A school is an organized educational establishment designed to offer specific learning environments and learning spaces for the learning of young people under the supervision of qualified teachers. Generally, most developed countries have systems of formal public education, which may be compulsory or optional. In such systems, students advance progressively through a structured sequence of schools. The curriculum and teaching methodologies vary from one country to another.
The term school may also be used in the context of an educational institution that is not centralized like those found in the US and Great Britain. It usually refers to any school, college or university, even a charter school, although the term is often used as a collective term for all kinds of schooling by non-traditional educators who are recognized as teachers or administrators by local communities. One country has a few examples of formally organized public educational institutions: the Dutch Ourense school, or Ourense our school, is the only example of this kind of school anywhere in the world. An alternative to this kind of school is an unregulated boarding school, which for many parents is the best available option for the care and nurturing of young people. There are other examples of informal educational establishments, including sports clubs and extracurricular activities.
Schooling can be divided into various types, all of them based on the function of the school day. Day schooling and homeroom schooling are both informal, with large group interaction at lunch and school. Pupils complete their work in groups and are then encouraged to spend the rest of the day with their peers. The curriculum is arranged around the lessons taught throughout the day and often includes professional or personal development activities.
Classical schooling is structured around a particular topic such as mathematics, reading, art, science, history, geography, and other instruction. This form of schooling is very common in Europe and the United States. Pupils at both primary school and secondary school usually complete a similar curriculum and receive similar kinds of guidance. Many European and North American families send their children to the same schools throughout the year.
A mixed primary school draws from a wide variety of disciplines, allowing pupils to gain knowledge from a range of experiences. Pupils in this sort of educational establishment usually have an excellent range of subjects to choose from. They may follow a specific topic from birth, but may also be encouraged to take on a range of academic subjects. This mix of disciplines gives them a more rounded experience and makes them more adaptable to life in a large group. pupils in mixed schools are likely to be happy students, and also have more fun in general.
Of course, there is another reason why school days are so important – social skills. The whole point of schooling is learning to interact with others, and the social skills that come naturally when growing up are often lost during the school system. However, it has been found that children enrolled in the same school learn different amounts and skills, depending on how much time they spend interacting with other students. Spending time with a group of friends as a child gives them an advantage over those who go to school for just academics.
As well as being a waste of time, many parents and teachers give up on the idea of a traditional schooling system for one reason or another. One of the main reasons is that the hours are too hard. Pupils usually start school at an early age, making it difficult to balance study time with the time spent in class. Some teachers dislike the structure of traditional schooling, feeling that there is too much leeway for inappropriate behaviour.
Another drawback is the cost of going to school. Most European countries are highly progressive, which means that the cost of education is proportional to income levels. In the United States, the same cannot be said, making it costlier for poor and wealthy students alike. However, many American parents are slowly catching on to the benefits of attending school, especially after seeing how their children have performed on the academic, social and emotional front.