There are very few people who look back on high school with warm feelings. I am proud to be one of those lucky few. My high school experience was filled with friends and supportive teachers. Going to a school with only 200 students really made a difference in both my education and social life. Here are a few traits that make small schools so unique.
1. Forming cliques was a "no-no." Sure, every school has a few, but it is especially hard to have cliques at a small school where everyone knows each other. There were people who had close friends groups but if you talked smack about anyone, chances are they were friends with the person sitting next you. People had their regular groups but there was always room for more.
2. You had strong relationships with teachers. Going to a small school. it is much more likely that you will have teachers for more than one class and for more than one grade level. This gives teachers and students the time to really get to know one another, something that is very unusual at a large, public school. There were some teachers I had for five or six classes and all four years. by the time I graduated, we had inside jokes and fond memories.
3. There were no secrets. If you started dating anyone, you needed to be prepared for everyone to know about it within the week. Teachers were no exception to this as well. There was very few things about your life you could hide because there were only so many people the info could spread to. Rumors spread fast in a school of 1,000. Imagine how fast they spread in a school of 200.
4. Its easy to make a name for yourself. Just like the title suggests, I very quickly became a big fish in a small pond. And I loved it. I was voted onto Student Council in 9th grade and became president in 12th. It was very easy to be a leader and to have a leadership role in the school if you wanted one.
5. The bathrooms were never empty. If you had a small number of students, chances are you had a smaller building. My high school had one set of bathrooms for all the students and it was always filled with people during passing time. It was a blessing to be released early from class because you would be waiting in a very long line if you didn't get there right away.
6. AP classes were basically study groups. Most AP classes at smaller high schools are pretty darn small, especially when you get to the most challenging AP courses. Having only about 10-15 people was awesome because it was pretty much like going to a study group every day. Everyone was comfortable asking questions and helping out one another. It was hard to get lost in a class where all of you fit at one table.
7. Graduation wasn't just graduation. By this, I mean graduation was not just about individual accomplishment. My entire graduating class was less that 100 people and we were friends, so we were cheering on everyone. All of the students who gave speeches had personal and touching things to say about the school. When I sang the school song with another student, everyone knew she was my best friend and that I had rewritten the song earlier that year. We weren't just celebrating completing high school. We were celebrating that we had a chance to graduate from such an exceptional place with people we loved.
Going to a small high school really helped me see what my talents and intelligence were worth. Being surrounded by a small community of caring people gave me the confidence I need to be successful in college and beyond. However, it did make it challenging to make friends after I graduated because after going to my high school, nobody compared to the friends I had there.
