Back in the 1950s when I started school, the first day was a highly anticipated and exciting event. A few weeks prior, our dark green pleated jumpers and crisp white blouses with peter pan collars would arrive by mail in a brown box and the countdown would begin. My mother would take us shopping for green knee high socks and sensible brown shoes and pretty much that was it for the entire school year. We were Catholic school students and despite the lack of trendy clothes and pretty back-to-school dresses, our uniforms were a source of great pride.
The photo above is not mine but was typical of Catholic school classrooms back in the day. The only thing missing from this photo was the lone teacher of these 50+ kids, most likely a nun, who ruled the classroom autonomously with only a wooden blackboard pointer in hand as a deterrent for would-be 'cut-ups'. There were no aides, no compartmentalization of subjects, no free periods. She had you and you had her from 8:15 A.M. to 3 P.M. Seriously, at the end of the day they must have been exhausted! Back then, Catholic schools were 90% religious teachers and 10% lay teachers. Now that ratio is reversed with many Catholic schools 100% lay teachers.
Today, most school classes are typically in the 25-30 pupil range, many of the younger grades have aides, most teachers get free periods to get some homework done, blackboard pointers have gone the way of the fountain pen and smart boards rule the classrooms!
So on these days of getting back to school I thought I'd present some school facts to ponder. I've included a list of high school movies and a recommended reading list in case you want to get in touch with your inner Ferris Bueller. Anyone...anyone....
United States School Facts: K through 12
(based on 2009-10 data)
TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS: 13,809
TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS: 13,809
TOTAL NUMBER OF K-12 SCHOOLS: 132,656
Elementary: 88,982
Secondary: 27,575
Combined: 14,837
Other: 1,262
TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 98,706
Elementary: 67,148
Secondary: 24,348
Combined: 5,632
Other: 1,587
TOTAL NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS: 5,453
TOTAL NUMBER OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS: 28,220
Elementary: 16,370
Secondary: 3,040
Combined: 8,810
TOTAL NUMBER OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: 7,400
Elementary: 5,960
Secondary: 1,080
Combined: 370
TOTAL K-12 ENROLLMENT: 55,235,000
Elementary: 38,860,000
Secondary: 16,375,000
TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 49,266,000
Elementary: 34,286,000
Secondary: 14,980,000
TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 1,729,963
TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 5,165,280
Elementary: 2,462,980
Secondary: 850,750
Combined: 1,851,550
TOTAL HOME SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 1,508,000 (estimate) or 2.9% (estimate) of America's school population
TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 2,224,470
Elementary: 1,457,960
Secondary: 620,840
Combined: 145,680
TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 3,219,458
Elementary: 1,758,169
Secondary: 1,234,197
Unclassified: 227,092
TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHERS: 72,400
TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS: 456,270
Elementary: 207,230
Secondary: 69,240
Combined: 179,800
TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 146,630
Elementary: 94,800
Secondary: 42,400
Combined: 9,430
PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO: 15.7:1
Elementary: 15.5:1
Secondary: 16.2:1
Combined: 13.9:1
PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO: 11.1:1
Elementary: 12.1:1
Secondary: 11.9:1
Combined: 9.6:1
CATHOLIC SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO: 14.7:1
Elementary: 15.3:1
Secondary: 14.0:1
Combined: 11.3:1
TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPENDITURES: $596.6 billion
Current Expenditures: $506.8 billion
Instruction: $308.2 billion
Support Services: $178.2 billion
Food Services: $19.2 billion
Enterprise Operations: $1.1 billion
Capital Outlay: $65.7 billion
Interest on School Debt: $15.7 billion
Other Current Expenditures: $8.3 billion
AVERAGE DISTRICT PUBLIC SCHOOL PER PUPIL EXPENDITURE: $12,744
AVERAGE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL PER PUPIL EXPENDITURE: $8,001
AVERAGE PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITION: $8,549
Elementary: $6,733
Secondary: $10,549
Combined: $10,045
AVERAGE CATHOLIC SCHOOL TUITION: $6,018
Elementary: $4,944
Secondary: $7,826
Combined: $9,066
SALARIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS:
Superintendents: $159,634
SALARIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL PRINCIPALS:
High School: $97,486
Middle School/Junior: $91,334
Elementary School: $85,907
SALARIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS:
High School: $79,391
Middle School/Junior: $76,053
Elementary School: $71,192
SALARIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL PROFESSIONAL PERSONNEL:
Counselor: $57,800
Librarian: $54,650
School Nurse: $64,260 (average)
AVERAGE TEACHER BASE SALARY:
Public School: $49,630
Private School: $36,250
PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF SALARIES:
Secretaries: $29,850
Accounting Payroll: $34,810
Teacher Aides: $22,000
HOURLY WAGE RATES:
Custodians: $13.74
Cafeteria Workers: $10.93
School Bus Drivers: $13.74
Library Clerks: $12.51
TOTAL FUNDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION: $593,061,181,000
Federal: $56.7 billion (9.6% of total)
State: $277 billion (46.7% of total)
Local: $259.25 billion (43.7% of total)
In the 2007–08 school year, there were an estimated 119,150 K–12 schools in the United States: 87,190 traditional public, 3,560 public charter, 180 Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE), and 28,220 private schools. Among these schools, 52 percent of traditional public, 55 percent of charter, 85 percent of BIE-funded, and 19 percent of private schools enrolled students receiving Title I services.
In 2007–08, some 76 percent of public school teachers were female, 44 percent were under age 40, and 52 percent had a master’s or higher degree. Compared with public school teachers, a lower percentage of private school teachers were female (74 percent), were under age 40 (39 percent), and had a master’s or higher degree (38 percent).Pupil/Teacher Ratio
SCHOOL Q&A and Facts
Why is a school bus yellow?
Federal law mandates that school buses be painted that color
Federal law mandates that school buses be painted that color
What inspired the invention of the glue stick?
The Lipstick
The first box of Crayola brand crayons cost five cents
The average #2 pencil writes 45,000 words.
The earliest pencil erasers were made from bread.
The popular playground game of kickball was invented in the United States.
True or false? A pencil can write in outer space, upside down, and underwater. TRUE
Calcium sulfate is more commonly called chalk.
Calcium sulfate is more commonly called chalk.
In 1987 four public schools in Maryland/Washington, D.C started suggesting that students to wear a school uniform.
Despite the back-to-school sales, consumers actually spend more during December holiday shopping.
The name of the school where Jack Black (Dewey Finn is his name in the movie) taught is School of Rock.
In 1993 Purdue University students created crayons made of Soybean Oil.
In the movie, Stand and Deliver (based on a true story), Mr. Escalente (the teacher) helps his students achieve amazing success in math.
In 1993 Purdue University students created crayons made of Soybean Oil.
In the movie, Stand and Deliver (based on a true story), Mr. Escalente (the teacher) helps his students achieve amazing success in math.
The lead in a pencil made out of carbon so you can’t get lead poisoning from a pencil lead in your hand because it’s not made of lead!
Identify the source of this quote: “The regular course was Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with; and then the different branches of Arithmetic - Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”
A. T. S. Eliot
B. Lewis Carroll
C. Mark Twain
D. Shakespeare
The latin phrase Robin Williams used to encourage his students when he played an English teacher in the movie “Dead Poet’s Society” is Carpe Diem. It means 'seize the day.'
In what movie did a teacher share his incredible passion for music with his students?
A. Mr. Holland’s Opus
B. An American Symphony
C. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
D. Gentlemen and Players
What famous actor played a student in "Welcome Back Kotter"?
A. Michael Douglas
B. Sean Penn
C. John Travolta
D. Adam Sandlar
In the movie “October Sky” only one teacher understands his special students could actually win what?
A. An Athletic Scholarship
B. The National Science Fair (and a college scholarship)
C. A Seat in the New York Philharmonic
D. A Lead Role in a Play on Broadway
The phrase, “Please excuse my dear, Aunt Sally” is often used to help students remember the order of math operations: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction.
Which of the following is NOT listed in the book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum?
A. Eating Jelly Beans is Good for You
B. Flush
C. Clean Up Your Own Mess
D. Don’t Hit People
D’Nealian and Zaner-Bloser are two forms of cursive handwriting.
In what movie did a teacher share his incredible passion for music with his students?
A. Mr. Holland’s Opus
B. An American Symphony
C. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
D. Gentlemen and Players
What famous actor played a student in "Welcome Back Kotter"?
A. Michael Douglas
B. Sean Penn
C. John Travolta
D. Adam Sandlar
In the movie “October Sky” only one teacher understands his special students could actually win what?
A. An Athletic Scholarship
B. The National Science Fair (and a college scholarship)
C. A Seat in the New York Philharmonic
D. A Lead Role in a Play on Broadway
The phrase, “Please excuse my dear, Aunt Sally” is often used to help students remember the order of math operations: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction.
Which of the following is NOT listed in the book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum?
A. Eating Jelly Beans is Good for You
B. Flush
C. Clean Up Your Own Mess
D. Don’t Hit People
D’Nealian and Zaner-Bloser are two forms of cursive handwriting.
Recommended Booklist: How Many Have Your Read?
 |
| My favorite book of all time!! |
Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart
Agee, James A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights
Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage
Dante Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dumas, Alexandre The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George The Mill on the Floss
Emerson, Ralph Waldo Selected Essays
Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury
Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox The Good Soldier
Golding, William Lord of the Flies
Hardy, Thomas Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph Catch-22
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms
Homer The Iliad
Homer The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
Ibsen, Henrik A Doll's House
James, Henry The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt
London, Jack The Call of the Wild
Mann, Thomas The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel García One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman Moby Dick
Miller, Arthur The Crucible
Morrison, Toni Beloved
O'Neill, Eugene Long Day's Journey into Night
Orwell, George Animal Farm
Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan Selected Tales
Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William Hamlet
Shakespeare, William Macbeth
Shakespeare, William A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William Romeo and Juliet
Shaw, George Bernard Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary Frankenstein
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles Antigone
Sophocles Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson, Robert Louis Treasure Island
Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David Walden
Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace
Twain, Mark The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith The House of Mirth
Whitman, Walt Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie
Agee, James A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights
Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage
Dante Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dumas, Alexandre The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George The Mill on the Floss
Emerson, Ralph Waldo Selected Essays
Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury
Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox The Good Soldier
Golding, William Lord of the Flies
Hardy, Thomas Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph Catch-22
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms
Homer The Iliad
Homer The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
Ibsen, Henrik A Doll's House
James, Henry The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt
London, Jack The Call of the Wild
Mann, Thomas The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel García One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman Moby Dick
Miller, Arthur The Crucible
Morrison, Toni Beloved
O'Neill, Eugene Long Day's Journey into Night
Orwell, George Animal Farm
Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan Selected Tales
Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William Hamlet
Shakespeare, William Macbeth
Shakespeare, William A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William Romeo and Juliet
Shaw, George Bernard Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary Frankenstein
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles Antigone
Sophocles Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson, Robert Louis Treasure Island
Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David Walden
Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace
Twain, Mark The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith The House of Mirth
Whitman, Walt Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie
- Hoosiers - 1986
- Rushmore - 1998
- Cooley High - 1975
- American Pie - 1999
- Grease - 1978
- Dead Poets Society - 1989
- The Last Picture Show - 1971
- Rock 'n' Roll High School - 1979
- Peggy Sue Got Married - 1986
- Lucas - 1986
- Carrie - 1976
- Donnie Darko - 2001
- High School - 1968
- Mean Girls - 2004
- Say Anything... - 1989
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off - 1986
- Election - 1999
- Boys N the Hood - 1991
- Clueless - 1995
- American Graffiti - 1973
- Heathers - 1989
- Rebel Without a Cause - 1955
- Dazed and Confused - 1993
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High - 1982
- The Breakfast Club - 1985
No comments:
Post a Comment