(no subject)

[slemslempike]

Americans (poss and Canadians?) - I know that the grades included are different, but what is the difference between middle school and junior high? Would the school district decide which system to go with, or might you have to make the decision between going to middle school and junior high? Are there cultural differences between them? What makes an area more likely to have one than the other?

I had a couchsurfer for the past couple of nights. She was very nice. I wasn't too sold on the idea when I got home and was very tired on Thursday, but she very friendly and played a game of Triv (Globetrotters) with me. I had a question about Orinono the Womble, and she let me show her clips of the show and the videos for two of the songs, as she'd never come across them before. I was a bit embarrassed that the main questions the British game seemed to ask about her country, Australia, involved Minogues. There was one time where I had to explain to her that the question "who was voted the greatest artist of all time", was unlikely to be any of the very fine artists she was trying to remember from her Art History classes, and was in fact Rolf Harris.

My friend Ruth has a friend coming up to Edinburgh to work during the Fringe. She's asked if I'd consider renting my spare room to her. I am unsure. The major reason to say yes would be MONEY. Rents are really high in August, so I could get a reasonable amount of money and still feel that I wasn't gouging. BUT, someone in the house who isn't me (though her twitter makes her seem quite nice). If people came to stay then there is a sofa bed in the living room anyway, so that would be all right (and I don't know if anyone wants to come up to see me this year apart from my parents). She's apparently going to do tech for one of the venues, and I would quite like to hear more about the behind the scenes stuff, but she might be really annoying about it which would be, well, annoying. I don't know. This seems to suggest I shouldn't.

I got a referral to podiatry and physio from my doctor. I wear my shoes down very unevenly, and recently when I've been walking for more than a few minutes I get pains in my knees for a while afterwards. I would like that to stop. To get a referral I had to take my shoes and socks off, roll up my jeans and stand there while the doctor got on the floor and squinted at my feet. Apparently I'm very flat footed (which she said like I should know, but I had no idea, having never been assessed for military service or anything else where they care about your feet), and also one of my calved is noticeably bigger than the other. I can see that now she's said it, yes.

My holiday was nearly sorted and then the Azerbaijan visa hit a snarl and I'm worrying about it even though the worst that happens is that I have to spend more money on it. Which is not ideal, but not a disaster.

The Wizards of Waverly Place made a movie, and I am unnerved by the change in how it's filmed and the lack of a studio audience. Alex just seems mean if no-one laughs at her. Also, taunting her brother as he struggles in a bottomless pit of death and quicksand is objectively quite mean.

Michael DeLuise is still beautiful.

Comments

[cellardor.livejournal.com]

Oh the joys of flat footedness! When I went to the podiatrist I did the same walking up and down with trousers rolled up, and then was unceremoniously told I have one leg shorter than the other. I have the calf thing too, and big toes that don't do their jobs properly. Who knew? My insoles helped a lot and most of my pain has been sorted now.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I have been told that there's probably a waiting list of 2-3 months for podiatry services, which isn't too bad, I guess. And I can probably get physio a little before.

[cellardor.livejournal.com]

I didn't bother going for the referral. I'd left it too long and the pain in my arches was too much to deal with. I just paid for each session. Not cheap but not too bad for me, though would have been better if I'd been in Bupa with work. Ah well.

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

Aside from the grades included, I've never heard about any sort of difference between middle school and junior high (aside from junior high students being slightly more mature, as the students are slightly older).

In my experience, junior high is a little old-fashioned; if I heard about something happening in a junior high school, barring other information I'd assume the story was a couple of decades old. Most places with which I'm familiar have switched from junior high to middle school.

Similarly, usually it's not a choice. A student lives in a particular school district, and based on where they live, that district determines which schools they attend. For public schools, there are some exceptions as a degree of school choice is available in some places (usually giving options if the assigned school is underperforming, or if an area has magnet schools).

Private schools are a different beast. A lot are high-school-only, and the ones that have students of middle/junior high ages often are K-12 and wouldn't classify the students as either; the trend I've observed when doing research is for K-8 to be the Lower School and 9-12 being the Upper School.

I hope this helps!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

That does, thank you!

In Sweet Valley, the twins switch from middle school to junior high when the ghost writers run out of steam from Sweet Valley Twins and start writing Sweet Valley Junior High. I figured that this was probably not really based in reality, but wanted to check!

[anglaisepaon.livejournal.com]

I suspect the only reality in that series is that somewhere in California are blonde, annoying twin sisters.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I can't wait for the film.

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

At my school we didn't have a middle school. Elementary was K-6, junior high was 7-9, high school was 10-12, though 9th graders are freshmen in "high school" so it could be argued junior high was just 7-8. My understanding of middle school is that it's around 6-8.

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

Erk. My old school seems to have changed to include a high school, junior high school, middle school, elementary school, AND primary school o_O

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Gosh! That seems like overkill in terms of administration. I didn't know that primary schools were even a thing in the US. Primary here is 4-11 years - I guess that's different, given that middle school seems to start at age 12?

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I always thought everyone had one calf bigger than the other, like feet or hands or bra cups.

[listersgirl]

In Canada it depends on how the school district does it. Where I grew up it was Elementary K-7, Junior High 8-10, and Senior High 11-12 (sometimes Junior and Senior were combined into one school). But at some point after I left everything was changed around and now it's Elementary K-5, Middle 6-8 and High 9-12.