When I Was Your Age...

Today I went to a private high school in L.A. and took orders for graduation caps and gowns. First, Cali schools have many things that are very different from anything I grew up knowing about school. I'm going to mention a few differences in a moment, but I must begin by noting that while we were there, some lunch carts rolled by our table on the way to being set up for lunch time. The carts were selling SUSHI. That's right. At this high school you can pick the soggy french fries, the mystery meat chicken strips, or SUSHI. School is definitely a little different out here.....

When I Was A Your Age....

1. All the schools I went to were made up of one big building with classrooms in different hallways within the building. Out here all the schools have outdoor campuses and are made up of lots of little buildings where the classrooms face outside and you walk outside to get from one class to another.
1. This completely changes my dislike of all Disney movies that take place in a high school because they are now realistic to me. I always thought sets of kids hanging outside in between classes was so unrealistic; my school was nothing like that....I just never knew how the Cali's did it.
1. I totally saw a kid playing his guitar on a bench in between classes at one of the high schools. This further confirms my notion that the Disney movies actually had it right.
2. BRUNCH - how did the Texas school system miss out on this?!? Every school out here has a break halfway through the morning for the kids to eat a snack. HELLO! How come I had to starve every day as I waited for my 12:30 lunch to come around after eating breakfast SIX HOURS earlier. This brunch idea is ingenious!!!
3. Did I mention the sushi?
4. Multicultural - I love the fact that there are so many races living in L.A. The high schools are so diverse! It is beautiful, and completely foreign to what I grew up knowing.

While I really like some of the aspects of school out here in L.A., I'm pretty sure we don't really want to raise children out here, so I guess they will miss out on all these cool things. That is, unless other schools start to pick up these things as well! But I'm not that far out of high school myself and I already feel like saying, "When I was a kid, things were different." I can only imagine what it will be like when our own (future) children are in school...