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High school meme
A high-school meme, ganked from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zoefruitcake and de-Americanised - we don't have class of [insert year], yearbooks, school mascots, class rings (WTH?), or graduation - graduation's for tertiary institutes. As for what kind of car I drove to school? Seriously, only in America! Pupils walk, cycle, or get buses (though some spoiled ones get dropped off by parents). Pupils generally can't afford cars here, and for that matter the parking's for staff. Nor do we have driver ed, though that would actually be a very good idea, given some of the lunatics on our roads.
I went to three different high schools due to my family moving around the country and they were all single-sex. I was a boarder at the first and third, so I'll have to cover boarding / private and day / state schools. I think Americans call the former prep schools, but to us, prep was another word for homework. For that matter in the UK, a prep school is for younger pupils, preparing them for a public - IOW private - school. We're honest down here; our boarding schools are mostly private (though there are a few state schools offering limited boarding for country pupils).
Anyway, it's an opportunity to post something possibly of interest.
How did you get to school? I walked to the state high school I went to. If it had been further away I'd have cycled as I did to primary school.
Where did you go on Friday nights? To the cinema maybe, or just home, glad it was finally the weekend. When boarding, to a classroom or my shared room after dinner to do prep. BTW the thing I really hated about boarding was that you so rarely had time to yourself. I used to hide in the woodshed with a book to avoid weekend sport - kids need time off too.
What kind of job did you have? I didn't till I was at uni.
Were you a party animal? No, though I was the class clown, so much so at one point that if I asked a serious question, some girls would laugh in case it was a joke they didn't get.
Were you a sporty type? Absolutely not, though I wasn't a bad swimmer. In Phys Ed if we were practising ball sports I used to drop the ball or screw up in other ways so I'd be "punished" by having to walk around the sports field instead of playing - win! Saturday morning sports though: that was a right pain, hard to avoid, and an imposition on innocent boarders.
Were you in choir or band? No. I used to do piano competitions but that was outside school.
Were you a nerd? Oh, yes!
Did you get suspended or expelled? No.
Can you sing the school song? My schools had hymns; I'm not sure if they still do that. The only one I remember of the three is "Jerusalem". The answer to its many questions is of course "no", but it has a great tune which you may know from the film Chariots of Fire.
Where did you eat? We don't get meals at schools here; you either bring your own, or maybe buy something from the tuckshop or a local bakery, and we ate outside on benches or the grass, or at our desks if it was wet. At my boarding schools I sat at the table I was assigned to and hoped the prefect at the head of it wouldn't make me finish anything unpalatable - and there was a fair bit of that.
Where was high school? Three different places in NZ.
If you could go back and do it over? Seriously? The saying about schooldays being the best of your life is a load of utter rubbish. Life gets better at uni, and better again after that. Kids dislike others for petty reasons, and most grow out of that once they've left school. The marketing idiot at my last job never did though.
Do you still talk to the person you went to the school ball with? No. I hardly knew the guy anyway as it was a girls' school and he was a friend of a friend's brother (I think). He was so boring (and had his eye on someone else) I left early with food from the buffet, escaping out a window with a bag of it, and had a midnight feast with some of the other boarders who hadn't gone to the ball.
Are you planning on going to the next reunion? I've never been to any and don't intend to.
Are you still in contact with people from high school? Just one, a friend who RPGed with me. Moving every couple of years played havoc with friendships.
Did you skip school? Occasionally the state school, if I wanted to see a film on afternoon TV. They showed old 40s and 50s ones then and some were far too good to miss.
Do you know where your high school crush is now? I didn't have one. Although a fair few girls had crushes (one even on me!), I never did. I did have friends who were boys, notably the Two Warwicks who went to the neighbouring boys' school. We nerds had a lot in common, considered starting a band called The Generals, and they once dug an escape tunnel from one of the music rooms at their school (one dug and one played the piano) which went so far it needed buttressing. The staff were appalled when they found out, so the escape attempt was foiled.
What was your favourite subject? Physics. I went on to get a degree in it.
Were you a prefect? No, the only one in the final year who wasn't. This was due to me just moving to that school in my final year, but I was very happy not to have the responsibility. The one time I was sent to supervise a class doing their prep, it was chaos. I didn't have any natural authority, and I just laughed at their jokes instead of trying and failing to keep order.
Any questions about our education system and terms - or What I Did At School - ask away!
zoefruitcake and de-Americanised - we don't have class of [insert year], yearbooks, school mascots, class rings (WTH?), or graduation - graduation's for tertiary institutes. As for what kind of car I drove to school? Seriously, only in America! Pupils walk, cycle, or get buses (though some spoiled ones get dropped off by parents). Pupils generally can't afford cars here, and for that matter the parking's for staff. Nor do we have driver ed, though that would actually be a very good idea, given some of the lunatics on our roads.I went to three different high schools due to my family moving around the country and they were all single-sex. I was a boarder at the first and third, so I'll have to cover boarding / private and day / state schools. I think Americans call the former prep schools, but to us, prep was another word for homework. For that matter in the UK, a prep school is for younger pupils, preparing them for a public - IOW private - school. We're honest down here; our boarding schools are mostly private (though there are a few state schools offering limited boarding for country pupils).
Anyway, it's an opportunity to post something possibly of interest.
How did you get to school? I walked to the state high school I went to. If it had been further away I'd have cycled as I did to primary school.
Where did you go on Friday nights? To the cinema maybe, or just home, glad it was finally the weekend. When boarding, to a classroom or my shared room after dinner to do prep. BTW the thing I really hated about boarding was that you so rarely had time to yourself. I used to hide in the woodshed with a book to avoid weekend sport - kids need time off too.
What kind of job did you have? I didn't till I was at uni.
Were you a party animal? No, though I was the class clown, so much so at one point that if I asked a serious question, some girls would laugh in case it was a joke they didn't get.
Were you a sporty type? Absolutely not, though I wasn't a bad swimmer. In Phys Ed if we were practising ball sports I used to drop the ball or screw up in other ways so I'd be "punished" by having to walk around the sports field instead of playing - win! Saturday morning sports though: that was a right pain, hard to avoid, and an imposition on innocent boarders.
Were you in choir or band? No. I used to do piano competitions but that was outside school.
Were you a nerd? Oh, yes!
Did you get suspended or expelled? No.
Can you sing the school song? My schools had hymns; I'm not sure if they still do that. The only one I remember of the three is "Jerusalem". The answer to its many questions is of course "no", but it has a great tune which you may know from the film Chariots of Fire.
Where did you eat? We don't get meals at schools here; you either bring your own, or maybe buy something from the tuckshop or a local bakery, and we ate outside on benches or the grass, or at our desks if it was wet. At my boarding schools I sat at the table I was assigned to and hoped the prefect at the head of it wouldn't make me finish anything unpalatable - and there was a fair bit of that.
Where was high school? Three different places in NZ.
If you could go back and do it over? Seriously? The saying about schooldays being the best of your life is a load of utter rubbish. Life gets better at uni, and better again after that. Kids dislike others for petty reasons, and most grow out of that once they've left school. The marketing idiot at my last job never did though.
Do you still talk to the person you went to the school ball with? No. I hardly knew the guy anyway as it was a girls' school and he was a friend of a friend's brother (I think). He was so boring (and had his eye on someone else) I left early with food from the buffet, escaping out a window with a bag of it, and had a midnight feast with some of the other boarders who hadn't gone to the ball.
Are you planning on going to the next reunion? I've never been to any and don't intend to.
Are you still in contact with people from high school? Just one, a friend who RPGed with me. Moving every couple of years played havoc with friendships.
Did you skip school? Occasionally the state school, if I wanted to see a film on afternoon TV. They showed old 40s and 50s ones then and some were far too good to miss.
Do you know where your high school crush is now? I didn't have one. Although a fair few girls had crushes (one even on me!), I never did. I did have friends who were boys, notably the Two Warwicks who went to the neighbouring boys' school. We nerds had a lot in common, considered starting a band called The Generals, and they once dug an escape tunnel from one of the music rooms at their school (one dug and one played the piano) which went so far it needed buttressing. The staff were appalled when they found out, so the escape attempt was foiled.
What was your favourite subject? Physics. I went on to get a degree in it.
Were you a prefect? No, the only one in the final year who wasn't. This was due to me just moving to that school in my final year, but I was very happy not to have the responsibility. The one time I was sent to supervise a class doing their prep, it was chaos. I didn't have any natural authority, and I just laughed at their jokes instead of trying and failing to keep order.
Any questions about our education system and terms - or What I Did At School - ask away!
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I don't think school songs / hymns get trotted out these days, even less now we're so secular. I only knew the one, and that one is extremely British; had to be inherited. We do need our own identity and it's gradually happening. Who knows, one day we'll have a flag of our own and be a republic!
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There were over 1000 students in each year, so about 3000 being "educated" there at any given time. The building was so crowded, they had staggered stating times. I started at 7:00 in the morning, while others arrived at 8, 9 and even 10. Leaving times were also staggered. Many of the students staggered too, if I remember right, given the drugs and enormous race problems. (White kids went to the school where they lived; black and Cuban kids were bused in from all over Miami. There were tons of Cubans in Miami then.) There was a lunch room, but the gangs met there, so I don't think I ever went in. Shots were fired occasionally.
I was in the "elite" part of the students, meaning I took real courses and intended to go to university. The gang members typically took different classes. Still, I was thrilled every day when I made it home alive to my affluent suburban house. Would I like to go back??? They don't make Kelvar Jackets tough enough to tempt me...
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So your high schools only have three years / classes? We have:
- primary school, for about 4 years starting at age 5 (I skipped one as I could already read)
- intermediate school for 2 years, supposed to prepare one for high school
- high school for a minimum of three years; one can leave at 15. There are 1-2 years more for those wanting higher qualifications or to go to university.
- university which now covers what were technical schools
Everyone attends real classes, though people were (not sure if they are now) streamed into academic (science, languages), and general, often including some technical, or things like home economics and woodwork. Everyone has core classes in English, maths, history, geography, social studies, though to different levels.
Besides Maori and Europeans, we have a large population of islanders and Asians (Chinese etc), and all have the same access to education, including special classes in English for immigrants if needed. My only beef with our system is the emphasis on sports and not learning; athletes are popular. However, unlike the US, they don't get scholarships to university - that really is for learning, and I loved it.
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Some high schools have four years, but mine had only three, mostly because the buildings were so crowded as they were. No room for anyone else!
Sports are a big deal here, as you say, but if you're like me, you mostly ignore them. Some students get scholarships for sports abilities, but not all that many. Most are academic scholarships. I got a small one for scoring extremely high on the SAT's (standardized tests nearly everyone has to take to apply for college), and luckily my parents could help with a lot of the rest. This was back in the days when it didn't cost an arm and a leg to enroll.
I don't miss my high school at all. I have never been back, and I don't even know if the building is still standing. My family moved away from the area within a week of graduation; they were only waiting for me to finish.