What Highschool Is

Theodore R. Sizer in his essay "What High School Is" begins with an illustration, a detailed account of the opening of the day at a high school, following one student named Mark, sixteen years of age, as he arrives at school, greets his friends, and goes to class. This section is a rather dry recitation of his schedule on this particular day, with some vivid descriptions of the classes, the other students, and the different elements of the school day. This entire section runs four and a half pages and serves as the introduction to the entire essay. This is a daring and not entirely satisfactory approach. There is nothing ahead of this description to assure the reader that the entire essay will not consist of this detailing of one student's day, though in fact the essay has something else in mind if it can hold the attention of the reader until the author gets to it. He might have offered some more traditional introductory remarks to indicate that he has a purpose in telling this lengthy story, which would gain him mileage with many, but instead he just launched into it and continues through to the end of the day.
After this, of course, comes what might be considered a more

The reading What High School Is by Theodore R. Sizer accurately depicts an average day for a high school student, but fails to show some of the most critical things about what high school is. A large portion of the reading tells about the average day of a student named Mark. This portion of the story is the focus of my response. Although the description of his day is pretty accurate, it fails to show the emotion and feelings of that day. The story only describes what he does in his classes and not what he thinks about those classes. The story over simplifies what high school is to each individual student. Although most students probably follow about the same schedule, the way that student reacts towards his classes, teachers, students, and administrators varies greatly. While one student