British Education vs American Education | Let's Compare!

Eat Sleep Dreamers. Welcome back to another video with me,

Teacher Tom and Jess from Love in London. Hello. Welcome.

Back. Thank you. Good.

to have you here. Today

we're comparing the British education system with the American education system

because a lot of you guys have asked me, you're very interested,

so I thought we'd compare and contrast. We're not experts necessarily,

but we have been through the education systems.

Yes. Some would say.

Yeah. So yeah, we'll try our best to give you as much information as we can. So,

first of all, my question to you is, um, what age do you start school in.

America? Yeah. So everybody starts at five and that's kindergarten.

That's the first official grade. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

But also most kids will be put into preschool,

which is when you are three and four.

But that's usually not public. That's usually paid for by your parents.

Okay, cool. Yeah. And we start, yeah, between four and five. Okay. Here.

And we have, yeah, nursery beforehand.

Oh. So when I was in school, um,

elementary started around nine and then middle school and high school,

and we'll get into that in a bit. Started earlier and earlier. So high school.

Um, there was one year where I had to be at school for 7.30am. Oh.

And my bus came at 6.30am, so Oh wow. It was like really early,

but I think they're changing that now and they're kind of trying to adjust that

cos that's quite early. Yeah.

You just mentioned school buses there.

That's something that is in my mind when I think about American schools.

Is that big yellow school bus, is that a thing? Do you really?

Oh, yeah. Did you take that? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. My God, you're so American!

basically I have dreams about them still,

which is really weird that I keep missing them. And, but yeah,

that's like all through school until you're allowed to drive to school.

If you're allowed to drive to school, then you take them.

Okay, cool. Yeah, I know we, we have school buses here,

but only in more rural areas. Mostly you just kind of walk to school or mm-hmm.

<affirmative>, if you're in London, take a bus. Um,

what different types of schools do you have? So you mentioned,

was it elementary school?

Yep. So elementary is where you start,

and you do that for kindergarten to fifth grade, where you're up till 10.

And then most places will have a middle school,

which is 11 to 13 years old, and then you'll do high school,

which is 14 to 17, 18.

Okay. And then you move on to college after that? Yeah, exactly. Okay.

Which, but university. Yeah, exactly. Ah-huh. Yeah. We'll go,

we'll go into that. Yeah.

Uh, here in Britain, um, we have, uh, primary school, uh,

and then secondary school. That's pretty much, that's it. Yeah.

The only two I'd like to know about, um, free versus pr,

sort of paid education systems. What, what, what are the names for those there?

Yeah, so if you go to the pub, the school that you,

the free school, it's called public school. Okay. So that's what I did.

I went to public school. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then, um, if you,

your parents are paying for it, for you, it's private school.

Okay. Ah-ha.

Now that's so confusing for us because we have our,

our free schools are state schools. Um, we also have free schools,

but there's something else, uh, that Yeah, we'll go into another time. Um,

but then our paid schools are private schools,

but then we also have public schools, which are not free.

They're quite the opposite. They're the most expensive schools.

So we have things like Eton and Harrow.

I think Prince William and Prince Harry went to Eton. Yeah. Uh,

which is a public school. So it sounds like it should be free,

but it's the opposite. I.

It confuses me every time I hear it,

cuz I don't understand why you would call it public when it is completely the

opposite of that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Completely. At, so at school, do you have to wear uniforms?

Is that a thing In the.

States? Mostly if you go to public school. So free school, you don't,

I never wore uniforms when I went to school. If you go to a private school,

generally they do because a lot of private schools are Catholic schools or based

on some kind of religion. Um, but yeah, when I was growing up,

all the private schools around me, they all wore uniforms.

Okay.

In a lot of the American TV shows I've seen there are kind of like groups of

people and you've got like the geeks and the jocks. Oh, the jocks. Yeah.

What can you explain to us, like what, what the group,

because I was thinking about like, there are sort of, um,

unwritten rules for uniforms, right? Like, if you are a jock, if you are a goth,

if you are, you know, something else, a geek,

you have to wear certain types of clothes. Okay. Yes.

But is is that a thing in the states where you have like these groups of kids.

In school? Yeah, it is. It's not like how it is in the films. Um,

it's definitely, I would, well, at least where I went to school,

I felt like I was quite overdramatized. But sports is a really,

really big thing in most especially public schools. Um,

especially for boys in public schools. They, um, so,

and then there's a lot of like,

camaraderie around the American football teams. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

some of the other teams, especially if they're really good.

So I would say like the sports, the jocks are,

which no one actually calls them the jocks. Oh, okay. When you're in school. Um,

but the people who play sports very much stuck together and then mm-hmm.

<affirmative> just like anywhere in life really. It just,

everyone kind of comes together by their common interests, so.

Okay. All right. So yeah. So it's not as exaggerated as, you know, um,

some of those shows?

No, I mean, not where I went to school. So it could be different other places.

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but, and some schools have more of a lean towards, um,

especially around like L.A. they have more of a lean towards the dramatic arts.

So that's a much bigger group than the people who do sports. So it just depends.

Okay. But high school sport is a, a big thing.

Yes. Yeah. Really big thing. Okay. Yeah. Does.

The TV show, uh, on Netflix, but it's all about like the,

the American football teams of high schools and they kind of follow the,

the trials and tribulations of each team, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah,

it sounds like it's like a big thing. There's like bands and cheerleaders and

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and they usually,

American football is the biggest team. It depends on the school,

cuz some schools have better soccer teams. Uhhuh, <affirmative>,

it feels weird for me even so say soccer <laugh>, um,

or some of 'em have better baseball teams mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

But usually there's the biggest camaraderie around American football. And like,

we do things called a pep rally where it kind of like opens the season and it

gets everyone excited. And like you said, there's cheerleaders.

I did dance team and we did performances at the football games,

also basketball games. And, um,

that's where like they have the biggest bleachers usually for people to sit and

watch and it's a whole thing. Right.

Right, right. It's funny actually, even comparing the sports,

like you're talking about America, football, basketball, baseball,

these are the big sports, right? Mm. Whereas in British schools,

as we're talking about football or soccer, as you said, uh, rugby, cricket,

basketball to an extent, um, maybe netball, uh, things like that.

So different sports as well. Um, going back a little bit to, um, the,

the grades or years. So you, you call 'em grades, right? So Yes.

When you enter school, what's, how does it work?

Yeah. So kindergarten's the first one, like we've spoke about before mm-hmm.

<affirmative>. And that's when you're five.

And then the next one when you're six is first grade.

And then it just keeps going up to 12th grade. Okay.

And then when you get to high school that, um, the freshman, sophomore, junior,

senior thing kicks in Uhhuh <affirmative>. So freshman is when you're 14,

that's ninth grade 10th grade Sophomore. 11th,

junior and senior is 12th grade.

That's in high school. Yeah. Oh, okay.

So you have that in high school and in college as well. Yeah, exactly. Oh,

interesting. Okay. So in Britain we have reception is the, the first year,

that's four to five. And then it's class 1, 2, 3, or year 1, 2, 3. Continuing,

um, through to 12. Okay. I think, yeah, I'll double check that. But yes,

I think so. Uh, what exams do you guys have?

So we, it kind of actually depends on the state that you're in,

cuz different states have different standardized tests that you have to do. Um,

but I, the,

the biggest test that anyone who wants to go to university has to do is the SAT

Okay. So, um, that's a standard test that everyone around the country takes.

You have to like pay for it. You, a lot of people pay,

it's big business actually. Um, people pay for tutoring for it. Oh.

So it's not free?

No, no, no.

Oh, okay.

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. You have to pay, every time you take it,

you have to pay. Oh.

Wow. Yeah. And you have to pay for the materials to study for it. And it's a,

it's like a huge part of your, um, college admission.

Is the SAT is it one exam or is it lots of different exams?

It's one exam that has, when I did it, it was three different parts,

but then I think they might have changed it more recently. Okay.

And there's also this thing called advanced placement classes where Oh,

you basically, they're harder than the normal classes. So if you take AP calculus

it's harder than the usual math that you would take that year. Okay.

And for every AP class you have to take the AP test at the end of the year and

you get a grade on that.

And that basically is supposed to show how good you were at that subject. Oh.

Wow. Yeah. Okay. Did you do any AP?

Yeah. Yeah. I had to do, I did a few, um,

and they all go in your college application.

So it's just everything's about your college application.

<Laugh>. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Um,

so in Britain we have the main ones are GCSEs and then A levels,

so GCSEs when you're 16 and then A levels is when you're 18.

We also have the 11 plus, which takes you from, um,

primary school to secondary school. It determines, uh, which,

which one you're gonna go to. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

But it depends on the area that you live in.

There's different types of schools that we have. Okay. But, um, yeah. Okay,

cool. Are.

Your A levels or not, you only do those if you go to college, right?

Uh, yeah. So A levels get you into university. Yeah. Okay.

So you have to A levels to go to university. Okay. Um, so GCSEs, you can,

there's a sort of broader selection you can do. I think it's up to nine or ten,

I think depends on, on the individual. And then A levels,

I did three A levels, but I think now there are more.

I think you can take five again. Uh,

I've got a video that goes into this in more depth, so we'll check that out. Um,

but yeah, you take, um, you kind of as, as you go get older and older,

you kind of get more specific. Right, okay.

Which I'm sure is the same in the states where you kind of start from nine down

to four. And then obviously at university you do one main subject.

So what age can you leave school?

Uh, in states you have to go up to 18. Well, 17,

18 you have to complete 12th grade. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

he technically can drop out. Um, but you really like,

wanna keep going cuz your prospects of jobs are really hard if you haven't

graduated high school.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So in Britain,

it used to be that you could leave at 16 and just do whatever you want. Now,

if you leave at 16, you have to either do a, um,

do some kind of part-time work, um, and some education alongside.

Or you have to do some like vocational training. Okay. Um,

and then until you're 18, and then you can do whatever you want.

Or a lot of people stay till they're 18,

they do their A-levels and then they leave at 18 to do whatever they want.

So, okay. So yeah. So you,

you have that choice and there is that moment when you are, when you hit 16,

when you're like, oh, oh my goodness. Like I could leave school.

It's a really exciting moment. Yeah. And you know,

generally a lot of people continue, but.

Okay. And that's when you would go onto college? The UK college,

not us. Ah-huh.

UK college. Yeah. So exactly.

So when you are 16 and you wanna continue education, you go to either, um, yeah.

Sixth form college, um, which could be in the school or it could be a separate,

um, entity. So I left my school, my secondary school,

and I went to a separate college. Yeah. But it's still for yeah,

16 to 18 year olds. Okay. Different from the American college.

Let's get onto the American college.

So in Britain we have university and in the States you have colleges mm-hmm.

<affirmative>. So what's the college system like?

Yeah. So it's really competitive. Um, and it's very,

I think an interesting thing is that people's identities are very much tied up,

or generally speaking can very much be tied up into which university you go

to. Mm-hmm. So there's a lot of things, like,

my parents went to this school and that's where I want to go because I wanna

continue my, um, my, I think the phrase is, is alma mater.

Um, so, and yeah, so because of that it's very competitive.

It's also really expensive, like really, really expensive.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You hear about parents saving up for years and they've got like a college fund

mm-hmm. <affirmative> for their kids so that they can go on to college.

So why is college so expensive? Is it because it's, it's a business? Is that.

Yeah, I think that's, that's what it is. So there's, um, there's a lot of, uh,

universities and colleges that are not run by the state mm-hmm.

<affirmative>, um, by the government. But there's also a lot that are,

and those ones are generally cheaper, um, especially if you're from that state.

So if I had gone to school, um, at one of the state schools in New York,

it would've been a lot cheaper than the one that I ended up going to <laugh>.

But I had a great experience. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but yeah,

I think it's the demand is there. Um, also, I,

I've never been to a university here, but I think, um, they're just,

they're huge campuses. They, it's a lot of, um,

where they do a lot of research for the US there. Ah, okay.

So that's part of it. Mm-hmm. Um, you also get a lot of like amenities,

like your housing, um, gym, they feed you, like depending on the school,

very good food. Mm-hmm. Or maybe not good. Um,

and there's a lot of different programs and, and things.

It's actually like quite a lot of opportunity, but it makes it very expensive.

Okay. Uh, and speaking of housing, sorority houses and the, uh,

what's the male one?

Uh, fraternity.

Fraternity houses. Explain just quickly that system to us. Yeah.

Because that's very alien.

Oh yeah. So sororities and fraternities are basically what's called Greek life.

And you, um, there's a,

I never did like a traditional one. Um,

so I don't know the full story of how it all really goes down, but, um,

sororities are for women and fraternities are for men mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

And it's supposed to be that it's like these people become like your social

circle and Okay. Um,

some people would say that you kind of like pay for friends, <laugh>,

it depends on who you ask. Um, it can be very divisive.

People who are in Greek life are very about Greek life for the people who aren't

can be very like, what's the point? Yeah. So, uh, yeah,

it's quite interesting.

And then sometimes you'll end up living in the dedicated house for

that sorority or fraternity, and then sometimes you don't, it just depends.

Okay. Um, my only reference is Animal House. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh,

the film Animal House, which is a very exaggerated version. Yeah.

But it seems to me that very, they're very tight knit. Right. You can yeah.

Find a sort of a family, as it were. Yeah. Very, very easily. So, um,

another term that I've heard is Ivy League schools. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

What's an Ivy League school?

Yeah. So it's basically,

the simple answer of it is it's a group of schools in the US that are considered

like the most elite schools. Um, the hardest to get into.

I think there's some kind of classification that makes them Ivy League.

I'm not sure exactly, but it's been around for a very, very long time.

So there is a status thing to say that you go to an Ivy League school or that

your kid goes there because it means that they're quite,

they're smart enough to get into it,

which is hard and it also means that you have a lot of money to pay for it, so.

Right, right, right, right. In Britain we have, um, we have something called,

uh, red brick universities, which are, it's,

it's a group of universities that are considered to be high achieving.

Um, so, um, they're things like, um, Manchester I think,

and leads, um, are considered to be these kind of, um,

revered schools or revered universities. So yeah,

kind of that same kind of thing. If, if someone goes to a red brick, it's like,

oh, okay.

Like, are they more expensive though?

Uh, no, I don't think so. Okay. So fees here. So when I studied, um,

it was a thousand pounds a year to, to study,

which was seen at the time to be like, you know,

really controversial because when my sister went, it was free. Um, and then,

you know, in the sort of like two thousands, they made them, you know,

had to pay at least a thousand pounds,

but now they are obviously way more expensive. I, I dunno the exact cost, but,

you know, several, several thousand pounds a year. But I know compared to, um,

the states Oh.

Yeah. It's, that's a thousand pounds doesn't even cover the books for the year.

Right, right, right.

Oh my God.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we are, we're very fortunate here. Um, yeah. Yeah.

I think, yeah, these days is a lot more expensive,

and so that makes people question when they want to,

to take that step to go to university.

Well, and I would also say that, um, so it's very,

very expensive in the US and this is a very general statement, but, um,

if we're comparing, like,

especially if we're comparing salaries in London versus salaries in New York for

people who are university educated. Salaries, and again,

depending on what you're going into and what school you went to and everything,

but salaries in New York are much higher than they are here. Right. So I,

I can imagine people are already questioning the value of that over in the US.

So I imagine here, especially when this,

you come into London as a 22 year old and you're trying to get a job and it's

like 23 grand a year, and you're like, how am I gonna, yeah.

I can't even afford to pay off my loans with that and to live here.

And so I totally get that.

Absolutely. And student debt here is, yeah, it's a huge thing, a big problem.

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, yeah.

And obviously if you're doing like a longer course, um, in, in Scotland there,

they're four year courses, um, or if you're doing that medicine,

something like that, um, architecture you be studying for many, many years.

So yeah, it can be, yeah. Really. Yeah. Really difficult for people. Um,

let's change the tack slightly and talk about a slightly more fun thing.

Spring break, <laugh>. So this, when I think about American colleges,

I usually think about spring break. Yeah. Explain to me what is, what is it, oh, explain to us what is it and Yeah. Why is it such a big thing?

Okay. So spring break, I mean, in its simplest term is just,

um, in the spring semester, it's when you have a week off, uh, which is,

I don't actually think it aligns, it doesn't align with Easter. Um,

but you just,

it's just like breaks up all the classes break up for a week mm-hmm.

<affirmative>. So, um, what people do with that varies significantly. Um,

but it's quite common for people to either do alternative

spring break,

which is when you sign up to do a volunteer program somewhere in the world. Um,

so I did those for a couple of years. Okay. Um,

but it's also common for people <laugh> to go to like Mexico especially because

in the US you obviously can't drink legally until you're 21. Oh.

So college students love to go to like Mexico, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta,

all those places,

and go and party for a week Uhhuh <affirmative> and stay in like a cheap hotel

and just get really drunk all the time. Uhhuh, <affirmative> like crazy.

And there's like no rules there. So.

But you did the volunteering, you didn't.

Well, I, the last year I did the <laugh>, my senior year I did the,

the a little bit more fun one, but yeah, it was, uh,

it wasn't quite as crazy as like if you saw like 21, 22 Jump Street when they,

that one is just like, a lot of them are just mad. Oh, yes.

Yes. Right. Very dramatised in the films. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So, but why is it that week in spring?

Why is it not in the summertime or like Christmas time or, because.

It's just because every single university has this one week break. Right. Um,

and I think in the fall there's a

there's a one week break usually around Thanksgiving. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so,

and then, but it's Thanksgiving mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Whereas the spring break one doesn't coincide with any holidays,

so nobody really needs to go home to see family. Okay.

So they just hit the beach.

Ah-huh. Okay. We don't have an equivalent here. We,

we don't really have that same kind of thing, but maybe when you,

when you leave school, you definitely go on like a,

a trip with your friends Last holiday. Last holiday, yeah.

To Spain or Greece or something like that. Um,

which sounds equally classy as as yours does Um, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Interesting. Okay.

Spring break sounds like something that one should experience I think.

Yeah, I mean it's definitely depends on the personality, I guess.

I was glad I did both sides of it.

I did the couple of years of the volunteering, which was amazing.

I had such a good time doing that. Um,

and then how had a bit of fun the last year, so.

Okay. And in college, I know that sports are a huge thing. Scholarships. Um,

March Madness, I've heard about this mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, why,

why is college sport such a huge thing?

Yeah, so it's big business. So it's...so we have,

in the US there's the NFL, which is the professional American football league

And then there's American football that's played at the college level mm-hmm.

<affirmative>. And as the last time I heard about it,

the college level actually is a bigger revenue driver than the professional

league. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, a lot of it is that there's just, again,

like there's this camaraderie and this like connection to the school that you

went to.

Like people in the talk about what school they went to till the day they die,

which is a little bit much sometimes, but you wear the sweatshirt,

you have the sticker on the car. Yes. It's like, you just kind of like,

it's very much a bonding thing. Like even here in London, um,

I occasionally they host like an an alumni event for people who live in London

who went to my university. Right. And my English friends are like,

why are you going to that <laugh>? Yes. But it's fun. Yeah. It's like nice.

The connection that you guys have to your schools or your colleges is so much

stronger than, than we have. Like, yeah.

For us it's like I'm a little bit embarrassed about the one I went to. Like,

we just, it's just like, yeah, I went there. We don't have the shirts,

but you guys are connected. I know an American friend who used to, um,

tutor people who were applying to that college to help them through the,

the process, which I thought was just like, wow, that's above and beyond. Yeah.

It's really cool that you are connected to your Yeah.

Your institutions like that.

It's, it is like, it does kind of foster community even when you leave.

And it's actually really good for networking. Um, and again,

it can be a little elitist, uh, depending on what school you went to. Mm-hmm.

<affirmative>. But, um, so then to go back to sports,

that's where a lot of that comes from.

And because this is such a money-making thing, um,

schools will do everything that they can specific,

especially with American football,

to just bring in as big of crowds as possible mm-hmm.

<affirmative> and they give scholarships to the best high school players so that

they'll come to the school and play for them so that their team gets better and

better. And same for basketball. And that's where March Madness comes in. Yeah.

That's the biggest tournament for basketball. That's a huge thing as well. Um,

baseball is really big too, but there's this,

this like big camaraderie around it all and then also it

continues outside. So like,

basically the community gets bigger and bigger mm-hmm.

<affirmative> because people graduate, but then new people come in. Right.

And they all stick around, so.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. When you get your degree,

I guess it's called a degree. Yeah. What, what, what are the grading?

Grading to that?

So, um, you have a GPA basically. Ah,

do you guys have that? No. No. Okay. So it stands for a grade point average.

And so, um, and this is actually the same in most high schools as well. Mm-hmm.

<affirmative>, you get for each course and each semester you'll get a grade,

an overall grade for that. And then it starts at like A, B, C, D,

and then F is failing. Okay. Um,

As give you the highest points and then the points are averaged and that's

your GPA. Okay. Um,

and as long as you basically, I think it's like if you pass,

then you get a degree. Okay. There's probably some cutoff. I might not be,

I did really well, so <laugh>, um, I never had to worry about that, but, um,

you, yeah. As then you get your degree. The funny thing is though,

that like no one really talks about GPA after you have the degree, so.

Right, yeah, yeah. Often the way, right. Like you simply,

especially when you're at school and get GCCS and A levels and then Yeah.

Your degree and you're like, no one cares what the, once you're in,

in the world of work. Yeah. No one really cares. Yeah. So in Britain we have,

um, the class system. So we have, um, a 3rd, which is the lowest you can get.

There's a 2.2, a 2.1 and then a 1st class degree is the top.

So yeah. Wait, but those are different degrees.

Or No, no, no, different. Like A, B, C, D. Oh, okay. Okay.

So you're starting the, the bottom is the 3rd.

Well maybe you don't even get a degree. Okay. Then this third and it goes up 2.2

2.1 and then a 1st. Okay.

I've never understood that.

Yeah. And no, do I, and I let you guys decide which I got because, u

it wasn't the 1st. Um, thank you so much Jess for joining us.

I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Um,

if you guys have any questions or anything to add to what we've talked about,

um, uh, please let us know in the comments below. But until next time,

take it easy. <laugh>. Bye. Bye.