Secondary education.

18.2.1. American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. Education is compulsory for every child from the age of 6 up to the age of 16 except in Maine, New Mexico, North Dakota and Pennsylvania where it is compulsory to the age of 17 and in Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah where children must go to school until the age of 18.

18.2.2. There are free, state-sup­ported, public schools which the majority of American children attend. There are also a number of private elementary and secondary schools where a fee is charged for admission and children are accepted or rejected on the basis of an examination. These include many church-supported schools, usually Catholic, which also charge a fee.Most public schools are coeducational, that is, girls and boys study together, but a lot of the church-supported schools are for boys or girls only.

Schooling in the US is organized on one of two bases: eight years of elementary school and four years of secondary school, or six years of elementary, three years of junior high school and three years of senior high school.

18.2.3. Elementary school children in the US learn much the same things as do children of the same age in other countries. The program of studies includes English (reading, writing, spelling, grammar, composition), arithmetic (sometimes elementary algebra or plane geometry in upper grades), geography, history of the USA, and ele­mentary natural science. Physical training, music, drawing are also taught. Some schools teach a modern language, such as French, Spanish, or German.

18.2.4. Secondary school usually begins with grade 5. Grades 9 —12 are popu­larly called "high school", and the young people who attend these schools are called high school students. First two years of high school are called " junior high school ". The high school prepares young people either for work immediate­ly after graduation or for more advanced study in a college or univer­sity. Although there are some technical, vocational and specialized high schools in the United States the typical high school is com­prehensive in nature. The subjects studied in elementary school are dealt with in greater detail and in more advanced form in high school. In addition one can specialize in home economics, chemistry and physics, music, humanities, automobile mechanics, etc. High school students study 4-5 major subjects a year and classes in each of them meet for an hour a day, five days a week.

18.3. Tertiary education.

18.3.1. The United States leads all industrial nations in the proportion of its young men and women who receive higher educa­tion. Americans place high value on higher education. People in the United States believe in the bond between education and democracy. Out of the more than three million students who graduate from high school each year, about one million go on for "higher education". Successful applicants are usually chosen on the basis of their high school records, recommen­dations from their high school teachers, the impression they make during interviews at the university, and their scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT).

18.3.2. There is no national system of higher education in the United States. Instead, there are about 3,000 separate institutions ranging from two-year "junior" (community) colleges and technical insti­tutes to universities. They may be small or large, rural or urban, pri­vate or public, religious or secular; highly selective or open to all. The American college is an institution which offers courses of instruction over a four-year period, grants a Bachelor's degree and prepares the student for a job. As part of a university a college leads to a Master's or Doctor's degree. The are also Junior and Community Colleges from which students may enter many professions or go to four-year colleges or universities,

18.3.2. The universities with the highest reputation are: California University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Stanford University, Chicago University, Wisconsin University, Yale University. The best-known of all is Harvard University, Massachusetts, which was founded in 1636. The methods of instruction in the universities are lectures, dis­cussions and work in laboratory. The academic year is usually of nine months duration, or two semesters of four and a half months each. During the first two years at most colleges and universities students usually follow general courses in the arts or sciences and then choose a major – the subject or area of studies in which they concentrate. There are no final examinations and students receive a degree if they have collected enough credits in a particular subject.

18.3.4. Cambridge is sometimes called the birthplace of American intel­lectual life. It has the nation's oldest university, Harvard University, founded in 1636. Cambridge remains a center of intellectual life, especially since it's also home to MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Harvard has an excellent reputation in many fields; MIT is a leader in science and technology. Students attending Harvard and MIT come from around the world; Harvard alone has students from 90 countries.

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