Warning, long post! Like holy crap this is so long what am I doing. Is there a way to put text into a collapsible box? Because I feel this post needs it.
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I'll add to the growing number of personal experiences. I went to a public high school in suburban Massachusetts between the years of 2009-2013, so, still relevant I'd say. My little brother is going to the same school right now and the only difference is that they now offer a basic coding class and also have schoolwide wi-fi :v
the father/daughter dance, the dance-a-thon, or even a "sleepover" at school with every student doing different activities all related to the truth, and I also saw somewhere else events like a day where people have to dress classy, things like that.
We never had anything like a father/daughter dance or a dance-a-thon. We never had a sleepover at school, either, and I don't know of any other schools in the region that did (that's not to say no schools do this at all; I'm sure some do). As for dressing up, we had this thing called Spirit Week, where each day had a different dress-up theme. One day could be Pajama Day, another could be 80's Day, etc. It changed year to year depending on what the student council came up with. The last day of Spirit Week, however, was always to wear the school colors.
As for dances, we had the freshman/sophomore dance, homecoming, the winter formal, and prom (one for juniors and one for seniors, though you could bring dates/friends from other grades). I only attended junior prom so I can't tell you much about them, really. Prom was pretty typical as far as I know--you just wore a fancy outfit, ate dinner, danced to pop songs, slow songs, and popular line dances (or other songs/dances with instructions), and went home. I'm pretty sure there was an after-party, but I didn't attend.
Oh, if you're gonna be writing about school dances, you should know about the Cha-Cha Slide (
Everybody clap yo' hands!). That's a staple where I am. Other staples include the Macarena, the Cotton-Eye Joe, and the Cupid Shuffle. There's the Electric Slide, too, but to a lesser extent; when I went to a wedding in Virginia, people seemed to know it a lot better than my peers in Massachusetts.
Also, if you have more time, could you tell me more about American high schools? Anything that comes to your mind, and also the hours, like how many hours do students usually work in a school day, stuff like that. I guess that could change depending on what state you're in, too.
The high school in my town averages about 1,000 students each year. There are other private schools here, but that's the only public high school.
It technically begins at 7:30, but you have to be in your homeroom seat by 7:25 (unless you have a nice homeroom teacher who delays taking attendance. Shoutout to my teacher who always let me and the other stragglers come in during/after the morning announcements!). It gets out at 2:05.
Classes rotate on a six-day schedule, meaning you're never doing the same exact thing every week.
You get 20 minutes for lunch. I think it's technically 25, but it takes 5 just to get to the cafeteria. And if a student has to order through the lunch line (in which case I'm sorry for them), that can take out 5-10 more minutes. Eat fast!
There's no recess or anything. I don't know of any high schools that have some sort of free time, but I felt that was worth mentioning--especially since your location says you're from France, and I heard French students get an hour for lunch and an hour for free time, and that they can go home during that time? I could be wrong. Either way, that's not the case in the high school I went to. You aren't allowed to leave school premises until it lets out for the day.
Clubs begin shortly after the last bell rings, and the length of time varies greatly depending on the nature of the club. Some only meet for an hour, some meet for a few (like marching band practice or D&D).
I was gonna offer examples of all the different clubs from what I remember (so you can get an idea of the environment and what sorts of things the students do there), but heck it I'm just gonna copy it from the school's website
Be warned, it's a long list. But I guess I saved you some googling? Anyway, first off, here's the general stuff:
-Art Club
-[Name redacted but basically it was a banking club I guess? For some reason?]
-Best Buddies [I believe it's a club for providing for people with intellectual disabilities and hanging out with them and doing fun activities]
-TV Club [The school has its own local broadcasting channel]
-Cultural Exchange Program (Italy, Switzerland)
-Culinary Club
-Gay and Straight Alliance
-Recycling Club
-Ski and Snowboard Club
-Social Awareness Club
-Student literary magazine online
-Student news site online [Used to be a school newspaper but maybe they ran out of resources or something]
-Yearbook Committee
-Gardening Club
-Mindfulness Club
-Fashion Club
Now for the performing arts. This is the real Good Stuff, my school was rated one of the top high schools in the nation for music education [/brag]
-Theatre Arts
-Jazz Ensemble
-Marching Band/Color Guard
-A Cappella [There are multiple groups. One is mixed voices, one is all-girls, and I think there's an all-guys one. When I attended, there was only the mixed voices one]
-Winter Percussion
Clubs that compete with other schools (in addition to performing arts, which do competitions and events and stuff):
-Science Club
-Math Team
-Fall Athletics: Boys/Girls Cross Country, Field Hockey, Football, Golf, Boys and Girls Soccer, Girls Swimming and Diving, Fall Cheerleading, Dance Team, Volleyball
-Winter Athletics: Boys and Girls Basketball, Girls Gymnastics, Boys and Girls Ice Hockey, Boys and Girls Indoor Track, Wrestling
-Spring Athletics: Baseball, Softball, Boys and Girls Outdoor Track and Field, Boys and Girls Tennis, Boys and Girls Lacrosse
(So many sports, wew lad)
And lastly, the student leadership stuff:
-Class Officers
-Citizens Scholarship Foundation Student Directors
-Diversity Leaders
-National Honor Society
-Student Council
-School Council [I don't know how it's different from the above, but it's apparently different enough to warrant its own entry]
-Peer Leaders
-PTSA [Not super sure what that stands for, something important I'm sure]
-Student advisers to the School Committee
-Student advisers to the Department of Education
-Student Leadership Forum [So many leadership groups]
So yeah, lots of stuff! I was part of marching band, a cappella, Gay Straight Alliance, and a club called the Intellectual Gamer Society that seems to not exist anymore, but all we did was play D&D, lol.
I saw people mentioning the music department going to Disneyland, and I can confirm this. Every four years, my school's music department (including the marching band, even though that's technically an extracurricular) takes a trip to Disney World for a week to perform and do music/performing workshops and then just have fun.
Every two years, the juniors and seniors who take language classes are offered the chance to go to Paris and Madrid. I think it's a weeklong trip, and they split their time between the two cities? I didn't go on that (had a lot on my plate at the time).
The theatre department does a Scotland trip, I think, but I don't know how frequently. They go to this big theatre gathering, but I don't know much beyond that.
Aside from those, we never took any field trips or anything.
And if you have more time to waste, you could even tell me other clichés about high schools or America in general that you only see in movies.
Well for starters, the whole "cheerleaders are bitches, marching band are losers" thing doesn't apply to my school. I didn't know many cheerleaders but they seemed alright. They weren't "top of the school" or anything. Honestly, if anyone is top of the school, it's the marching band. I mentioned that my school is one of the top rated in the country for music education, and just...lemme tell you about the band. It's award-winning and super well-respected all throughout the school. Tbh it's one of our main attractions. In fact, at football games, people used to attend the game, stay until half-time to watch the marching band perform, and then leave. No kidding! That was more when the football team used to...not play so well, though. I hear it's better now.
In fact, the band is so well-respected, one year we actually got to represent the state of Massachusetts in the Washington DC 4th of July Parade. It was a huge honor (even though I had to drop out two blocks from the end due to an asthma attack).
"School lunches are terrible" cliché: Absolutely true. Well, they're mediocre, at least. I always brought my own lunch.
"Dumb jocks": The guys who played football seemed pretty normal/average to me. Actually, I knew some athletes who were also some of the top scholars in the school. Like with any group, you get a mix of lots of different people.
"Bad boys": I mean, I guess there were some students who were on the rougher side, but nothing like the bad boys in TV or books. Problem students or students with attitude issues had their own classes in this thing called the "alternative program," so I never really interacted with them. They smoked near the school sometimes until the cops came and told them to put the cigarettes out.
As far as drugs and partying goes, I never attended any parties besides marching band ones (which were always clean/dry), so I can't give firsthand experience. Though I did overhear some of my peers talking about getting super drunk at parties, or their friends getting super drunk, etc. I also heard the theatre/drama parties and sleepovers had a lot of sex. For drugs, as far as I know the local kids mostly did weed.
Red Solo cups abound, though :v
And that's about all I can think of for now! But feel free to ask any questions if you want ^^