In this post I will introduce my high school in Canada and tell what I do in a basic day at school.
My high school here in Canada is Cardinal Carter. We have to wear a uniform with any black shoes. It's basically grey pants, a white collard shirt and a green sweater. The mascot is a leprechaun because the founder of the school was Irish. So the colors of the school are obviously green and yellow. The mascot is what represent each school. They have a costume of their mascot and a student wear it to sport events to support the school. In the corridors of the building there are display cases where they put the trophies of the competitions. They play hockey, soccer and basketball for example.
The schedule is everyday the same: four classes from 8.20 am to 2.20 pm with a 40 min break in the middle of the day for lunch. The school years are divided in two semesters. The students choose almost all their courses. They have four courses for the first semester and they choose four different ones for the second semester. I have History, Photography, Anthropology/Psychology/Sociology and English.
A day in my Canadian high school starts by taking the bus to go to school. It is a yellow bus, like in the movies! Then when we arrived, people can put their books or coats in their lockers. They are all along the corridors and have a number lock, also like in the movies! In the morning you can hear the national anthem and the annoucments of the day like the sport events or informations about clubs. At 8.20 I go to class for the two first periods of the day. Then, I go to the third period. In the middle of the class we go to lunch and then we come back, finish the course and go to the last period. We have lunch in the cafeteria. Most of the people bring their own lunch, like me. But you can also buy food like fries, cookies and even poutine! I highly recommend the cookies, they are really good! At the end of the day we take the same bus and come back home. I'm very lucky because it stops just in front of Sara's house.
Teachers are really kind here and we don't even have so much homework. But they don't have a lot of vacations like in France. Maybe it's because they have short days...
This week (from the 26th to the 30th) was the Truth and Reconciliation Week. It ends with both National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange shirt Day on the 30th. National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is to honour all the children who never returned residential schools and all the survivors. Residential schools were schools conducted by the Catholic Church where indigenous children were forced to go to be changed into "normal" children. They were taken away from their families and abused. It started in 1880 and ended very late: the last school closed in 1996. Orange Shirt Day is a commemorative day which promotes the "Every child matters" message for all the children who suffered of residential schools. Everyone is encouraged to wear orange in Canada during this day. In my school a lot of people wore orange shirts and sweaters, even teachers. We also started to watch a movie about the story of two survivors of residential schools in History class.
I feel like here in Canada the schools are very involved about the history of their country and set up events often.
Léa Baudart