Vibrantly lit football bleachers, tall and high, glow compared to the dark night sky. The beaming lights reflect the rows of faces painted in green and white, and the loudspeaker echoes in the background of the laughter-filled air. These stands are built on tradition, community and memories — a place where generations come to meet and reminisce on their youth. But it is not only about football — it represents a whole school culture, one that is very different from around the world.
While differing from other schools around the globe, American high schools are also quite dissimilar from each other, contrary to common belief. Adam Tobin, Stanford screenwriting senior lecturer, is aware of this misunderstanding.
“There’s a sense that Americans just think high school is the same everywhere,” Tobin said.
But despite this common belief, the American school system is very distinguished from other countries around the world.
One of the standout features of the American system is the ability to choose. Unlike many high schools outside the U.S., where the curriculum is often set in stone, American schools offer freedom. For many high schoolers, similar to senior Roni Horovitz, the option to pick whatever classes one wants to take is one of the aspects of American education that many high school students are extremely grateful for.
“I really like how there are so many options for classes, and you can design your own schedule for the most part,” Horovitz said. “There are tons of options for different electives to take, and all of the teachers are there to support and help you. It shows that they actually want to be there to teach.”
Sophomore Zhendi Cao moved to Palo Alto from New York only this year, after moving from China a year ago. Through all these changes, Cao has noticed many differences among all the schools.
“We can choose whatever course we want,” Cao said. “We can pick easy courses or skip the courses we don’t like.”
Schools across continents are not so different. Junior Emma Lodes, who moved to Paly this year from Austria, likes the flexibility in picking classes, compared to European schools. This freedom may seem expected in all schools, but it does not occur in other countries.
“In Austria, you can’t really choose your subjects,” Lodes said. “I prefer the American system because it’s nicer to choose the subjects you are interested in.”
Senior Angelica Gera moved to the U.S. from Germany two years ago. She enjoys the variety in pastimes and extracurriculars.
“Here, you have many more resources and different activities,” Gera said. “In Germany, it was just school, just classes.”
This lack of flexibility in extracurricular activities is also found in different parts of the world. Junior Jessie Kwan, who moved from Hong Kong, finds there is a difference in lifestyles for students in Asia.
“I think our culture is also very different in [America compared to] school in Hong Kong,” Kwan said. “All the time [in Hong Kong], your extracurriculars are just going to tutoring, and that’s basically all you’re doing. You’re just studying. But here, there’s a lot of aspects to school life, like spirit week, homecoming, and all that stuff. That’s a really big change from the culture in Hong Kong.”
One of the popular extracurricular activities that several American high school students take part in is sports. The opportunity to exercise and compete is extremely valued, compared to in other countries like France, where Juline Hombourger, a French middle school teacher, instructs. In an interview conducted in French, Hombourger said she is aware of the more extreme attention to sports occurring in the U.S.
“Sports seem to me to be practiced a lot more and considered as an important activity,” Hombourger said. “Sports matches seem, to me, to be followed by all of the high school. There are cheerleaders. The student that is very good at sports is valued.”
Whether these sports are through the school or even outside of it, these opportunities allow students to exercise, build a community and also support their school through showing up and their spirit.
“I like how sports are a big part of student life,” Horovitz said. “Not only do lots of the students participate in sports, [but] lots of students also show up for games, like the football games. There are always lots of students showing up and cheering, and it makes the whole thing really fun. It’s not really about whether we win or lose, it’s more about the experience of going to the game.”
But not every school pulses with the same energy.
“I definitely think the school pride here is way more intense than in Hong Kong,” Kwan said. “A lot of people here, like [during] spirit week, go all out There’s no such thing as spirit week in Hong Kong, and people would just wear uniforms.”
Not only are the pride, the liberty and the options different in American high schools compared to the rest of the world, but the categorization and separation of grades are also dissimilar.
Kwan explained that grade levels that make up high school aren’t the same everywhere.
“High school here is from ninth to 12th grade, and in Hong Kong, it’s from seventh to 12th grade,” Kwan said.
This is also the case in a lot of European countries, where schools can oftentimes be smaller and structured differently than what American students would consider normal.
“Middle school and high school are also combined, so there are more grades in the same building but still less students,” Lodes said. “You normally have the subjects all eight years, so from 5th to 12th grade, but only around two hours per week, except for the main subjects you get them like 4 hours weekly — math, German, English and every other language you take.”
Not only are the distributions of grades different for a lot of European countries, but a lot of them also have different school hours, sometimes consisting of much longer days and longer vacations at times.
The rhythm is different,” Hombourger said. “Our students finish their classes around 5 p.m. or even 6 p.m. We also have a break that is longer for lunch. I also think that we have the advantage of vacations.”
With the numerous differences of American high schools compared to the rest of the world, certain stereotypes are bound to take place. Across the world, students from other countries have their own images of American high schoolers, whether positive or negative.
“American high school is always seen as really easy and a low academic level,” Lodes said. “Many people also think that there is a really high peer pressure, [as well as] less discipline and respect for teachers and any other authority figure. They also criticize the safety and protection from guns and rampages. In general, American high school is seen as pretty superficial and more like a place you have fun with your friends than one [where] you actually learn something.”
These stereotypes are not just random or a coincidence: they are the product of media representation throughout the world. Many films portray the schools in America as filled with drama. Films like Mean Girls and High School Musical often exaggerate the drama, but they still capture a key theme of an important period of growth and self-discovery that many go through in high school.
“[In movies,] high school is portrayed as just this building that holds people who gossip, and the only thing that is important is drama and popularity,” Horovitz said. “I feel like at Paly, education and academics definitely come first. Everyone at this school is very driven and competitive, and people are just trying to focus on passing their own classes and hanging out with their friends.”
Though these stereotypes may not always be true or realistic, movies have a tendency to create extreme portrayals.
“Cinematic stories are often looking for drama, whether extreme situations, whether those are dramatic or comedic,” Tobin said. “It’s particularly hard to draw authentic portraits when audiences might be looking for something that’s gripping.”
Despite American high schools being a prime setting for filmmakers to base their drama-filled media on, there are many key themes that are linked with the American high school which bring a sense of remembrance in a special manner.
“What’s pretty common is a feeling of being an outsider, being ostracized, being not understood, even if you’re among a group of friends,” Tobin said. “I think that feeling is pretty universal and is covered in lots of ways.”
A sense of exclusion is not the only key emotion many high schoolers experience. American art historian and Stanford professor Alexander Nemerov believes that high school can also represent a much bigger picture that resonates very similarly to the everyday world all individuals see.
“Maybe it’s because [films on high school] show a whole social world where you have classes of people and power structures,” Nemerov said.
This experience, all over the world, is shared by almost all individuals and can foster a sense of nostalgia.
“I think high school is a shared experience for most Americans, no matter what age you are,” Tobin said. “You went through high school; it’s a time of turmoil and growth, and that means there’s a lot of good drama there. And I think it can be a microcosm of society in different ways, in terms of class and relationships.”
No matter where in the world, this period of time that everyone goes through is crucial for people’s development and for shaping the individuals they become. Everywhere around the world, high schoolers are shaped differently to take on what the future holds for them.
“High school is such a poignant time,” Nemerov said. “People are trying to find who they are, discover who they are.”
