High School Life in Denmark vs. The US
In Denmark, the school system is very different from the US.
The first thing I would like to talk about is morning routines in both countries. In the US, most students in my school, including me, wake up at around 5:30am. Personally, I have around 45 minutes to eat, get ready, and be on the school bus by 6:15 to arrive at around 7:20 to start classes right away.
In Denmark, I can wake up at 6:30, bike to the train station, take a short train ride to Tølløse and a few minute walk to my school to arrive at 7:50. Here, I can get a whole hour more of sleep, and on Wednesdays, we start an hour even later!
We start classes at around 8:15 in Denmark, so I get about 25 minutes to chat with my friends and get ready for the day to start. It seems much more relaxed, and is way easier to work through than the American morning!
Once I finally get to school in the US, I have 4 sections of 90-minute classes and a lunch which is around 25 minutes and is a part of your third-period class. We also get 5 minutes "passing time" to walk to your next class. This is because, in the US, you go to a different classroom for each subject.
This differs from the Danish school day because, in Denmark, you have the same classmates and classroom for every subject (with the exception of maybe a sciences class where you need a lab or a sports class where you need a gym). We have 3 breaks during the day, the first one at around 9:00 is something called "morgensang" where everyone comes together in the morning to sing. The second is a 20-minute break at around 9:55 where we can have a snack, watch youtube on the TV, and chat with our friends. The third one is a lunch break that is 40 minutes long and it starts at around 11:45. We eat in our classroom and chat together. We also can go buy candy at a little store a few minutes away! (I have discovered many yummy Danish chocolates thanks to my friends taking me there!)
In the US we all eat in a cafeteria, but because the school is so big we have 4 different waves of lunches so everyone can get a chance to eat. This means that the school population is split into 4 sections and one section is sent to have a chance to eat at a time. We also are not allowed to leave the school during lunch. American schools have much higher security than Danish schools... for example, you can walk right into a school in Denmark. In the US, if you are not a student, you must go through the school office to sign in, sometimes show your ID, get a nametag, and the office will call the teacher at your destination to let them know you are coming. Any guest speakers for classes or any other person coming to the school must go through this. There are also security guards on campus to make sure nothing goes wrong.
During classes, Danish school is also different than American school! In Danish school, we use our own laptops. We bring our computers to school every day and do a majority of our work on them. Not that we don't use computers in the US, just not the extent as the Danish students do. In the US a lot of our work is by pencil and paper. We get a lot of worksheets and packets. Though some American teachers are more "tech-savvy" than others and assign work through classroom programs such as "Google Classroom". In my Danish school, we use a program called Viggo to list homework, schedules, and school announcements. The main difference is that every single classes homework is listed on Viggo in the Danish school, and in the US, it varies from class to class.
The last major difference I have noticed would be the amount of social time students get in both countries. In the US, many students are loaded with homework, sports, or club activities. This makes it somewhat more difficult to get together with friends. The fact that there isn't much public transportation adds on to the difficulty. (For some places in the US, this is not true, but in my case living in Connecticut it is). In the US if I ever wanted to hang out with a friend, I would have to have a day where I wasn't riding horses, wasn't expected to be at any event, and didn't have any homework, and a day that my mom was willing to drive me to their house. My friend would also have to be completely free. This made getting together with others a weekend occasion...
In Denmark, I can easily bike to a friend or take a train somewhere with them. We also get far less homework than in American school. I find myself having much more free time here in Denmark than I ever had in the US. This is nice because I can get more sleep, and spend more time making friendships!
From reading this over, it seems that American schools have a lot to learn from Denmark! Going through both experiences really has opened my mind and allowed me to learn about the values of different countries.
The first thing I would like to talk about is morning routines in both countries. In the US, most students in my school, including me, wake up at around 5:30am. Personally, I have around 45 minutes to eat, get ready, and be on the school bus by 6:15 to arrive at around 7:20 to start classes right away.
In Denmark, I can wake up at 6:30, bike to the train station, take a short train ride to Tølløse and a few minute walk to my school to arrive at 7:50. Here, I can get a whole hour more of sleep, and on Wednesdays, we start an hour even later!
We start classes at around 8:15 in Denmark, so I get about 25 minutes to chat with my friends and get ready for the day to start. It seems much more relaxed, and is way easier to work through than the American morning!
Once I finally get to school in the US, I have 4 sections of 90-minute classes and a lunch which is around 25 minutes and is a part of your third-period class. We also get 5 minutes "passing time" to walk to your next class. This is because, in the US, you go to a different classroom for each subject.
This differs from the Danish school day because, in Denmark, you have the same classmates and classroom for every subject (with the exception of maybe a sciences class where you need a lab or a sports class where you need a gym). We have 3 breaks during the day, the first one at around 9:00 is something called "morgensang" where everyone comes together in the morning to sing. The second is a 20-minute break at around 9:55 where we can have a snack, watch youtube on the TV, and chat with our friends. The third one is a lunch break that is 40 minutes long and it starts at around 11:45. We eat in our classroom and chat together. We also can go buy candy at a little store a few minutes away! (I have discovered many yummy Danish chocolates thanks to my friends taking me there!)
In the US we all eat in a cafeteria, but because the school is so big we have 4 different waves of lunches so everyone can get a chance to eat. This means that the school population is split into 4 sections and one section is sent to have a chance to eat at a time. We also are not allowed to leave the school during lunch. American schools have much higher security than Danish schools... for example, you can walk right into a school in Denmark. In the US, if you are not a student, you must go through the school office to sign in, sometimes show your ID, get a nametag, and the office will call the teacher at your destination to let them know you are coming. Any guest speakers for classes or any other person coming to the school must go through this. There are also security guards on campus to make sure nothing goes wrong.
During classes, Danish school is also different than American school! In Danish school, we use our own laptops. We bring our computers to school every day and do a majority of our work on them. Not that we don't use computers in the US, just not the extent as the Danish students do. In the US a lot of our work is by pencil and paper. We get a lot of worksheets and packets. Though some American teachers are more "tech-savvy" than others and assign work through classroom programs such as "Google Classroom". In my Danish school, we use a program called Viggo to list homework, schedules, and school announcements. The main difference is that every single classes homework is listed on Viggo in the Danish school, and in the US, it varies from class to class.
The last major difference I have noticed would be the amount of social time students get in both countries. In the US, many students are loaded with homework, sports, or club activities. This makes it somewhat more difficult to get together with friends. The fact that there isn't much public transportation adds on to the difficulty. (For some places in the US, this is not true, but in my case living in Connecticut it is). In the US if I ever wanted to hang out with a friend, I would have to have a day where I wasn't riding horses, wasn't expected to be at any event, and didn't have any homework, and a day that my mom was willing to drive me to their house. My friend would also have to be completely free. This made getting together with others a weekend occasion...
In Denmark, I can easily bike to a friend or take a train somewhere with them. We also get far less homework than in American school. I find myself having much more free time here in Denmark than I ever had in the US. This is nice because I can get more sleep, and spend more time making friendships!
From reading this over, it seems that American schools have a lot to learn from Denmark! Going through both experiences really has opened my mind and allowed me to learn about the values of different countries.
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