School districts can strongly vary in terms of their standards and styles, and those differences are what I’m going to talk about today. 

Before I begin, here is some background. I am currently a freshman at Dover High School. Prior to moving here, I lived in an area called Whitehall, which is a suburb of Columbus. I went to Whitehall Yearling High School. I’m still in the process of cleaning and setting up the house for actual living. To make it all more convenient, I am currently staying at my uncle’s house. Moving makes it more difficult to do homework since I’m expected to help with unpacking and cleaning. I also have to walk between our new house and my uncle’s.

Now, the key dissimilarities. The lunches were free in Whitehall, but the quality of the food heavily weighed down on the positive perspective I once had. All of the food was frozen into oblivion, so much so that, when cooked, a hamburger had already been turned to the dark side, a.k.a., the “mysterious substance with a leathery texture” side. Also, don’t even get me started on the things they considered to be “snacks.” They served the tiniest Rice Krispie Treats possible. They found the smallest size that was available for retail and cut it in half. Each one had a volume of 1.5 square inches and a weight of 1 gram. Overall, very disappointing, even for being free. 

Second, the curriculums are also slightly different. I’ve been taking Algebra 2 since the beginning of this school year, and I’ve noticed that there are things that I learned at my old school in Algebra 1 that are referred to as new material here, such as point-slope form and scatter plots. The English 9 curriculum in Whitehall contained less material about grammar and more about life lessons and vocabulary, which was quite strange. At the beginning of the year, you receive a Chromebook to take home with you until the summer. You were expected to carry it around the school wherever you went. The students were fully responsible for taking care of it until it required repairs. The marching band there was much smaller as well, including flutes rather than piccolos. 

The high school in Whitehall was also much older. I would guess it was built in 1990. The town had a higher population than Dover, but was smaller; most people didn’t have much of a backyard due to the population density. The quality of the fast food wasn’t very good, either. The service was very lackluster since those who were working there were probably very underpaid. For whatever reason, every time I’ve gotten food in Dover, it’s been very enjoyable, quickly made, and well presented, for what it’s worth. All of this equates to an alternate experience in each area. In case you didn’t already realize, I like it much better here.