Personal Experience of Transition to High School (Part 1/5)

My daughter Tanya will move to Grade 9th (the dreaded beginning of High School) next academic year. I have been trying through various sources to get an insight into what it takes to understand the transition to High School but could not get much to chew on. Hence I decided to write my experience in seeing my daughter move from Middle School to High School. I have decided to write five installment of this experience at appropriate intervals based on the actual transition and hope some parents who will have High School going kids in the nest 2 years will find it useful. It might also be useful to just understand the US high school systems for my readers who may be outside of US

The first inkling that my daughter is slowly moving towards High School was when a small note from her school (Middle School called Thomas Russell Middle School) came around 2nd week of December 2008 while she is still in 8th grade. It asks the parent of soon to be High Schooler to participate in an orientation course in Milpitas High School on January 11th 2009. Milpitas is the city in Bay area in California where we live in .

I kept the notice from the school around my laptop for almost 3 weeks lest I forget the orientation date. Tanya never seemed to be excited about this orientation course and in fact seemed a bit amused over my enthusiasm to participate in the orientation. Finally, much to my amusement I was ready well before time and reached the High School auditorium along with my younger daughter, Tanvi. I was definitely quite excited to know what happens in High School. I never changed school from Grade 1 to Grade 10th and hence never got this opportunity when I was moving to High School. May be the lack of such experience while I was moving to High school classes though in the same school kept my excitement level higher when I get a chance to learn first hand here in US.

The programme started sharp at 7:00 PM PST with the Principal introducing himself and a few counselors. He then greeted the parents and started providing some key difference in High school from Middle school. The Principal said that everything in high School was almost 6 times bigger than the Middle school like :

1. area of the school (almost 6 times the size of middle school),
2. no. of teachers (125 in High School as against 25 in Middle School)
3. no. of students (almost 2500 in High School as against 250 in Middle School)
4. no. of classrooms, etc…

The Principal tried to assure the parents that apart from the increased size of the school including no. of teachers, no. of students all other things are quite normal. In fact he said that the discipline is more rigorous in High School than in Middle School. Here is the name by which students are called in their 4 years of High School

1. Freshmen : 9th Grade
2. Sophomore : 10th Grade
3. Junior : 11th Grade
4. Senior : 12th Grade

The Principal also informed that it will need 225 credits plus 20 hours of community service plus clearing the California High School Exit test to graduate out of High School. There are some subjects like English, Maths, Social Studies that are compulsory for everyone to take while there is couple of electives that the students have to chose from a list of electives. Here is the list of electives that are on offer in Milpitas High School

Incidentally for the first time I also came to understand that Advance Placement Course (that some students take to get some college credits) is a private enterprise / business. All along I had a notion that such Advance Placement courses are sponsored by the Government through the High School for students who are meritorious. However, that’s not true. Advance Placement Courses is a private business and it was one of the many lessons of Educational Capitalism that I have come to realize in US.

The orientation course finally ended at 8:00 PM after some routine questions from interested parents and their answers by the faculty. I especially liked the Speech and the Debate teacher who ahs earlier been attorney and judge for 35 years. He really energized the audience with his superb speech as to why students need to select “Speech and Debate course” as one of their electives. I don’t remember his name but I think I was personally impressed by his oratorical skills for me to go back and ask Tanya to think considering taking this particular elective. Being a professional attorney and Judge, to me ,gives this teacher a very unique perspective to students in his class about debates and speeches. I wish Tanya takes this elective as it might help her intangibly in her overall personality development as she grows older.

Finally, I and Tanvi left the auditorium after posing some few question to the Principal about the importance of Advance Placement courses. Looking back I think that particular evening in Milpitas High School Auditorium definitely helped me start thinking about the upcoming transition of Tanya from Middle school to High School.

Stay tuned for the second update in this series of High School Transition Experience….