I think they do as well. My physics professors were not shy about their opinion about the imperial system.

That's really interesting.
I can't imagine to live with two measure systems like you do. We have only the metric system. Well there are exceptions.
In Germany we use Inch for Displays, Tyres and other mechanical things like tubes and pipes. That's mostly it.
Inch is mostly used for calibres. But interestingly a lot of people, at least those who don't use inch for work have no real idea how big a 16:9 24" Display actually is.
First they don't know that 1" is roughly 2.54cm and second they don't know how to calculate the triangle (Phytagoras or Trigonometrie) so they actual have to measure it in order to see if it fits on the desk.

Which brings me to your second point:
In Germany girls and women are said to be better at languages and worse at natural sciences and math. In italy it's same.
Another very popular stereotype you can find here is that you can't be both, good at languages and maths because your brain isn't meant to work like that. Since I do teach both Math and English I pretty much don't agree with those stereotypes but find it funny how people influence their lives believing them.

While I don't much about the American education system I understand that Maths is taught very differently, I usually get some students who spent a year in the US and did something completely different, thus having real trouble getting back into the German system.

If you happen to stumble upon some High-School or College Math-tasks I would be very happy to see them, just out of professional curiosity.

I know we switched math teaching methods in the 90s and changed Algebra entirely at the same time, but I don't know details as I'm an English teacher. I can also tell you high-level math is only required for specific degrees, a liberal arts major can skip most math entirely, even in college.

I graduated in 2009. I had 2 years of algebra, 1 year of geometry, and 1 year of precal.

I had roughly the same thing, but it was not required to graduate.

It was at my school. Little rusty on the requirements but from what I remembered:
4 years of math
4 years of English
Ancient Mideval History
History of the US
US Government
Gym
Physics
Chemistry
Earth Systems
Biology
a semester of art
a semester of health

There were a few more, but those were what I remember. I don't think precal was a requirement, I think there was another option for math.

I know my worst subject was English. Mainly English Lit, because of all the Shakespeare crap they tried to throw at us during the high school years. I can understand learning Shakespeare in College, and would just go with only Hamlet in High School. I really struggled with most of the required reading in HS (not actually reading, but reading the hidden meaning of the text), but from what I hear from kids graduating today most of Shakespeare and Old English has been removed from the curriculum.
However, I hear a lot of people have a problem with math, especially Algebra and Trig. Those were my best subjects.

As far as the imperial system, I hate it and always will, but I fear we will never change to the metric system because it is perceived too hard to learn by your average US citizen. Which is of course insane.


I have the same problem when purchasing a TV, but it's because I can't be bothered to do the math for that...not to mention you have to take in account the added bezel. It would be best if manufacturers went with either the height or width or both of the display. When I changed from a 4:3 to a 16:9 TV, I wanted to know what height the TV I was looking at, because it had to be at least the same height as my current 4:3 display and the bezel sizes were completely different. I didn't want to see a smaller picture of the actors on the screen.

Here are the requirements I can remember:
4 years of English
4 years of history/social studies with the last year divided into a semester each of government (US and world) and economics
General Science
Chemistry
Biology
Algebra 1
Algebra 2 - I don't remember if this was a requirement or elective course.
Geometry
Gym - Year or semester, I forget. Leaning toward semester.
Health - Year or semester, I forget. Leaning toward semester.
maybe others I don't remember

Plus some electives per year. How many one got to pick depended upon one's year in school.
Language - Spanish, French, Latin (until Latin teacher retired), and German (hired after Latin teacher retired)
Philosophy
Physics
Trigonometry
Pre-calculus
Statistics
Intro to programming
Calculus
Probably other electives, but those are what I remember it having (mostly ones I took plus a couple others).

Art electives, had to pick at least one:
Band
Music Theory
Choir
Pottery, drawing, painting.... I don't know, I suck at this, so I didn't take these courses.
Same here, but mainly because I had some teachers who graded your interpretation (had to match theirs) or quizzed you on the minutest of details.

I don't like the Imperial system either, but I think StingingVelvet is more correct. It's pretty cost-inhibitive to change all of the signs, etc, etc.
I don't think the metric system is more difficult, actually the opposite.

Did we have the same teacher?

If it wasn't Shakespeare it was Wuthering Heights or some other boring book we had to decipher the hidden meaning of. Why couldn't they have assigned books that interested me. I might have had a better appreciation of English Lit. At one time growing up I loved reading and writing stories, but it ended right there with Shakespeare and Wuthering Heights.

The concept of pointing out the author's intention was a classic concept used in school. The teacher found out the author meant X, so the whole class has to write about opinion and intention X.
While this method is now frowned upon, some backwater retards of teachers still use their stupid author's intention.

Yeah, I knew it was part of the curriculum and am glad they have finally done away with that crap. It ruins the enjoyment of reading the book if you have to play the Where's Waldo hidden meaning game. My HS days are well behind me, I graduated in 91...so I was one of the unfortunates.
I have also heard from those having graduated in the past few years that they are allowed to read books they want to read (with exceptions of course) and write book reports on those. That was one of my major gripes. I would have loved to do a book report on LotR, a Stephen King novel, or even a Tom Clancy novel.

Off topic, but can't help but link to The Immortal Bard.

There were a lot of options for electives as well at my school. I took the engineering and the architecture courses at the technical center connected to my school. I think there was one more year of history required but I don't remember what it was, which must show how memorable it was.

Studying Wuthering Heights? That's brutal.

We studied some Shakespeare, the Odyssey, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Johnathan Swift, a few other authors I forget. Nice variety of classic works and a couple modern authors. Some older poetry - I remember one 'love' poem which insinuated that this was the only offer the woman was going to get, so she should say yes because this was her one shot. Predatory much, dude?

Course requirements for all the HS around were 4 years of English, 4 years of math, gym, 2+ years of a language, world history, US history and political structure, at least 3 years of science and preferably 4, and then you had to fill up a certain number of social studies, electives, etc. We had arts of various kinds, shop class, home economics aka don't be an entitled moron, various technical centers you could get bussed to, etc.