From Morristown to Spain, Part 2: Roller coasters and schools

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In part two of her summer vacation series, ‘From Morristown to Spain,’ Morristown High student Nayna Shah compares amusement parks and school life in the U.S. and Spain.

By Nayna Shah

Today Belen took me to an amusement park in Madrid that is part of a chain called Parque de Attractiones.  On the bus ride to the park Belen introduced me to all of her friends, who were actually not much different from my own friends.

The park’s roller coasters were almost the same as ones you might find in Six Flags save for two factors: Size and speed.  After spending a couple days in Spain and observing the roads, the cars, the supermarkets, even the Ketchup bottles and milk cartons, and now, the roller coasters, I can tell it is definitely an American trend to be the biggest and fastest when it comes to many things, including thrills. So while the rides in this amusement park were indeed amusing in their own cute little Spanish ways, they don’t compare to the monstrosities of Six Flags, Hershey Park, or even Disney World.

Some of Belen's friends and I at the amusement park in Madrid.

While waiting in line for different rides though, I was able to talk to each of Belen’s friends and find out more about teenage life in Spain, including the school system.  Students in Spain start school at 3 years old (their preschool is called infantil).

At 6 years old, they start primary school and continue until 12 years old.  I guess the best way to understand that is to imagine Kindergarten, elementary school, and one year of middle school grouped together under the same umbrella of “primary.”

After primary, at age 13, students start ESO (Educacion Secondaria Obligatoria) and after completing four years, enter bachiller at age 17.

So again, to compare this to US schools: ESO is the equivalent of 7th and 8th grade and the first two years of high school, and bachiller is like the last two years of high school.  So in the same way that it is exciting to be an upperclassman in high school, it is exciting for Spanish students to enter their bachiller years.

Because I will begin the glorious college application process as soon as I return home, I couldn’t help but ask if the process in Spain was anything like the process in America.  I did my best to explain in Spanish the various parts including essays, transcripts, resumes, standardized tests, interviews, and recommendation letters, that make up our college application process and waited to see if anything I said was familiar to them.  It wasn’t.

This was a breath of fresh air, because in many of my classes at school we constantly hear about how the rest of the world is superior to the U.S. in education and how our workload is “nothing” compared to what students in other countries handle.

Now, however, I can successfully refute at least a portion of that claim, because Spain’s college application process is “nothing” compared to ours.

In Spain, all grades are given on a scale of 1-10, with one as a failing grade and 10 as perfect.  After the second year of bachiller (or the senior year of high school) students in Spain take an exam called Selectividad which is on a scale of 1-14.

Universities in Spain solely evaluate applicants based on their grades in school and their score on the exam.  Some private universities require an interview or an occasional essay, but the majority of the time, admission to college in Spain is based on grades and scores.

Some of Belen’s friends liked the U.S. application process after I had described it to them, because it allowed for other avenues to evaluate students, which I agree with, even if sometimes it feels like I am marketing myself as a product to a customer.

I think the biggest difference in the two processes stems from the difference in high schools between Spain and America.  Belen’s school, and many other schools in Spain, do not have all the school clubs and activities that American high schools have.

Students in Spain are not encouraged to participate in volunteer work or out-of-school activities like region orchestra or Girl Scouts. In addition, most schools don’t have school sport teams; students play their sports at sports clubs in the evenings or on weekends.  So even if students in Spain were required to create a resume of high school activities and accomplishments as American students are for their college applications, there wouldn’t be much they could actually include.

Completely baffled, I proceeded to ask what these kids fill their time with, because it is obviously not filled with the typical “high school student” activities we are all familiar with.  The answers were simple:  During the school year, homework, during the summer, parties.

I was instantly jealous because Belen and her friends seemed to have such stress-free lives!  For students entering the equivalent to their junior year of high school, their biggest stresses were who was going to host the next party and what food to bring.

When I asked which universities they wished to attend or if they had any thoughts about careers, most of them replied that they don’t think about that until their final year of bachiller.

In that moment, I decided that to get the full cultural experience (which is what I was there to do in the first place), I should truly live like the Spaniards. I didn’t once think about college or applications that day, but instead, just enjoyed the amusement park like a care-free Spanish student on summer vacation.

‘FROM MORRISTOWN TO SPAIN,’ THE SERIES:

Summer vacation: From Morristown to Spain, Part 1

From Morristown to Spain, Part 2: Roller coasters and schools

From Morristown to Spain, Part 3: Tasty tortillas, towering viaducts

From Morristown to Spain, Part 4: Kilometer 0 and the Madrid sun

From Morristown to Spain, Part 5: Goya and real churros

From Morristown to Spain, Part 6: Hamming it up in Salamanca

From Morristown to Spain, Part 7: Holy Toledo, it’s El Greco!

From Morristown to Spain, Part 8: Adiós, mis amigos

NAYNA SHAH’S ENTIRE SERIES

 

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