UK Schooling

[GulPlum]

Lynda wrote:

>Do the students over there (UK) stick with the careers they've studied 
>for, or do they change careers several times during their lives as many of 
>Americans do?

The US idea of "majors" is absent from our system. A lot of people study 
for degrees in combined subjects at university (e.g. two friends of 
mine:  "Economics & Politics", "English & Philosophy"), but swapping around 
is usually difficult if not impossible. The system simply isn't geared up 
for that. Some people might specialise slightly after their first year, but 
they don't usually completely change direction.

The university degrees people have usually bear absolutely no relationship 
to the career they will have later in life, or indeed to the *several* 
careers that a considerable number of young people can expect to have.

In the case of my two friends above (the first is now 4 years since 
graduation, the other 6), they work as a financial auditor for a telecoms 
company and a senior officer (and tech support) of his own web-hosting 
company respectively.

The thing is that neither would have  got their first job without a 
university degree in *something*.

>Do real-life Muggles have homework on their vacations like the Hogwart's
>students do?

It depends on the school. Usually not. However, when I was at school (it 
had a major interest in teaching languages) each language teacher would 
usually set us a book to read over the holidays and to write a report on 
it. To a certain extent it was largely a way to keep in touch with the 
language while at home, and I never had a problem with the policy.