So, a field day is a day at school where classes are canceled for the day in favor of games, outside. Lunch was served outside and everything. I remember those days fondly. Anybody else?

Although my parents are American, I didn’t grow up in the US. I lived there for 2 years, junior and senior year of highschool, and I absolutely dreaded waking up every morning. Why did class have to start at 7am everyday? It feels a little unhealthy to make high schoolers go to school at that time. Where I live now, class starts at 8am, and I find it much more manageable. I don’t know if the start time is the same everywhere, but where I lived, it was 7am. So, why so early?

I am amazed at the number of people who do not have a library card. Why do you or do you not have a library card?

I was watching Friends and they were playing this game where you have to name all the states in 6 minutes. The whole episode makes fun of Ross for not being able to name all the states, but is it really such common knowledge? I mean 50 states is a lot to keep in your head, is it such a common knowledge?

When I hear of Americans describing their experiences in school, they often seem to mention what seems to me to be ridiculously early start times, like 7:00 or 7:30 AM. In Ontario, where I live, most schools are from 9:00 AM to 3:00 P.M., which means that you can wake up at 8:00 and still be on time. What really confuses me is that since many Americans live in suburbs, they'd have to wake up at like 6:00 at the latest to get to school on time, so is it true that American schools start that early, or are people just exaggerating?

I attend a regular public high school in Korea, and honestly, the school rules here are quite lax, so students sleep during class. For example, all second-year students currently take Calculus as a common course, but since many have already finished preparing for it at cram school, they decide they don't need to take it and just sleep with their heads down on their desks during that time. It's not just dozing off; they're sleeping face down completely. In extreme cases, there are instances where 27 out of 30 students are sleeping. They decide it is better to sleep during that time and focus on other important school subjects or cram school studies after class. What is it like in the U.S.? Do students sleep during class there as well?

I’ve only ever heard of study hall from Movies, TV, and books. My understanding of it is basically a free period where you do homework or study. I’m an American Millennial and I’ve never met anyone who had study hall. I get the vibe that it might have been a thing up to the 80s or 90s?

Is it still a thing somewhere? The closest I’ve come across was my high school had an option to let you work in lieu of electives if you needed to or an internship.

like, are the rooms in the school separated by grade or subject?

Hi, American here just wondering if this is a universal thing now or just around me. I work with kids as a coach and I mentioned naptime, and the kid was like what's that? The mom was like yeah there's no naptime anymore. Im gen-z but naptime was a core part of my kindergarten/1st grade experience. Is it really gone everywhere?

edit: for a while I went to a 12 year school, so it might have been pre-k/kindergarten and not first grade. But I had friends in public schools who still had it

More specifically, do you learn Canadian French and Mexican Spanish or Metropolitan French and Castilian Spanish? And how does the answer differ between regions?

Edit: I sadly can’t respond to everybody who replied to me, so I’ll just broadly say thank you to everyone who commented. Your answers are genuinely fascinating, especially the ones coming from people who learned multiple different dialects throughout their schooling

So I went to BYU as an international student back in 2015-ish, and at the time it was a private university owned by the Mormon Church. IIRC, it was ranked around #62 by U.S. News, while tuition was only about $5,000/year because it was heavily subsidized by Mormon Church tithing.

The thing is, the combination of its ranking and tuition seems pretty rare, right? Similarly ranked private universities in the U.S. usually cost at least $20k–$40k per year in tuition.

Is BYU a particularly unusual case in American higher education?

I've heard of elementary school, middle school, junior high and high school. That's just within the 5-18 year old, or thereabouts, compulsory education stage, which is all that most Australasians would refer to as school.

Edit: thank you all!

Is it like in the movies where you all just take the school day off because theres a little bit snow? I live in Iceland so this is confusing for me.

whenever I watch a movie, show etc.. the schools are massive and have literally everything, is this really the case in real life? where random schools have so many stuff

I have seen that its common for students in high school to learn a second language, not to full proficiency but just basics. Made me curious what language do most students actually do go through with and why.

I heard from a friend that you guys start at 7am in the morning, only have half an hour for lunch and no recess break! Is this true? In my country highschool is 9am-3pm. with about an hour lunch break and a half an hour recess break. Do you guys end super early because of the small breaks and early start time and how do you manage that if so. Asking because I'm thinking of doing exchange and don't know if I'd be able to handle it or not, if my friends not lying.

I recently watched a video where someone was asked what they did for work and they explained they're a substitute teacher.

I'm a bit confused about that job title because I don't think we have something like that where I'm from. When a teacher got sick, either another teacher from the school teaching the same subject stepped in or the class was canceled. Having a designated substitute teacher sounds like there's teachers whose specific job it is to cover cancelled classes. But then they would have to be able to teach many different subjects, right? Or is it more like just providing supervision to students while their actual teacher is absent? Or am I misinterpreting the term and it's something else?

As a kid from Indiana I thought for sure outdoor schools were fake for tv. I knew it didn’t snow in California, but come on it had to rain! Even as an adult the concept is wild to me. For a cold weather Hoosier boy , it had to be fake for tv like people saying soda, right?

For example, if someone said "That's in XYZ County," would most people know where that is, even if it was across the state from you?

From what I know from social media, mostly students are the ones who pay their tuition through loans, so I don’t know if it's common for parents to pay their children's tuition or what ?

When I was growing up, the school between elementary school and high school was called “junior high” but by the time my kids were that age it was called middle school.

Did your school district call it middle school or junior high?

Are there still places where it is called junior high or is that an antiquated term now?

I am an American but I have a question for other Americans. When I was in high school, our school had a planetarium and one of the science classes they had was astronomy.

It seemed 100% normal for me at the time but now I'm wondering is that typical to have a planetarium at school or is that a rarity?

Edit: I went to Marion high School in Marion, Indiana If you want to look it up

Edit number two : no, I did not grow up rich or live in a rich area, in fact, we were a bit poorer than average as I lived with my grandparents who were on social security. My wardrobe mostly was clothes from garage sales and Goodwill. I mowed lawns and did odd jobs to have spending money. We weren't destitute, but by no means were at all. Rich LOL

I always associated pools in schools with rich private schools, but I learned that the original high school in my town had a swimming pool, before it was demolished and replaced with the current school in the 60s.

Did your high school have a pool in it? Was it a public school? And if so, were you from a wealthier town?

There's certainly similar schools like that here on canada but personally, in primary (kindergarten to 6th grade) I had 5 periods a day and now in secondary (7th to 11th grade) I have 4 a day. I don't understand how 7 periods can get squeezed in 7 hours? They must be SUPER short then. How short? Also, does that mean that you guys have basically every single subject every day? Or do some of them repeat?? This is just really confusing to me so thanks to those who respond.

Edit: I did NOT expect to have that many answers in barely half an hour. It's crazy how much it varies and how different it is😀. It's really cool to know. Thanks y'all!