As we all know high schools have changed from the moment they were open, but what are a few things all high school students could say that would be different now from the past? Do high school students still do the same activities after school? Do they still have the same goal/goals? Was the cafeteria food the same, and did they even like

it? Emili Terry and Mary Beth McGinty are two teachers at Greenwood High School that can tell us what a teenage experience was like as an old high school student. Caroline Johnson and Gavin Pearson are two seniors that can help us understand the true difference between high schools in the past and present by telling you what high school is like. (photo from google)

 Ms. Terry’s after school high school experience was as she stated, “I lettered in four sports in high school so I was either at sports practice or I was at my job.” Her hardest class she took was chemistry. She explained,“ Chemistry was the hardest class for me because my teacher did not explain things very well, she actually didn’t explain anything at all, so we kind of just either taught each other or she let us retake our test so we would retake them over and over and over and over again.” Her main goal/goals in high school was that she has always wanted to be a teacher so at one point her goal was to go back to her high school and be the Spanish teacher there. She also explained that she also just tried to fit in with everybody and get along with everybody which she said is what she unfortunately spent most of her time on. Some of the rules for her catholic all girls high school were explained as first, her least favorite rule but the one that they broke the most often was that their uniform skirt had to be no more than two inches above their knees and the nuns would make them kneel on the floor to see and measure. She also shared a story about this other rule which she said “A couple different times our senior year we had a contest to see who could roll their skirt up and get it the farthest without getting in trouble.” Which she said was a lot of fun. The cafeteria food in her high school was as she explain,the first time ever in her schooling that she had a cafeteria that offered hot food so it was awesome, but it was also in Louisville, and Louisville is famous for this thing called a hot brown “which is like an open-faced turkey sandwich with cheese sauce on top looking back on it now it probably wasn’t great” but it was the first time she ever had hot lunch at school and she thought it was amazing. The clubs that were offered in her high school were acting and other big clubs. She explained that her school was “the premier acting and music school of the catholic high schools in Louisville so there was a lot of opportunities to sing and to act at our school but there were also similar clubs to what we have here like Beta and NHS we did not have FFA” She said that she didn’t think FFA was a thing and she didn’t even know about it till she started teaching. She also explained that they did not have FCCLA. A lot of the bigger clubs that we have here at Greenwood were not offered when she was in high school. Is what she stated. The year Ms.Terry graduated was as she said “1998.”

Next is Johnson. She said some after school activities  she does are FFA which she explained had a lot to do with the mum selling

and all of that. She said she does art club and the musical which she  has a lot of after school practices in the auditorium. She said she also does student council so she has to stay after to decorate and clean up a lot of the time. Her hardest class right now, she explained, is AP Literature which she stated “Just because it’s a lot of work and you have to memorize a lot of different things like formulas for writing.” Her goal/goals for high school she said were she wants to be able to get good grades and be involved so that she can get a full scholarship. Some rules she has to follow in school she said were the dress code. She explained that it isn’t hard for her because she has work before and after school as a preschool bus monitor and they are very strict about short length and all of that. One that she doesn’t like is bathrooms. She thinks “you should just be able to go without a hall pass.”  The cafeteria food she explained was a bit limited because she is a vegetarian. She said that she usually just gets the peanut butter box and eats the cheese cause she doesn’t like peanut butter so she just eats the cheese and the fruit and chips out of it. Some clubs you can join are art, which she stated “I’m in an art club,” Then she listed some more clubs you can join which she is also in such as oar club,  FCA, FFA student council and many more. The year she is graduating high school is “2025”.

Next up is Ms. McGinty  she said some of her hobbies/interests when she was in  high school were a few things such as she has always been a reader and liked to read. Going to the movies, like going to the theater to watch movies was a big one of hers also.  She said that she played soccer and basketball. She said her weekends looked a lot like sports. She stated that she played not only high school soccer but also travel soccer and it was year round basically every weekend she was traveling somewhere to play in tournaments which she said, her team was awesome so they won all the time. Teachers when she was in high school she stated she thought, “Some of them were patient and some of them weren’t.” She said she just thinks, it just really depends on people’s personalities. She then gave some examples such as,“I was stuck in math greatly and most of they were very just rude about it like they felt like I should know it but I didn’t. Except for one of my math teachers and she was pretty cool, she was very understanding and helped a lot.” She also said, “All my English teachers were chill, science teachers well, my AP bio teacher was totally chill cause she retired and that was my senior year, and we could turn in stuff when we were done with it.” She then said “I mean I really think it depends on the people that are doing the teaching and their personalities.” She didn’t remember having any misbehaved students in my classes because she was in advanced AP classes and all of the students wanted to learn. She thought the only problems they ever had were people talking too much and they would just do a seating chart. She thinks their parents held them accountable and they were punished at home for things that they were supposed to be doing correctly so she thinks they didn’t have as much in class issues. The kind of music most students listen to in her high school was, she said, “ Britney Spears,Christina Aguilera, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Nelly, Eminem, you know all good music was when I was in high school.” The year she graduate from high school she said was “2004”

Lastly was Mr.Pearson, his hobbies/interests are weight lifting and lacrosse which he plays for Greenwood. His weekends consist of going to work, sleeping in, and then helping his parents with either their truck or something around their house. His teachers are mostly nice, “they’re all really understanding and treat all of us like adults. We are seniors so I like that instead of being treated like a little kid.” He stated. His teachers handle misbehaving students by as he said,“They listen to them and depending on the teacher, I’ve had teachers just talk to them and see if there’s something happening at home or outside of school that there not really talking about” He went on to say, “So there understanding they don’t just jump to getting interviews with the principles or something.”  The kind of music most students listen to in his high school he stated was,“Zack Brayn, a bunch of country maybe some rap.” The year he is graduating is 2025.

As you can see school has changed from the time our teachers were in school and now. There are still connections about how students still want to fit in but still have a goal to get where they want to go which Ms. Terry and Johnson said was college. You can see how students liked to get involved back then and did clubs and sports though they might not have had as many oppositions they still liked to connect and join in what they liked to do which we all still do too whether it’s art, music, sport, or other activities. Whether you’re a teen from 1996 or a teen now teens are teens, yes school has changed but students are still the same. Schools have changed so much from the building structure to the way students learn but students still want to have fun and join in. No one wants to be left behind no matter how old or young.