Homework 1.6 First Draft of an Essay
by Iuliia (Julia) Khutsishvili
There were a series of important and huge events in my life,the ones you can actually call life changing. One of them was moving abroad with my family in the middle of my school years. We moved to the US when I was in the middle of my sixth grade. First destination was St.Louis, State MO. I finished my 6th grade there. Loved the middle school, looked just like I imagined and saw in every American school movie . But we didn’t like the state and lifestyle so ended up that we packed our stuff and moved to Brooklyn, because of everything accept the school was not a right fit for my family.As soon as I saw my middle school in the city,I was honestly terrified and it reminded me of a prison,well let’s be honest those security or whatever they called bars on the windows are actually looking a little depressing . As soon as we entered the building I was a little more shocked by the hallway and classroom looks,but it wasn’t the end of my shock ,than I have been told that I will not go to 7 grade,because of the NYC doe school system.Apparently my age fits the requirements of an eighth grader,can you imagine,I am skipping the whole year of school… But honestly it ended up being not a big deal,and at least my mom was happy about it,because she counted up that I will graduate senior year at the same time as my friends and classmates from my home country will graduate in the 11th grade. And yeah,here I am already mentioning a huge difference between the school systems. In the United States there is a division of classes,where kids have to go to pre-k,then kindergarten,elementary,middle and after all the high school,well back in my country all different. Same school until you graduate,and instead of twelve years of education there are eleven. Yeah of course the classes and teachers are changing but the building stays the same,the floors a little higher are for middle-high school classes and the first and second floors are dedicated to elementary kids .Also right here, I can mention another difference between the school systems that was odd for me . In high school in the US everybody has their own schedule which is preferred and chosen by students,well accept the mandatory ones. Rather than back in my home country, there is another system. You don’t really get to choose the classes and you have an assigned “class” , which means that in all subjects you will have the same classmates around you and all types of classes like science,math,literature,art etc are mandatory and you have to take all of them.
For the first year, I felt really uncomfortable with the school system here and also I have struggled with my English.I started learning it when I was a kid but mostly it was British English grammar and writing , not that much of speaking. So yes,I can say it was tough for me at first,I felt really insecure about my English skills and couldn’t really understand how everything works. But my teachers were really kind, supportive and understanding, they would take their time to explain everything to me and would expand assignment deadlines personally for me,which I felt really thankful for and still do. But there is again a cultural difference,in all post soviet union countries all teachers are really strict, and that’s not some type of stereotype, it is actually true based on my and my friends personal experiences . No one is going to stick around after work time with you to explain stuff,especially for free. Same with expanding deadlines , if you missed it then that is absolutely your problem,even if you were sick you had to do all the stuff and then bring it to school when you will be back. Don’t get me wrong,not like the teachers are really bad , you can actually make friendly relationships with them that will last and help you for a long time and what about the strictness,it doesn’t seem that bad when you are really used to it,that’s how the school system there worked for years. The overall system is much harder and stricter ,one of the examples could be math learning material. When I moved to the US, in the 11th grade I was taught math problems that we solved back when I was in the beginning of sixth grade back home,which is a huge perk,that I was kind of ahead of everyone else in the class.
I can’t really tell which school system I like better,I feel like there is room for both,for different teaching styles and cultures. Even though I have struggled,and felt like really giving up a few times,nowadays I feel really thankful that my school journey went like that. I have a huge bag of life experience behind me,because I got to see and be in three different schools with different teaching methods and languages , which gave me a bunch of different knowledge.
Word Count : 867
