School

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This article is about educational institutions. For other uses of the term school, see school (disambiguation).

A school is most commonly a place designated for learning. The range of institutions covered by the term varies from country to country.

In the United Kingdom, the term school refers primarily to pre-university institutions, and these can, for the most part, be divided into primary schools (sometimes further divided into infant school and junior school), and secondary schools. School performance is monitored by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education.

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Japanese secondary school students in uniform.

In North America, the term school can refer to any institute of education, at any level, and covers all of the following: preschool (for toddlers), kindergarten, elementary school, middle school (also called intermediate school or junior high school, depending on specific age groups and geographic region), high school, college, university, and graduate school. In the US, school performance through high school is monitored by each state's Department of Education. Many of the earlier public schools in the United States were one-room schools where a single teacher taught seven grades of boys and girls in the same classroom. Beginning in the 1920s, one-room schools were consolidated into multiple classroom facilities with transportation increasingly provided by kid hacks and school buses.

In both, a school may also be a partially autonomous or indeed entirely separate institution, not necessarily a part of a system of compulsory public education at all, dedicated to learning within one particular field, such as a school of economics (e.g. the London School of Economics), a school of dance, or a school of journalism.

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A madrassa in the Gambia

In much of continental Europe, the term school usually applies to primary education, with primary schools that last between six and nine years, depending on the country. It also applies to secondary education, with secondary schools often divided between Gymnasiums and vocational schools, which again depending on country and type of school take between three and six years. The term school is rarely used for tertiary education, except for some upper or high schools (German: hochschule) which are more accurately translated as colleges.

Records

The King's School, in Canterbury in the south east of England, may be the oldest existing school in the world. It was founded in 597 AD.

Criticism

During the twentieth century traditional schools have been the target of widespread criticism. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in his book Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste showed how schools help to reproduce class structure.

Schools were accused of inhibiting rather than promoting the learning of children, basically by creating fear. People like A.S. Neill tried to create more libertarian schools (Summerhill) while others like John Holt saw home schooling as an alternative.

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