Did you go to public or private high school? And, did you enjoy high school?
I went to a public high school. There were about 2,000 kids in the school, and about 500 in my graduating class. I wasn't super-popular, but I wasn't unpopular, either. Generally, I enjoyed my high school years and have a few really great memories, but I can't say that I miss those days.
How about you?
I went to an elite PUBLIC school. I had to personally fight the regional superintendent's office to be able to be go as my house was not "zoned for it." Even a fighter back then! (I lived in a beach community and my school was zoned for a "stoner school"). I liked it. My friends knew how to have a good time but they were also smart. My best friend was the Valedictorian, he went to Brown and is still working on a cure for AIDS. I had great teachers. My classmates were brilliant brainiacs, future olympians and a future NY Yankee. At the time, being around them made me feel just above average, but I see now that some of their smarts rubbed off. I had the most amazing literature professor (who was okay with someone being a mediocre speller yet still a decent writer). I also had a killer calculus teacher. My teachers were pumped up on sunshine, surf AND coffee. They gave their all. We were able to go out to lunch, off campus. I would drive my convertible VW bug to a local hospital and have lunch with cardiac patients. (I volunteered at the hospital after school and had a special badge). Yes, I liked it a lot. When you fight for something, you usually value it more.
ReplyDeletePublic high school, also in a graduating class of 500. The school had an excellent honors and AP system, and served me very well.
ReplyDeletePublic.
ReplyDeleteYes, I enjoyed HS.
Private, Catholic. Just under 200 graduates. I loved high school but was very happy when it was time for college (and Lauren at Magnify the Lord helped me move my stuff in to my dorm room, when she was about to be a HS senior!).
ReplyDeleteI went to Public. It was a huge school. My graduating class was 800. We even had to be on double sessions. It was crazy!
ReplyDeleteI loved my Freshman year. Sophmore year was a completely different story. I hated it! Junior and Senior year were alright. I had fun but went through a lot in those 4 years. I definitely wouldn't go back.
Public, graduating class of about 60. I liked it alright, but hated the work. I played four or five sports and hated that work too (clearly there is a trend here). Pretty active social life filled with not so admirable past times. Looking back now I know how terrible it was morally, though, and therefore would be scared to death to send my kids to public school based on my experience.
ReplyDeletePrivate, Catholic, all-girl. I loved every minute! There were about 100 girls in my class. Of course there were little groups of friends, but without the distraction of boys, everyone got along. I'm still friends with most of the girls I hung out with. Theology class was less than stellar (doctrine), but the nuns focused a lot on service to the poor so I knew the beatitudes very well. :) I have a cousin who goes there now and not much has changed.
ReplyDeleteI went to 3 different high schools. Started out at a local public school where I knew no one, after 9 years in Catholic school. Hated every minute. Then in the middle of my sophomore year my dad got transferred to CA and I went to an all girls Catholic school for a year. He got transferred back to Indiana in the middle of my junior year and I was able to go to a different public school where I already had friends. Its a huge school.. 800 in my graduating class, very good academically. That was my favorite of the three.
ReplyDeleteWent to a Catholic elementary and HS (we're fully funded up here!). I loved it so much that I teach for the same school board I attended. :)
ReplyDeleteI went to public school for my freshman year, was a cheerleader and loved it. Transferred to a private Catholic school and hated it. (The kids had too much money and not enough supervision.) then scored super high on the SAT and went to college at 15 for my junior year. It was okay. I was just happy to be done with high school.
ReplyDelete2 years of high school. Eh. It was alright. :)
Well my hometown had 4000 people in it when I was growing up, so there was only one high school, which was public. I had 85 kids in my graduating class (and then I moved to college where there were 70 girls on my floor alone).
ReplyDeleteHigh school was okay. I didn't love it. I wouldn't go back. College was awesome though.
I was homeschooled for my fresheman year and went to public school on base.
ReplyDeleteEhh is all I have to say. It did nothing to form me spiritually. I partaked in all of the extra curricular activities one shouldn't. ;) hahahahaha
I did not enjoy all of my highschool years.
Huge public high school with a graduating class of 850, I loved every minute of it! I was also kind of in the middle of the popularity ladder, and I had my niches within the school fabric. I played varsity volleyball, played the cello in the orchestra, and I was very involved with Student Venture (part of Campus Crusade for Christ.) It was a fantastic evangelization opportunity to show my evangelical friends a glimpse of the beauty of the Catholic Church. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't miss high schoo, but I have many many wonderful memories.
Catholic- (Same HS as Lisa @ Cheerfully Chaotic!)
ReplyDeleteGraduating class 225.
Loved it- but don't want to go back!
I went to catholic h.s. I had a good experience my first and second years, but then got very involved with the retreat group that I met my hubby through (and several other friends I'm still close to). The retreat group pulled me away from being too involved socially in my h.s., which was probably not a bad thing. So I just kind of attended my last two years but LOVED my friends in retreat group.
ReplyDeleteReunion coming up, Leila?
ReplyDeleteI live deep in the heart of central Kentucky, where I grew up myself, and my children will all go to the same public high school I went to. It's the only high school in the entire county.....so I guess it doesn't matter what we think about it. :-)
I did enjoy it, though. My oldest is now attending that same school (he's a senior) and he really enjoys it, too. We're grateful that it's a good school. Since it's the only one in the county, it would be quite an ordeal if it weren't.
I need to catch up on the atheist convo still. :) But I started in a special charter school for those gifted in Math and Science with about 500 students. I got a good lesson in politics and cheating (not me) and disorganization that I switched to the public high school with prob... 1800 students. I was miserable socially and not academically stimulated there. I graduated a year early just to get out. Then went to a state university and loved, loved, loved it.
ReplyDeletesorry... *then* I switched. Really can't type anymore.
ReplyDeleteI was homeschooled up until highschool, and went to highschool a year early (got a little lonely at home after my brother went to HS!!!) and really enjoyed my first year there. As time passed it became less enjoyable though! I ended up varsity cheerleading captain, student council president, yadda yadda yadda...but I also ended up miserable. It was really stressful for the most part (NOT the classes - I always say "my brain took a nap" through highschool - being homeschooled set me ahead quite a bit I'd say - yeah homeschooling!!!)...Stress came from people who spread really terrible rumors about me every year after the first...and also from girls suing the school because they didn't make the cheer squad (and of course they just let all those girls on the squad and left the trouble to the 16 year old cheer captain)...isn't that RIDICULOUS?....I am lucky because my brother was just a grade ahead at the same school so he "protected me" from the guys there for the most part! :)
ReplyDeleteI have to say I DID love going to homecomings/proms...I love to get dressed up and I love to dance ;)
Last thing I'll say is that I did just fine socially and no one knew (without asking "where'd you go to jr high?) that I had been homeschooled. Also...My brother did really well both athletically and academically and was definitely one of the "popular kids"...So never let anyone tell you that homeschooled kids don't have social skills ;)
Can you tell I'm pro-homeschooling? ;) haha
I am glad I went to highschool outside the home, but I think it would have been best to do like some kids here are doing now - going to a few classes at school, and doing a few at home...
I am SO glad my mom didn't have me in the HS sex ed classes!!!...not only for more obvious reasons, but also because I was able to take home ec class instead ;)
Forgot to mention it was a big school - about 2300 students I believe - and very mixed racially. There had been race riots at the school when the older of my two brothers went there. :( We had fights in the halls when I went, but nothing as serious as what happened before that and what has happened since.
ReplyDeletePublic, as you already know :)
ReplyDeleteI graduated 1st of a class of 50, most of whom I had begun Kindergarten with (it was a K-12 school district)!
I did enjoy HS, because the small size allowed me to get involved in everything I wanted - musical theatre, drama, chorus, band, jazz band, basketball, literary magazine, as well as taking several AP classes (though because it was so small, many were not available, like AP music).
I was also a partier in the later HS years, so that translated into "popularity" in our small town. While I definately have some amazing memories, and did have a blast at my 10 Yr reunion reminiscing about it all, those days are far behind me and I certainly don't still live as if I'm in HS (which unfortunately I cannot say for some of my HS friends). And if I chose, college was 10xs better than HS.
Public school for me too. There were 67 in my graduating class. I liked high school for the social aspect, but not so much for the learning. Although I was in honors classes...go figure?!?!
ReplyDeleteI hated my senior year. I was SOO READY to get out of high school. I co-oped so I could leave school early for work. Oh, and up until my senior year when I disappeard for work, I was popular. My friends were partiers, and I was ready to grow up and get out.
Catholic K-12. I graduated first in my giant class of 39 people! I was a cheerleader because I wasn't good enough to play any sports and everyone did SOMETHING at my school. I was also involved in theater and was actually pretty good, although I can't sing so couldn't be a part of the musicals (which got all the attention).
ReplyDeleteOverall, I hated high school. I was in a constant battle between who I was and who I wanted to be. I made awful decisions every single day and then frequented confession pretty regularly. I had a steady boyfriend in the WRONG crowd but was very close to a lot of the religous kids. I was a walking contradiction and it weighed heavily on me.
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ReplyDeleteI went to public school. I liked it just fine. I wasn't challenged much, academically. My biggest realization was that everything I did was relatively "good" compared to my peers. I wonder if I had gone to a Catholic high school if my peer group would have set a higher bar? I am thinking even if there were kids in Catholic high school, as I am sure there are, that are a neg influence, then I would not have gravitated toward them. Anyway, in adult life I found better influences and regretted my choices that I thought were not so bad at the time. You reminded me I need to do a post about educating Charlie. My husband and I have discuessed the options at length and it would be interesting to hear others' thoughts on this topic.
ReplyDeleteGrad class was around 350 so pretty avg from what I am reading.
ReplyDeleteI was homeschooled. And I graduated at the top of my class. ;)
ReplyDeleteComplete ditto to you - public school, maybe 1500 students and 350 in my graduating class. Definitely not popular. I wouldn't go back, but I have a few good memories.
ReplyDeleteCatholic school K-12 for me. very small, one of about 48 I think?
ReplyDeleteI was homeschooled and loved it!
ReplyDeletePublic School. At the time, I guess I liked it ... but I'll never send my children to public school bc of how it robbed me of my innocence. I learned way too early what most adults shouldn't even know about! Ugh. There were a LOT of troubled people at that school, but also some good kids, too. All in all, I think God spared me from worse things happening, but if I could do it over again, i wish my parents had protected me more.
ReplyDeleteAfter 9 years of Catholic school in the Bronx..HS in the suburbs was a shock to my system. I made friends easily, so I fit in with lots of groups. "Girls just wanna have fun" best describes those years, and boy did I! Never flunked, never had to go to summer school. Once I left HS, I never looked back...those who were important I kept, the others were footprints in my life.
ReplyDeletecrookedhalocatholicblog.blogspot.com
Wow... I'm a little late to the party here!
ReplyDeleteI went to Catholic grade school and public junior high and high school. There wasn't any Catholic jr./sr. high schools where we lived. My grade school was awesome... and I'm still friends with a large majority of the class. We had a total of maybe 20 of us that were together through the sixth grade... then I moved away. :(
High school... I liked it for the most part. I graduated with about 120ish others. I had a lot of fun... hung out with a good crowd, got good grades, was student body president, newspaper editor, on the nerdy academic, speech/debate teams and had all the leads in the school plays. I guess I liked being in charge way back then! Hahahaha!!! Same thing in college... just different activities! :)
LOL Jenny don't you still like being in charge? I'll ask Doug ;)
ReplyDeleteHi Leila
ReplyDeleteI am not an Atheist but my older brother is and he once explained his beliefs to me, so I think I may be able to answer.
1)As you may or may not know, the universe is currently expanding. It is a commonly-accepted theory of many scientists. Part of that theory is that not only is it expanding, that it will one day reach its limit and snap back to zero. Then, when it reaches zero, two particles will touch (Big Bang) and it will begin to expand again. One branch of this theory is that this is not the first time the Big Bang has happened. So, that's where all that "stuff" came from (I am tight on time, if you are still confused I can explain in more detail later.)
2) Not all Atheists believe that. Please pardon my tactlessness here but you seem to do a lot of generalizing?
And I know it is completely unrelated, but I would like to ask you to keep in your prayers the victims (and families of the victims, who are still so affected today,) of Jack the Ripper, who struck for the first time 122 years ago today.
Hi Sophie! I am going to post this on the "atheist" thread if you don't mind, and answer it there. I think you put it on this post by mistake.
ReplyDelete