In The End I Am Simply A Student

November 09, 2025

Lucky you get two posts in one day!

In this one I really want to highlight the extreme differences in school, between Argentina and Alaska (and the rest of the US I think).

For starters every school here is K-12, all mixed up into one school, and there are only one or two classes of about 25 students per grade. But I'm not entirely sure how the grade levels work, because the final grade here is 6, which is the equivalent of grade 12. So it is very common to go to the same school your whole life I think, and always go to the same school as your siblings. I don't think this is the best system personally because I would be really scared if I was 6 years old and there was a tatted up 19 year old in my school, but maybe that's just me. I can see how it's easier for parents to just shove all their kids in one school.

Something else that I think has disadvantages is that there are so many schools here, like I can think of over seven off the top of my head. So that means that all the schools are a little different, and you're able to pick which niche matches you best, so every school is mostly full of the same kind of people. Which is very different from Fairbanks because we have two main, very big schools, that have a super diverse student body. And here there are many much smaller schools that definitely lack diversity. But I do think it's cool how saying what school you go to actually means something, because it's not like at home where it's mostly based on location. Here the school can tell you a lot about a person and their family, is it an Italian school? Secular school? Catholic? Cost 500 dollars or 60??

On that note just about every school in Argentina is a private Catholic school. I think every school in my city is private. And I go to one of only two non catholic schools in Rio Cuarto. But it makes a lot of sense because just about everyone in Argentina is Catholic, and I think the private school system works well here. And to go with that trend every school also requires uniforms, which I personally really like. But at my school the uniform is very casual, where you only need to wear the schools shirt and can kinda do anything with the bottom. But I have a friend at a school with very strict rules, and white button ups with ties and blazers and knee socks and plaid skirts. And every school has a distinct uniform so you can also tell where someone goes to school based off of what they are wearing.

Something I do not like is that there are no electives, like you have absolutely no choice in what classes you take. Which basically means that there are no fun art classes or anything, which I believe are really important. And there are also no sports in school, which I know is also the case in many European countries, but is still surprising to me. So it is very common for people to do a sport outside of school, or have many hobbies outside of school. Like I go to a ceramics studio once a week. But I certainly enjoy having autonomy over my schedule, and I can imagine that this system makes students more excited for University. Speaking of University, it is free for every student here, so it is kinda flipped. Because all of elementary, middle, and high school cost money, sometimes alot sometimes less, and then at the end you get a free University education.

And obviously there are many differences between the schools as well, but I think for these big differences I covered its the same for much of Argentina. I also did not google anything so if my information is wrong I'm sorry, I'm just using information I've observed.

(More fun bonus pics)