The Lion Experience

A few weeks ago, a group of journalism staff members participated in a “student exchange” with members of the Lawrence High School journalism team. The goal of this exchange was to foster a greater connection between the two schools and help students in two very different institutions understand the other better. On Monday, November 12, three LHS students visited Seabury, and on Friday, November 16, senior Hilary Griggs and sophomores Catharine Richards and Audrey Nguyen-Hoang visited LHS. Here, these students will share their stories and observations about their experiences visiting such a different school.

Hilary Griggs

The second I walked into Lawrence High School, I began to keep track of the differences between Seabury and the large public high school. Though not completely socially inept, as an academically-focused student I decided to focus my observations on the academic side of LHS.

The most obvious difference between Seabury and LHS is the sheer size of the school; the average grade size at LHS can be calculated by simply adding a zero to the end of a Seabury grade. Despite this, the classes I took were not that much larger from many that I take at Seabury. In the BC Calculus class, there were twenty students, and in the English class Writing for the College Bound, there were only about fifteen. Although there are no classes comparable to my Seabury Latin V class, which features only four students, the LHS class sizes do not feel much bigger than most at Seabury.

Although the class sizes may be similar at the two schools, LHS offers a much more diverse curriculum, with far more class options. There are classes such as Ceramics, Band, FFA and Chinese that Seabury’s limited size simply cannot accommodate. It was interesting to witness the variety in class options, because I know that many Seabury students who end up leaving for public high schools give this as a central reason for their departure. Although Seabury has been adding more science and arts electives in recent years, we are still nowhere close to competing with a school with four separate hours of debate class.

Although there is a long list of similarities and differences I wish I could share, the most important thing that I observed at LHS was the relationship between teachers and their students. Much like my assumption about class sizes, I assumed that the teacher-student relationship at LHS would be much weaker than at Seabury, again because of the large number of students. In fact, I observed the exact same closeness between students and teachers there that I do every day here at Seabury.

In BC Calculus, students joked with their teacher about his collection of ties and planned out a post for his student-run Twitter account. In Writing for the College Bound Student, a group of seniors tried to explain the meaning of the word “thicc” to the middle-aged teacher. In Government, the teacher laughed at a group’s project about a potential Snoop Dogg presidential campaign. In Photography class, I experienced “Funk Fridays,” in which Rick James and Lipps Inc. blasted across the room. Although Seabury may boast about its small student-to-faculty ratio and the relationships this fosters between students and teachers, I did not witness any less of a connection at LHS.

Catharine Richards

First, being toured through Lawrence High School was a little overwhelming. I have become so used to having a small layout that having classrooms on multiple floors was a big change. To me, all the hallways looked the same and I was almost sure I was going to get lost during a passing period. There are top and bottom lockers with locks, but during the busy and crowded passing periods I hardly noticed anyone opening their lockers, and if they did they took out a book at most. I knew as soon as we walked through the doors that I was in for a school day much different than what I am used to.

Of course, there are obvious things that make Lawrence High different from Seabury. The amount of walking we did on just one school day was way more than I was expecting, the class sizes were bigger since LHS has several hundred students and there are only seven class periods lasting 52 minutes in a regular day. But the thing that surprised me the most was the interaction between others I saw throughout the day while I was there.

I expected that at a public high school with hundreds of students that maybe people would not know each other as well or as personally as we do here. I feel that at Seabury you get to know everyone at least by name without trying very hard simply because our population is so small that you see everyone all the time: in classes, at lunch, in advising et cetera. Not only that, but our students go out of their way to talk to peers and younger students, which I think is a very important part of our feeling of community.

But I was pleasantly surprised by what I observed. I saw students greeting each other in hallways, walking with one another and laughing, teachers holding doors open to their classrooms and high fiving passing students or having short conversations with them. I was greeted by every teacher who asked me my name and about myself and how my day was going. Students happily joked with their teacher about how rude the Bennets were in “Pride and Prejudice” or eagerly discussed cover art for the newspaper. I did not really expect this, and I am not sure if it is because I have never attended a public high school and I have been influenced by movie renditions. But seeing those kind of actions make me smile, and it made me realize that friendliness is special and something to appreciate no matter where you are.

Audrey Nguyen-Hoang

I have never been to a public school. Before today, the extent of my knowledge did not surpass information gained from movies and my friends who attend public schools. So I had no idea what to expect when I walked through the front doors of LHS.

Having never heard a school bell before, and the “BEEP” was startling. The sound was always followed by a surge of students into the hallways. In class, students leave without parting words from the teacher as soon as it went off, even if a video was still playing. The reliance on the bell seemed to diminish the number of clocks around the school. That and the fact students could always check their devices since phone usage was more prominent due to lax restrictions. I even saw several students listening to music on their phones while taking quizzes.

Seabury often promotes its tight-knit community, which is true considering I know everyone’s names. On the other hand, LHS students said they enjoy the public school environment because they like seeing new and different people every day. Most of them said they often talked to students outside of their own grade. And while many teachers admitted to only knowing the kids they taught, the teacher-student relationships were pretty close.

However, I could not help but notice unique aspects of Seabury my trip pointed out. First, trust was a distinct factor. This was clear from the surprise LHS students had after they learned of our no-lock lockers and from the bemused laughter I received for suggesting to check the lost and found for lost items. I was told that if something was lost it was probably stolen. Second, I learned it was atypical for students who partook in theatre to be involved with a sport and vice versa, and a large portion of students did not do any extracurriculars inside or outside of school. This differed from most Seabury students, who participate in multiple activities.\Third, while Seabury only uses Schoology, LHS’s system was more confusing. While the main grading system was PowerSchool, there was no defined assignment posting method. Teachers varied: some used Google Classroom, others PowerSchool and others did not post online at all.

While I enjoyed the roomier cafeteria and admired the larger selection of electives, the visit did not make me want to transfer schools. It made me appreciate the effort Seabury puts into developing an atmosphere that promotes trying new things, trust and sense of community. Although it is difficult to learn the culture of another school in one day, this exchange made me understand that each school offers varying experiences and opportunities. So while these differences may be the choice between a public or private education, the similarities we share should encourage you to get to know more of our public school counterparts.