Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Fast-paced, fun-filled and lots of French
Franklin County teen excited but exhausted after day at Patrick Henry High School.
CODY SIGMON
Franklin County High School Patrick Henry High School students gather at the front of the building before the start of classes.
Cody Sigmon | Franklin County High School
Patrick Henry High School students gather at the front of the building before the start of classes.
Edge-ucation
Patrick Henry High School
- Enrollment: 1,908 students
- Mascot: Patriots
Related
Previous stories in this series
(Editor's Note: This is the fourth story in a series from Edge staffers who have swapped schools for a day to see what life is like in a different setting. In this entry, Cody Sigmon, a Franklin County High School student, visits Patrick Henry High School and shares his thoughts about the experience.)
The comfort of familiarity is something we can all relate to. Where I am from, students have been attending the same school with one another since the sixth grade. Students come from the far reaches of Franklin County to attend our one high school.
When I was given the task of living the life of a Patrick Henry High School student for a day, a mass of preconceived notions swirled through my head.
I expected chaos, overwhelming bustle and a very different student makeup than what I'm accustomed to. After all, I am quite sure that the student body at Patrick Henry is not as gung-ho about our Future Farmers of America's annual "Drive Your Tractor to School Day" as the folks back in Franklin County. This was going to be a change, indeed.
Huge halls a surprise
When I left from my school host and fellow Edger Amy Friedman's house, there was one crucial difference: the drive lasted about 5 minutes. In Franklin County, my drive is 20 minutes.
As we entered the school, it was clear that many students assorted themselves according to their respective cliques.
Strangely enough, there was plenty of space for this division to occur; the hallways were about three times wider than the ones I'm used to. The vast, open ceilings amplified the din of the morning's gossip.
All of a sudden, the kids began to move. I turned to Amy. "Was there a bell?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, I didn't hear it."
Their signal to change classes was a lot friendlier than the harsh beep I am used to. Its gentle encouragement sent us to first period: theater. After that, it seemed to be a wild goose chase as we tried to navigate our way to a computer lab so Amy could take a test.
Finally, Amy finished, and we started typing messages back and forth to pass the time. To our dismay, there was not a game to be found on the computers. Later, the 12:17 p.m. bell rang, and it was time for lunch.
Bonjour!
The 30-minute lag between when I normally have lunch and Patrick Henry's lunchtime was being painfully underscored by my rumbling stomach. The lunches were surprisingly similar to what I find at my school.
I was the hot topic by lunchtime. Amy was bombarded with inquiries regarding the new redhead sitting with her. The grapevine was impressively fast.
Then, it was time for a combination history and English class. It began with a viewing of "The Great Gatsby" and ended with a fulfilling and interesting lecture on the Harlem Renaissance and Langston Hughes.
We moved on to the final class, which was French. As a past Spanish and Latin scholar, I was certainly out of my element. Suddenly, I was immersed in a quite unfamiliar language.
Fortunately, Amy served as a translator. By the end of the class, I was feebly placing direct object pronouns in a language I couldn't speak. Voila! I was a French scholar, yet.
My time at Patrick Henry was fun, but, by the end of the day, the overall hustle of the school had me exhausted.
The classes that I found myself in were quite different from what I have back home, but the general niches (the class clown, the gossiping girls, etc.) seemed to all be filled. Besides the different atmosphere, I found that our high schools were not so different, after all.
