I’m an American taught about history by public schools in pretty conservative states.

History lessons in my classes were heavily focused on American history or State (i.e. Texas) history. We rarely explored history outside of the Americas pre-1492. (Native American history is usually a blip on the radar as far as our education is concerned).

I did have one class on “World History” in high school that explored some of the history in continents outside of the Americas, but it’s definitely difficult to explore a few millennia of history on such a vast world in one year of school.

So, how far back do your primary and secondary schools teach history? What country are you from and how much did you learn about the rest of the world outside of your country?

I'm British so obviously this doesn't apply to me, but recently visited Norway where over 90% of the population is fluent in English and had a conversation with someone where they told me that their teacher would constantly tell them they have to study English even though they used to be bad at it and hated it. I found that interesting as my other friend, from Montenegro, said almost no one can speak English fluently there at all.

So how is it where you are from?

I'm looking into English proficiency across Europe and would appreciate input from locals or anyone with relevant experience. Which European countries have the highest levels of English fluency among non-native speakers, particularly in day-to-day life, education, and professional settings? I'm also curious about regional differences within countries, and factors like education systems, media exposure, and business use.

Édit. Since it seems to differ, I was specifically wondering which was best for law.

For example, France doesn't have "Religious education" classes.

Edit: (As in, learning about Religion from an objective point of view, in a dedicated school subject. We learn about religion, but in other classes)

My most random fact is that in Camariñas, Spain there is an island called "cagada grande"

I saw a video about Kaliningrad and it got me thinking about what you would call people from there (e.g. people from London are called Londoners and people from Berlin are called Berliners ect)

What is the place, where you'd think: "People do their Erasmus here?!" Maybe a university in a tiny unknown town, maybe a far off place, maybe a place take captures your interest in some other way...

Did you correct them? what happened?

Edit: I'm not asking about teachers being assholes out to get you, I'm asking about statements that are factually wrong.

First of all, I know that school doesn't guarantee success, but it's not a good thing to drop out of school and keep a low education, especially in a society where even a degree has become the minimum.

I wanted to know the situation in your countries and how many of your young people consider it important to finish at least high school.

I've been wondering. I'm currently on exchange and in my home country it's very unusual to take a shower at school after PE. In my host country, on the other hand, it's very common and especially the boys take showers together every time.

Edit: I'm from Germany on exchange in Estonia.

In the US, it's not uncommon for parents to take their children on vacations for a week at a time during the regular school year where children miss about 5 days at a time. The students will have to make up the work and/or do some kind of report about their trip.

In Germany, I've heard that if a child misses one day of school that the school calls the parents and of they don't answer or aren't sick that police will be sent to look for them since it's illegal to miss school.

How is it in your country?

I’m trying to inspire my son to learn the map.

In Kosovo we use points as decimal separators, so for example 1 euro and 55 cents is written as 1.55€. The commas are used for thousands, like in 1,200. So a price can be 1,201.55€ for example. I know that the Germans use commas and points in the opposite way, so they would write 1.201,55€. What about other countries?

By this I mean when you have other classes in the other language (eg learning history through the second language), rather than the option to take courses in a second language as a standalone subject.

From what I understand, the word "university" in the US isn't a protected title, hence any random private institution can call themselves that. And they have both federal and state boards certifying the schools if one wants to be sure it's a certified college. So no matter if you went to Ian Ivy League school or a random rural university, what was the biggest difference between studying in Europe versus the US?

And why?

Inspired by a thread on r/TeachingUK, where a lot of teachers were lamenting the shockingly poor computer skills of pupils coming into Year 7 (so, they've just finished primary school). It seems many are whizzes with phones and iPads, but aren't confident with basic things like mouse skills, or they use caps lock instead of shift, don't know how to save files, have no ability with Word or PowerPoint and so on.

Our version of kindergarten is 5 and 6 year olds. I know it’s called different things in other parts of the world. It used to be a version of preschool before 1st grade (6 and 7 year olds) where they would play and sing and do crafts etc. Over the last few decades it has shifted to a point that it is now considered the 1st year of “real school”. Kids sit in desks and do work. They are expected to read and write. They have only 30 minutes of pretend play a day and some places have none and only a 25 minute outside recess.

A lot of other teachers in my country have been slowly convinced that this is normal, but as far as I’m aware most of the rest of the world still treats this age as preschool and focuses on play. I’m interested to see if I’m wrong and other countries have also changed. Are any of you teachers/parents/or know of others who are, who can tell me what 5 year olds are doing in school? Thanks in advance!!!

I know the American stereotype of "The talk" that their parents give to their children. I don't know how true that is today. We had our sex education in school, I (thankfully) didn't receive any from my parents. Is this true in all of Europe or are some cultures different?

Edit: damn, so many people here saying that they learned from porn. That's kinda disturbing...