Grade School, Middle School, High School

[Telegraph]

I have a question regarding your grade school (or elementary school, or whatever) years: When you were in grade school, did you have lockers? Did you have different "periods" or classes that you went to, and did these feature different instructors?

I ask this because I see grade school in different media in which I seem to see elements of middle school/high school mixed in, as well. When I went to grade school, we were in one class room all day, and taught by one teacher. We went to the library at a specific time, where there was a librarian, who may or may not have aided the teacher in teaching us. We also went to P.E. in the gym, which was taught by the same teacher. I suppose in 4th or 5th grade, in order to help us make the change from grade school to middle school, after lunch, we were sent to another classroom with a different teacher for the rest of the day. I'm kinda foggy on the details, but that's about what it was. We did not have lockers, either. So, when I saw Tiny Toons, and they had lockers and such, I assumed they were in High School. But Bart and Lisa also had lockers in the Simpsons for some reason. I also vaguely remember some other cartoons/comic strips with similar elements of middle school/high school incorporated into the grade school... realm.

So is grade school different in different areas? What was your grade school like, if you can remember? It's something I've always been vaguely curious about. Maybe I live in happy little country bumpkin land... Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Dimi]

We never had lockers or the middle school/high school elements mixed in with the grade school I went to years ago. I was only in one class throughout the day with one teacher, three recess breaks, and lunch. They didn't start to alter things till I went on to middle school.

As for middle school, that was when the transition had began from going to one class into seven classes a day. We had a 0 period which was Silent Reading for everyone in the school that I went to. From there on, we had our schedules to go through different subjects throughout the day. Luckily, I joined ASB and that became my zero period for the rest of middle school school. And the sad thing was we never had lockers. My school didn't have enough funds to have them so throughout the day, I was forced to carry about three or four textbooks.

High school was sorta like Middle School. I started off with 6 classes my freshman and sophomore year. I did as well during the first half of my junior year so it went down to 5. And since I was ahead on credits, I decided to only take four classes during my senior year. And again, the school that I went to didn't have any lockers either aside from the ones in the gym or in the work out room but we were only allowed to use it during P.E. or if you were in a sport.

[Doc Rocco]

My grade school, or primary school as we call it here, didn't have any middle/high school elements mixed in. We basically lulled around, and had one teacher in one classroom for the entire year. They'd take us for library classes and P.E. or to the computer lab. There was no transitional phase either, so you were just thrown into high school life.

We Australians don't have middle school, only high school. I'm pretty sure all high school in Australia have periods and teachers for each specific subject. At my high school, we have six periods a day each with a different teacher depending on the subjects you take. No lockers though, as they kept getting broken into so the school took them out. Which sucks for my poor vertebral column.

[Rocky]

Let's see, in Elementary school (K-5), we had the same teacher, cubby holes in the classroom to store our backpacks and stuff, three recesses, one lunch, the usual. My elementary memories are very similar with Taco's, pretty much. Except once I hit fifth grade, we lost one recess each day and we also switched teachers for a while during the day, just normally for one subject length's worth of time, so it was no big deal.

At middle school, we had lockers and stuff, so thats when we had to use them. We had teachers each instructing different subjects, we had a homeroom we reported to at the beginning of each day, and believe it or not, the use of backpacks during school was NOT allowed, as this rule was ment for us to use our lockers more often or something, I can't remember.

Once I got into high school, we could use our backpacks freely again (backwards much? lol), and we still had lockers, but I never used mine past my freshman year. All my classes after that year were way on all sides of campus, so it was worthless going to my locker for pretty much anything. Also, my schedule was quite wierd, as my school went on Trimesters instead of the old quarter/semester stuff, and we also went on a block scheduling malarkey thing, which meant that in class we only met every other day, which turned out to be pretty useful (no more homework in math every single day! lol). On top of that, we only had 4 classes a day, so things got pretty crazy all the time, with different classes each day, and with schedules having big changes 3 times a school year, it was like playing a game of Marvel vs Capcom 2 on Turbo mode, all kinds of flashing lights and shite were going off at all times, it was hard to keep focus, lol. But yeah, somehow I got through it all and turned out alright, so it was good times for the most part.

[-x-DarkHeart-x-]

iim home schooled...idk how it feels to go to a school...

[Govinda]

There aren't any middle schools in Scotland either. You go to Primary School from age 5-11, where you have one teacher and one classroom every year. We didn't have cubby-holes; bags are kept on the floor, and each person has a little tray that slides out from under their desk to keep pencils/jotters etc in.

Then you go to an Academy (basically High School with a different name). At our Academy, it was six periods a day, six different teachers. When you got to Fifth Year at Academy and were allowed into the Common Room, there were lockers but they were miniscule and shite.

You can leave Academy when you're 16 as long as you can prove you've got a job or something to go to. My school was a 'disadvantaged' school (we had a resident police officer, who was actually really cool and used to slip me Marlboro Reds) so most people hightailed out of there at that age and now work on building sites. Others left then to pursue community college and vocational things, if they had the nows to figure out that they were shite at academia.

The final two years are Highers years, Fifth and Sixth Year; most people who want to take the straight route to uni do a whole bunch of Highers in Fifth Year and then just loll about for Sixth Year playing with university applications. I'd had enough of that shitehole by then and went to college, which did earn me rejections from several institutions whose entry grades I had already passed in Fifth Year (they see a college qualification and assume you're a ned, it's ****ing ridiculous).

I like the Scottish system for its flexibility. After age 16, you can completely mould it to suit what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it, and the government will pay for it.

[Silver]

Down here as Rocco said, there's just primary school (for 7 years including kindergarten) and then another 4-6 years of high school before going to University, Tafe or just plain working.

The primary school I went to didn't have lockers I believe, but it was structured similarly to high school apart from how lessons were held. In primary school we tended to have just one teacher with an occasional different teacher for a few special subjects, whereas high school for me consisted of seven lesson periods split into single and double period lessons. Both had time to muck around before and after school, and both had a recess earlier in the day and then lunchtime around midday (or just after).

Either way as we weren't forced to use lockers, most of us just jammed an unhealthy weight of school crap into our bags or found other solutions such as using a binder with a section with removeable pages for every subject. My bag in primary school was a few small exercise books, my lunch and a pencil case, my bag in highschool was often 5-7 exercise books, the same amount of textbooks, my laptop, lunch, any projects or props for subjects requiring them, sports uniform on sports days, lunch, a pencil case or two with different things different classes required and a few odds and ends. It was also common for me to find room for a gaming system and/or a magazine so I wouldn't actually have to do schoolwork.

[winterborn86]

We have primary schools over here aswell, but it's not middle/high school its first/middle schools instead. I think they are trying to get rid of middle schools in England cos like Govinda the primary schools in England ranges from 5-11 aswell then goes straight to high school.
But I was sin school before the primary schools starting popping up all over place. in middle school we had 3 teachers for each year and between the 3 learnt all our lessons, like my registration teacher used to teach R.E, English and Science and another taught math and History and so on, but in high school I had a different teacher for every lesson we had lockers up only years 10 and 11 were allowed to use them, but they were crap ! big kick and the door would break, they were optional so I never bothered to get one.

[Synaesthesia]

Same as winter except I guess elementary school would be key stage 1? Middle school would be key stage 2 and High school would be Key stages 3 and 4.
I had one teacher in primary school and Junior school then a set of teachers in high school and have to change rooms.

[Telegraph]

So the consensus here is that nobody had lockers when they were in grade school. So those cartoons/comics/whatever are full of shit; nobody has lockers in grade school! I wonder what the idea behind this was. Was it to say, "These characters are cool grade schoolers; they have lockers and everything!" or was it because they don't remember their own school years clearly, and have to replicate it in a giant mix of everything? Or were they trying to appeal to older viewers? *shrug*

So yeah; middle school and high school were basically like Rocky's for me, as well. I had four periods a day in High School; the first day was a "Blue Day," and the second a "Gold day." After our school colors. Go school spirit! I think I also remember a transition thing they did in Middle School, where we had a couple hour long classes all day instead of the hour classes that were the norm.

Yeah; I could've done better in High School. I slacked off seriously my first three years, then tried a little harder my Senior year, and nearly got a 4.0 that year (a couple B's the second semester.) However, I ended with a 3.07 GPA, and never took the SAT's or tried to apply for scholarships, so... I went to LBCC, the local community college, where I got an Associate's Transfer degree that is fairly useless. I got a 3.57 GPA there, though, so if I ever wanted to go back to school, I could probably get in most places... Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Violet]

On the East Coast(of USA), my elementary(grades K-6 there) school had lockers. I forget what I put in mine o_O. Probably my coat or something.. but we'd bring our backpacks into the classroom.

We had two teachers(the main teacher and the assistant teacher) all in one classroom. For other activities, the music teacher and the art teacher would come to our class. For library, we'd go to the library in single-file and be taught by the teacher that was in charge of that section. Same goes for P.E. Our regular teachers stood on the sidelines and watched or kept the kids in line. We also had 5(or 7) recesses and on Fridays it was a "free day", so we'd get to play with the toys on the shelves instead of the playground.

This was all in Illinois. They're a bit different than the west coast of USA. When I moved to Nevada, it was the same thing except we didn't have lockers. Also, it was grades K-5 there. I had lockers in middle school, and we had different teachers for each subject(just like high school). They had things called "terms" which would break the kids up in different schedules and lunches. Like.. let's say I was Term 2. Term 2s and term 4s would have lunches together(remember, this was middle school, not grade school) and would often have the same classes. So, in all of my different classes, I had the same damn kids who I didn't get along with. It was why I didn't have much fun in those years. Middle schoolers= evil incarnate. At least I didn't have to wear uniforms ^^.

edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my highschool in California didn't have any lockers. They had lockers in the P.E. area to put our clothes in, but other than that, no regular lockers because people were hiding drugs in them, so they had them removed eons ago.

[Faith]

Heh. I think the schooling system over here is completely different to over there.

This is how it goes...

We have Infant School, which is just... easy. Really easy. You're in one classroom with one teacher everyday, and you have two breaks, one for fifteen minutes and then an hour for lunch. The first year is called "Reception" and then there are two other years called Year 1 and 2. You usually begin this school when you're four or five, depending on your birthday.

Then there's Primary school, which is basically the same only harder and goes on for four years. It's Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 (Ages 7-11).

Then High School, which is five years, and again is Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 (Ages 11-16.)

We don't have lockers throughout any of them . I always wanted lockers when I was a kid.. I was really disappointed when I got to High School and found out I had to lug around a big bag all day to five different lessons. We never used to have Proms either, but we do now. And yearbooks. =/.

[Chez Daja]

Yeah, we don't have lockers over here, I've never even heard of an English school that uses them, so I guess there might be a couple.

I left school before high school though, due to numerous reasons. But I know enough about high schools to understand that they usually don't have lockers over here. Ah the joys of not having to go through high school. Still, I had to work from home, but I could sneak an extra break here and then if need be.

[Wolf]

Ah yes my younger school years.

Well at the school I went too, we had elementary school Kindergarten through 5th grade, there we would go and have one teacher we would do stuff with for most of the day. We would also have a few special half hour classes too. We had phy ed., music, and art. For Kindergarten through 2nd grade we would have hooks to hank up our backpacks and coats. For 3th grade through 5th grade we had lockers. We also had three 15 minute recesses every day.
For middle school we had lockers and eight class periods with a hour long lunch and recess in-between.
High school was also the same thing except we only had a half hour lunch and no recess.

[Sean]

My schooling was pretty scattered post 6th grade, every school used different systems.
K-6 School A
7 School B
8 (1 mo) School C
8 (rest of the year) School D
9-10 School E
11-12 School F


School A K-5 was static class rooms. Come 6-8 their system was that you'd hop around between the 3 classrooms and each teacher had different subjects to teach to all the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. There were never any lockers, we had desks that would open to hold all our things, and we were not allowed to go back to our original classroom to get our items if we forgot them.

7 was an average middle school, every class was a different teacher in a different part of the building, with my own locker next to my homeroom.

My first month of grade 8 was the same, except this was actually split between two buildings and we'd go outside and across the street for two classes each day.

The remainder of my 8th grade year was spent at a school that housed grades 5 and 6 in one room, and 7 and 8 in one room. We had two teachers, but they were split up during the day, and they would teach the entire class, more or less. The 7th graders were on different subject material than the 8th, but they'd teach the 7th graders their math while the 8th graders went to Confirmation Class, and in the afternoons the teachers would overlap, teaching one subject to one half then going to the other half... or some such thing. I don't really remember too well, it was a bad system.

High school was all the same, just no "home room" this time around. Had lockers, every class in a different section of the building, so on and so forth.

My college had lockers when I was in the culinary arts program in the locker room in the HRM (Hotel and Restaurant Management) building, but mostly because we had to wear "chef clothes" in our kitchen "labs" and most students didn't like walking to their math class on the other side of the building still wearing that shit...

Soo.. TLDR: K-6, no lockers, 6-start of 8, switched classes, 7-start of 8, had lockers.

[Lilium]

In Virginia:
I went to a Christian school from K-1st grade. Then I went to public school in 2nd grade.

In Texas:
I went to public school from 3rd to 8th grade.

In Virginia:
I am now currently in my Junior year at a Catholic school.

I never had lockers until I started High School going to a Catholic school. From K-2nd grade, you didn't really need text books because they didn't give assignments from text books. It was just taking papers home and such for homework, and completing them. Like worksheets. In 3rd grade, they had lockers, but I rarely, if ever, used mine. I'm not sure if anyone really did.

In Texas, they gave us textbooks to take home, so we didn't need to bring them to school, since they had textbooks in all of the classrooms. At the end of the year, though, we had to give the textbooks back.

Then, in Catholic school, we had to buy the books, and take them to school each day, and use our lockers to store our books and other possessions that we didn't need/didn't want to carry around at the time.

[Loaf]

My Elementary School was the typical all day one class one teacher. Certain time during the day you go to another class that was taught by another teacher. Art, Music, PE, etc. No lockers.

Middle School we had lockers, and it was 6 classes that we called hours. (Your 6th hour class, 1st hour class etc etc)

High School was the same as Middle School until my Senior year when our school was given Standard Student Attire (a collared shirt and nice pants) and block scheduling. A Day you had 1 3 5 and 7 classes. B day was 2 4 6 8. I was lucky and A day I had 1 and 3 and B day I had 2 and 4. 4 classes and I got out in 3 hours!

[lottiepop]

I'm not too sure what middle/ grade school equates to over here, although Halie (who I think I can assume lives in the UK) described our schooling system perfectly. The only thing is we finish school at 16, not 18, but we can opt to do further studies and then go to university (I think your college is our university?)

Anyway back to the point, nope we've never had lockers because if you're common like me you went to a comprehensive state school which does not have the money to afford lockers, even though it would be a good idea.

My school day started at 9 and finished at 3:10, we had 6 lessons a day and each one was 50 minutes and each one had a different teacher, unless it was a repeat of an previous lesson, e.g. You have English period 1 and then have it again period 3 with the same teacher.

[SapphirePR]

My elementary school didn't have lockers and we didn't have different teachers except for special classes like Physical Education, Music/band, and Spanish...I remember if we didn't finish our homework in class we'd have detention during lunch to finish it..I still think that was weird XP..but fortunately i didn't have detention more than a couple of times. I loved elementary school though Wayyyy better than high school, for me at least. Middle school was great too.

Haha, I loved Tiny Toons when I was a kid

[Loaf]

Elementary started at 9AM for me. Middle school was at 8am. and High School was at 6:55AM. I hated going to school. One time my high school was split so school started at 6AM and ended at noon and then 12:30 the other school went in and took their classes.