Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2024 May 14

= May 14 =

Grade level splitting/staggering in American schools
I am interested in genealogy, and in the course of research I found that many American high school yearbooks over 50 years ago contained both a January graduating class and a June graduating class. Grade levels were split or staggered into "A" and "B" grades, e.g., you weren't in 10th grade, you were either in "10A" or "10B". Presumably one half moved up in January and the other half moved up in June. An example yearbook is here:. Are there any available resources that discuss this historical practice? Helpful Raccoon (talk) 00:34, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * My high school in Canada did this too! Félix An (talk) 09:18, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * It would likely be up to the rules in a given state (or province) or possibly even the local school board. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 09:55, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * In California, the practice was in reaction to the baby boomers filling the schools faster than the voters approved new spending on facilities and faculty. By the 1970s, there were even split sessions within a single day: morning (7:30am-lunch) and afternoon (lunch-5pm). DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 18:58, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing -- this practice started well before the baby boomers and was being phased out by the 1960s. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 19:32, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

2004–2009 UAE population boom
According to the World Bank, the total population of the UAE double from 2004 (4m) to 2009 (8m). Was this really the case? Or is it just that the large population of foreign workers was undercounted before and that was fixed during that period? a455bcd9 (Antoine) (talk) 06:04, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Their crude birth rate has dropped from around 16‰ in 2000 to around 10‰. That seems to tell most of the story. Remsense  诉  08:14, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Meanwhile, the inwards migration rate to the UAE reached a peak of 109% in 2007/8  Alansplodge (talk) 14:40, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Is xe.com a reliable source for checking exchange rates?
Just for making deals/transactions among close friends with foreign currencies (not to send money), is xe.com a WP:RS to check the rates? Félix An (talk) 09:16, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Yes, as long as a 1-2% variation isn't a deal-breaker DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 19:00, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

Can the name of Virginia be changed to East Virginia?
East Virginia ~ West Virginia, just like North Carolina ~ South Carolina and North Dakota ~ South Dakota, they are “opposite direction” names, and if so, then we can have a state name starting with the letter E. 2402:7500:92D:FD81:EC83:9EB4:F66F:5867 (talk) 09:42, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * In theory. But why would they want to? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 09:53, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * North Dakota and South Dakota were decreed into existence by Congress in the 19th century, while the Province of Carolina was split into North Carolina and South Carolina in 1712. In neither case was one considered to be part of the other.  However, Virginia existed as a British colony, then a U.S. state, for over 200 years, from the early 17th century until the U.S. Civil War, when it became exceedingly awkward that the northwest part of the state was solidly pro-Union, while the rest was Confederate.  The remaining part of the state when West Virginia split off contained the state capital, most of the population, the majority of the land, all of the seacoast, and the political elites who traditionally ran the state, so it was the clear and obvious successor state to the previous undivided commonwealth (state) of Virginia.  The Virginia elites did not have positive feelings about West Virginia splitting off, and felt that  their part was the "real" historic Virginia, and so were not motivated to rename to "East Virginia". AnonMoos (talk) 10:42, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * If the name of Virginia be changed to East Virginia, then the game geography using the 50 States of America should be more interesting, since no State of America begins with the letter E but many States of America ends with the letter E (it is widely known that if the first player choose the state Maine, then the second player loses the game immediately, since no State of America begins with the letter E or ends with the letter M). 220.132.230.56 (talk) 11:05, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Rename "Virginia" to "East Virginia" 220.132.230.56 (talk) 15:12, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

The question was can the name be changed. Yes, why not? The US has one state that changed its name, with no problems. --142.112.220.50 (talk) 15:28, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Rhode Island changed its official name to what everyone calls it anyway. Is there anyone in Virginia who calls their state "East Virginia"? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:32, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Virginia has clung to a name that is only used in official documents and even hardly known among the Virginians themselves. --Lambiam 19:37, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * To the contrary, as a Virginia resident for five years, I frequently saw references to the Commonwealth in non-official documents (e.g. they were frequently in my newspaper), and I suspect you couldn't live in Virginia long without being aware of it. Nyttend (talk) 05:32, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for example. Also, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Puerto Rico and Northern Mariana Islands. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:33, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
 * The usage might be most prominent in the name of Virginia Commonwealth University. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 21:27, 16 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Every so often a governor of North Dakota will argue for changing it to just "Dakota". Then someone will counter-argue that that cold, desolate state should instead be just "North". And that usually puts an end to it, again. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:34, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * It's like Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. There ain't no West Palo Alto – even though we have a redirect. Actually, most of East Palo Alto is more to the West than most of Palo Alto.
 * Also San Francisco and South San Francisco, famously nicknamed "The Industrial City". Cullen328 (talk) 20:50, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Similarly, there is no state of South Rhine-Eastphalia, but no one suggests renaming North Rhine-Westphalia to just Rhine-Phalia. — Kpalion(talk) 14:50, 22 May 2024 (UTC)


 * For other placenames with geographic directions added which are less impressive than the places with the original unqualified names, see East St. Louis and West New York... -- AnonMoos (talk) 21:13, 22 May 2024 (UTC)