The Staples exchange program needs to change to relay a true experience
Staples and Singapore students are yet to experience an integrated experience throughout the school days.
Every year, a group of high school students from Singapore has a two-week opportunity of living the life of a Staples student. Although they are put in different classes, I believe the program needs to change in order to truly represent a Staples lifestyle.
When walking through the halls, I saw many students walking alongside teachers and their fellow peers. With this, it keeps the students isolated from the Staples student body. Simply walking through the halls with friends is a major social aspect, and these other students won’t be able to appreciate that. In order to fix that, these students should walk to and from different classes with an assigned Staples student for the entirety of the day.
Throughout their days, they travel to random classes. I believe that these students should get a schedule and stick to that schedule for the duration of their time. Otherwise, they can be in a class that has no meaning to them. They also won’t be able to understand student-teacher relationships if they continue to change classes.
Teachers should also be warned prior to new students coming into the class, because in many cases, the new students are left with nothing to do. On multiple occasions, the students were sitting there on their phones while the rest took tests or were writing in-class essays. If the teachers knew about the arrival of the new students, they would be able to make lesson plans that would be able to incorporate everyone.
Staples need to make a change to the exchange program on a social level. Currently, there is too much separation between the Staples and Singapore students.
True connection can be achieved by having a welcoming ceremony where the students aren’t just thrown into the school. To give these students a true experience, the Staples administration needs to indulge the students into the Staples atmosphere.
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Jake Navarro ’20 is a web opinions editor for Inklings. He found his interest in the newspaper after taking intro to journalism. He then continued into...
