What Does Education Smell Like?

Every school has the same, distinct odor. It doesn't matter if you attend a private high school in Wyoming, or a public middle school in Florida. They all smell alike. And within the school, each classroom has a special fragrance that all students will find familiar. Don't believe us? Calling us liars? Reading this with your arms crossed and a doubtful, cocky expression on your face? Well, try this on for size. Without even taking one step inside your high school, we can predict the aroma that is penetrating your senses. Behold!

The Art Room
Smells like: An abandoned factory that made dusty yarn and bricks.
Cause of the odor: Clay, damp paper towels, newspaper, colored pencil shavings, the loom that nobody uses, and acrylic paint.
Possible perfume name: Dirty Fingernails

The Science Lab
Smells like: Formaldehyde, bleach, and harsh hand soap, mixed with rich metallic undertones and hints of rubber pencil erasers.
Cause of the odor: Botched dissection lab from 1985.
Possible perfume name: A Midsummer's Fetal Pig

The Math Room
Smells like: A musty furnished basement that is both eerily familiar and shockingly alien.
Cause of the odor: Batteries, and the years and years of student flop sweat that has been absorbed by both the room's carpet and the unhelpful, outdated math posters that line the walls.
Possible perfume name: Worry (But spelled "Wurr Ee")

The Wood and Metal Shop
Smells like: Burnt dust, wet denim, extinguished fireworks, adhesive, and Home Depot.
Cause of the odor: Power tools, wood, metal, and whatever is kept in the off-limits, and securely locked, supply room.
Possible perfume name: Three-Fingered Glove

The Library
Smells like: A lonely relative's house.
Cause of the odor: Old books from the 1960s printed on brittle, yellowed paper compounded with the collective odors of every egg salad and tomato sandwich that the librarian has eaten over the years. Plus, Scotch tape.
Possible perfume name: Rain from a Forgotten Cloud

The Computer Lab
Smells like: New plastic with a medicinal aftertaste.
Cause of the odor: The constantly running machines coupled with the fact that someone spilled an energy drink on one of the computers in the back row.
Possible perfume name: Winternet

The Auditorium
Smells like: Prison, but slightly sweeter.
Cause of the odor: Old, dilapidated stage curtains and cheaply made podiums, mixed with a state-of-the-art lighting system and thousands of itchy, fabric-covered seat cushions that have absorbed part of each student who has sat on them.
Possible perfume name: Boredom

The History Room
Smells like: Old VHS tapes and metal TV carts.
Cause of the odor: Old VHS tapes and metal TV carts.
Possible perfume name: Lazy Teacher

The English Room
Smells like: Spiced pumpkin, canvas, and lavender.
Cause of the odor: Your teacher's scented candle, canvas book bag, and hand lotion.
Possible perfume name: Glimmer of Sophistication

Cafeteria
Smells like: Corn-flavored water.
Cause of the odor: Government subsidized food and delicious snacks.
Possible perfume name: Peasant's Feast

The Foreign Language Room
Smells like: Bread and magazines.
Cause of the odor: Aroma from last year's bake-off, mixed with the smell from the disorderly stack of old magazines kept in the back of the room.
Possible perfume name: Verb Tense

Your Locker
Smells like: A robot's foot after a long day of work.
Cause of the odor: Metal mixed with a wide variety of mysterious fluids.
Possible perfume name: Rust Bunny

We nailed, it right? Admit it: the rooms in your school smell exactly like this.

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