[originaltext] In the Netherlands and Belgium children do not have their fun

In the Netherlands and Belgium children do not have their fun and presents on Christmas Day as we do. They go to church on Christmas Day, and they have their fun on St. Nicholas Day, which comes on December 6. The night before, they fix something to hold their gifts. Sometimes it is a well-polished shoe, sometimes a plate or a basket, and sometimes they hang up their stockings just as we do. St. Nicholas rides a gray horse or a white donkey and so the children leave water for the animal to drink and something for it to eat. They leave hay or oats or a carrot, and sometimes a piece of bread. In the morning, if they have been good, they find that St. Nicholas has left sweets and fruits and playthings for them. But if they have been bad they find only a rod or a switch.

Public schools in the United States are under the control of the individual states. Sometimes the state hands its control over to a smaller area, a county or city.
    Most Americans start school at the age of five when they enter kindergarten. Children do not really study at this time. They only attend for half the day and learn what school is like.
    Children attend elementary school for the next six years. They ]earn to read and write and work with numbers. They also study the world and its people.
    After they leave elementary school, children go to junior high school for three years and senior high school for another three years. This is called secondary education.  In some places the children go to elementary school for eight years and high school for four. At any rate, elementary and secondary education together take twelve years to complete, excluding kindergarten.