Santa Lucia, the town where I live, is small, calm, and has a school called Jose Cecilio del Valle (he was an important politician during the Central American independence). This is where I spent my sixth grade year, and it was NOT perfect, not even close. However, I did learn something not many American kids learn at this grade: how to move around independently. I had to learn where to take the bus, where to get off, how to pay, how to run frantically when the bus is inching away before I get on, and how to remember bus schedules. A bus left 10 minutes before school let out, and I usually had to wait another hour before the next one.

We studied normal stuff: math, writing, Spanish. We did them in the most didactic way possible, copying absurd amounts of text out of books which the school either didn't care about buying, couldn't afford, or actually thought we would learn something from copying.

One day we had a science fair, note how they used the word 'science' not 'chemistry'. Kids didn't note that. Everybody brought paper volcanoes, with either Coke and Mentos, or vinegar and baking soda. One person brought instant whirlpool water, which were two bottles with some water in them, and when someone whipped them up, the shape of the bottles made a whirlpool. I made a compass from a sewing needle and a fridge magnet. The other kids declared it 'not science', as if throwing Mentos in Coke were.

One thing that really bothered me at school was the constant involvement of religion. Every Monday two people from the church would come and talk about their god (commonly known as God). Even though I understand that this offended no one since everyone was Christian, I still must express frustration with religious intervention in a public non-religious school. I sometimes felt as if much of the religious 'teaching' was directed at me due to my not being Christian, or religious at all.

At one point in September we started doing marching band for September 15, Honduras' independence day. I didn't like it. It was inconveniently early, it was hot, and it was very gender segregated. Boys did drums and shakers (guess what my options were), some girls did xylophones but most girls were 'pomponeras' or 'palillonas' which were like cheerleaders and baton twirlers. I would not do it again.

Every Monday we were supposed to sing the national anthem, salute the flag, and so on. However one thing that REALLY bothered me was near the end of the school year when military/police guys came and for one day turned the school in to a boot camp!

My school, like many schools in Central America, has heavy gender/sex divisions such as 'boys can't have long hair', 'girls must wear skirts' and so on. I was often criticized due to my thinking differently, and my colored and/or 'long' hair. I don't know how someone might like uniformity and sexism, especially in a society where everything tells you to be special and different.

Another thing that bothered me was the fact that there was SO MUCH homophobia, 'Gay' was an insult, Also they said that if men were supposed to be able to like men, then why were women made? My answer to that is: they weren't made.

You know that 'boys can't hit girls' 'rule'? Well some of the girls in the school took advantage of that and went around hitting boys with that social shield.

Another thing about girls is that they had better grades while boys were more focused on hitting each other and getting girlfriends. Girls however focused on copying that insanely long assignment about sea slugs. There were no boys with good grades (not really). All the kids in 'academic excellence' were girls, (except me). It was the same with how their behavior was. Near the end the teachers gave grades on behavior. I assume this was to be able to communicate to the parents how the kids were acting without being too personal. Girls got an average of very good, and boys got 'acceptable' because it was the lowest grade.

I did in fact manage to get a girlfriend during the school year, and no, I wasn't that attached. Actually we only lasted 2 weeks, for several reasons.

1: I only came 3 days a week so she said we weren't 'together enough'.

2: I wasn't Christian (see? It comes up again and again!).

3: I wasn't buying her a lot of stuff. Because apparently that's what girls and boys do for each other.

I was really a lot 'weirder' than all the other kids, by not being religious, not being sexist, not being homophobic, and not being noisy/not enjoying doing chaos. Which brings me to my final thought.

When the teacher walked out of the classroom, the chaos started. All the kids would jump up and start yelling, they would throw paper airplanes and balls at everyone. It was just like you can imagine. No one did their homework. They positioned people by the door to yell: SHE'S COMING!

That way when the teacher was returning everybody would be in their seats pretending to do their homework. Once I actually joined in as a guard, but I yelled nothing when the teacher came, so they would get caught. The teacher didn't actually do anything to the kids other than just shoot them a disappointed look. So luckily no one hated me after that.

School in Honduras is so different from American schools (which is the only thing I can compare it to). The whole education system is messed up. However, I do not believe I wasted my time by doing 6^th grade in Honduras, because I learned how to be independent, because I learned about all the problems in the education system, and because it was probably the only way for me to get a diploma.

I was told to be serious for the photos, also I was really bored.