When I was in high school, one had to choose between either world history or world geography.

Of course I chose history (to not be killed by my father), but I think it was rather unfair that I had to choose... I know I am lacking greatly in my geography knowledge -- especially outside of Canada.

Here we HAVE to study history, geography and modern studies (sociology and politics) up until the age of 14 then we can choose to take one of them further.

I took modern studies though. I think more of my geographical knowledge actually came from primary school or talking to friends and family or the news!

Although even modern studies taught some basic geography as we looked at politics in the EU, china and the US as well as the uk.

Every year, starting in Grade 4 and ending in Grade 10, we took a course called Canadian Studies (I think -- damn, I can't remember -- now I feel old) which incorporated history, geography, and modern studies, but only for Canada. :-/

Of course that was in my province -- other provinces are different (and since it was a long time since I graduated, I'm sure my province offers different courses as well).

I was just giving an example of how we weren't taught much about the world outside of our own country (unless we wanted to educate ourselves -- my father gave me maps to label during the summer). It's sad really.

Yes, I agree that here we didn't focus enough on geography. It's something I want to focus on as a teacher, personally. I enjoyed the looks on my students ' faces as I showed them Google Earth recently when we talked about maps. They need to know we're just on one tiny part of the whole planet. :)

You're going to be a fantastic teacher. :)

In England and Wales you study geography and history until you are 14, we don't study modern studies, you don't have to pick one to take further either, I did history and geography at GCSE.

All the core subjects (English, Social Studies/History, Math, and Science are required for everyone each year in school here.
There are nationally set standards for each subject that are more general, and then more specific state standards for each subject/grade that teachers are required to go by.
(for example- The unit I teach soon about goldfish fulfills the standard that every first grader in my state must be taught in science about animals' survival traits.)

(it brings up an interesting issue with homeschooling, as no one regulates if they follow these standards.)

At any rate, we don't get to opt out of any of those core subjects as we get older. They just focus on different types each year-for instance history in 9th grade was world history, science in 11th grade was Chemistry, etc.

Social studies/history was one subject?

Now that you explain how broad the education is (just one year of chemistry?!?) I totally understand why American kids graduate at a lower level than British kids (the first year of university education in America is roughly equivalent to stuff British kids learn in their final 2 years of high school). British kids only take 7 -8 subjects between the ages of 14 - 16 (and each of the subjects is individual, so chemistry, physics and biology are all individual subjects) and only 3 - 5 subjects between the ages of 16 - 18. So they reach a far higher standard in those subjects (in Scotland English is compulsory throughout and maths and at least one science and one language are compulsory up to 16). I believe in a broad education (this is encouraged more in Scotland than in England) but I think it gets a bit pointless if the child just ends up knowing hardly anything about anything!

Let me be a bit more clear, then. When I say Social Studies, I just meant that as a general term, regarding the subject being taught from K-12. Obviously in middle/ high school, they are taught specific areas of say, world history, geography, or economics as examples. it's commonly referred to as 'social studies' in lower grades when it it is not as specific and they touch on different areas (for example in first grade we discuss basic map skills, but also aspects of history like important historical figures like our past Presidents.)
so I referred to all of that by saying 'social studies' though obviously things differ quite a bit between lower grades and high school. :-P

Saying I could take a year in chemistry was just an example-all I meant was that we often have different grades focus on different areas. Certainly there are options to take multiple courses in the same subject (like chemistry) for multiple years-they can often even gain credit towards college level courses while still in high school in certain subject areas. Chris was always in need of a challenge in high school, so he earned college credit by taking advanced courses in English, Calculus, and Biology after he took the previous regular courses for those subjects.

Students get electives in middle/high school, but they don't drop subjects the way teenagers do in the UK. I I'm sure that it is helpful to gain more in depth knowledge in certain areas at that age, but I don't think being broad means they don't learn anything here-they just get exposed to the different things, things they wouldn't learn if they were required to focus only on certain things. We get more specific/advanced as high school goes on, and then into university.

The way we do university courses is also different, obviously- but I don't think that the fact Americans take general courses their first year puts them 'behind' Brits-it's just a different philosophy. I really think the different approaches are bit like comparing apples to oranges.

here in TX, social studies becomes more specific each year starting in middle school. This year my daughter who is 12 and in GT history is learning in depth about world wars, and then the regular history class is learning basic world geography. Guess it all really depends on the ISD and the teacher perhaps?

I think is depends on the state how they like to pace things, and when they do certain areas (we have state history course required for all 4th graders, for example.) . We get more specific beginning in middle school as well, generally.

I can! If I'm looking for it. haha.

I know that London's not the capitol/capital [it's late &i'm tired. lol] though. ;D

Eh? Are you sure? Because what you've written there doesn't make sense. London isn't in Wales. And it IS the capital of England (and of the UK).

The capital of Wales is Cardiff. It is also part of the UK, and London is the capital of the UK.

no, no, no. lol.

In the original post, it said something about this person's friend thinking London was the capital. lol. I was merely stating that I DO know that London isn't the capital of Wales, &that if I'm actually looking for Wales, then I can find it. Other than that, I can't just simply glance at a map &be like OH MY GOD THERE IT IS! haha. I know enough to not point at freaking Africa or something though. haha

I apologise. I totally misunderstood you (I hadn't noticed the part about London in Transit's post).

Haha. It's straight, yo. Understandable, especially since this whole thread is a huge cluster fuck. haha.

Heeeey. I can point out Wales on a map!

As well as most countries in Europe. Not all of them, obviously, but a very good majority of them.
Although that was because I took an AP Euro class when I was in 10th grade :P

Also, David Cameron.

Current pet peeve of the minute: ppl who write buckets and buckets (which is fine honestly, I read their diaries for a reason)... BUT CAN'T BE BOTHERED W/ FUCKING PARAGRAPHS!!! Or they'll tell a story that's like 5 pages long and it has ONE paragraph break!!!!

You know what I do when I see entries like that? I keep scrolling by. Well, on bloop I go away but on lj I just keep scrolling by. XD

Srsly though! Paragraph breaks! My eyes get very tired trying to follow what happened to your damn car or the concert you went to when there are no paragraph breaks! This is not the DSM IV, you CAN break up text w/ pictures or bold or italics or underline! It's ok!

Sorry. Vent done. XD

Oooh, or they don't use punctuation. I came across an entry yesterday that was insanely long, but was only seven sentences. Not even kidding. How hard is it to use punctuation?

IKR?!?!? The best way I learned about it was "read a sentence and put a period where you stop to breathe. A period or a comma is natural stopping point." .... When there's paragraph upon paragraph w/o any punctuation?! Oh dear god. The sad thing is that a good friend of mine does that on her lj and I don't have the heart to tell her that there's a reason why I never comment... b/c you never use Caps where it's need, no punctuation, and no paragraph breaks. I simply can't read it!

my diary is like that,but not by choice.for some reason when I'm writing the entry,even if I do write with paragraph breaks it never shows up once I once I hit the 'publish' button.I've played with all my settings and it STILL does that!..It drives me nuts! of course,I'm pretty computer illiterate,so there may be an easy way to fix it..I just haven't figured it out yet!

Hmmmm... do you have the auto paragraph turned off? If the AP is turned off and you do paragraph breaks (in the entry editor) w/ no < br > code, when you publish it there won't be any breaks. However if you put in the < BR > (no spaces) code after every paragraph, when you publish it it'll have breaks. ^__^ Or you can just hit the AP on if it doesn't mess up your entry layout.

hm.i shall have to try that an see how it works out..although,i have to admit I may be a little bit mad if I've been fighting with it all this time an it turns out it was a super simple thing to fix!lol