From Private to Public in his Senior Year


Alex M. is laid back, friendly, maybe a bit messy, he admits to drinking and partying. He is not at all like the preppy, rich. He doesn’t seem like the type of kid who would attend a private boarding school, but that’s what he has done for most of his life… until now.


At 17, Alex has attended a prep school since the ninth grade. It is a full fledged boarding school. The students learn, study, sleep, and play there. Unlike the stereotypical east-coast, super expensive prep school we see on TV, his Prep school,located in Wisconsin, is accessible to those not in the high class of the US. Alex is evasive when asked why he had to transfer. Others have asked him but they have gotten many different answers. Sleeping with the principle’s daughter, punching the principle, having a disagreement with the principle; they all seem to have to do with the principle or dean of the school. The most believable reason I have heard is that he was asked to leave by the dean. What this means and why it happened no one seems to know and Alex doesn’t seem to share this information any time soon.


Whatever the reason, this year is different, though; Alex has moved to a public High School in Wisconsin.


Alex says there are good and bad things about public schools. He’s not sure how he feels about the change yet. On one hand he likes it and enjoys the freedom to choose your class schedule but he misses his friends and the food, which was much better at his former school.


“Your schedule was picked out for you the first two years almost completely,” he says, there were lots of mandatory classes and fewer options.


“I like the rock climbing,” he says about a gym class he is taking.


Many may find moving to a brand new school during there senior year hard, especially going from a prep school where there were fewer kids in the entire school than in his current senior class.


“It was awkward… and it still is.”



Alex is making the best of it, though. He has joined the Rube Goldberg club and he is participating in the math meet. According to Alex, the prep school was designed to get you ready for college; It was much harder and less relaxed. You had to check out and in every time you left the school and there was a strict curfew. He looks around the senior study hall and says nothing like this could be found at at prep school. Your free time was used to study, not socialize.


“I had a 2.3 at the last school and I was trying. Now I don’t even do my homework and I have a 3.0.”


The WIAA won’t let Alex compete in any school athletics. Instead h is limited to extracurricular and intramural competitions. Because he switched schools in the middle of a school year, the WIAA rules state that he can’t compete in Cross Country events, his favorite sport. Even though he was supposed to go to state, he isn’t mad about it. He is halving fun at now and making new friend while keeping up his grade so he can attend college next year.


So, when graduation comes around, expect to see him wearing the scarlet red of his new school with a diploma in his hand.