High School in Sweden

For the first time since kindergarten, my youngest son started a new school on January 8, 2019. Although we had been preparing for a full year, we really had no idea what to expect, and any ideas we had were nothing like what actually happened. Never in his wildest dreams did my son imagine that he would spend 2-1/2 hours on the first day of school learning hip-hop dancing!

One year before our move, I began evaluating school options. Only one, an international school in the central part of the city, would work for an English-speaking student in Stockholm. Students from over sixty different countries attended the K-12 school, and the teachers hailed from all over the world as well. We applied a year ahead, but didn’t find out until three months before our departure that there was a space for him in the 10th grade.

Although we were assigned a fellow parent as a “buddy,” and I was able to ask her questions via email, there was no information prior to our arrival, and my son didn’t receive class assignments or access to the school’s communication system until the day he started. We were only told to have him bring a pencil. Each student was given a computer to use once school began, but they had Swedish keyboards, so that was an adjustment. 

On the first very cold and dark morning, I went with him because there was a parent orientation. After that first day, he went alone to school on the subway system, or T-bana. When we arrived, he was told to wait in the lobby, joining another new boy who looked forlorn. Wishing my son well, I headed to my meeting in the main building, two blocks away. 

The school was divided into three buildings:  the main building and two annexed spaces; the older grades met in one of the annexes, an office building. Interestingly, it was directly behind my husband’s office.

Students weren’t allowed to use their phones at school, so I knew I wouldn’t hear anything until the end of the day. I said a prayer and hoped for a good start.

By 4 PM, my teenager found his way home in that foreign city. He was, understandably, very tired. It turned out that Tuesdays were PE days, and the students had a three hour block of physical activity. The unit for January was dancing, so they trekked to a dance studio and proceeded to learn hip hop in great depth. Yes, first day of school meant three hours of hip hop dancing with strangers.

Here are his comments about that first day:

“If we’re being honest, the first day of school was pretty whack. New school, new country, new people, everything was just out of my comfort zone. Two other new kids were starting that day too. When I got there, they were already on the couch; I joined them.

After sitting for at least 10 minutes, in silence, I finally said, “OK this silence is killing me, what are your names?”. There was an audible sigh of relief from the other two newbies and they introduced themselves - two guys from Brussels and Barcelona, respectively. Soon thereafter, we were taken to classes. Bear in mind, at that point,, 20 minutes had passed and I hadn’t spoken to anyone who actually went to the school besides the new kids.”

Luckily, things became easier each day, as my brave son, with his friendly and outgoing nature, began getting to know the other kids. His classes included the usual subjects: English, Math, Humanities (economics, agriculture, and history), Physical Education, Science, and Spanish, but also Band and “Design,” where he learned coding.

He met people and made friends from all over the world:  Israel, India, the Netherlands, Spain, France, the United States, Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, etc. The kids talked about the usual things, but also shared about life in their homelands. It was very fascinating for him to talk to actual citizens of different countries about what we usually only read about in the news, like Barcelona’s bid for independence from Spain, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, or U.S. immigration policy. Everyone was very interested in all things United States, and he was an excellent ambassador for our country.

Music was a fun and universal way to connect. All of the music students were assigned to bands. My son, a drummer and piano player, was placed with three other boys who played bass, piano, and guitar. They spent the semester working on songs together for an end-of-year concert. The teachers allowed for much creativity, and he was also encouraged to teach other students to play.

He was given the opportunity to play the piano for the 10th-grade play. It was a very different experience from the U.S. in that the students were allowed to improvise and implement many of their own ideas into the production.

Sport options were limited due to the extended hours of darkness and frequent snow and icy weather, as well as the lack of available fields and courts. He signed up for Innebandy (also known as “floor ball”), which is a type of floor hockey without ice. Due to scheduling issues, the team met at 6:30 in the morning, which was tough for a tired teenage boy. Plus, the twenty-minute walk in the darkness and cold was quite unpleasant!

Field trips were very unique. For a math trip, the students were taken to a “skid pad” north of the city. We had no idea what that meant; all we knew in advance was that he would ride a bus to a place where people learned to drive on the ice. He was the only licensed driver in the group, since Swedish citizens aren’t eligible to drive until later than in the U.S., but it turned out that they didn’t drive. They watched a trained driver try to stop on a long “skid pad” of ice, while driving at various speeds. Then the students were taken inside, where they were put into suspended cars and lorries, then shown what it felt like to be hit by another car, or to roll inside of a vehicle. Luckily, my son avoided the rear-end collision demonstration, since he had already suffered through that in real life.

By the end of his semester overseas, my teenage son returned home with many unique and valuable experiences, and wonderful new friends from all over the world. But of all the experiences he will remember from his trip, I am fairly certain that he will never forget learning to hip hop!