A Day in the Life of a Public School Kid

Sparkler synchrogirl117 does a great job of using a few specific examples from her daily grind to vividly illustrate the public school lifestyle. Great work, synchrogirl! —SparkNotes editors

As I looked through recent SparkLife comments, I was surprised at how many of my fellow Sparklers were either home schooled or live in a country other than the good old US of A. AlygirlRockz16 has asked what high school is like, and guess what? I am a completely average American teenager (...as far as you know) who attends a completely average (I think) American high school, and I am here to tell you all about my fascinating school day:

6:30 a.m. After sleeping through my alarm for 45 minutes, I wake up when my sister finally wonders why I'm not up, and knocks on my door. I notice the time and have a minor heart attack, fall out of bed, and throw on some clothes, then run downstairs and grab a granola bar.

6:40 a.m. My bus comes. I miss it. My dad lectures me on being on time as he drives me to school. Oh well. At least I don't have to build a fire or something to keep warm on the unheated bus.

6:45 a.m. Thanks to the bus incident, I arrive at school way too early. The only people here are teachers and a freshman sleeping on his backpack in the senior lobby. I wake him up before the seniors come. The last time they caught a freshman in the senior lobby, it was NOT pretty. After rescuing the kid from certain death, I aimlessly wander the halls, desperately searching for my evil minions, aka my friends.

7:10 a.m. I finally find said minions, and we wander aimlessly (yes, again, my life contains quite a lot of aimless wandering), ranting about our charming teachers, whom you will meet shortly.

Homeroom: We say the Pledge of Allegiance and listen to announcements over a loudspeaker. Sometimes there are video announcements, and students usually do them, which makes them entertaining.

After announcements, my classmates and I carefully choose two people to go on a scouting mission to room 134, the algebra room. The homework last night was a doozy, but as long as someone goes into our teacher's room with puppy dog eyes and asks for help, she won't make us turn it in. After they leave, we have an in-depth debate about just how good the Harry Potter movies really are.

1st period: Honors Algebra II I am pretty sure my school is violating the Geneva Conventions by allowing this class to take place first thing in the morning. Luckily, Mrs. Baker doesn't collect the HW because of our carefully-planned mission, but it is still awful. No wonder it's my worst class—I can barely keep my eyes open. The only entertainment is the completely high kid in the back of the class, who keeps interrupting Mrs. Baker to ask if he can draw a dinosaur on the whiteboard.

2nd period: Dance Yes, I am taking a dance class, and it's the worst mistake of my life. Ever heard of tininkling? I sincerely hope not. We've also done tap, and we had to wear smelly used tap shoes. Everyone wiped out at least once on the slippery floor, and we got yelled at for scuffing the floor. Seriously, people? How can we NOT scuff the floor in freakin' TAP SHOES?

3rd period: Honors English I have mixed feelings about my English teacher. On one hand, she won't answer your questions, just tells you, "Maybe you should ask someone who listened," when she actually never told us the answer in the first place. Plus, the tests are hard. I mean, who do these teachers think they are, making us learn stuff?

On the other hand, she has a cute accent, is usually all motherly, and is the type of teacher who tells weird stories and thinks she's making connections with the book. Also, did you know that in The Turn of the Screw, the time of day that the governess sees the ghosts is meant to reflect her attitude toward the situation and the duality of the possible reactions? Yeah, I doubt Henry James did, either. Let's just say my teacher's a little eccentric.

4th period: Honors Chemistry Oh, chemistry. Home of uncomfortable stools and fumes that give you headaches. We do one of two things in this class—

• Option A: Take notes. This is very confusing and boring, but we have entertainment to keep us sane—we just stare out the window and watch the funny old guy across the street try to start his lawnmower. Or we poke our fingers through holes in our tables (made for cords and stuff) pretend they are worms. It's even more fun when you draw faces on your fingers!

• Option B: Demos/labs. My teacher looks for excuses to do demos, which so far have included blowing up sodium, shooting us with Nerf guns, and other fun, partially-science-related stuff. Some labs involve multi-colored flames or teddy grahams. Yay for science!

Lunch, finally! Lunch is great if you know the secrets to success. I do, so I guess I can tell you. You're welcome.

-- Don't buy hot lunch from the line unless it's chicken nuggets or mozzarella cheese sticks.

-- Do buy blueberry bagels, fruit snacks, and those cookies, which really qualify as warm, gooey, delicious cookie mush.

-- If you don't get there 7.2 seconds after the bell, don't get in the lunch line until it's cleared out. Estimated wait time = 21 minutes.

-- If you see a bunch of people gathering around a certain spot, follow them. There's probably a fight going on, which you want to see so the resulting rumors don't drive you crazy. It's always either a fight, or someone brought pizza and is selling it for five bucks a slice. Yum.

5th period: Latin III This is an interesting class. My teacher is so easy to get off topic, and we usually spend the entire period talking or playing Latin games. For example, once we played musical chairs, and two big old football players started wrestling over a desk (it wasn't even the last desk, but they thought it was...) and broke the desk top in half. Then, in another round, the guy who won the desk-wrestling match was going for the last desk, and, being a genius, I ducked under his arm and sprinted for it. I made it, and he just stared at me for a minute like he was trying to decide if he should kill me. It was scary.

6th period: AP US History This class is hard, but my teacher is one of the few truly good teachers I've had. He can really tie everything together and make you understand it. Most of the class is lectures, but we have a "What Does the Room Smell Like Today" poll every day (options: sweaty teens, Cinnamon, frustration, burned hair, knowledge, dead fish, brownies, or old textbooks) and we are currently composing a musical entitled APUSH: the Coolest Losers You'll Ever Know.

7th period: Study Hall Another interesting class. It involves a lot of texting, eating, dancing, sleeping, yelling, and bursting into song, and not a lot of studying, working, or quiet. The "Destination" column on the sign out sheet includes the answers "McDonalds," "restroom," "truth," "locker," "Starbucks," "janitors closet," and "fun."

Recap: Public High School is about 32 percent boredom, 18 percent stress, 10 percent improvising, 27 percent confusion, 13 percent random awesomeness, and a whole lot of waiting for the bell to ring.

Sound about right?

Related Post: What High School's REALLY Like: Chris Share Six and a Half Memories

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