Quote:
Originally Posted by bcb
I totally agree. The Alberta (and Canadian) education system are top notch.
Part of the reason is because we have standard curriculum, whereas in the States and other places, local boards and even individual teachers make the curriculum.
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Yup, that's totally true. It doesnt matter if someone graduated from a high school in Calgary, Olds, Fort McMurray, Edmonton, or Lethbridge....the curriculum will be the same because everyone has to take the same Diploma exam. Here, there is no such thing as a high school exit exam or a standardized test to gain entrance into a university. This is why when you apply to a university, they don't really have as many pre-reqs like we do when applying to University. They might say a year of high school English or something like that, but not a specific class because its going to be so different from one school to the next. You pretty much make up the deficiences in university for whatever you were lacking in high school. For example, suppose I wanted to major in Biology and get a BSc in Bio from a uni...its okay if you didnt take a single bio class in high school...you will just start off with intro bio uni and work your way up from tehre.
The reason for this thinking is because most American educators/university systems believe that it's very hard for a kid in grade 9 or 10 to decide "what they want to be when they grow up", so if you miss taking bio in high school..you cant get into university as a Bio Major if you later decide you want to major in it...(unless you upgrade). Because there is so much difference between high school curricula in the US, they just want their university students to take the classes that matter in uni.
And I thought of another wierd university class I took - Career and Life Planning. Seriously, it was a 2 credit class designed to help me figure out whwat I wanted to be..but it was SO easy, all you did is explore careers. It was more like a high school level class.