Welcome to High School Life
High School is a trying time for all of us. For adults looking back it was either great, or terrible. There does not really seem to be much of a middle ground. Unfortunately, the structure of high school has changed so much from a few decades ago, it is rather scary. High School life is not what it used to be.Teens all around the country are faced with gum and cell phones every day. For some reason, teachers in school have a phobia of these two things more than anything else. It is illogical, even counterproductive, but such is high school life.
I absolutely hate to say it, but our society right now is focused on grades and grades alone. Grades on report cards, grades on essays, grades on attitude, grades on standardized tests, just grades. If something does not have a point value or grade assigned to it, then we do not care. Learning for the sake of learning does not matter if we do not have the grade to show for it.
Every high school in America teaches foreign language classes to students. Most require at least 2 years to a single language to graduate, some even three. The reasoning behind this is that colleges usually require at least 2 years of language for admission. Some colleges require 3 or 4 years. Unfortunately, choosing a language at first is a difficult task...
It is that time of year again; time to pick classes for next year. High school students are faced with hundreds of potential classes that they can take, ranging from college prep/regular (CP) to Advanced Placement (AP). There are just sooo many choices...
It is no question that extra curricular activities are essential for college admissions. As I briefly discussed in my previous article Activities Outside of School, extra curriculars put a human face on an application that is otherwise just numbers and letters. The way that a student chooses to spend his or her time leaves a very large impact on college recruiters and admissions officers...
"The life of a high school student is jam packed with so much more than people realize. It can be summed up in one common phrase: "I dont have the time." There really is no time in this day and age to do anything but school. There are not enough hours in a day for a high school student to accomplish everything that he/she needs, let alone wants....."
"It is common in this day and age for high school students to get little sleep on a regular basis. That is simply part of the high school experience. What varies is how often a student needs to sacrifice sleep in order to get work done. I introduce you to the AP student, one who spends more time studying than sleeping...."
"One of Barack Obama's biggest goals as president is fixing American Education. The problem; too many students drop out of high school and college or don't even go to college, making them "useless" in society. Granted, we will always need people to flip our burgers and collect our garbage, but these people do not help to advance society as "learned" citizens do......"
"It seems that vacation gets shorter and shorter every year. In addition to this, holidays are being taken away. Long gone is Columbus Day, even other holidays are becoming shorter. Not only that, but schools now give homework over vacation. It is very rare to find a "good" school that does not give summer homework, Christmas homework, Thanksgiving homework, and Easter homework......"
"Every student says at one time or another that they have too much homework, as if the teachers care. Honestly, they don't. This is especially true if a student takes multiple honors or advanced placement classes, which give the most homework. The teacher simply says that "it is an advanced course, meaning that there has to be more homework....."
