As the Spanish IV students file out of teacher Patricia Portillo’s class, several stop to thank her.

That’s nothing unusual at Country Day. But for Portillo, who began teaching here in 2008, it came as a shock after her experience at Furness High School in Philadelphia, in 1997-98.

“Furness was a very difficult school to work at. Many of the kids were in a lot of trouble,” Portillo said.

According to a story by staff writer Kristen Graham in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 25, Philadelphia-area schools are only getting worse. This school year, 18,243 students of the district’s 161,000 students have been suspended.

Law enforcement officers patrol the hallways daily, creating what Graham calls “police state” schools.

While teaching at Furness, Portillo often overheard students bragging about how much of a certain drug they had sold over the weekend.

While there, Portillo and her colleagues calculated the number of pregnant girls at Furness High. They arrived at a shocking 10 percent.

The school district was renowned for low morale amongst teachers, and even required that all teachers sign in daily due to some instructors’ bad attendance.

Portillo taught five classes. Three were Spanish-language classes. The other two were called “Spanish Culture.”

“When I asked what kinds of things I was supposed to teach in a ‘Spanish Culture’ class, an administrator simply replied, ‘You tell me,’” Portillo said.

Taught in the leaky basement of the old Furness building, the class was essentially “like babysitting 13 high schoolers,” Portillo said.

Students would laugh incessantly during movies and wouldn’t pay attention during class activities.

The low work ethic and lack of motivation amongst Furness students were ingrained in the students’ culture, Portillo said.

“In a way, I think they were trained by their parents to think of school as one long babysitting session,” Portillo said.

“For this reason, I can’t judge them.”

The students never did homework and constantly talked in class, showing Portillo their lack of interest in the language and pushing her to leave like multiple teachers before her.

The outdoor tables and open-air feeling of Country Day’s campus are a dramatic contrast to the environment at Furness, where the discolored grey walls made the school feel cold and depressing.

“There were no outside areas for students to study or eat lunch in, so students had to eat in an indoor cafeteria,” Portillo said.

Safety was also a big problem. High fences, metal detectors and police officers acted as reminders.

Portillo’s drive to work highlighted the differences between the sheltered West Coast neighborhoods she had taught at before moving to Philadelphia (like the upper-middle class Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) and the schools of low-income neighborhoods like South Philadelphia.

“About the third day into my time teaching at Furness, I was driving through South Philadelphia on my way to work. I noticed that every time I stopped, I would hear a honk. This continued for several blocks, until I finally realized that people simply didn’t allow others to stop. I was a little scared, so I began to pull over and let them pass me,” Portillo said.

Intolerance wasn’t limited to the streets of Philadelphia.

Upon arrival at school every morning, Portillo entered an environment that was the complete socio-economic and racial opposite of Country Day.

“Before moving to Philadelphia, I hadn’t realized the severe consequences of segregation,” Portillo said.

Furness was predominantly made up of low-income African-American and white students due to its location in South Philadelphia. The schools of North Philadelphia had mostly low-income African-Americans and Latinos.

Internal divisions were also apparent at Furness. Students who had not yet been conditioned to treat school as low priority stuck out like sore thumbs.

“We had finals six days before the end of school, and Furness didn’t require students to stay after finals were over,” Portillo said.

“I remember some unaware freshman going to a teacher to ask where their classes had gone. ‘Why are you still here?’ the teacher replied.”

Portillo said she is glad to be finished with her time at Furness, although she thinks Country Day students could benefit from being more wary of their possessions, as Furness students were.

“Sometimes I feel disappointed when I see valuables left out in the quad or by the lockers,” Portillo said. “These kids don’t know how bad it can be.”

The most drastic difference between the students, Portillo said, is that here they appreciate her efforts.

“I have never been to a school where students say ‘thank you’ at the end of each lesson,” Portillo said. “I feel honored every time they say it.”