In American high schools, there is often much interest in other students as there is in school subjects. You can see this when you look at a typical high school yearbook. It is written once a year by students in the twelfth grade. In the yearbook, there is a picture of each teacher and student. Other photos show teachers and students at football and basketball games, in class, at club meetings, or at school dances.
Choosing leaders is a large part of high school life. The children decide which students should direct school business and lead them in Student Council. This is a group of five or six students who talk to teachers about what happens at school. Once a month, some of the Student Council leaders go to a meeting of PTSA (Parent Teacher Student association). There they work with parents and teachers to make their school better.
For many students in American high schools, the important thing is making friends, being popular, and having a good social life. Many students go out together after school – to fast food
restaurants, movies, or dances. One big social event that takes place in high schools is the ‘prom’ or school dance. The students go to the ‘prom’ in couples. The boys wear ‘tuxedos,’ and the girls wear beautiful dresses.
During the high school years, students make strong friendships. They remember high school friends and other students long after they finished school. So every ten years they come together. They have a special party with others from their graduating class. The graduating class is all the students who finished school the same year. At that big class party, students look at old yearbook photos and talk about what happened at school and what has happened since then. They often remember the high school years as the best years of their lives.