So America is supposed to be the greatest country in the world, a Californian lifestyle is supposed to be the dream, and attending an American high school is supposed to be a big deal. Yeah, we, Americans, like to think that we are la crème de la crème in everything: sports, parties, technology, cars, and of course power. Do you know in what area we need a lot of improvement? Can you take a guess?
Most American teenagers think that the biggest difference between here and Europe is the drinking age, sixteen; and, most European teenagers think that America is cool because they have this mental picture that we all drive Hummers at the age of sixteen. Allow me to burst your bubble my dear friends, the biggest difference between America and Europe is the level of education. If you think that the AP system is challenging, let me just tell you that it is a joke compared to the educational system around the world.
A typical day at my Belgian school, Institut de la Providence Gosselies, would begin at 8:10am and end at 4:10pm, and the school year was from September to June 30th. My courses throughout the week included: Social Sciences, French Literature, Geography and Current Issues, English, Dutch, History, Religion, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and of course P.E. The level of expectation for the senior class was huge, and I can testify to this since I was placed in senior classes instead of junior classes. The whole year I was going to GPH (acronym for my school’s name) I never saw an unprepared student. Most freshmen here complain about carrying around 3-4 inch binders and get away with not carrying them… well let’s just say that Belgian students as young as eight-years old to eighteen years old carry those “huge-ass” binders around every day (plus, they don’t have lockers to put their books.) What was even more shocking for me was to see guys carrying around pencil pouches with rulers, compasses, highlighters and color pencils. Yes, that’s how prepared those Belgian-waffle-eaters are! Now ask yourself this question, how much do you study before finals? Yeah… I thought so. In Belgium, I did not see my friends for a month because they were studying their asses off, cramming all of the semester’s material for the finals. These finals meant everything for them, if they failed that meant that they would have to retake the winter finals with the summer finals. Basically, if you were to fail all of your 12 classes in the winter, you would have to take 24 exams in June to be able to graduate. If you failed, you did not pass to the next year. Now, the exams over there were not multiple choice, they were essays, even for my Calculus class! I know that we Americans like to say “failing is not an option” but after what I’ve seen at Alisal this past semester, I question our school system, I seriously question it!
Let’s go back to the first day of school, can you say reverse culture shock!? I saw people with air- filled backpacks walking around school like they were all that, girls worrying too much about makeup and their hair style, and my ultimate favorite some wanna-be cowboys doing this thing called “suelo.” I had forgotten that in America people don’t usually come to school to learn, but to fool around. I was really looking forward to my AP classes because I thought they would challenge me, make me think, and make want to go to school. Then, reality slapped me across the face on a casual Tuesday afternoon. I realized that there are three types of AP students: the “I’m just here cuz I am underage, so I can’t be elsewhere,” the “I thought this would look good on my transcript”, and personal favorite, the rub it on everyone’s face: “OMG, I’m taking 5 AP classes that means I must be smart!” You don’t know how frustrated I get when I see zombies just seating there sucking in air, and then hear them complain about how much work some classes require… please, give me a freaking break! However, what really pisses me off is to see people deliberately cheat. Someone please explain to me, what the hell happened during junior year that just made everyone indifferent and corrupt!?
After having many “heart to heart” conversations with most of my teachers, I know that they too see the apathy in the classroom, the homework, and projects. To me the vibe this year is just not right. Maybe sophomore year, I was naïve and did not know what “working the system” meant, so I had this perfect image of many people. Then, senior year rolls around and the fake masks just drop, now I clearly see that everyone else had been cheating the system. Honestly, I think that teachers should hold students accountable for their work. Somehow someone should just find a way to break the cycle of cheating with SparkNotes, and chain text messages for tests and quizzes.
I wish you could all time travel to GPH to experience a real challenging class, maybe you would stop believing you’re the biggest fish in a small pond. My dear, c/o 2011 the countdown to reality has begun and the time when you will question your abilities will arrive, but please before you start pointing fingers to “bad” teachers, question yourself and think about what you did not do to prepare yourself for the big world. After all, you screwed yourself over.