Homeless woman prosecuted for enrolling son in school

[onodera]

Yeah man no oral exams except in foreign language classes. Never had a single oral exam in any other subject through all years of schooling... in fact, saying 'oral exam' my first instinct is a dentist examination, that's how nonexistent oral exams are in American schooling

The closest thing to it would be presentations, where students in groups or alone do a research project and then have to present it to the class (in my day, we would just do it orally, maybe pass out a handout, or make a poster; today, I imagine it's all powerpoint ). Do you Russians have that or is that just too much like some capitalist business presentation?

And yes, American school children sit down.


It's interesting how different we do things over here.

Most university exams here are oral. You of course may and should write your answers down in case you lose the train of thought when answering, but you earn your grade by talking to the teacher, who is allowed to ask additional questions for you to answer without preparation time. High school exams are also mostly oral, I think only Russian language one is written. Graduation exams are all American-style.

We do presentations, but it's not the main way to assess the students' knowledge. A typical session in a Russian high school looks like this:
1) Everyone stands up and greets the teacher.
2) The teacher checks the class attendance.
3) The teacher asks someone to come forward and recite the topic of the previous lesson.
4) The teacher explains the new topic.
5) The class does some individual tasks related to the topic. Someone may be asked to come forward and do one on the blackboard.
6) The class and the teacher check the results.
6) The teacher marks additional tasks for homework or collects the note books to grade existing one.

[DaShi]

Most university exams here are oral.

Yeah, they are!

[Al B. Sure!]

Most university exams here are oral. You of course may and should write your answers down in case you lose the train of thought when answering, but you earn your grade by talking to the teacher, who is allowed to ask additional questions for you to answer without preparation time. High school exams are also mostly oral, I think only Russian language one is written. Graduation exams are all American-style.

We do presentations, but it's not the main way to assess the students' knowledge. A typical session in a Russian high school looks like this:
1) Everyone stands up and greets the teacher.
2) The teacher checks the class attendance.
3) The teacher asks someone to come forward and recite the topic of the previous lesson.
4) The teacher explains the new topic.
5) The class does some individual tasks related to the topic. Someone may be asked to come forward and do one on the blackboard.
6) The class and the teacher check the results.
7) The teacher marks additional tasks for homework or collects the note books to grade existing one.

Fixed for you...

and what kind of Communist nonsense is that? Greeting the teacher? Standing up? Someone coming forward and reciting the topic of the previous lesson? Oral exams?

So bizarre. Nothing like America.


For the 'soft' subjects like history, philosophy, etc., American learning is all about collaboration. Group projects are big. Presentations are important.

American high school and college classes that are 'soft' subjects are very discussion-oriented. Teachers and professors try to be little more than facilitators for group discussion in such subjects.

We write a lot of essays, too.