Great topic, Adam, and one that resonates with me. As a bright little kid who loved school and was naturally good at standardized tests, I attended four schools in four years because of the Advanced Work program. At that time in the early 80s I'm not sure that we had a choice. Now there are more schools. I think that's a plus.
I was happy at the Haley (Roslindale) from K-4 (where I skipped two grades), then went into the advanced work tracks at the Hennigan (JP) for 5th, the Martin Luther King (Dorchester) for 6th, and Boston Latin (Fenway) for 7th.
While those classes were mostly very good experiences, the saddest thing for me was the MLK, which had a horrific physical plant -- for example the boards on the gym floor were butted up to each other vertically at 45 degree angles so we had gym in the parking lot. For the kids who weren't in our isolated 2-class program (and we basically moved as a group from one school to the next), it was clear there was no way they'd be going to any exam school, and that they weren't really expected to even get out of high school. They'd essentially been written off by 6th grade. We, on the other hand, were on the Harvard and US Presidential track you mentioned. Ouch. Talk about guilt.
The best thing about Boston Latin School was the other students. Let's face it: if you cream off the best test-takers in a large school system and feed them a college prep curriculum, then it's pretty much a given that a bunch of them will go to Harvard
no matter how well you teach them. After many happy years in the Boston Public School system, I started at Latin School, which I'd looked forward to attending from grade 4 when I read about it in a history book. It was clear from the third day of school that my creativity was not welcomed ("this is not an essay - F" came back on my superbly crafted mystery of the nonworking alarm clock with hand drawn cover submitted to my English teacher). There was a mold we were meant to fit.
I did well academically and socially, but was miserable. It just wasn't me. For years, I didn't do any creative writing, but I learned to write a perfect five paragraph essay. The school culture also seemed to relish in the suffering it put students through, as if that would make them better people than a supportive environment. "If you didn't understand it the first time," my brother was told when he asked a teacher for clarification, "then you don't belong here." The school later fought my parents' request to test my brother for ADD, since they believed that no BLS students could possibly be learning disabled. They were incorrect on that one.
After three years, I moved to Brookline to live with my Dad and flourished in the open campus setting at Brookline High School. Both schools were listed at the time in the Top 10 Public Schools in America list, but for me there was no contest.
At Latin, my only course choices during my entire three year tenure were between Spanish, French, or German. At Brookline, I had an inch thick course catalog and got to take Semiotics in 10th grade.
At Latin, I sat in alphabetized rows and was disheartened by the rampant cheating and a culture of memorizing and forgetting. At Brookline, we learned in the same format I found at college - a discussion circle.
At Brookline, we participated in the state and national Junior Classical League, an organization that Latin School refused to join. (Why? Was building ballistas and catapults making Latin and Greek too much fun?)
At Latin, then Headmaster Contampasis sent a girl home in front of me at the front door one day because her blouse was too low cut. Despite the lack of AC, shorts were allowed only two weeks of the year -- and girls had to wear longer ones than boys so as not to be distracting. At Brookline, you wore what you wanted, so long as it wasn't dangerous or blatantly insulting. (I bring up the dress code, since that's a topic of interest in the schools again.)
I guess it's ironic that the "best" school in Boston was the worst school for me.
For intellectually gifted children the most important things are 1) having at least some supportive peers they can relate to intellectually (whether in school or out) and 2) interesting learning opportunities. But one of the best things I learned at Brookline after being tracked as gifted for so long was how brilliant many of my classmates were in other areas -- music, acting, dance, even entrepreneurship. Their perspectives in our class conversations were incredibly helpful to me, and reminded me how we need to learn from all our gifts.
At Latin, our classmates were more similar kinds of learners who did well in a traditional classroom. The school motto - s
umus primi (we are first) - did nothing to ease the superiority complexes of many students. I found this embarrassing.
Many of my friends from Boston Latin had to recover from their experiences there. Several went on academic probation their first year of college (including one at Harvard). In addition to beer, they were drunk with the freedom they found, but unable to manage it.
I hear that Boston Latin is somewhat better these days, but the Kid's favorite babysitter is a student there and still echos many of my concerns from 25 years ago.
Like me, some kids will need to find other alternatives. I am heartened by news that following the model of Harvard and other Ivies, Exeter and other prep schools are working hard to accept good students on a need blind basis . (As of 2006, Harvard offers free tuition to all accepted with a household income under $60K; Exeter info in Boston Globe, "
Costly Boarding Schools offer more aid" 4/18/06).
If your goal is to get into Harvard, then being an academic star at Boston Latin is a well-trod path. (Brookline High, Exeter Academy and Andover are also well-known "feeder schools".) My friends who have attended Harvard have had amazing opportunities and have gone on to do cool things in their lives, as I would have expected. But they were also the ones who were the
most interesting all around people, not just the ones with the best grades. They are people with ingrained talents and engaging personalities, both of which were evident very early in their lives, and their schooling often didn't have much to do with it at all besides provide the transcript and entree they needed.
I hope your daughter aced those tests, Adam. It's a great skill to have and worth practicing since far too much of education is based on tests. But your job is to make sure that she knows that no matter what her score is, or what school she decides on, that her success in life will come from being true to herself and her talents. It's good to remind young people that the kids with the best grades and scores don't always "win" in life.
As long as she's happy, able to be herself, and surrounded by interesting, interested, and supportive children and teachers, she'll thrive. - The Mom
