Somebody told me that you don't "graduate" from elementary school, but that there's some other word that describes that event.
Anybody know whether that's true? and if it is, what is the word?
Somebody told me that you don't "graduate" from elementary school, but that there's some other word that describes that event.
Anybody know whether that's true? and if it is, what is the word?
Here in Canada we call it 'Leaving'.
My youngest is having his 'Leaving Ceremony' in June.
Back when I was in school, K-12 may have been age segregated into separate facilities, but there was no ceremony attached to moving out of a lower group.
The groupings then in my area were
Grade/Primary School (k-6)
Middle School (7 & 8)
High School (9-12)
Today, some school system are actually holding graduation ceremonies for primary and middle schools/junior high.
It's fair to call it a graduation if they are attaching a ceremony to it.
Grade/Primary School (k-6)
Middle School (7 & 8)
High School (9-12)
Hmm, when I was a kid in Brooklyn, it was:
Elementary School (kβ6)
Junior High School (7β9)
High School (10β12)
Hmm, when I was a kid in Brooklyn, it was:
Yep, that's the general difference between Middle School systems and Junior High Systems.
Middle School is grades 7 & 8 with a 4 year high school (9-12) and
a Junior High system splits 3/3 with Junior high as 7-9 and high school as 10-12.
The Milwaukee Public Schools (where I went to school) uses a middle schools system.
Today, some school system are actually holding graduation ceremonies for primary and middle schools/junior high.
So after three graduation ceremonies one still starts college/university as an undergraduate ;-)
It's fair to call it a graduation if they are attaching a ceremony to it.
In British usage, graduation is the conferring of a degree, and those who hold a degree are referred to as graduates. If the award is not a degree (e.g. a two-year diploma) the ceremony is called an awards ceremony not graduation.
I'm not aware of any ceremony at the end of high school here, though it may have changed in the 15 years since our youngest left high school.
In both the district I grew up in and my kids' district, the breakdown was:
Elementary: K-5
Junior High / Middle School: 6-8
High School: 9-12
I have seen very few systems in which High School was not four grades - Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. It might be common, but not where I've lived, at least.
I have seen very few systems in which High School was not four grades
From research I've done in the past, in the US, middle school is most commonly grades 7 & 8 and junior high school is most commonly 7-9.
SB above mentions Brooklyn being JR High (7-9) and SR High (10-12).
IIRC, the research I did said middle school systems were more common, but I'm not completely certain on that.
I have seen very few systems in which High School was not four grades - Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors.
Yes, the public high school in NYC is 4 grades, but if you are in the lower public schools (elementary and junior high) you enter high school as a sophomore (9th grade being done in junior high school).
Now my best friend went to a parochial school (not the public school system) for grades kβ8 so he entered the same high school as me as a freshman and did 4 years. I never thought about it, but the freshman class in high school was probably smaller than the sophomore, junior, and senior classes.
This is actually pertinent to my WIP novel which begins in 1956 in Brooklyn, NY. The MC character turns 16 on September 1, 1956 and public schools there begin the first Monday after Labor Day. She enters high school as a sophomore.
Yes, the public high school in NYC is 4 grades, but if you are in the lower public schools (elementary and junior high) you enter high school as a sophomore (9th grade being done in junior high school).
Now my best friend went to a parochial school (not the public school system) for grades kβ8 so he entered the same high school as me as a freshman and did 4 years. I never thought about it, but the freshman class in high school was probably smaller than the sophomore, junior, and senior classes.
Interesting, in that kind of system I would have expected your friend would have to do 9th grade in at parochial school before transferring to a public high school.
Interesting, in that kind of system I would have expected your friend would have to do 9th grade in at parochial school before transferring to a public high school.
Nope. High school was 4 years β freshman, sophomore, junior, senior.
It was the public school elementary school that messed things up. It should have gone k-8 (like my friend's Catholic school). But it didn't. It went k-6 and then the NYC school system threw in the junior high school to handle 7th and 8th grades. But for whatever reason, they also had 9th grade so when we entered high school we entered the sophomore year, not the freshman year.
I found this in an article:
"In the mid-1900s, educators and administrators believed junior high schools helped prepare adolescents for high school without putting them in the same building with older teenagers, according to Kelly Bedard and Chau Do's research at the University of California in Santa Barbara."
New York City school have no single grade setup:
"Every New York City school is different and may serve different grades. There are some that serve grades pre-k to 5, while others go up to 8th grade. There are middle schools for grades 6-8 and high schools for 9-12, but also some 6-12 schools. This means a child could attend three different schools between pre-k and high school or just two depending on the grade configuration.
Here's a brief primer on the types schools and the grades they generally serve. As with anything, there may be exceptions to these rules.
β’ Early Childhood schools typically serve students from pre-Kindergarten through about third grade.
β’ Elementary schools serve students from pre-Kindergarten through fifth or sixth grade.
β’ Junior High, Intermediate or Middle Schools β This can be a bit confusing. These schools often serve the "middle" or "intermediate" portion of a students experience , sixth through eighth grade. Although, a few schools go all the way through twelfth grade.
β’ High school is for ninth through twelfth grade. Although students may apply to any level of schools, every student must fill out a high school application when they enter ninth or tenth grade. Schoolbook's Guide: The High School Years has additional informaiton on navigating the application process.
β’ New York City also offers new Pathways in Technology high schools that serve grades 9-14, where students can earn an Associate's Degree at CUNY. It is modeled after the first P-Tech school in Brooklyn. These schools enable students to get high school, college and career experience and relevant industry certification."
two aspects here:
1: Graduation - some system regard the successful completion of a course of study or learning as a graduation and mark it with a graduation ceremony. Some organisations limit graduation as being restricted to certain levels of accomplishment.
I've seen kids graduate from 2 week long sports training camps along with a graduation ceremony, and some for 5 year university courses, and some for six month military specialist courses.
2. Education systems - over the years I've researched many education systems and schools and come across a whole mess of them. In general, most countries have a system that starts at kindergarten then 12 years 1of basic education followed by 3 to 10 years of advanced education at universities and the like. Without going into the full university level systems I've come across the following breaks ups. for the years 1 to 12 - I'm not covering kindergarten as some have kindergarten separate to the next levels and some have them as part of the next levels - be they called primary or grade school.
A. 1 - 6, 7 - 12
B. 1 - 4, 5 - 8, 9 - 12
C. 1 - 6, 7 - 9, 10 - 12
D. 1 - 3, 4 - 6, 7 - 9, 10 - 12
E. 1 - 5, 6 - 8, 9 - 12
F. 1 - 6, 7 -10, 11 - 12
I've even come across some variants where they have the first year of university tacked on to the end of the line up as a year 13. Most of those were either 10 - 13 or 11 - 13 systems.
I suspect a lot of them ended up the way they were due to physical or staff limitation as they expanded.
I grew up in a system that started as F and then changed to A and have lived in areas where they use B.
The research I had done was explicitly US centric and I stated so.
IIRC from that research, there are no US school systems that use B or F from your list. There are a few US school systems using a middle school structure that would fall under E, but that is far less common than a K-3, 4-6, 7-8, 9-12
Also, A would be very unusual for the US. Most US systems on a simple bifurcation would be K-8, 9-12.
My daughter had a graduation ceremony from Middle School, after 8th grade.
I had a graduation from Kindergarten complete with white caps and gowns.
I had a graduation from Kindergarten complete with white caps and gowns.
We did, too. That was the ONLY type of ceremony we had for completion of a grade again until we graduated high school.
1960's/70's province of BC in Canada, I remember Elementary school was grades 1-7, Jr High 8-10, and Sr High 11-12. Only "Grad" ceremony was when you completed grade 12...
I don't remember any ceremony or graduation exercise when I left elementary school. Of course, that was over half a century ago.
On the other hand, I have heard the word Commencement used for similar events.
I think that for colleges "commencement" is much more common than "graduation" in official announcements.
I attended several different schools in different countries, but the one that was most different from any listed so far was:
Lower School: 1 - 7 (I don't think they had K, but they might have)
Middle School: 8 - 9
Upper School: 10 - 12
A couple of things to note about this.
First, this was an old Canadian private school that started as a boys' college prep school in 1820, so a lot of what they did was based on tradition and when they merged with other schools.
Second, the whole school was on one big campus, but the lower school had most of their own buildings and facilities. There was even a small gym that was only for the lower school. The middle and upper school shared buildings and facilities.
The entire school shared the outdoor play fields, the hockey rink, and the facilities that were built under the rink. These included an indoor, concrete running track and a rifle range. Yes, I was in the rifle club in grade 7.
Third, the distinction between middle and upper school was more about benefits than anything. Upper school students had a dress code most days and only had to wear uniforms on certain days and for assemblies and special events.
Middle and Lower school students had to wear full uniform all day Monday and Friday (the days of the full assembly) and casual uniform the rest of the week. Upper school could wear full uniform to assembly and change to casual uniform for classes those days.
The school had both day students and boarders. I was a day student so I don't know the full rules for boarders, but I know they had a lot. It wasn't a punishment school like the old "we're sending you to military school" type, but some rules were pretty strict. I recall when I was in grade nine a couple of boarders snuck some alcohol into their dorm. The ringleader was expelled and his two friends were suspended for two weeks.
My Sweetie teaches Head Start. That's three year old kids. THEY have a graduation ceremony.
Remember, this is the age of "Everyone Gets A Trophy ".
A Trophy
"Definitions from Oxford Languages Β·
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atΒ·roΒ·phy
/ΛatrΙfΔ/
verb
1.
(of body tissue or an organ) waste away, especially as a result of the degeneration of cells, or become vestigial during evolution.
"without exercise, the muscles will atrophy"
Similar:
waste away
waste
become emaciated
wither
shrivel
shrivel up
shrink
become shrunken
dry up
decay
wilt
decline
deteriorate
degenerate
grow weak
weaken
become debilitated
become enfeebled
Opposite:
strengthen
2.
gradually decline in effectiveness or vigor due to underuse or neglect.
"her artistic skills atrophied from lack of use"
Similar:
peter out
taper off
tail off
dwindle
deteriorate
decline
wane
fade
fade away
fade out
give in
give up
give way
crumble
disintegrate
collapse
slump
go downhill
draw to a close
subside
be neglected
be abandoned
be disregarded
be forgotten
Opposite:
flourish
noun
the process of atrophying or state of having atrophied.
"gastric atrophy"
Similar:
wasting
wasting away
emaciation
withering
shriveling
shriveling up
shrinking
drying up
wilting
decaying
decay
decline"
My Sweetie teaches Head Start. That's three year old kids. THEY have a graduation ceremony.
Remember, this is the age of "Everyone Gets A Trophy ".
I can guarantee that there were "graduation" ceremonies from pre-school more than 50 years ago - long before the trophy for everybody culture.
There was no such thing as "middle school" when I went to public school. First thru seventh grade was "elementary", and then on to high school as a "sub-freshman".
Senior class had 600 people, so this wasn't a small-town one-room school by any means.
And the only ceremony I remember was HS graduation. College, in comparison, was almost a non-event.
When I was a kid it was just called, summer break and then get your butt to school in the fall - but the address for school has changed.