Antedating of "Junior High School"

[Charles Doyle]

I too attended a one-building school (where my father was superintendent). The "grade school" or "grammar school" (grades 1-8) was on the ground floor, the "high school" (grades 9-12) on the second floor (no "junior high" division as such). Naturally, I grew up assuming that the term "high school" referred to architectural altitude.

--Charlie



---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:07:54 +0000
>From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> (on behalf of ronbutters at AOL.COM)
>Subject: Re: Antedating of "Junior High School"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>I went to "junior high school" 1952-1955 and "senior high school" in 1956-1958 in the SAME building. The terms were used informally, but the school administration was unitary, and there seemed little of any pedagogical significance to the difference-no more than the difference between "ninth grade" and "tenth grade."

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