Highschool Life

The High School Life

High school should be the time of your life. You should take the classes that you want and spend as much time with your friends. However, there are some high schools that don't provide as many opportunities as other schools contain. Some do not have the kind of money to even take care of the students and some don't even have enough books to educate them. I have had the privilege to learn in an environment that contains enough books and supplies for all of the students attending the schools. There were many classes that were open to me and one specific one that touched me the most was Spanish.

Spanish is a language that is used widely over the world. It is United States second language and is spoken fluently by 400 million people over the world. It is the language that my uncle speaks fluently and my choice of language to graduate from high school. In high school you are required to take two years of a foreign language to graduate; this is because we are told that it helps build our communication and writing skills. Learning a new language helps you form new words and try to put them in a way that makes sense, which was always my strongest part on paper; however, if you asked me to speak aloud, that is when I would make a fool of myself. My Spanish teacher for three years was my inspiration. She taught me so many qualities of the language and of life that she seemed more a friend rather than a teacher. Even though, I was not the best in the class, she understood where I was coming from. She told me one day that "it takes about 100 times of saying a word, that it actually gets embedded into your head." Pronunciation was not my strongest subject in Spanish and Sra. Wark knew that as well. Sra. Wark gave the class songs and did activities to help us use the language as much as we could. She made fun and interacting game that would improve our writing skills as well. In my circumstances, I learn better when the lesson is taught with a game or a song. It helps me verbally and helps my memorization skills. By having a teacher telling you that she did not learn the language and did not become well at it until college helps others realize that we are not the only ones struggling with the language.

I speak of this language as if I love it however this is not all true. I love having this skill of knowing a different language now that I am not taking the class. However, everyday that I have the class, I would dread going to it. By the time I was in AP Spanish, Sra. Wark was not my teacher anymore. She only taught up to 3rd year which means I would be taught by a new teacher, one that didn't know me at all. That is when I lost interest in Spanish, making me quit Spanish in high school. I didn't want to quit but if I was not learning the language from that teacher there was no point in staying with her. I will continue to speak Spanish as much as I can and I want to continue through my life which is my plan.

Jonathon Kozol is a non-fiction writer as well as an activist for public education. He wrote an article called "Still Separate, Still Unequal" about poverty schools compared to wealthy schools. This article also included a story about a student teacher wanted to bring in a pumpkin for her students because it was around Halloween. The only way that the teacher would be able to bring in something