American High School? Preconceptions & facts!

It’s time to publish a blog post about my American High School, my impressions, preconceptions, my expectations, facts, the spirit and bunch of other stuff. You’ve certainly asked yourself whether the American movies really represent the High Schools or not all. What facts are true and which one’s are totally wrong and extremely different in the reality. Are there any similarities between German and American High Schools. First of all I want to clarify that those facts could be different at other American High Schools, so this post is going to be focused on my High School and experiences.

My usual day starts at around 6 AM. About 35 minutes later I already have to take the bus that picks me up directly in front of my house. There is already the first difference. You do not have to walk to a bus stop like every other person in Germany who takes the bus. The reason for that is simple. In America the schools they want to ensure a save transport from your house to the school, so that every student arrives safely and in the case something happens they are not in charge of it. Well… unfortunately it literally means that you can not leave the bus earlier to go to other places for example over to your friends or any food places around the corner. Sometimes it kind of sucks, because I do not have a license or either own a car. But I could not anyway, because I am not allowed to drive in the United States. It definitely would make things like going over to friends or to do some free time activities way easier. In the U.S the most people already have a license and a car at the age of 16 as you probably already know. After I usually arrive at my school around 7:10 I go and walk around with some friends till the school starts at 7:35. My first period is always mathematics or Broadcast Media Production, a class where we make videos. Yes when we talk about the schedule we have the first huge difference. In America you have freedom. You can create your own schedule and just have to take into account some requirements. In other words, you need to take an English class, a math class, a science class, a history or government class and PE every year. Moreover you need to take health, an art class and economics once for a half year while attending the High School. The rest of your classes (probably about 3) you can put together however you want. Interesting classes that you usually can not take in Germany were as Photography, Sports  Marketing, Public Speaking, Tech classes where you need to build something, Criminal Justice, Crime Punishment and Rights, Ceramics, Career and Financial Management and much more. As far as well, after I go into room you get a friendly good morning. Yes, teachers definitely can be friendly, even at school and not only in their private life. As I talked in another post is the teacher/student relationship totally different as I know it in Germany. Everyone respects the other person and treats the other person nicely. American teachers always ask you how you are doing or some private questions, for instance about your weekend or you sport competition. It is kind of a polite ritual and honestly… a lot of things are way easier and better like this. American teachers are also famous for their fairness what I definitely want to point out here (of course not every single teacher). If you struggle with any things at school they are frank to help you and sacrifice their time. In Germany usually need to pay for tutoring outside of school because the teachers do not care at all. After the bell rings a person from the main office starts talking. Most of the time it remains with a Good morning and a few informative things. Consequently the Pledge follows. Well, I think that kind of shows me how proud the most Americans are. In fact, I think that too… After that the 75 minute long period starts that mostly is in form of a presentation. You often have to listen for 75 minutes and take notes. Sometimes they replace it with some group works or essays. To my mind this periods can be long and boring. Sometimes sleeping is a perfect variety ;D No I literally do nothing for school here in the U.S. The only thing I am always trying is to improve are my English skills. Reading books and writing some blog posts are not a bad thing. It helps me a lot. One thing I surprisingly figured out after I created my blog was that I am able to write and keep going without feel forced to stop. I must concede I got a bit more creative, definitely not a bad thing. Okay back to school now 😉 After my first period I have Advisement. It is not a class. That are about 40 minutes where I have time to get my homework done, go to teachers and ask them something for a short small talk to some friends. At first glance it seems to be a pretty good time but I want to mention that you also could go home 40 minutes earlier. Wouldn’t that be great too? Well, I guess there are split opinions but my point of view is that it can be a helpful time that can save your grades sometimes if you forget to get work done. If you need some computers or other stuff to work with there are a bunch of opportunities to. Of course you can waste this 40 minutes too as I do most of the time but that definitely depends on the person. My second period is either Criminal Justice (1st semester), Photography (2nd semester), study hall or PE. Easy and fun classes. That is kind of what describes my year at an American High School perfectly. The effect of this is that I have more time to do some stuff with my friends and enjoy a few offered sports instead of going home do my homework. Of course doing homework or studying is a thing I need to do sometimes, but I definitely prefer to do some fun things. It should be the year of my life and not just another year. I already noticed that it will be more like another year for me and not the year of my life. A year with a lot of ups and downs. Of course I just could have said it definitely is going to be the year of my life, but I want to be honest and do not fake anything like a lot of other people do. The year might be a bit better than another year, but probably not my best year either. A lot of stuff would have to happen to change my mind, but who knows?! There are still 5 months to convince me from the opposite, the opposite that this year will be the best year of my life. I am already sure that this will be the most instructive year with the most experiences. In brief I just wanted to talk about the stuff I am thinking in the middle of my “one year journey”. After my second period I go to U.S History or Introduction to Marketing that are sometimes kind of boring. The thing is I have to take three classes. A math class, U.S history and an English class. I has freedom with all of my other classes. In U.S History it is mostly a period where you listen 75 minutes to the teacher if you do not have any quizzes, essays or exams. I honestly do not know how I would survive this time without survive such a great teacher. I really like his way to teach and miss teachers like that in Germany. By the way the classes are often then I used to have it in Germany. The most classes just include between 10-20 people and not 20-30 people like in Germany. One class just 7 people! I’ve never had that before and I think that leads to a better learning environment. Definitely an advantage here in the United States. Altogether there are way more advantages at American High Schools. One thing I like better in Germany that the people get placed in different schools based on their skills. Between my first period I have lunch for about 40 minutes. Different in the first weeks where I usually bought lunch at school, I am bringing food to school, my own packed lunch that usually consist of a sandwich, an apple, a banana some tangerines and some pretzels. On bad days I add some chips for the typical American way. So I am guessing that you might want to know what they offer and how many you have to pay to get lunch at school. You can chose out of a Salad buffet, the daily menu, wraps and sandwiches and Pizza every day. The daily menu includes a warm menu that usually consist of a meal with some meat, a bit salad, a fruit like a banana, an apple or a pear and a milk (chocolate or normal milk without any flavor). The price for is 2,70 and in my opinion totally fine. But I do not really like the school food, there is no difference to the school food in Germany. I guess there are not many schools in the world that offer good lunches. If that is not enough or you do not like it there is the opportunity to buy something at the concession stands or at the vending machines. Chips, drinks, cookies, pretzels and other snacks. It is fairly hard not to gain any weight. In Germany we often have bakeries at school who offer tasty and not too unhealthy products. I definitely miss that a lot, the croissants and rolls are not replaceable here in America. The same with the most other food. Whatever, then I go back to my third period because I always have lunch 3. That means I have lunch in the middle of third period. Another 35 minutes class before I finally have my last period, English or Sports Marketing that mostly demands some group work or some essay which is a good practice for my english.
The good thing is that you usually get an A if you get your work done and put a bit more effort in it, so I have an A in both classes. I am content with my grades in general, about 4 A’s, one C and the rest of my grades are B’s and that is totally fine. If you fail 2 classes or more you are not allowed to join any sport teams, so that you focus on school and do not spend too much time with practice and competitions. Fortunately I do not have to think about it because I do not fail anything. Algebra 2 is the only class that sometimes cause problems. It’s 2:13 when I am finally get out of school. After school I have at least 5 different opportunities. Take the bus that leaves at about 2:23, stay after to go to the Library or some of my teachers to get work done, study, or ask the teachers some things or I am staying for a sport. The sport could be staying at school and work out in the weight room or enjoy a sport team. Another opportunities are enjoying a club at school or doing something with my friends. At the moment I am not enjoying any sports apart from ski club every single Saturday. The sports in winter are not my favorite sports. You are able to chose from Ice-hockey, basketball, indoor Track, boys swimming/diving, cheerleading or wrestling. I do not really like any of those sports, so I decided to enjoy ski club at the weekend and work out after school or play some soccer when they offer it. Some girls and boys of the soccer teams sometimes used to play Futsal (soccer) every day after school for about 4 weeks. The PE teachers organized it and it was lots of fun, but then they unfortunately quit it because they started playing basketball in the gym after school. They just do it on Wednesdays at the moment, so I mostly work out. I played soccer in the fall and I am going to play Golf in spring. Unfortunately it is probably not going to start till March or April because of the weather here in NY. The good thing about American sports is that you practice every single day, do the most sports at school and definitely keep fit. Yes, Americans take their sports really serious! Well, I talked about the sport I am taking but I still did not talk about different sports the school also offers. In fall you are able to play football, soccer, tennis, volleyball and girls swimming, cheerleading and cross country. Especially football and soccer are really popular. A lot of students come to support the teams. There is always an amazing atmosphere! Even though if they lose a game. They never stop supporting their team and I really appreciate it. As I told the football and soccer team were both really successful. The football team won the Section V and the soccer team was close to do the same but in the end they lost the final. I am glad that both teams have had such a great year and I could experience that. We watched the final games in soccer stadium of Rochester. Nearly everyone came to those games to support their teams. When we talk about football I would like to mention that one of the biggest events is the Homecoming week with the Pep rally, the parade and the Homecoming game. I know that you are already able to read something about the whole event in one of my other posts from October but I thought I should talk about it again because it is one of the most important events. Americans are usually really proud of their school and celebrate that the whole week long. I was an amazing experience to experience the whole event. I really liked the Homecoming game where nearly everyone from my school came to support our football team. They stand up for the whole game and in the end they start to sing I believe that we just won… It definitely shows me how serious they take it. I really like it and I wish they would handle it in Germany exactly the same way but no, that is never going to happen. By the way it’s like that in every sport. It does not matter whether soccer, football, lacrosse, hockey, basketball, Swimming or Track and Field. Well, back to my typical school day. When I am not working out or play any sports, I often go to some games that are going on. I love it and never want to miss any games. Furthermore I do want to experience as much as possible. Last but not least I want to talk about some preconceptions. For instance the preconception that Cheerleading is very popular in the United States. It might be like that at other schools but at our High School is totally different. The most people would prefer to abolish this sport. They do not really like the Cheerleaders and do not think that the Cheerleaders at Brockport have any skills. Honestly I agree with that point… Brockport cheerleaders are not very good and convincing. That is the reason why nearly nobody likes them. Cheerleaders are not always that famous. They even abolished the cheerleaders at the most professional football games, because nobody really want to spend lots of money on them. So it is not all the times how it looks in the movies that the Cheerleaders are dating the hot Footballer players. Another thing I noticed was the cliques at school. In American High School you often have a lot of different cliques, like the nerds, the hot Football players, the athletes, the hipsters, the foreign exchange students (who do not understand the American culture ;)) or the beautiful but arrogant girls who think they are better than everyone else. Well, of course they are some different groups of people, but it is not like that extreme how it seems to be in some High School movies.

 

Here are some pictures of the the last Hockey and Basketball game. It was senior night. That means that the varsity teams have their last home game. They say goodbye to all seniors that have their last season in this particular sport.

Well, I am sorry that the blog post might be too long in your eyes, but I tried to talk about all the stuff at my High School so that you get a better imagination. I will talk to y’all soon. Have a great time and take care.

Justus