[Spain] School - Litt. Hist. Geo

In this topic, I would like you to talk about the school in your country, in order that my characters sound real if I write some part at school or if I talk about homework. And that's interesting to know what we learn in other countries.

1. First, I would like to know in which grad we are at which age ? And how you call the schools ? because there is different organization in the different countries.

2. I would like to know what is your program at school for Spanish class or Litterature ? Maybe you can copy me the program of you Litterature book for me to see the autors that you study or the book that your teachers ask you to read. You can do that for your grad, and hopefully many fans will come from differents grads

3. I would like to know the same for History.

4. I would like to know the same for Geography.

5. What are the languages that you can learn at school ?

Well, I will speak about school in the Basque Country. I guess it's the same in the rest of Spain, but I'm not sure and I warn you just in case.
1. We start school at the age of 3 more or less. It's 3 years of what we call "preescolar". At the age of 6, we start the primary school. Now it's called "Educación Primaria", but before it was EGB (Educación General Básica). There are six years: "primero de primaria", "segundo de primaria", "tercero de primaria", "cuarto de primaria", "quinto de primaria" and "sexto de primaria".
After that, pupils go to high school, in Spanish it's "el instituto". Kids are 11 or 12 years old. They must study there for 4 years and its called "ESO" (Educación Segundaria Obligatoria). Everyone in Spain must have the graduate (el graduado de ESO). If pupils aren't good enough or the don't like the high school, they have the chance to go to a CIP (Centro de Iniciativas Profesionales). There, they can get the graduate, but they have different subjects, more practical and they start learning a job.
After the ESO, people can start working or continue to study. If they continue, they have two opcions: they can continue in the high school and study "bachiller". Here they choose a branch of studies (sciences, letters or arts). It's 2 years. Then, if they want to go to university, they must do some exams called "Selectividad". The levels who get the highest qualifications choose first which degree they want to study.
If they don't want to study bachiller, they can do what we call "Grado Medio" in a centre of FP (Formación Profesional, something like profesional training). I'm not sure about that, I think it's 2 years or so, and then they can start working or continue studying, doing a "Grado Superior".

2. The English course hasn't got a very high level. We don't learn litterature. Sometimes, teachers ask us to read books, but they are very simple, usually adaptations made for students. Until last year, we studied grammar about all, and we trained ourselves on reading and writing, but we did very little of speaking. I don't know if that's changed this year.

3. / 4. In the "ESO", History and Geography are the same subject named Ciencias Sociales (Social Sciences). In first "bachiller", they are only compulsory for the ones who study Humanities. In second "bachiller", at least until last year, History was compulsory for everyone and we studied the 19th and the 20th centuries. In the "ESO", we study everything since the Prehistory. About, the Ancient World, Middle Age and so on, we study it in general, but then we pay more attention to the situation in Spain and in Basque Country. In 4th ESO, I remember studying the French Revolution and the nationalism in Germany and Italy. That is, we study about all Spanish and Basque History, but also some important event of other countries.

5. At school you can learn Spanish and Basque and have a bilingual education or learn only Spanish, but it's less common. About foreign language, most people study English. I started in 3th EGB, and it was compulsory. At high school, you must continue with English, but you can choose another language, usually French and sometimes (more rarely) German. At my high school, you could even give up studying English and take French as first foreign language but very few people do that.

I hope I make myself clear, I don't know because I wrote it quickly and maybe I didn't explain it well. If you have questions, just ask.

Thanks for these answers

I made a mistake by copy/pasting the message. I didn't meant "english class" for all the countries :/ I meant "Spanish class" for Spain or "German class" for Germany, and so on ^^

I tried to know what are the classical books from each countries ^^ or what are the books that teachers ask you to read ^^

I don't know how it is in other high schools, but in mine we didn't read a lot of classical Spanish books. We read about three books every year, but they were quite modern and the teacher made us choose them from a list.
The one classical book we read was "El lazarillo de Tormes". Apart from that, we used to read fragments of other important books, which appeared in our textbook. For example, "El Quijote", "La Celestina", "La vida es sueño", "La colmena", and some poems (Espronceda, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti...). I can't remember all the writers, maybe I can find an old notebook and I have the programs there.
Anyway, I think the programs have changed this year. For example, last year, when I was in "bachiller", we didn't study litterature in Spanish class, but I think students from this year do.

Yeah the problem is that it always change but well, at least I try to be near the reality and mention some books or text that you can have in homework. the important is that it could be that the character learn these texts ^^

I want your notebook !!! lol

I will try to find the books you told me, and maybe there are french translations or english ^^

I think it's also important to mention school even a lot don't like that, because even if it's boring it's a part of your life, and maybe a reason why the fans love so much the promo and the tour ^^ Being there, without school for some day, just being free to enjoy time with friends and music, and the boys of course