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School Life in Peru and Usa
School Life in Peru and Usa
Jennifer Shin is always busy. Her day starts before six in the morning and she usually goes to
bed after midnight. “I never have enough time,” she says. Jennifer is in high school. She is a
good student and gets good grades in all her classes. She hopes to attend a good university
when she finishes high school. “Good grades are not enough,” Jennifer says. “Universities want
to see a good score on the entrance exam, and they also look at your other activities.”
Those other activities take a lot of time. Jennifer is on the school swim team. She has swim
practice three times a week at 7:00 in the morning before school, on Monday, Thursday, and
Friday. Jennifer also takes violin lessons on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings, and
she plays the violin in her school orchestra on Thursday after school. Then there is homework.
She is taking six classes, so she has a lot of it. She usually starts her homework after dinner and
then works for about five hours. On Saturday afternoon, she meets with a tutor to help prepare
for the university entrance exam. Sunday is the only day she can sleep late. She says most of
her classmates have similar schedules.
Are Jennifer and her classmates too busy? Are their schedules too full? Experts disagree on this
topic. Some say children and teenagers do not have enough free time to explore and relax.
They say it can lead to stress and can even make them sick. Other experts say that organized
activities are good for young people. They say they worry more about young people who do too
little, for example, teenagers who come home from school and play video games or spend time
on social media. When Jennifer goes on social media, she sees everything that her friends and
classmates are doing. It just makes her work harder!