Weekend shopping in Paris and snowboarding in the Alps; Springfield is not that interesting by comparison.
Making the move from Benin, which is a small country in West Africa, sophomore Miriam Mohamed is readjusting to life in America.
“I was different [in Benin]. I went to an international school so I met a lot of people from around the world,” said Mohamed.
While Mohamed was in Africa, she was on an altered school system where she took advanced classes as a freshman, rather than later in her high school career. She is already taking classes, like physics, which most WS students take as juniors or seniors.
“I was on the British schooling system which was different. Over there you do all the science classes at once and freshman you pick two [science classes],” said Mohamed, “ At the end of sophomore year you take a big exam from Cambridge University that determines whether or not you go to a good university.”
The test is more similar to the ACT rather than the SAT; testing on all subjects taught in schools, including technology classes. In addition to this fate-deciding test, students in Benin and students at WS have a lot in common. In Benin, they take the same classes as WS students, just in a different order.
“My French, Geometry, English and my sciences, [biology and chemistry], transferred,” said Mohamed.
The type of classes she’s taking isn’t the only big difference between school here and school there. The huge gap in culture can be seen in what children wear to school, as well as schooling practices.
“We wore uniforms to school but homework and detentions were not as strict,” said Mohamed. “If you got a detention, it was a joke.”
The school policies on behavior weren’t the only loose guidelines that Mohamed lived under. Her day to day schooling was worlds apart from what is experienced by students here. The style of teaching and the expectations were different than that of a freshman in FCPS.
“The class [lengths] were shorter, only 45 minutes to an hour with no time in between classes. But after the first two periods we had a break then after the next two we had lunch,” said Mohamed, “it was really nice to have that time.”
Moving from rural Africa to suburban Springfield is a huge change for any person, and Mohamed has some mixed feelings about moving back to this area.
“I miss my friends [from Africa] the most, but I also miss how the schools had an easy flow, and the weather,” said Mohamed.