US v UK Round Eight - The Education System

[BARON CORNY DOG]

Nat went to Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. She said the halls of residence were all pretty much completely segregated (not my rule of course, it just was). There were white halls and there were black halls. That would be completely unthinkable in the UK.

I went to school 20 miles west of there. It was a smaller school, but there weren't enough black kids to have their own hall. I don't know how residence halls in a small liberal arts school on the east coast ends up segregated, but I suspect it's self-selection on the students (this certainly happens in (college) Greek life). Still, it's weird that the institution would allow it.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

My wife did a first degree in Pennsylvania, as mentioned above, and then did a second one in Britain. When she presented her first few essays at LSE she was repeatedly asked, "Yes, but what do you think?" She quickly came to realise that you couldn't just sythesise what you'd read, as in Lafayette - you were expected to think for yourself.

This would have been true of my experience as a freshman and sophomore in college, but I had to step out and defend my own ideas and thoughts as a junior and senior, as I made it into higher levels of coursework. I think it's broadly true, though, that American college students aren't really forced to do more than synthesize, unless they're at an elite place, or doing advanced coursework.

[der nister]

Nat went to Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. She said the halls of residence were all pretty much completely segregated (not by rule of course, it just was). There were white halls and there were black halls. That would be completely unthinkable in the UK.

*edited for clarity*

Economics also played a part in that
Lafayette is an elite junior Ivy League (private) school
In a hard scrabble town
It isn't a school locals would use, like
A community college or state funded school

[der nister]

I understand halls separated by gender
But race is a little perplexing
Particularly nowadays

[BARON CORNY DOG]

By the way, I've only really fully understood the terms Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior in the the last year or two. They're not terms that are used in the UK, other than "fresher" (non-sexist, late C20 version of "freshman.")

College and High School are both traditionally four year programs:

1st Year: Freshman
2nd Year: Sophomore
3rd Year: Junior
4th Year: Senior

[der nister]

I understand halls separated by gender
But race is a little perplexing
Particularly nowadays

As a European, I don't even understand separation by gender in this day and age. Even my University, Durham, was fazing it out while I was there thirty years ago. My college had been all girls until the year before I went up. As for the "segregation" at Lafayette, as Baron points out, it probably wasn't an all-black hall since there wouldn't be enough black students there (there wouldn't have been enough at my Uni, either). Rather, it's more likely that all the black students just banded together in a particular hall. I'll ask Nat when she wakes up..

it's a school by school issue
with rapes on campus
being the one of the most under reported crimes
parents are favoring gender separate living/sleeping quarters/halls

[der nister]

it's a school by school issue
with rapes on campus
being the one of the most under reported crimes
parents are favoring gender separate living/sleeping quarters/halls

You'll forgive me for seeing this as a massive vote for the UK.

maybe, maybe not
drink is the major factor
in these cases regardless of the nation