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[snalin]

More like capable of recognizing the exact ethnicity, and intentionally referring to them as the wrong one.

If that happens to be the worst kind of insult, mind. If he cracked an anti-semitic joke to insult an inuit that would just be all kinds of silly.

Hey Jens say something in Swedish, you crazy Swede.

That's not so bad. If you look at a topographical map of Scandinavia, anything to the east of the mountains is so stupid it might as well be Sweden.

[Spluff]

Is Jap really a slur? Seems to be a simple abbreviation to me.

[ackblom12]

Yes. Yes it is.

Also, Superman is such a dick.

[nekowafer]

I've never actually heard jap used as a slur against Japanese people. I've always known it to mean Jewish American princess, but that may have something to do with being Jewish myself.

[Elysiana]

It was a pretty common slur in WWII and I think ended up being viewed as derogatory ever since.

[Metope]

Yeah I've heard 'that fucking Jap' etc, just like Paki is also short for Pakistani, and that's definitely a slur.

[Dazed]

Even worse, it makes me think about Pearl Harbor and Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett being like "GO GIT THEM JAP SUCKERS!"

[BeoPuppy]

[...] I wonder if there are any "Japanese JAPs".

Japjaps?

[CrowFairy]

I had a wonderful P.E. teacher in kindergarten. She left and was replaced by a loud, obnoxious, somehow overweight guy (Nothing against overweightness, but he was a friggin' P.E. teacher). I hated him. We warmed up to the same Shania Twain song every horrible time. And he was, again, obnoxious. (Turns out that he was finally fired a year ago for molesting a girl.)

I had a horrible 7th grade English teacher. She made us read "The Pearl," a 90-page book (a terrible one at that). And then we had a 36-page packet to do. Most of it wasn't related to English. Like coloring a full sheet of blank paper as if it were a postcard of where the book took place. And then as I was answering some of the worksheet questions about the book itself, and a question said the answer was on page 100-something. Note that the book is 90 pages. Turns out a few people got longer copies (114 pages), so I had to ask someone  to let me borrow her copy.

But that teacher's main bit (other than her love of Elvis) was "Chances." You earned little slips of paper if you did well on a test or whatever. She occasionally held auctions. Most auctioned items were candy bars. There was an occasional homework pass, but not much worthwhile. I was quickly earning a lot of these things, and I wanted to save them for something special. So I waited. At the last auction, she offered a "No Essay" pass. I wanted it. I bid all of my Chances on it. I easily won. Everyone else had wasted theirs on chocolate (Not that chocolate is a waste, but if you're earning school-related stuff, then you might as well use them to help yourself out). I was thrilled. Finally--something I could use! She loved stupid essays, and I hated them. She didn't assign good topics and was mean about it. So when she assigned the next essay, I waited for her to come to my desk (so I wouldn't be flaunting my ticket in front of the class) and asked if I could use the pass on it. She said that I couldn't, because she felt I needed to do that one. I sighed and said okay. She assigned two essays after that, neither of which I was allowed to use my 2000-Chance essay pass on. If I had known she wasn't going to assign any after that, I would have fought more, and at the end of the school year, I left dejected and defeated. (She was asked to retire a few years ago. During a school year. Apparently she'd been doing some pretty crazy stuff that school year.)

I've seen a high school math teacher fart in a student's face. Intentionally.

In high school, I had to have an evil device put in my mouth to make my tongue stop pushing against my teeth. Well, it was too long and gave me a lisp while making holes in my tongue when I was trying to chew and talk (not necessarily at the same time). I had a teacher pick me to read something out loud in class just so they could all laugh at my lisp. Another teacher had me say something about my "grill" in a car full of boys. (The "tongue crib" was removed a couple of days later and replaced with something more suitable.)

My favorite of crazies is Mario. I don't know if any students ever remembered his actual name. I know I knew it at one point. But all that's remained is his creepiness and mustache. He was a substitute teacher. (He was eventually fired after getting caught with some drawings he had done of a partially naked female student.) He currently comes to the public library every day, and he's there way before it opens in the morning to use a specific computer. He looks up almost-naked women.
I have more I could say about Mario, but I think his creepiness stands for itself.

[Barmymoo]

That reminds me of a couple of teachers I had - one was a substitute games teacher who made all the girls in my class line up in our (skimpy - polo shirt and shorts) gym uniforms so he could take photos of us... I cannot believe no one reported him, but a few years later he was jailed for being a paedophile so obviously someone did eventually.

I also had teachers who threw stuff; my German teacher used to throw the board rubber at the person he wanted to answer the question, but it was a foam one and didn't hurt if it hit you so that wasn't terribly bad. My form tutor threw a chair at me one time, because the girl sitting on the other side of the room from me was winding him up really badly and I guess he just snapped. We never saw him again after that, he just left and didn't come back. Word on the corridor was that he had bad insomnia and wasn't coping.

I've had some wonderful teachers too, who did out of the ordinary things. My favourite English and History teacher used to sit on the desks and just chat to us, but somehow her chats taught us more than other teachers' lecturing. My college Sociology teacher wasn't really qualified in sociology (she'd been drafted in at the last minute to cover maternity leave) and she got me to help her plan her lessons and stuff, which really helped me to learn the material because I was covering it twice. The school Music teachers would let the most dedicated music students hang out in the department building, even though we weren't technically allowed inside at break - most of us were in choir, orchestra, wind band etc. most days anyway, so on other days they'd just turn a blind eye to the fact we shouldn't have been there.

[Zingoleb]

my German teacher used to throw the board rubber at the person he wanted to answer the question

took me a moment to remember that rubber means eraser to you guys, not condom

[Orbert]

I thought of another one, in the "unprofessional but not really abusive or anything" category.

The school had Boys bathrooms and Girls bathrooms on each floor, and also Staff Only bathrooms, but only one per floor and it was only a single facility.  Since this was completely stupid and I had the same five minutes between classes that the students had (I was a teacher), I just used the nearest Boys bathroom.  Apparently it was quite unusual for a teacher to even step into the Boys bathroom, because they were always smoking in there, both tobacco and non-tobacco.  They'd scatter, all the toilets would flush, breath mints would come out... I didn't care.  I wasn't there to bust anyone; I just needed to pee.

The common strategy for those smoking non-tobacco seemed to be "drop it on the floor and they can't prove it was yours."  A couple of times they would do this and then exit quickly while I was doing what I came there to do, leaving me in an empty bathroom with a few half-smoked non-tobacco cigarettes on the floor.  Obviously in my role as teacher, it was my duty to confiscate it all, but I don't remember anything in the teacher's handbook about what to do with it after that.  I'd moved halfway across the country to teach at this place and hadn't established any connections yet, so this actually worked out pretty well.

One time one of my "Math 1" students missed a test due to illness and was back on the day we were going over the answers and stuff, so he had to sit out in the hallway to make up the test.  Later I went out there to check on him (and make sure he was actually still there) and he was just finishing.  From sitting on the floor against the lockers, with his legs up so he could use his books as a "desk" a few things had fallen out of his pockets, including a nice little ceramic pipe.  He stood up and handed me the test, and I told him he'd lost something, and pointed down.  "Uh... that's not mine" he said, but I just said "Neil, pick up your bowl.  It's too nice to just leave there."

Honestly, I was just there to teach math.  If they wanted me to be a cop too, they needed to pay me more.  And yeah, I could've confiscated it, but... I don't know.  In that moment, the rules of the "community" seemed to override my supposed obligation to bust kids.

[redglasscurls]

Yeah, I remember learning that in high school, when I overheard someone calling another girl "jappy".  So apparently people took a racial slur and changed its meaning to...a spoiled Jewish girl?

I'm sure Japanese-American Jewish girls exist, I wonder if there are any "Japanese JAPs".

Yes. My first semester in the dorms was spent with this one, who kept an extra toothbrush to scrub the vomit off her shoes after a night out and screamed at her boyfriend on the phone for an hour because the necklace he got her for her birthday wasn't from Tiffany. Her mom was the tiniest, sweetest old Japanese lady and her dad was a happy nerdy Jewish guy from NY. I can't imagine how happy they must have been to send her away to college :/

[Method of Madness]

screamed at her boyfriend on the phone for an hour because the necklace he got her for her birthday wasn't from Tiffany

I'm not surprised at her shittiness, I'm surprised her boyfriend stuck with her for a whole hour (also I guess that she managed to think of an hour's worth of insults for a nice present).

[jasonmoore]

Times like these I can be happy I was home schooled. Although, sex-ed was very awkward, so we will pretend like it didn't happed.
 

[Barmymoo]

Dawg your sex ed cannot have been more awkward than mine and I was at a state school. Our form tutor was the most committed evangelical Christian I have ever met, and her sex ed classes were "Don't have sex before marriage or you will go to Hell". Well. That was helpful. It wasn't until year 11 (aged sixteen, at which point I'd already accompanied three friends to the clinic to take the emergency pill) that we were taught by an external nurse how to put a condom on, and I had never even heard of the implant or the injection until then.

How was homeschooling? I'm really interested, I'm hoping to homeschool my own kids when I eventually have them so I'd love to hear about it.

[Zingoleb]

It was amazing, because about two weeks into my father gave up and I spent the next year focusing on learning how to play guitar. 


(Not even joking)

[jasonmoore]

@barmymoo

Mine went well , I enjoyed it because we could focus on more IT based stuff, and there was more involvement on my part, which is very important. But homeschooling requires a lot of work and studying(if you yourself don't know the subject yourself), but home schoolers perform statistically better. I did spend time in public schooling as well, which sucked a lot because of bullying.

[richlitt]

My homeschool experience was good but I was lonely.

When I went back to school in eigth grade, I cried twice on the first day - once because the movie 10 Things I Hate About You wasn't christian on the bus, and once because of all of the disrespectful your mom jokes.

So, yeah. I'd suggest against homeschooling your kids, especially if you're evangelical. It will take them years to get over it. And they might move across an ocean to do so. And only call around once a month.

[Barmymoo]

I don't even have kids yet, so I guess it is kind of premature to be planning this, but I'm not evangelical and I hate that film anyway so my kids are going to be fine.

[Akima]

once because the movie 10 Things I Hate About You wasn't christian on the bus

Eh? Do movies have a religion? 

I think home education (what homeschooling is called in Australia, as distinct from distance learning where children are enrolled in a school but study at home because they live in one of our isolated areas), might be a good alternative to poor schools, but is a poor alternative to good ones, and especially bad for ESL parents and students. It bothers me that the few people I've met who home-ed seem more concerned  with what their kids should not learn than with what they should learn. Depending on parents' motives for home educating, I don't think it is an either/or decision. My parents kept my nose to the grindstone with home-ed as well as sending me to school (they thought my homework allocation was ridiculously light), and sending me to private lessons. School holidays? What are they?

In NSW (education is controlled by state governments in Australia), probably the biggest problem with home-ed is that you cannot obtain the HSC (Higher School Certificate) at the end of high-school, or therefore an ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank), unless you are enrolled in a school, so you'll be way down the back of the queue for admission to uni and many technical education courses. There are alternatives to the HSC/ATAR like the IB/UAC, but they're not accessible to home-ed students either. There are some private schools that offer "distance learning" curricula to home-ed parents even if they live just down the road, which is probably a good option provided parents can afford it, approve of the course material, and are OK with the (generally) strong religious affiliation of such schools.

[richlitt]

Don't ask me; I'm a dedicated agnostic. I think my 8th-grade-self had issues with all of the dicks in the movie. Like the one drawn on the business school kid's face.

Yeah, my parents sent me to a private school once they saw that I was outgrowing them, and when they were less concerned with what I wasn't learning (evolution), and more concerned with what I should be learning (social skills.)

…a decade later, I'm an evolutionary biologist with no social skills. Go figure.

[Barmymoo]

I'm just keen that my kids learn, well, anything at all. I went to two pretty good schools, one terrible one and a reasonable sixth form, and I don't actually know very much about most things, or anything at all about a lot of things because I decided aged 14 that I didn't care about those things (case in point: geography). Schools do what they can but in my opinion there's no way that a teacher with more than thirty people in the room and limited resources can be as successful as individual attention from one person, and visits to museums, libraries, workplaces (pretty sure I'd have cared far more about woodwork, for example, if I'd been taken to see some guy making furniture instead of being given a piece of plywood and told to make "something useful" out of it) etc. So much time in the school day is wasted on the kind of logistical wrangling that's unavoidable with five hundred people in the building and completely non-existant with only five.

But if my theoretical kids tell me they want to go to school, they can go. Like you say, there's holidays and weekends and evenings for fun trips to interesting places.

On the exams point - in the UK home education is completely legal and all you have to do is be able to explain to an inspector (should one contact you) what you're doing. The government have no right to demand curricula, learning plans, inspections, interviews with the children etc unless they suspect you're not actually teaching them anything - for example, if they know that both parents work full time and there's no tutor, then they can demand proof of education. Exams can be entered through local schools and it's pretty easy to set up. Not all schools allow it but most do, and I know loads of people who were educated that way, including my two half brothers who now both have degrees. I think in other countries it is much harder because the government is much more concerned about being in control of what the kids are learning. Here, the government are doing everything they can to offload that responsibility onto anyone who's prepared to take it, so I think we're golden.

[pwhodges]

(Just a random thought, leading nowhere:)

When I was diagnosed with TB at the age of twelve, the school doctor had me thrown out of my (boarding) school as a risk to the other pupils (probably not so); I was educated at home for two terms, until the due time for my next school (and also the end of my treatment to cure the disease, though I was checked for some years longer).  As my parents never made an unforced decision to do this, it's honestly never occurred to me in the fifty+ years since to think of that period as "home education" rather than just "being thrown out of school" - but I guess it was, really.

[Barmymoo]

What, a whole fifteen years old? (Yes, I realise that is a girls' school - my point is TB is still very much here.)

[pwhodges]

However, these days it is mainly associated with distinctly poor living conditions.  Until the invention of antibiotics, TB was incurable, and so also more widely spread in society.  When I had TB, the antibiotics used to cure me had been available for slightly less than 15 years.

As a child, I had a pre-war medical encyclopaedia, and its article on TB and sanatoriums was the largest in the book.

[Method of Madness]

(Just a random thought, leading nowhere:)

When I was diagnosed with TB at the age of twelve, the school doctor had me thrown out of my...

Wow, that really does put some emphasis on how old you are. To me anyway.

To me, it's the part where he says "the fifty+ years since"

[pwhodges]

You only have to look at my profile...

[Barmymoo]

That's a fair point.

[Method of Madness]

You only have to look at my profile...

We still need you and if we remember, we'll occasionally feed you.

[pwhodges]

Aw, thanks; but it's only for a few more weeks, so you shouldn't find it too arduous!

[Akima]

On the exams point - in the UK home education is completely legal and all you have to do is be able to explain to an inspector (should one contact you) what you're doing. The government have no right to demand curricula, learning plans, inspections, interviews with the children etc unless they suspect you're not actually teaching them anything - for example, if they know that both parents work full time and there's no tutor, then they can demand proof of education. Exams can be entered through local schools and it's pretty easy to set up.

Home education is perfectly legal in Australia too, though I believe in Queensland parents have obtain permission from the state Dept. of Education. The issue with the HSC in NSW (and similar certificates in other states) is that it is not just based on the external exams taken at the end of Year 12, but also on coursework that is continuously assessed over (typically) the two school years leading up to the exams. This, in effect, requires home-ed parents aiming at the HSC to sign up, not just for exams, but for a complete "distance learning"-style package in which coursework is submitted to teachers for assessment by post, e-mail etc. over two years.

The BoS does not, I think, control the curriculum for home-ed generally, but it certainly does if the student is aiming for the HSC. The only element that is compulsory for everyone is two "units" of English, but there is also a requirement to complete a minimum number of BoS-developed course units. I don't in any way hold up the HSC system as an example of perfection, incidentally. Among other failings, it has an anti-science bias (the number of science units you can take is capped), and its rules on modern language study are racially discriminatory in effect, if not (ostensibly) by intent.

[Tom]

The science cap is not really a problem. There aren't many science courses so it's odd anyway for someone to go after more than 6 units (3 courses) and you can take a total of 3 or 4 Math subjects. The real issue is that Humanities get scaled better by the UAC sausage makers than Sciences (incl. Math) do.

[Akima]

There aren't many science courses so it's odd anyway for someone to go after more than 6 units (3 courses) and you can take a total of 3 or 4 Math subjects.

Of course there aren't many science courses. What would be the point of creating curricula if you can't take them? And the science courses that you *can* take are restricted to two units (except for Mathematics), whereas you can take three-unit History, four-unit English, music, French etc. Basically scientists are second-class citizens in the NSW school system.

[Method of Madness]

Hey, just wondering, for people who aren't from the States, what's involved in being licensed to teach?  Does anyone know anyone who moved from the States and taught?  I know this is slightly off topic, but it'd be really helpful.

[Skewbrow]

On the exams point - in the UK home education is completely legal and all you have to do is be able to explain to an inspector (should one contact you) what you're doing. The government have no right to demand curricula, learning plans, inspections, interviews with the children etc unless they suspect you're not actually teaching them anything - for example, if they know that both parents work full time and there's no tutor, then they can demand proof of education. Exams can be entered through local schools and it's pretty easy to set up.

Works much the same way here (Finland). When my kid got diagnosed with CFS (or Asperger or a combination or whatever) we opted for home ed to get him thru comprehensive school (roughly equivalent to U.S. junior high). As my wife is a (qualified but mostly unemployed - my work keeps us at a college town, so the job market is kinda difficult for her) physics teacher, getting the paperwork done was not too difficult - the school principal helped. Also they arranged for the exams at school, so he got his diploma from the school all right. The kid's very bright (must come from Mom's side)but he hasn't fully recovered yet - wish us luck.

The chances of getting TB living in western europe/the UK now are distinctly slim is what I meant. The very fact that it made the BBC site pretty much confirms that

The shadow on that piece of good news is that TB has not been rooted out of Russia, and they still lack the political stability/discipline to get it done. The somewhat alarming news were a few reported cases of a slightly mutated TB resilient to some of the old antibiotics. Our health authorities didn't sound awfully concerned. May be another antibiotics worked or some other solution came, because it dropped out of news. The UK is an island, I realize, but that may not help much these days.

[pwhodges]

To put this into a world-wide perspective, some quotes from Wikipedia (which is notably reliable on medical matters):

One third of the world's population is thought to be infected with M. tuberculosis, and new infections occur at a rate of about one per second. The proportion of people who become sick with tuberculosis each year is stable or falling worldwide but, because of population growth, the absolute number of new cases is still increasing.
[...]
Currently, there are more cases of TB on the planet than at any other time in history

To understand the first startling fact, note also:

Most infections in humans result in an asymptomatic, latent infection

[nekowafer]

That is why physicians get a PPD test (TB test) once a year. And those that get a positive result, due to vaccinations, or prior infection, or any number of things, have to get a chest x-ray to check for it.

[Barmymoo]

Works much the same way here (Finland).... getting the paperwork done was not too difficult

You mentioned paperwork - what paperwork were you required to do? Here, providing you haven't ever sent your child to school before, you don't have to do any paperwork at all. The baby is born, they register it, the health checks are done as usual, so the government knows the child exists, but there's no requirement to register your choice to home educate. You just don't register them at a school. If you have registered them at a school then changed your mind, you obviously need to tell the school so that they can fill the place, but you don't have to tell them why you're withdrawing them - you might be going to a different school instead. Basically, providing no one raises any concerns (neighbours, family or health visitors) about abuse or neglect, you are left to your own devices.

The UK is an island, I realize, but that may not help much these days.

I think the outbreak in Birmingham was believed to be due to a high percentage of the students being first- or second-generation Pakistani immigrants, who returned to visit their families during the holidays. Pakistan doesn't innoculate as robustly as the UK against TB, so children were bringing home infections and spreading them. In light of Paul's post, though, I suspect there is something more to it than that. As far as I know it stopped being compulsory to innoculate children against TB a few years ago, so herd immunity is slowly falling. I got what we referred to as "the six needles" and "the jab" when I was about 12, but I don't know if my brother did.

[pwhodges]

I got what we referred to as "the six needles"

I watched everyone else queue up for that; as I'd just had the disease, obviously I was not tested!

Just to confirm what you've said anyway, here is the UK government's info on home education.  Some local authorities might be a bit more proactive in checking up on you (and offering help, too).

[Patrick]

My dad always tests positive for the TB skin test whenever he does his biannual physical exam so that the FAA knows he's healthy enough to still hold his private pilot's license (I swear to god that is the only reason he lives a healthy lifestyle at all). He always skin-tests positive, because his brother had TB as a kid, and they shared a room with bunk beds. But the chest x-rays have never once grounded him. Always freaks him out though, he remembers what it was like for Fred.

[nekowafer]

A large percentage of the physicians I work with test positive all the time. Many grew up outside of the US, few actually had the disease at any point. They bitch and whine about getting a chest x-ray though. Admittedly they are radiologists, so they have to deal with a lot of radiation exposure, but still. I think an x-ray has one of the lowest doses of any radiological scan.

[Skewbrow]

You mentioned paperwork - what paperwork were you required to do? Here, providing you haven't ever sent your child to school before, you don't have to do any paperwork at all. The baby is born, they register it, the health checks are done as usual, so the government knows the child exists, but there's no requirement to register your choice to home educate.

Here children are obliged to go to school starting from the Fall of the year of their seventh birthday and ending after the Spring of the year of their 16th birthday. The kid is assigned to the school of the district you happen to live in, but reasonable changes to that are fine, if for example the district border happens to split a newly built neighborhood, and all the other kids in the area would be going to a different school, or for some such reason. After the early years some choices on the curriculum are made, and based on your child's elective, a switch to another school may be needed (and relatively common, but somewhat taxing). Anyway, the law gives the obligation to educate a child for nine years. If this is to be done outside of the official system, then there is paperwork to be done, and a degree of control as to the quality of the education is exercised. Sorry, I'm not quite familiar with all the details, since I wasn't worried about the quality of the curriculum in our case. The local school provided the textbooks and such.

[Barmymoo]

Hmm - it sounds a reasonable system in terms of which school the children go to (the ridiculous farce we have here is getting worse every year, parents have to enter a kind of lottery for local schools and often take the council to court if they don't get the one they want) but it sounds unnecessarily complicated to home educate. Maybe your schools are better though. Actually, no maybe about it, I think that's an accepted fact from what I remember.

[Skewbrow]

Maybe your schools are better though. Actually, no maybe about it, I think that's an accepted fact from what I remember.

I don't know about that. They get the three Rs about right, but a few decades ago our ministry of education was infiltrated by people with bright educational theories and beliefs that math has been taught wrong for the last couple of centuries. Consequently nowadays the beginning students in a math (or engineering) program in a college are complete strangers to logical thinking, proofs and such. The system has been going downhill for some time, and it is beginning to show. In spite of all the university level math departments crying in despair these psychoeducational geniuses have the gall to point out some international tests, where our kids do well. It's just that those tests are about basic arithmetic, reading pie charts and such. No real math... Did I say that these geniuses also idolize the East German educational system (but won't take note of the fact that over there they actually taught some real math to the kids)?

Sorry, this one hit a nerve.

[Barmymoo]

I'm at one of the top universities in the UK and I can add up, multiply and divide up to three digit numbers, deal with simple fractions and work out percentages by trial and error. I'm not sure we're any better! Things are also going to get very interesting soon when universities lose all their funding for arts subjects because the government doesn't believe they matter.

[Skewbrow]

That's ok, for in many a university program you won't need more math than that. My complaint is more about that we used to teach things like Euclidean geometry at the junior high level (in the 70s). Complete with proofs. Not to all and sundry, but the students were split into separate math classes according to their aspirations. That stopped. Then the invitable happened, and we no longer have enough teachers who could be trusted with that job (damn computers are sucking kids from the same talent pool). These idiots at the ministry all chant the mantra that teaching kids a little bit extra math at junior high level is leading to elitism and such.

I am aware that many (if not most) citizens can function well in the society without knowing a thing about proofs, but the attitude that it is elitist to teach more to those kids who could learn more makes me squirm. All the more so because there is no shortage of schools spending (I guess I'm moving to the high school level at this point) extra hours in sports, arts, music, acting, et cetera. All these have their place, but why is that not elitist, but teaching math is!!!?

Did I say that you hit a nerve?

[pwhodges]

When I went to university in 1965, to read physics, there was a surprising variation even then between how much maths people had been taught at different schools.  Some of this was because half of us had done maths as a single subject at A-level (typically called Maths for Science), and the rest had done double maths (Pure Maths and Applied Maths as two subjects), and some was variation between the syllabuses for the equivalent exam set in different places.  As a result, for example, half of us had a grounding in vector analysis and matrices, and half had never heard of it - that lecturer assumed we had done it, and grudgingly gave over half of a single lecture to summarising the basics (up to dot and cross products) after which we were assumed to be up to speed.

[Regress]

It's funny, I had the same experience with upper level economics courses. I started out in a math heavy program so my upper-division courses were no problem, but the kids who transferred in from theory heavy schools had a look of horror as the professors assumed we all knew advanced econometrics and had at least gone through Calc. 4.

[snalin]

Hey, just wondering, for people who aren't from the States, what's involved in being licensed to teach?  Does anyone know anyone who moved from the States and taught?  I know this is slightly off topic, but it'd be really helpful.

To be licensed to teach at schools here (Nurrway), you have to take a three or four year uni course (not quite sure). I found a page about home education in Norway, it's fairly interesting. You don't have to have any special education, but you have to report to the local autorities that your kid is being home schooled. They'll give you a supervisory teacher from your school (every kid is automatically assigned to a school), and they'll check up on your kid once or twice a year, with talks and tests. If he or she decides that your kid are not being taught well enough, you will be forced to send your kid to school.

Because of the Pisa-tests, the Finnish system is always mentioned at least once a year as "the system we should take inspiration from!". Of course, the international tests checks basic skills, and those are quite ridiculous as they give no real indication of how good you are at these things (I just aced an uni maths exam, but I would have to stop and think for a while if you asked me to multiply 11 and 13). It's still worrying how little people know after the first 10 years of school. My biggest problem with the system is that the teachers are required to give everyone teaching at their own level of competence, but with 1 teacher for 25 students being the standard, that's not going to happen. So they'll have to dump everything down to the lowest common level that still gets us through the curriculum.

EDIT: oh, there's a law about what the education should contain! The things you have to teach your kid, even if you teach from home is:
RLE (the religions and ethics course), Norwegian*, maths, "foreign languages" (English + one more is common), gymnastics, "knowledge of the home" (a cooking course everyone has for one year), "knowledge of society and nature" (nature and social science), aesthetic, practical (painting and woodworking) and social education.

For the social part, the home education thing recommends sending your kids to the SFO, a kind of "stay at school after school" thing where kids basically can hang out with other kids until their parents gets home. Sounds like a brilliant idea, really.


*I could make a whole other post about how they've rammed so much down the troath of this that you don't really get anything covered properly.