For some people, high school is something to get through, an awkward bridge from youth to adulthood which must be skipped over as quickly as possible. I think I’ve been incredibly lucky, as the six years I have spent at LACES have been filled with enjoyable and formative experiences. I’ll be happy to graduate, of course, but I’ll also be very sad to leave all the staff and teachers who make me excited to learn, and the familiar faces I’m used to seeing. Reflecting on my time here, I’ve come up with six notable things I learned and six areas where my education lacked.
Things we learn
How to take a test
After years of routine standardized testing, CAASPP, iReady, AP Tests, and SAT/ACTs, LACES kids have the privilege, albeit the burden of calling the testing room a second home. We know how to perform well on the tests, and more importantly how to protect our peace while taking them. Ask me to write down a few original words, and you may be met with resistance or worse. Truth be told, though LACES taught me how to take tests, it did not in fact teach me how to write sentences, as the only letters I found important for me to learn were A, B, C, and D (and E in the more challenging courses). But ask me to take an hours-long multiple-choice test without food, water, or a desk of comfortable size? I’ll fill in all the required bubbles artfully, quietly, and without complaint.
Cornell notes
I can copy words from a textbook into boxes. I can say that I take mediocre notes with the self-importance of a top-tier university student. I can write very small, though legibility is a lot to ask for.
How to move through a crowd
The Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies is known for its more classical courses of study, however, one of the most useful skills I learned during my time in the big house is how to get places efficiently in narrow halls filled with people who are somehow all going in the opposite direction. This will perhaps help me in some sort of challenge or game show race, or if I ever heroically rush into a burning building. The trick to going against the grain for you all is to pick the smallest commuters in the flow and push them into others, thus creating a path forward.
Being respectful, responsible, and ready
Say it, learn it, live it. Pavlovian responses I will jump up at the sound of a bell, any bell. I may even do a trick for you, or break out into song!
The rules of pickleball
After two years in Mr. Hosohama’s physical education class, I now know every single rule and nuance of the game pickleball. The sport doesn’t have the class and elegance of tennis, or the frat party jubilation of table tennis. Pickleball is somewhere in between, a game made for coordinated nerds like you and me. Hosohama left LACES to teach Venice High School the game immediately after I matriculated out of his class, presumably because he feared how good I would become at this up-and-coming sport had I been given more training.
Things I wish we learned
Fishing
Time management
How to juggle
What to do if you see a bear
Sex Ed
Gambling
