finally say that some of the things we thought were true, while others were not so much.
Here is a list of things that my friends and I thought were true about American schools, why we were interested in it and what I know now (from first-hand experience).
1. Children in American Schools Don’t Have Homework
When I was in school, we had to complete a lot of homework every day and one of my classmates started mentioning that schools in America were homework-free (so we obviously started dreaming about coming to school here).
What I can say now is that is not always the case. I do know a couple of schools here in the city that do not have mandatory homework for children, but I know that many of the public, private, and charter schools do ask students to take home some assignments.
2. Free Ice Cream in the Cafeteria
This one was a big one! I remember talking with my friends about the fact that in the USA, students were able to eat all the ice cream that they wanted for free. While I have found out that this is absolutely false, I did come to learn that in America, a variety of ice cream sandwiches, ice cream bars, etc. can be found in school cafeterias (in my cafeteria, I only had an option to buy different flavors of popsicles).
3. School Buses
When I was little, I watched many movies that contained a yellow school bus in them and I thought they were cool. Then, when I first came to America, I realized that the school buses did exist in real life! I did get to ride a school bus when when I was in high school and now, every time I see a school bus in the streets, I still find them mesmerizing.
4. Uniforms vs Day-Clothes
Another thing that my peers and I thought was that every student in the US had the opportunity to go to school in day-clothes, in other words, to not wear uniforms. Now that I have been living here, I have come to discover that this is not 100% true, because there are some schools that do require uniforms and others that don’t.
5. School Calendar
Another thing that I thought when I was young, was that students in America went to school for less days than in other countries. I thought it was nice that schools in America got out for the summer break at the end of May/beginning of June. I always had to be in school until the end of June/beginning of July. We did go back to school a week or two later than here, but in general school calendar in my country is 195 days vs. here where it is 180 days. So this theory has held to be true.
As I looked back and remembered all of this, I came to realize that some of my childhood expectations of American schools are actually true, some are partially true, while others are not true at all.
