Alexis Luu/Writer
As eight year olds, we all wished to grow up. We wished to be independent and live out our wildest fantasies, however quickly changing they may be. Six year old me wanted to be a princess, while nine year old me wished to be the president of the United States. Twelve year old me proudly claimed to be a future veterinarian, but sixteen year old me is an aspiring orthodontist. As young elementary schoolers, we have our whole lives ahead of us, but as high schoolers, our lives feel as if they are determined by our every move. The four year gap between elementary and high school is a small one, yet it has a monumental effect on the individual.
Elementary and high school are dependent on each other. In elementary school, we are taught fundamentals. We learn how to add and how to spell. In high school, we build on these basics to perform higher level thinking. We learn calculus and how to write powerful essays. With all of this new knowledge comes a greater level of stress. One of the main differences between elementary and high school is the workload. What used to be a bedtime of eight is now midnight and what used to be little homework is now hours of studying. Both elementary and high school require their students to do homework and projects. However, high school brings Honors and AP classes, as well as the SAT. Balance this with sports and jobs, and you’ve got yourself the perfect recipe for stress. In elementary school, students are given at most a worksheet to do at home. Hell, sometimes they don’t even get homework at all! At my elementary school, students are rewarded with “Homework Passes” for every three homeworks they do. Introduce that concept to any high school teacher, and they will laugh at the absurdity of it. If that wasn’t bad enough, high schoolers feel as if their every grade and test score can either help or hurt them in their academic journey to college. Straight A’s and a perfect 1600 are every high schooler’s wish, and one slip up feels like the end of the world. Although both elementary and high schoolers are both given homework and learn material, the degree of both are extremely different. The heavy workload that high schoolers face is not only their leading cause of stress, but it also starkly contrasts with that of elementary schoolers’.
When I was in middle school, my cousin told me, “The friends you start high school with are not going to be the same friends you leave high school with.” At the time, the idea of even leaving my bestest friends seemed absurd. Now, I completely see where she was coming from. In elementary school, you are around the same 100 kids for five years. You grow up with the same people, and over the course of those five years, you become friends with people who you believe you’ll stay with forever. “Friends forever and ever,” you would say. Seal that with a secret handshake and matching bracelets and your bond feels unbreakable. High school rolls around, and eventually your grade of 100 people turns into a throng of 300 and over time friend groups wane. Most of the time in elementary school, we become friends with our deskmates or from playdates set up by our parents. In high school, we discover our identity and learn who we actually are as an individual. We make our own friends based on people we have an instant connection with. Playdates set up by our parents are replaced with adventures made with people we meet on our own. In both elementary and high school, we make plenty of friends. The difference is that most of the time in high school, the friends you start with aren’t the same ones that you end with. This is because in high school, you are able to discover who they are and their personal interests, as opposed to being set up or befriending the first person you meet.
It’s common knowledge that high school is marked as a time of influence and peer pressure. But what most people don’t realize, however, is that peer pressure also has its roots in elementary school. In elementary school, peer pressure is introduced when kids face conflicts between loyalty to the friend group and fairness to outsiders. In high school, peer pressure is most occuring in terms of drug and alcohol use. High schoolers are notorious for falling victim to alcohol and drug use, especially in social settings. Contrary to popular belief, peer pressure is evident in elementary school as well as high school. However, the way peer pressure is applied differs between the two grade schools.
Elementary and high school are two fundamental milestones in a student’s academic and social career. As different as they may be, they share many commonalities as well. Elementary and high schoolers both get homework, make friendships, and experience peer pressure. The degree of both are extremely different, however. High schoolers undergo more stress due to their heavy workload, and are able to form friendships on their own. In addition, the peer pressure experienced is under different circumstances. Elementary schoolers wish to be in high school, where things are more in their own control. High schoolers wish to be back in elementary school, where life was much simpler. This complex relationship shows that the two grade schools are very different at first glance, but actually share similarities in their cores.
Comments