Great
discussion! A really neat book to read is The Presence of the Past by
Rosenzweig and Thelen. It talks about how people use history in their
lives. Most fascinating is the distinction between the term "History" and
other terms to mean "the past".
As for
terminology, in the United States secondary school is referred to as either
Junior High or Middle School and Senior High or High School.
Grades 6 through 8 are Junior High, while grades 9 through 12 are High
School. In the US, the schools are separate. Though technically
a part of secondary school, junior high is not treated as such. The
"mental break" of when a student truly becomes a secondary student is High
School. When a student enters High School, he or she is a
"freshman". The second year of High School is the "Sophomore" year.
The "Junior" year is the 11th grade, or next to the last, and the last year of
school is the "Senior" year. Unfortunately, school is not mandatory in the
US until age 18. I have two neighbors who dropped out on their16th
birthdays.
"One Period"
means class period. Length of classes varies with the
school. United states schools don't run on a clock-hour
system. The school day is divided into even time periods for classes and
students are assigned a class for each period. Thus, if you have
history for one period, that means you have 1 class per day, 5 days per week and
at the end of the year you get your history credit (assuming you passed).
Texas
introduced something funky called TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills),
Missouri has the "Show-Me Standards". The funny thing is that I don't even
remember what or when I took history other than taking "Civics and Economics" my
last year in high school. I went to a couple of different high schools, so
my courses were a bit screwed up in order. And, you're right, Beth....the
problem is the teachers. That is why I have no memory of high school
history class but remember my Junior High history to this day! I had two
great JH teachers for Texas History and for World History. (AND, it has
been a whole person of legal drinking age since I was in Junior
High!)