La Salle-Peru High School students experience life as a Naperville Central student

When students from La Salle-Peru and Naperville Central high schools swapped classrooms last week, they learned how their education shapes how their society functions.

“The students there have a ton of freedom, especially the seniors,” said Laurel Politsch, a senior at L-P High School. “They can do pretty much whatever they want. They can sign themselves out, like in and out of classes, and they can have off-campus lunch.”

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 8

About 70 Naperville Central students toured La Salle-Peru High School on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The students participated in a student swap, which was a learning experience to see a different high school and community. On the tour, the students visited the McCormack Memorial Library and Media Center, the Canterbury Tales mural, East gym, Area Career Center, weight room and cardio room, Howard Fellows Stadium, among other places. A group of L-P students toured Naperville Central on April 20 for a similar experience. (Scott Anderson)

The exchange program gives rural high school students a chance to experience a day in the life of suburban students and vice versa. This is the first year since the pandemic started that the school has conducted the program. L-P participated for about four years prior to the pandemic, with the students trading places once a semester.

La Salle-Peru High School has an enrollment of about 1,200 students, within communities of La Salle, which has a population of 9,500, and Peru of 10,300, while Naperville Central has an enrollment of 2,640 in a city just shy of 150,000 people.

“The purpose of the program: With sociology your environment, where you grow up is going to help shape who you are,” said L-P sociology teacher Patrick Carney. “So, even though we all live in the same country, we all live in the same state, Naperville is just a little over an hour from La Salle-Peru, yet you have two very different communities.”

Each student was partnered with a student from the host school demonstrate daily routines.

It was interesting to see how different their lives were outside of school.”

—  Courtney Fournier, senior at Naperville Central High School

Courtney Fournier, a senior at Naperville Central, said she “expected to see more farmers,” but was pleasantly surprised to learn she had more in common with L-P students.

“A lot of kids were the same as the kids I see at my school. But, student life is so different,” Fournier said. “There are cornfields there and there is not a lot to do. We have downtown and there are a lot of different places we can go. It was interesting to see how different their lives were outside of school.”

There is a lot more diversity within religions and just different groups. That was definitely more than our small-town school.”

—  Max Wertz, a senior at La Salle-Peru High School

Max Wertz, a senior at L-P, agreed the students were primarily the same, but Naperville had a more diverse student population.

“There is a lot more diversity within religions and just different groups,” he said. “That was definitely more than our small-town school.”

The curriculum was a bone of contention between L-P and Naperville students, both believing the other school offered a more interesting curriculum.

“There is a lot of cool different things that they have that we don’t,” Politsch said. “They have an animal room, which is like an animal care class, with a bunch of different animals and people were just getting them out.”

Whereas Naperville junior Maddie Gates said she believed her school would benefit from a more career-driven curriculum.

“Honestly, a lot of their classes our career-focused,” Gates said. “They have a fire truck in their school if they want to become a fireman. They offer early childhood education. We have a lot of different electives, but they don’t necessarily go toward your career.

“Here we focus more on college prep,” Gates added. “It’s not if you’re going, but where. They offer students the opportunity to maybe start a career after high school.”

L-P students took notice of the amount of freedom the Naperville seniors appeared to have.

“I saw only seniors were allowed parking,” Wertz said. “And they didn’t have a dress code, which was different. Like we have a strict dress code. I feel like they were more laid back with their rules and we’re stricter. Which can be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. They have off-campus lunch. They are trusted to come back to the school.

“They could literally do whatever they wanted, like go to school how they wanted,” Politsch said. “They have a late arrival. Like you come to school at 9 a.m. They didn’t get tardies. It was really cool.”

L-P’s architecture caught the attention of the traveling students.

“The auditorium at L-P was inspired by someone who went to Europe a lot, so it had a lot of gold detailing,” Gates said. “It just isn’t something you would expect to see in a high school.”

“We have a lot more history,” Politsch said. “When I was walking around there they had really nothing, the school was kind of boring.”

Wertz said he believed the experience showed him how education can differ between schools and the aspects that may or may not work within each institution.

“You definitely get a perspective on how schools in bigger populations work,” Wertz said. “I think it is important to see that there’s not just one-way school can be. That there are other options, more laid-back options than what we have.”