Imagine a beautiful, strong bird, perfectly capable of flying, but trapped in a cage. All of a sudden, the cage is opened and the bird must make the decision: do I fly away from all that I know into the unknown with the hopes of soaring high in the sky as a free spirit, even with possible danger ahead, or do I stay in my cage where I will be perfectly safe, but will never know what I’m capable of? This scenario captures the struggles and decisions of the transition from middle school to high school, middle school being the cage around the bird and high school being the cage with an open door. As you look deeper into the story, this represents what every 8th grader must go through before beginning freshman year in some way; to illustrate, in my case, the cage of middle school stands for a prohibition of learning, for at Lakenheath Middle School, you may have multiple teachers and classes, but the schedule has not been tailored to fit every student’s intellectual needs because they do not offer accelerated classes, except for in math, thereby forcing the people with a slightly higher IQ to learn at the same pace as someone who gains knowledge a bit slower. …show more content…
Luckily, after only 3 years of middle school, the scholars are released from their metaphorical cage into the free, open air, if they so choose, in high school. Lakenheath High School, because it has basic, honors, and AP classes, symbolizes the cage opening but not disappearing altogether in that students can decide to reach for their highest potential and soar by challenging themselves with harder courses, but they can also choose to stay safe in the comfort of the cage by still taking only basic