High School Schedules: Tearing Friendships Apart or Bringing New People Together?

As we settle back in to the routine of school life, our minds wrap themselves comfortably around our daily schedules. But as a 9th grader, I can still remember the panic of finding out that none of my close friends share any classes with me. Has this schedule formally ended all of my friendships, or is this a chance for me to meet new people? What does this hectic timetable feel like to new students?

In comparison to middle school, where we travelled around with the same class of (approximately) 16 people to almost all of our classes, high school schedules are much more scattered. As friends pursue their different interests, their schedules diverge further and further away from each other. A slight difference in personal preference might have seemed insignificant in middle school, but led to completely different schedules in high school. All of a sudden, the people you used to hang out with for 8 hours a day might be reduced to the people you see a few times a week when you don’t have meetings or practices at lunch, and maybe occasionally in the hallways, nothing more than a quick wave or smile. Of course, all of these may seem like petty problems compared to the struggle of being a new student. A new school, a new system, new people… all of this added on to the challenge of finding friends in a constantly changing environment.

Grace K. is new to AISG, and she is a freshman. At her old school, students went to lessons in class A, B or C, just like how it is organized in middle school here at AISG. Since she is new to Guangzhou as well as AISG, her transition was a little chaotic, but she doesn’t put blame on the high school schedules. “I don’t think this affects people making friends because I think making friends has nothing to do with what type of class you have.” Instead, Grace thinks that forming friendships comes naturally when personalities match. About the high school system, she also says: “It’s a better opportunity for kids because they get to interact with people they don’t usually interact with, and so they can get used to it and have the opportunity in the future.”

This is Selina Y.’s second year at AISG. When she arrived, she was new to the system as well as the school. At her old school, the difference between middle and high school was not marked as clearly, and students still attended classes with a similar group of people. “[The transition] was really hard…because there was no one that you could really relate to or have beside you all the time that you would form a really close bond with. However, it did allow me to get to know everybody in the grade…so I managed to learn the names really fast.” For Selina, moving into IB felt like a much more drastic change than the transition into the high school schedule system, because “[new students] were going to have to figure everything out anyways.” For IB students, classes are even more centered around personal interests: “Your either see a person all the time, because you have so many courses with them, or you don’t see the person at all. And I have so [many] friends that I don’t have a single class [with].” Selina thought it was more annoying having to change schedules between every year. “It does give you a chance to get to know more people and it helps bring the entire grade together.”

Junior Sohum T. has been at AISG for his whole life. For him, high school schedules were an improvement from middle school. High school is an environment where some people might be made uncomfortable by the lack of social stability, but Sohum says that “in time, you get to adjust to that.” For him, high school was a better place to concentrate on studying. Also, Sohum thinks that the social systems of high school are actually more secure than middle school because”[high school] is where most people come in for their schooling experience.” In middle school, people are always coming and going.

Mr. Tragert, Assistant Principal of both middle and high school, agrees that the change can be tough. However, referring to the way moving to middle school also brings changes such as needing to move between classes and teachers, he gives a justification of this system. “There is a natural progression from elementary to middle school and to high school…high school is the next step in the natural progression.” According to Mr. Tragert, high school is also a time where the school wants students to narrow down their interests and find their personalized “pathway to graduation,” a process which may sacrifice old bonds. “We think, developmentally, the high schoolers are ready for that…though it does make forming friendships a little harder.”

From my own experience, I admit that it took me a much longer period of time to learn the names of everyone in the grade in my first year, while I have a pretty good understanding of all the new students this year because I see them in my different classes. However, I am grateful to have arrived in middle school instead of high school. I don’t think it would’ve been fun for my phone to handle having one group chat for every single class, so I’m glad to do this in my second year here instead of my first.

Generally, the students I interviewed didn’t seem very discouraged by the scattered classes. In a way, writing this article has given me a new perspective on this issue. As someone who prefers a handful of very close relationships over a huge range of casual friendships, I still think that high school is a strenuous struggle for strong bonds. But maybe high school is giving us the environment to test out our social abilities before we embark on the journey that is “real life.”