I grew up going to public schools. I could wear clothes of my choosing. I could take out my phone without the fear of having it taken and having to pay the ridiculous ten dollar fee. Praying before every class was new to me. Having someone that stands in the hallways and enforces all the rules, like yelling at kids to tuck in their shirts is all new to me. I absolutely hated Archbishop Carroll High School when I arrived at the beginning of junior year.

When I moved states, I had the option to stick with my roots of a public school education and go to either Radnor High or Haverford High School or receive an AOP education at Carroll. I chose Carroll because my dad had gone here back in the eighties.  Carroll had so many rules I had to pay attention to that I never had to pay attention to before. It was hard.

Every morning, my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Hoffsommer, would yell at me because I didn’t have my student ID card visible. I didn’t even have an ID card yet. At my old school, students had the freedom to leave campus for lunch and eat at local restaurants. Here at Carroll, I don’t have the freedom to walk in the hallways without every teacher asking me where I’m going.

All these rules I have to follow have made me a better person.

It took me two years to understand why Carroll has so many rules and regulations students have to follow. It’s not because the teachers want to make the students miserable or unhappy. I think it’s because when the students head into the workforce after college, they will have an understanding of dress code and the importance of following it. What I have noticed over the past two years here at Carroll is that a lot of students will purposely break dress code just to be called out by the teacher and have the attention pulled towards them.

There is one rule I will never understand and that is how when Mrs. Buchanan takes your phone or earbuds in the hallway, we have to pay ten dollars to get it back. I never understood that. Where does the money go? Why such a large amount of money?