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(Editor’s note: This is the second 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, Hope Ammen, a home school student, visits Hidden Valley High School and shares her thoughts about the experience.)

I didn’t take my first steps into a public school classroom until I was 16 years old.

I am the middle child in a family of five children and my mom has home educated each one of us since kindergarten, from my oldest sister who is getting ready to graduate from college to my youngest brother who is in fourth grade. Being home educated around the dining room table was how I grew up, making school more of a lifestyle of learning rather than a uniform schedule.

I had pictures in my head of what public school would look like: crowded hallways scattered with cliques and ringing bells that send kids running to classrooms arranged with plastic desks and blackboards. While some of my preconceived ideas were confirmed, many were thrown askew.

6:45 a.m.

The alarm clock is blaring, half an hour earlier than usual. I was nervous about my experimental day as a junior at Hidden Valley High School, so I thought I should give myself extra time to do my hair.

7:45 a.m.

I’m out the door, making it to school at the same time I would be starting my first subject at home. Maneuvering through a maze of crowded hallways just to make it to my first class was certainly a new concept. Everyone seemed to know I was new. The bright yellow “visitor” sticker on my jeans pocket didn’t help much either.

8:30 a.m.

First period: chemistry. I am taking the same subject at home. The content was familiar enough to where I could fill out the worksheet, but I was presented with a whole new style of learning.

Having a teacher for each subject who told me exactly what I had to memorize for upcoming tests and quizzes was different. At home, most of this would have been done by my own initiative and personal planning.

One teacher asked a question to which a student answered, “Oh, I knew that when we took the test. I didn’t say I knew it now!” This reminded me of another difference between public school and my education at home, where the measure of success is based on my understanding and application, not just memorization and test scores.

9:15 a.m.

Off to another class. Everybody seemed to have a pattern. After first period, you stop by the staircase and talk to so-and-so, and then you say “hey” to so-and-so by the lockers, and on and on it goes.

Everyone was friendly, but also slightly confused by my interruption of the day’s typical layout. I received multiple reactions in each classroom, from “Hi, you must be Hope,” to confused, quick glances followed by whispers that ended in “Wait, are you new?”

Lunch

I am exhausted from walking from class to class and sitting in each room for the allotted time. I walked through the lunch line merely for the experience but found my pre-packed PB&J to look more appetizing.

I had imagined a huge cafeteria with hundreds of students bustling through a line, and lunch ladies with plastic hairnets slopping out rations on unattractive plastic trays. However, the cafeteria was much homier than I expected with students sitting around tables, nibbling on french fries and chicken nuggets and thankful for a break.

Afternoon

The rest of the day was filled with more periods and teachers who made the classes unique, such as the easygoing, joke-cracking history teacher.
By the last class, everyone was getting a little frazzled, digging into their backpacks, looking for a bag of Goldfish to hold them over until the final buzzer.

3:15 p.m.

I left public school feeling like it was a bubble world in which I didn’t belong. Everything seems to be provided: teachers for each subject, laptops, counselors and libraries. The resources and activities are endless, but I wonder: Is this preparation for the real world?

Life after school doesn’t have everything in one place. Life doesn’t give out study sheets, and you have to do more than pass a test. Those in public school may see home schooled students as missing out, but I see it as quite the opposite. My education and experiences are preparing me for the real world, where I have to learn, fight and achieve on my own initiative.

But no matter what education system we choose, education is a lifelong experience that doesn’t end with a diploma.