TERRE HAUTE Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Terre Haute North and South have always been known as rivals, but students got to walk a mile in each other’s classrooms.
Six students from each school were selected to experience everything Terre Haute South has to offer. Structurally, the schools are very similar, but THN senior Rigley Irby says she was fascinated by some of the classes at South.
“I got to see the botany room, which was really amazing because we don’t have a facility like that at North,” Irby said. “The planetarium is just amazing. If we had one of those at North, I would definitely be taking astronomy, and I might be signing up for that class next semester, she did say she had some open spots, so we’ll see.”
Before seeing the Gibson Allen Memorial Planetarium, the North students got to sit in on a class with their assigned guide from South. THS senior Brady Wilson says the Braves showed how they operate as a family.
“One thing that we always say here is Once a Brave, Always a Brave, and maybe they do have something over there to take pride in their school, and I think that’s really important,” Wilson said. “I know that we have that here, and I’m sure he was able to learn that, stuff we have on the hallways, just different school pride things that we have.”
The idea came from VCSC secondary administrative consultant John Beeker. He says that the concept is not just about comparisons, but also what students like about their own schools.
“You see some things that happened today, but I found when you go back to your own school, you have just a little bit more appreciation and pride, and that’s a byproduct of this,” Beeker said. “That’s not really what we try to do, we try to get them to understand South better, but you go back to North and realize, wow, we got some good things going here.”
In the near future, those students from South will visit West Vigo, and the students from West Vigo will take a trip to Terre Haute North.
