We survived—and noticed some remarkable differences between our schools.
“Dan, I cannot do this,” I said panicking through my phone as I sat in my car parked in Villa Maria Academy’s parking lot. “This is gonna be so awkward. I thought I could do it, but I don’t think I can.”
What my fellow Editor-In-Chief Dan Malloy said to me next was some of the most inspiring words I have ever heard in my life.
“Dude, just walk inside.”
On Wednesday, February 14 (yes, it was Valentine’s Day), four members of our staff swapped places with four members of Villa Maria’s newspaper and spent the day at each other’s schools.
Just a few weeks before, the Eagles were preparing to face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII. I must have watched at least 50 hype videos and speeches so that I could be in the proper mental state to watch the game. I watched everything from Brian Dawkins pregame speeches, to Rocky running up the Art Museum steps, to Herb Brooks’ speech to Team U.S.A. in the movie Miracle.
Nothing truly motivated me, however, like those four words said by Dan Malloy on that Ash Wednesday (Valentine’s Day) morning.
I finally built up the courage to get out of my car and make what seemed to be the longest walk of my life to the Villa cafeteria. This walk of what was probably only 40 feet would be the only time for the rest of the day that I would be “alone” without at least one other Malvern student.
It was during this walk that I received some of the most awkward glances of my life. You could see and feel the befuddlement in everyone’s faces and they were not trying to hide it. They were clearly thinking, “What is this boy doing walking into Villa’s cafeteria?”
Once I made it inside and saw Dan, Garrett Hallinan, and Mike Harrington, most of my nerves quickly went away. I no longer felt like people were specifically staring at me. They were just staring at the four of us. While this was still a little intimidating and awkward, it was much better than my solo trek from Villa’s parking lot.
The four of us split into pairs to shadow Villa students for the rest of the day. The first room Dan and I walked into was the French homeroom. This homeroom resembled a lot of homerooms at Malvern until a certain moment that sent me and Dan right back to middle/elementary school. This moment was when all of the girls stood up simultaneously and started reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
I don’t think I have recited the Pledge of Allegiance since I was in middle school and while I thought that it was cool to show pride in our country, it was the first eye-opening difference I noticed between Malvern and Villa.
[learn_more caption=”Top 10 Differences Between Malvern and Villa”]
Top 10 Differences between Malvern and Villa
We might be known as brother and sister schools, but we noticed some major differences between the school days on Warren and Central Avenues.
- Transitioning between classes • At Villa, students are alerted to their next class beginning when a monotone buzz goes over the loudspeakers. Compared to Malvern’s relatively laid back form of switching classes, this was quite a shock.
- Lunch • Almost everything about Villa’s lunch was different than ours. There were three periods for high school lunch. Each one got progressively less populated, and the system for getting food was less aggressive than Malvern’s compact lunch line.
- Phone Policy • You almost never saw a phone out at Villa because their public use is not allowed—not even while transitioning classes. At Malvern, you always see students using their technology.
- Discipline • At Malvern, the most common form of punishment is lunch duty, while at Villa detentions and demerits are commonplace.
- No LC • A few years ago, Malvern installed the Learning Commons, in which students work loudly and collaboratively. Villa, which seems to have a more traditional style of learning, still has a library—where students are not allowed to speak.
- Learning Environment • In class, students are much less talkative, and teachers instruct in a more traditional way that we weren’t used to. Students at Villa learn in a much more serious setting than at Malvern.
- The Liturgy • The usual service at Malvern lasts no more than fifty minutes. With one or two readings, a few songs, and a quick homily, Mass flies by. Villa’s service was much longer than Malvern’s, stretching out to about 80 minutes.
- Free Periods (or lack thereof) • At Malvern, we have at least 55 minutes of free time including lunch and open periods, while at Villa it feels like we moved from class to class with only lunch to take a breather.
- Dress Code • Malvern has always had its issues with the dress code. Students are always trying to make it more lax or find loopholes. But at Villa, their dress code is set in stone. For example during Mass, all students must have their blazer on, or they receive immediate disciplinary action.
- Students • For some reason, there seemed to be a large female population at Villa and a large male population at Malvern… weird, right?
–Garrett Hallinan ’19, Michael Harrington ’19
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Our first class was Honors Anatomy. We had chosen an interesting day to be the only two boys in the class, as the main topic covered was the human reproductive organs.
I did notice one major difference between this class and a class at Malvern. Out of the 20 or so girls in the class, at least eight of them had an iced coffee from either Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts. I’m not sure if boys are too lazy to go somewhere to get iced coffee before school or if girls just like it more, but it was crazy to see how many girls at Villa were drinkin’ Dunkin’ that day.
After first period we attended Ash Wednesday Mass. No disrespect to the chorus and ensemble that perform at Villa’s Masses, but Malvern’s liturgical music blows them out of the water. It made me realize how much more enthusiastic they make Mass and how everyone always leaves in a great mood because of the band, the singing, oh… and Jesus.
Our next class was called Marriage and Life Choices. Dan and I had truly found a doozy of a day to sit in on classes at Villa. We were able to contribute pretty frequently in this class and give male perspectives on certain issues. This class was very similar to the theology class that all Malvern seniors take.
By this point in the day, I was starting to notice some differences between Villa students in class and Malvern students in class. The most noticeable one was organization and note taking. At Villa, when it was time to take notes, almost every girl pulled out a notebook and a pencil case full of pens, pencils, and different colored highlighters. At Malvern, many students have a single pen or pencil that they use for everything—sometimes, unless he forgets it and needs to borrow one from the teacher. There are no color-coordinated notes at Malvern. I wasn’t sure if this was a technique they taught at Villa or if it was something that most girls do and guys don’t really care about.
The next class we went to was AP Biology. The girls were given a quiz at the beginning of class and we decided to take it. Most of the questions looked familiar since I am currently taking AP Bio but going in unprepared did not help. Long story short… Dan and I are currently failing out of Villa. (Sorry, Mr. Borish.)
It is no secret that Villa is more strict than Malvern. They are very stringent with their dress code rules and even more severe on their cell phone policy. Villa students regularly tell stories about how they got detention and Dan came close to having his own Villa detention story. He was caught with his phone out in the hallway between classes and immediately was told, “We don’t have our phones out during the day at Villa,” by a faculty member.
I think if Malvern students were told to put their phones away when they weren’t even in class, the whole school might go up in flames.
By the last class of the day, Dan and I felt that we fit right in with the Villa girls. We started to realize that when we would go back to Malvern the next day, we would be treated like typical students that would have to actually do work that counted for actual grades.
As we walked back to our cars I told Dan, “I can’t believe you were so nervous to get out of your car this morning. This was way better than a day of classes.”
