My Anything-But-Average High School Experience

We don't hear too many stories like chasingsquirrels' on SparkLife, but when we do, we're always inspired! —Sparkitors

I recently read the post 6 Reasons Why My High School is the Most Ridiculous School on Earth, and I was struck by the fact that my high school isn't exactly normal, either. We've have our fair share of struggles, but I think the challenges have made us stronger and closer than ever. Here's a look at my anything-but-average high school:

About 12 different languages are spoken in our halls; our school is amazingly diverse. We have a Latino Club, a Polynesian Club, a BSU, a Chinese Club, and too many more to count, and each hosts all-school events like dances and cooking demonstrations. As a big public school, we have students from so many different backgrounds, and it makes for a vibrant, rich culture! But there's a downside to all the diversity: there's a lot of  tension between certain ethnic groups at my school, most notably between the recent immigrants and those who felt more entitled to greater resources because they'd been living in the area longer.

Our school has also suffered drastic budget cuts; we had no librarian and no library access for a few years because we couldn't afford to pay for one. Most of the janitorial staff was laid off, and sometimes our school can't afford to pay for basic supplies. But as a result, our student body became amazingly thrifty and resourceful: now, we print things sparingly, conserve paper towels in the bathrooms, rotate sweeping duty in Chemistry class, and put together fundraisers. By my senior year, there wasn't a store in town that hadn't donated an auction item, a school supply, a sponsorship, or a scholarship.

Another obstacle that my school has faced is the sharp divide between the academically-motivated and non-academically motivated students. There were difficult issues about the division of resources; should more teachers and money go toward teaching new students English, or toward teaching the academic kids AP Chemistry? How much time ought to be spent on college prep, and how much on just getting most of the kids to graduate? Eventually, we struck a balance: AP-oriented kids ended up taking on a lot of English-language tutoring, allowing the school to spend the money they would have used to hire tutors on a college counselor/AP Chem teacher. This helped ease the divide and allowed everyone to learn things about their fellow students that they never would have otherwise. Our whole school came together, and the community feeling was really spectacular.

Another great thing about my high school? Our theater program! We put on three productions every year (I think they're near-professional quality), and we always had a really good student turn-out each show. Because so many students are involved in theater, there's always singing and dancing in the halls, which means that my high school experience was literally a musical. But even though the theater program brought us a lot of joy, it also introduced a controversy: when we performed RENT around the time that California passed Prop 8 (which banned gay marriage), it sparked a lot of debate about the portrayal of gay people in the show, AIDS, religion, and conservatism. All the divisiveness and the emotionally charged arguments really threatened our unity as a school—but, thank goodness, we managed to pull through. We were considered one of the closest senior classes in the history of our school. We overcame so much to graduate, and though we've gone our separate ways, we won't ever forget our bond, or the time we spent together.

Wow! Did anyone else have a similar high school experience?

Related post: 6 Reasons Why My High School Is The Most Ridiculous High School On Earth