By Shiraz Rimer, Year 9
Old friends, anxious peers and familiar faces – that’s what I remember from the first day of High School. Having been at Ecolint all my life, I thought I knew the LGB campus well. Little did I know, I had much to discover.
After earning the reputation of “worst grade ever” in less than a month, I think it’s safe to say that the 2015/16’s ninth grade did not have a smooth transition. Here are the Tales of Yours Truly: a freshly persecuted Ninth Grader.
Big Fish > Little Fish
In eighth grade, you walk around the Middle School as if you own it. You basically expect the fifth graders to kiss your feet or to bow when you pass. After that huge ego boost, many ninth graders have a tough time adjusting. Let’s just say, they don’t have to wait very long for reality to hit them. Being crushed by a stressed pre-IB 13th grader, being shoved by an impatient 12th grader, being elbowed by a snotty 11th grader or simply being bumped by a hormonal 10th grader is just part of the game. You either embrace your inferiority or you reject the hierarchy, but just so that you know, learning humility is far better than having bruised shoulders for a year.
Understanding the Rules
The expectations and different style of discipline of the High School take a while to get adjusted to. In HS, the teachers take punctuality much more seriously. For example, if you wish to see wild ninth graders, simply walk through the English hallway in the Grand Bâtiment at 8:16 on a Monday. There you will catch sight of hordes of somnolent students waiting in front of classrooms, begging for forgiveness. Another of the many flaws us ninth graders have is our insolence. We still haven’t wrapped our heads around the fact that teachers are here to enlighten us, not silence us. But after many lengthy assemblies and hours of detention, we finally learn our lesson.
I believe the reason why the disciplinary adjustment from MS to HS is so difficult is because Middle School is much more about using rules as a pedagogical tool rather than teaching the students to understand the rules. Middle School threatens and rewards, basically training students with Pavlovian conditioning. However, High School expects students to understand the rules through guilt trips and detention. Easy, yet essential!
Freedom
Oh the freedom! At first you may feel a bit lost and scared. No more homeroom teacher, no escorting from class to class, no more choir, no more Derinda! Nevertheless, you get used to it and realise that going back to the old system would not be feasible. However, some days, as you walk across the campus praying to get to history on time, you wish you could go back to the good old days where history and english were held in the same class.
BYOL
Bring Your Own Laptop. This is one of the joys of being a reformed high-tech ninth grader. Having toned shoulders due to carrying a 3kg laptop, a maths textbook and a french binder is just one of the many benefits us lucky ninth graders have! To be frank, I understand the real advantages of having a personal laptop ready to use whenever needed. However, some of the teachers (as a matter of a fact, most teachers) don’t seem to understand. That’s why many ninth graders (myself included) are not thrilled to have this electronic tool under our responsibility everyday. It seems like we are just the guinea pigs that LGB can brag about.
The transition from year eight to year nine is tough, the teachers stop being as confidence building as in Middle School and start to expect more from you. That’s why it’s a bit of a shock to be back at the bottom of the ladder and to be looked down upon by your elders. However, the journey through High School is an exciting one and I look forward to climb all the rungs of the ladder. See you at the top!
