I’ve already been studying in an American high school — I’m in 12th grade (a senior, but I’ll tell more about that later).
Teachers here are passionate about their job and try to make even the first introduction interesting.
I honestly don’t get why so many American kids don’t like school. I spend about 50% of my day there: I arrive at 7:40 (yeah, I’ve even taken the yellow school bus twice) and usually leave around 6:40–7:40 in the evening. Everything is different here. There are no “parallel classes” like back home — just lessons. You can choose what to attend: if you don’t like one class, you can pick another. There’s something for everyone!
There are only 3 mandatory subjects:
- English,
- American History,
- Math (and there are many types of math here).
The other 3 subjects you can choose yourself — from cooking and music to computer building and video editing. And you have them every day, always in the same order. Breaks are short, but there’s a one-hour lunch.
After school, I play American football (not rugby and not soccer!). The practice is super hard, but for some reason it gives me an insane amount of joy. After practice, my host mom picks me up, then it’s shower, dinner, and sleep — because the next morning I wake up at 5:45–6:00 again.
Classmates
Like I said, there are no permanent classmates, so I had to meet about a hundred people. Making friends here is easy — you don’t need to “pretend” to be someone else, just be yourself, no drama. Most of them don’t ask a ton of questions, but sometimes they do. The recipe is simple: just talk. It really helps you learn the language too.
And that’s about it!
Try imagining yourself in this situation — would you enjoy such a school day? Maybe one day you can also become an exchange student!