By Leon Olszewski

Although Europe’s and America’s cultures are very similar, the schools are one of the things that are very different. Already in my first week at Plymouth High School, I have noticed several aspects which are different from my Austrian School. 

Sophomore Jon Sommers has been working on the laptop which he received from PHS since 7th grade . The internet has tons of information available for the students but also a lot of distraction.

The first thing that was very new to me at PHS was that the laptop is used so much. Director of Conseling Mrs. Portteus acknowledges the pros and cons of so much technology in school. In her opinion, the students have a lot of information and distraction at their fingertips, which is very true. What I found good about that is the students prepare for the future. The use of computers and the internet is growing, and knowing how to use it properly seems to be a huge plus to me. Overall I believe it is a good idea as long as the school can afford it.

Another point that is different is that in countries like Germany and Austria, students do not get to choose their own classes. Mrs. Portteus said, “We are a country based on freedom of choice and I would not take that away from our students.” Although this is true, Mrs. Portteus also mentioned that a lot of students choose their classes based on inappropriate reasons, like where their friends are or how it affects the grade point average. In my view, both are good solutions and each have their own pros and cons.

The main entrance of Plymouth High School welcomes exchange students every year. Pietro Bologna, Mikkel Strobel and Leon Olszewski are the exchange students that attend the 2014-2015 school year at PHS.

Speaking of choosing classes, I was impressed by the variety of classes and that PHS is constantly expanding their offerings to keep that up. On the other side, there are only two foreign languages that students can learn. Two languages were mandatory at my school in Vienna; there were six different languages that students could choose from.

Since I am an exchange student on my own, I wanted to know if PHS would allow their students to spend a year abroad. To my surprise Mrs. Portteus and Mrs. Scheetz agreed to it; Mrs. Portteus even encouraged it because she spent a year in France. I was surprised because I have only heard of one PHS student going abroad so far. Most of the students I have talked to here have never been abroad. I have not met a single person in Austria that has never been to another country. The main reason for this is that Austria shares a border with eight countries, and it is very easy to go over the border by car since there is no ocean in between. But another reason is that Americans are not as motivated to travel as Europeans because it is not as big of a trend around here.

Overall both schools, PHS and Bundesgymansium Wien 9, my old school in Vienna, are more different than I expected them to be. Each have good and bad sides. So far, I have enjoyed PHS more, simply because of the amount of activities the students can get involved in.