Arena High School

Enter To Learn, Go Forth for Service

…right after this game of solitaire

By: Sally Stinnett

You’ve all seen it happen. The one kid in class who never does anything suddenly disappears. The question of their whereabouts is always met with a single word answer, “Arena.” To the general student population of El Segundo High School, Arena seems like an academic fate worse than death. To the students of Arena however, it is quite the opposite. Most students at Arena choose to be so, and overwhelmingly prefer it to the social and learning environment of the “normal” high school.

Arena has two classes in session a day, the morning class from eight to noon, and the afternoon class from noon to four. Both classes have a teacher who supervises the class and makes sure everyone stays on task. Each class is allowed only twenty students apiece, which vastly limits the social tendencies of a normal high school with a student body of thousands. An Arena student, Alex Frishman comments that “There’s no stupid social drama here.” It’s very true, despite the taunting and occasional occurrence of “being served” Arena is almost totally void of any social hierarchy or stereotyping.

The energy at Arena High is incredibly relaxed, and although most would think it’s because half the class is stoned or that no one is motivated to do any actual work, it is in fact quite contrary. There are many successful and industrious people typing away and hammering out the credits needed to either graduate or return to the high school. Most of the students at Arena are actually there because they choose to be; the process of learning and analyzing at their own pace seems to suit them well.

Most would argue that true learning cannot be achieved without a classic classroom environment with the social interaction of their peers. I find this in most ways to be true, however, Arena students seem to be an entirely different creature, they do not require anything but themselves and I have witnessed many a person pass their classes with incredible ease and full understanding of the subject. We don’t have multiple teachers with outstanding workloads or personality quirks to poke fun at, but I myself have possibly learned more and had more interesting material provided to me on the computer screen in front of me than I have from the majority of my teachers in the past five years. Mr. Roebuck, the teacher and supervisor of the afternoon session at Arena commented that “I think we offer an excellent alternative to the high school, and I enjoy teaching here. I think a program like this is essential for any school district because it fulfills a need for part of the student population. Despite rumors, I have found most of my students to be intelligent and capable, as well as interesting.”

Sometimes, it does in fact seem that there should be a sign posted on the fence around Arena reading “Do not pester or feed the Arena students!” Most of the students here feed off the standoffish fear of the “normal” high school students. When asked to comment upon why the students here like Arena the majority of replies I received consisted of joking trying only to further the stereotype that Arena students are stoned slackers who gave up on life. Ian Knight comments that, “The pudlic skool sistem rules!,” obviously poking fun at the fact that Arena is portrayed as a school for “retards.”

Don’t get me wrong, I have spent many a day playing solitaire (which is by no means allowed) instead of getting as much work as I could have completed done. Arena does have an incredibly talented group of hacky sack players, our P.E. consists of walking the track, and we get to watch a movie every Friday and write a film review for elective credits. But in general, Arena isn’t as bad as it is made out to be. Upon entering the hallowed halls of the brown portable behind the softball field I found that it is in fact, a place to get work done. Some of us will go on to return to the high school, go to a university, others to trade schools or community college, some will in fact, live up to the underachieving expectations of others and simply do nothing, but no matter what we have done or go on to do none of us feel ashamed or embarrassed that we have had to come through Arena to get there.