We are 29 French pupils in a class of 3°. We are learning German and English and a few of us are learning Latin. We live in Guebwiller, a small town in Alsace : there are about 12 000 inhabitants.

Our High School is called Mathias Grünewald, after an artist's name. There are 1 054 pupils here, it's a very big school, it's   bigger than any other school near Guebwiller. The classes go from 6° to 3°, with a few technology classes. We have a 7 hour day at school, which is longer than in the U.S or Great Britain because we have longer summer holidays than there. We study various subjects : Mathematics, French, History and Geography, Foreign Languages, Arts, Music, Physical Education ...

We have about 200 lockers, which is not enough : we need some to put our books, our sport things... instead of carrying them all the day long. The pupils in our class  either go to school by bus, or by car, or riding their bicycle or even walking.

Concerning lunches at school  we don't really have any choice. We find it difficult to eat some food that we're not used to having at home. Nevertheless we enjoy being with our friends in the lunchroom where we can chat and laugh as we like.

Compared to what we know about New- York, and more especially Harlem, there are fewer immigrants here than there and fewer poor people, less unemployement, less violence...

The rules in Mathias Grunewald Schools are rather strict but some of us don't even notice them anymore since we're used to obeying them.We have to go to school everyday, unless we're ill ; we have to be on time. We have to respect the adults if we want them to respect us, we must work at school and do our homework to succeed. We can't smoke, according to the French law ; we are not allowed to stay in the corridors during the breaks ; despite chatting is forbidden during the classes, we're not always quiet ... In winter there can be much snow in Alsace, because it's to the North -East of France but we can't throw snowballs  in the playground because it's said to be dangerous.

That's a little frustrating…

Here, most students are going to continue their studies to pass the "Baccalaureate" but a few won't go on and will have to pass more specific exams and to look for a job soon. In France you have to go to school until you're 16, after it's no longer an obligation, that's why a few young people leave school at that age.To conclude we can say that we are rather lucky young people.