美國中學和小學天差之別

對于美國人來說，我們就是外國人。那我們這樣一個外國人眼中的美國會是怎樣的呢？來自中國福建的90后女孩陳韻正，現在正是一名初中生，曾隨父母去美國學習和生活過。下面就讓她給大家講講她所親歷的美式教育吧！

Once I was in middle school I realized what a huge difference it was from elementary school. I couldn’t be as free as before. To start with， school started earlier. In elementary school， school started at 8:30 A.M. But in middle school it was 7:50 A.M. And we needed to go to the gym where we met with our team before heading to our classroom.

The way we had classes changed greatly. In elementary school we studied all subjects in one classroom and the headteacher of the class taught three major subjects all by herself. In middle school every subject had its own classroom and each was decorated differently. I had seven subjects—Writing， Reading， Social Studies， Science， Math， etc. And seven different teachers. We had to move from class to class.

One of the biggest differences between a Chinese school and an American middle school was that American middle school did not have any recess time. We studied three subjects in the morning with each subject lasting for a one-hour period. We only had one minute to race to the next classroom! If we needed to use the restroom， we had to ask our teacher to sign a pass. We only had a twenty-minute break for lunch. There was barely time to wash our hands! We had to line up to get our lunch. No one liked to be at the end of line because it gave you less time to eat! After lunch we had three more subjects with the last being an encore (which lasted one and a half hours). Encore classes were fun as I studied sewing， cooking， financing， baby-sitting， etc.

Middle school also seemed to have endless rules! We could not wear hats， could not wear low-cut coats and could not jump or run in the hallways. There were two colors of tiles on the floor. We had to march on the borders between the two tiles， so our whole line was straight， the walls wouldn’t be made dirty and the lockers wouldn’t be tinkled. A camera viewed us consistently. From the ceiling yellow posters were hung saying “Speak in a low voice.” “Don’t touch the walls” and so on!

Each student had their own locker in which we stored our personal belongings. You had to put your backpack in the locker and could only fetch class materials during the one minute “class racing-time”. But there was one thing you must carry—an agenda， which recorded our everyday performance in school. We carried an agenda which had to be signed if we wanted to open our locker during classes， go to the library， or use the restroom. Every student must carry their agenda all the time in case the teacher would have a check. Failing to do this you would be unlucky-be published to take the “safe seat” or even worse to go to the “buddy room”.

上了中學，許多方面都和小學不一樣?？偟母杏X就是沒有以前那么自由了。最明顯的就是上課時間提早了，小學是上午8：30上學，中學要求7：50前到校。而且不能像小學那樣直奔自己的教室，得先在體育館里和自己團隊的同學會合，等老師來了，領著各團隊的同學排隊到不同的教室上課。

上課的方式變化可大呢！小學上課基本都在一個教室，而且班主任一個人包攬了三門主科；而中學則是按課程來分，每門課分別都有自己固定的教室，室內布置也各具特色。我有七門課——寫作、閱讀、社會科學、科學、數學等，和七個不同的老師，我們每上完一節課都要匆匆忙忙換教室。

和中國最大的不同是，美國學校居然沒有課間休息時間。我們上午連著三節課，每節課一個小時，中間大概只有一分鐘的時間換教室，上廁所還要老師簽字。中午大家都在學校用餐，時間是20分鐘，幾乎連飯前洗手的時間都沒有。因為吃飯要排隊，沒有人想排在最后面，因為這樣肯定來不及吃飯。飯后緊接著又是三節課，好在每天的最后一節課是副科（一個半小時），教些像廚藝、縫紉、理財、照看孩子等生活常識，比較好玩些。

中學的規矩特別多，比如在學校不能戴帽子，不能穿低領衫，不能在樓道里蹦蹦跳跳。我們學校的走廊用兩種不同顏色的塑料板鋪成，走路時兩腳要踩在不同顏色的方塊上，這樣不僅看上去隊伍整齊，而且不會碰到墻兩邊把墻壁弄臟，避免接觸到墻壁的帶鎖柜子發出叮叮當當的響聲。有監視器一直監督著我們。走廊的天花板上還懸掛著“盡量小聲說話”“不要接觸墻壁”等黃色提示條。

我們每個同學都有一個帶放私人東西的柜子，到了學校就得把書包放在里面，只有在課間才能到柜子里拿下一節課需要的材料。有一樣東西是必須隨時隨地攜帶的—那就是你的“議程簿”，它記錄了自己每天在學校的活動情況。只要不是集體活動，比如你臨時想到柜子里拿點材料，或者去圖書館自習，或者上衛生間，都必須在自己的“議程簿”上填寫目的地及出發時間，然后讓老師簽字后才能離開。學生任何時候都必須帶著“議程簿”，以備老師檢查。如果未經批準隨便走動，那就慘了——被勒令坐到教室最角落的“安全椅”上，甚至可能被關到“禁閉室”。