On Friday 26 Sep 2003 7:13 pm, you wrote:
> > > I probably spent $5000-$6000US on books and classes that were
> >
> >essentially
> >
> > > just repeated information from my high school education.  That irks me.
> >
> >Why do they do this.  Is it due to variance in educational standards or
> >what?
> >
> >Ian
>
> My somewhat cynical view is that if they didn't force every student to take
> 3 English courses, the English department would shrink somewhat, and all
> those poor folks who chose to major in English have to work somewhere!
>
> It may also be as you thought...I was quite surprised by the relative
> illiteracy of the people who were in my classes.

In the UK there has been little standardisation of secondary qualifications.
Even in my day (60's) there were several examination boards and it was common
to pick the board considered easiest tp pass for a particular subject.  that
said, they were all of a pretty high standard and the universities could
judge your grades better knowing which particular ones you sat.

More recently we have the 'National Curriculum' which is an attempt to ensure
all seceondary education throughout the country covers the same topics, but
there are still several examination boards to choose from so it is still not
perfect.

How are things like this arranged in the US?  I know you have standard tests
(SATs and so on) but do you have a sytandard curriculum and who sets the
tests?

Ian

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