My name is Max Blessing, I’m one of the four exchange students at WHHS. I am from Switzerland, to be more precise. My family lives next to Zürich, the biggest city in Switzerland. The education system in Switzerland is regulated by the canton (state), so I will talk about the school system of the canton of Zürich.

When you watch a Hollywood movie with a high school, you always see an American high school. I realized that in my first days at WHHS everything is similar to how Hollywood describes it: the lockers, the tables that are connected to the chairs and the way school works.

In general, there are many things that are different between WHHS and the school at home. I will try to compare how I see the two schools and cultures.

Five-minute breaks and a half-hour lunch. That was the first thing I realized very quickly. It was, and still is, a challenge to manage these breaks. I used to save some questions for the teacher until the end of the lesson and ask them then—no problem if the breaks are 10 to 20 minutes long, but here, I have to manage it in another way. Lunch here is really short too, just 30 minutes compared to between 1 hour and 15 minutes and 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Every student who thinks that WHHS does not have a big diversity of classes should come to Switzerland.

Our schools have the “Eat it or die!” principle, meaning you get a standard schedule that everybody gets in your “class.” A “class” is a group of students that you attend the whole school day with for several years. If you don’t like this schedule—bad luck! If you want to do something in the afternoon and it’s not the free afternoon you get once a week–bad luck!

The mandatory school day ends in general at 3:55 p.m. Because nearly everyone uses either public transport or bicycles, some kids arrive really late at home. I personally really enjoy that in the U.S. I have the freedom to decide when I want to schedule classes, but I know that non-exchange students have more restrictions.

Another big difference is that when a teacher is sick at WHHS, a substitute will be in class to look after the students. In my school in Switzerland, if a teacher is sick the students can just leave school. Students in general have more freedom to go home or leave school. Going to one of the stores next to the school during lunch is completely normal. If classes are canceled or if you don’t want to go home, you can go to the library, work on your homework in the hallways or just chill. I like the freedom I have in Switzerland because I can use the time how it is best for me and can plan the day more independently.

Of course, there are a lot more differences, but the article is already long enough. I don’t want to judge one school system because I have realized that there are so many advantages and disadvantages in each system. In some cases, there is just a completely different context. It is great that we have the opportunity to experience these differences. I hope I could give you some interesting insight.