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Written by Jesyka Bramstedt
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Friday, 16 February 2007
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Have you ever wished that you went to a small school instead of West, the largest high school in Iowa? During the month of November, two students swapped schools for a week. Sophomore Jesyka Bramstedt went to North Iowa High in Buffalo Center Iowa, and junior Erin Asmus went to West. Here are some of their observations from the journals they kept during the week.
Jesyka's Journal  | | | SMALL - About 200 students attend North Iowa High School in Buffalo Center, Iowa. |
Day 1 (Nov. 6)
My first impression of North Iowa High was, "Where are all of the kids?" It’s so small here. I think that there are only around 200 students total in the whole school. Everyone knows everyone and they all knew that I was new. They went out of their way to find out who I was. The classes here are a lot smaller than the ones at West. My biggest class only had about 20 kids in it. The teachers all seem very kind and they like spending time getting to know you better. They are all on a first name basis with all of the students and their families.
At lunch all of the kids eat together. There are only two lunches and they consist of one main dish and a salad bar. They were the kind of meals that I had in elementary school and junior high. If you didn’t like what’s served, then you didn’t eat.
Day 2 (Nov. 7)
Erin is a junior and she takes some of the same classes that are available at West, and a lot of the classes that I’ve taken. She’s in Trig, English, American Studies, Spanish III, gym and chorus.
During trig, the teacher let the students have a break from class. I expected the students to just sit and talk to each other for a little bit, but instead they all left the classroom and went downstairs. We all sat down on the floor in front of a huge window and just talked. The teacher never even followed us to make sure that we didn’t do anything that we weren’t supposed to be doing. We have security guards that stand in the hallway and question you. It feels like there’s always someone watching you at West, and I don’t feel that way here. The teachers have so much trust in the students. The students don’t even have locks on their lockers.
Day 3 (Nov. 8)
I played the violin in their band today. I have never felt so out of place in my whole life! Everyone was amazed at just the sound and look of the violin. They said that they just don’t have any violinists anywhere near them. They thought that it was neat that the violin doesn’t have any frets.
One major difference that I have noticed is religion. Teachers and students talk openly about the Bible and Bible stories. There was an assembly today where students listened to two youth pastors tell about the reasons God should be accepted into your life. We could never host an assembly like that, that was mandatory for students to go to.
Day 4 (Nov. 9)
Today there was another rehearsal for the play"Hard Luck." I am on the make-up crew. I met a kid named Nolan. He reminded me of someone that I know here from West. He just ran right up to me and gave me a big hug! I wasn’t expecting it at all.
One of the other things that I have noticed here is that they don’t really have many clubs like we do at West. They have the drama club, and sports, so that’s what everyone’s involved in.
Erin said that the nearest large mall is almost an hour away! I could probably walk to our mall from the school. She said that sometimes they go to the movies or hang out at the mall, but that’s only for very special occasions. My younger cousins Holden and Garrett get really excited every time they get to go to Walmart. I guess its just something that I don’t think about. We take advantage of a lot of the things that we have here.
Day 5 (Nov. 10)
Today we had a snow day about six inches fell. It wasn’t like the snow days at West. We didn’t need to have a foot of snow for the school to consider canceling. One of the main reasons they have snow days so often here is because majority of the students live in the country. They have a longer way to drive than most of the kids at West do. I have to drive a long way because I live out in Blue Grass, but that’s the average distance that everyone has to drive to get to school here. Erin said they have snow days a lot.
I don’t think I could go to a small school like this. It was definitely a good experience, but I couldn’t go everyday with everyone knowing who I was and where I’m from. The students here even know your parent’s names and who your brothers and sisters are.Erin's Journal  | | Photo by Tyler Lesthaeghe | | HUGE - West High School is the largest school in Iowa with about 2,100 students. |
Day 1 (Nov. 15)
My first day of high school at West. Holy Cow! There are so many kids here! The little things are the ones that surprised me the most, like the fact that I had to lock up my saxophone after band, and all the lockers had locks on them. The students don’t even say their pin numbers out loud at lunch like we do! I knew the school would be huge, but not this kind of security. There were people just sitting in the halls to make sure the kids were good. Wow, I’m definitely not in Buffalo Center any more…
Day 2 (Nov. 16)
We went to Break Dancing Club tonight to see what it was all about. Can you believe it? This school has a break dancing club! It was so cool. The guys just danced in the hallway after school. They have a lot of clubs that we don’t have. Something like thirty of them, and lots have crazy acronyms like SADD and SOUP and stuff like that. I wish I could be in some of them. We just have the generics.
Day 3 (Nov. 17)
Lunch was amazing! It was a huge cafeteria with close to 1,500 kids…and they have four lunches! Holy hugeness! And, as if all those people in one place wasn’t crazy enough, there had to have been 30 foods to pick from! Chinese, Mexican, Italian, burgers, fried chicken - you name it, they probably have it. Sure beats our one choice a day.
Day 4 (Nov. 18)
I went to observe orchestra today. I kind of wish our school had an orchestra. It’s really sad that most of the kids in our band hadn’t seen a violin before. They had to ask Jesyka if hers was real! They played some really cool music. I liked just to listen. They’re getting ready for a huge concert of the Messiah. It sounded difficult but really good!
Day 5 (Nov. 21)
My favorite part of this week was definitely the people watching. There are so many different people here; it’s great to see something new. Back home, I know every kid in my high school. Today [Wednesday] I’m still seeing kids that I’ve never seen before! There are so many different races and clothing styles and such… it’s so much fun just to look around.
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