There are many different kinds of activity, but the most intentional and conscious is learning. Without understanding what you want to learn, it becomes impossible to understand what “learning” is. Education is a lot more than what we learn in school, often taking place outside the classroom setting. Conversely, it’s difficult to describe education as solely a process. This mindset is probably linked to the common misconception that education can only occur inside the classroom.

Education is an ongoing process and a set of actions which never really have an end. All of our learning experiences throughout life contribute to the fact that we essentially are educated people – at least in some ways. Learning can be tough for some people to go through, but it is still a necessary process. We view it as something that is done to us, when in reality we should see ourselves as agents on the other end of the learning process. Formal definitions state that learning is the process we undergo, in order to reach a state of education. It involves more specific goals and the activity of learning.

The US education system is a lot different from that of Europe, in the way it’s structured.

America’s fifth-grade students walk into an active learning process as soon as they enroll in elementary school. Their school education consists of three stages: elementary school, middle school, high school.

Here are some common myths about American education.

1. Higher education in the US is hard to afford and out of reach for minority communities. Not only are other countries cheaper, but you also have a lot of options there. The US is unique in that it offers billions of dollars every year in financial aid to its students. There are a variety of grants out there, some from universities and others from charities, to help students manage university loans. States also often offer tax exemptions for families looking to pay for their children’s tuition, while loyalty programs exist to give students opportunities to earn additional income while in school.

2. Children are not allowed to pray at schools. They can, however, pray on the premises if they so desire. In light of this, schools and teachers should not promote any one religion, even if they don’t explicitly impose it on their students. They don’t have the right to require anyone to give praise to a divine power at all.

3. In American schools, you can wear whatever you want. Some areas may have rules about what’s not allowed, but nowhere is it true that there are no rules.

4. When deciding which university to choose, it is worth checking the international rankings. This generally isn’t a requirement because it’s not always important but experts advise paying attention to the positioning of your desired university in order to get a good sense of its level in that field.

5. On average, private school students get higher grades than public school students. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t exceptions to the rule. For example in one study, public school students scored better on math tests than private school students.

Now let’s consider the truth about education in America.

School schedules in the US are varied and can depend on the state. Some states begin in August, others began after Labor day, and there is no single day that all schools start on. It all depends on the individual state where kids attend. Some do start earlier, others do not start till later in the year, and some might even end in less than 100 days.

Parents can’t choose the school for their child. They might want to send their child to the school they went to, but there are only so many spots open due to when you were born and where you live. If your family wants to send your child elsewhere, they’ll have to move near that particular school. If you don’t want to move, and the school district, which the local department of education automatically determines the student for, does not suit you, there is another option – to go to a private school.

In the US, there are this type of schools called “charter schools”. They live off state and private investment to fund their research. These are experimental, results-driven schools with different approaches to teaching. For example, some of them specialize in art and others in the natural sciences. There are scholarships available for education here. But if there are not enough places in the school, they arrange a lottery once a year. All of the people who want to get into the school and have registered for this lottery take part in it.

Parents often miss children at school. If a child is absent for a significant amount of time, it can lead to various consequences both publicly and privately: they can be condemned by their peers as well as fined in some cases.

Every year, classes and teachers change. This happens before the start of the next academic year. Reorganizing classes is done to balance out gender composition, racial, and also academic level differences together.

Some universities have odd traditions. Ohio University lets students swim before the football match. At Stanford, on the night of the first full September moon, seniors take freshman under their wing and kiss them. At Harvard, on the night before exams, students often gather and run naked around the university yard.

You don’t need to take a test at the start of your senior year to decide what university you want to attend. Students apply by sending off their final test papers from classes and then have several interviews with the universities they are interested in. Based on these essays, they decide whether to accept or reject a student.

The student deserves to have flexible and personalized schedule. These are the things which make the day-to-day life of a student easier. It can be changed in order to meet the specific needs of each day. It is worth mentioning that it can differ only at the beginning of a new semester, and not any time during this period.

It’s almost surely that the American education system is worth looking to as an example in reforming education. As a number of articles report, the US has some of the best education and training available anywhere. The curriculum is structured to perfectly meet today’s needs. You can decide for yourself if the U.S. education system is not doing well by reading about some myths and facts about it in our article