School Climate/Culture

The school culture in my elementary school was primarily Caucasian students. There were a few other races in the school, but not many.  The overall atmosphere of the school was a friendly and helpful school. The teachers were always there for you when you needed more help outside of class. The principal at the school designed a program called “4>2.” The motto was: it is better to do something for someone than to someone. I think that this also had an impact for how we treated others. There were different incentives if you were caught doing something good for someone, such as raffle cards or special days. The teachers seemed to hold good communication between each other so if there was troubles going on between students, the teachers were aware about the issue. I thought that our guidance counselor also held an important role for keeping a good school climate. There was always, and still is, a word of the month that has to deal with treating people nicely, such as respect. Not all students followed the rules, but the rules were always enforced. Overall, I felt that the school promoted very well on how to treat others and work well with others.

            The culture of my middle school became more mixed due to other elementary schools joining together in the middle schools. The climate was more independent than elementary school, but there was still guidance. I felt that during this time more cliques started to form amongst the students. Middle school is when we all try to find what we want to be like, so there seemed to be differences in people constantly.

            High school had many different cultures due to many different middle schools public and private joining together for one of the two high schools. The atmosphere of high school seemed to be much more relaxed and independent than any of the other years. By this time, there seemed to be defined groups of friends. Teachers helped prepare us for the college setting, and gave us more independence. Counselors were also there to help us prepare for the college life.  I think high school was all about preparing us for the life that we would bring after graduation.

            Overall, in my school life, each stage brought more culture awareness by bringing more cultures in the school. The climate also went from dependent to be more independent. Each stage of school, prepared us for the next stage gradually each year. I remember hearing in fifth grade, “We are getting you ready for middle school.” In eighth grade it was being prepared for high school and high school was to prepare for college, military, or other options students took.