I know it is a pain in the butt but hearing other stories on this forum, a lot of other places are not so great either. Some places, like MN, sound like they have great options but in MN you have to put up with 9 months of winter and a 1 month of summer.
Seriously, as I look at what DD has now -- and it is interesting that comparing her curriculum with tracey in Queens, she is nicely challenged -- except in math. And the science classes at the museum are so good and no one has posted about weekly science classes in another area. Yesterday they had tsunami simulation tanks. Who has that for 1st grade students? They had a whole staff to clean up after them. They had sheets where they had to display the before (lego buildings and plastic trees and animals) and after.
I have some friends with kids in Anderson and I know it isn't the best solution but it is accelerated, they will even do multi-year pullouts for math, for children that need it. I do not think Anderson is responsible for social skills, only parents can be blamed. I see all kinds of stuff DD experiences socially, friends that lie and boast, bully etc. It is up to me to help her sort through and learn what is acceptable and when to smile and walk away. And to make sure she doesn't imitate what is unacceptable, just to hang with certain kids.
And she is really learning in her Chinese language class. Her oral exam is next week. Yes, for $600 per year, 2.5 hours every Sat morning from Sept to June 4th (not holiday), online homework and review and oral exam. You can't get that anywhere else. And the teacher makes it fun. During snack break, they go outside and run around for a few minutes to clear their heads.
About high schools. Stuyvescant got 26 kids into Harvard last year, I think; I was just told it was 9 this year.
We had a topic a while back that talked about best high schools via US News list and then someone posted the HS ratings based on National Merit Scholars. I think if the school is large enough to provide the resources to AP or college level courses, mentors for science or other types of projects, where the students has lots of options, then it can be a good HS.
Someone mentioned DA and I remember the article profiling the students. Majority were science project kids. One was a literature kind of kid and she mentioned she felt a little out of it. I think you need all kinds of different kids to provide examples of options. It never crossed my path growing up that I could have a career on Wall Street. Most of the kids I know went to dental, medical, law school or became an accountant or an engineer. These were the things our parents or our friends' parents did. No one was an investment banker. It was purely accidental that I had my career.
Just think that if you expose a PG kid to that world in high school. Limosines, best restaurants, flying around the world in the front of the plane and staying in great hotels and everyone greets you like you are big shot and you get to ask all kinds of questions about their companies and decide if it is worth anything or what you could do with it. Or, like DH mentioned that he called a former Harvard classmate in his fundraising efforts for them. The guy has his doctorate in biology and is a professor in some small university in Maryland and is really angry that Harvard, or MIT or even Columbia didn't offer him a job and he has to struggle to get research money.
If you give the PG kid that kind of mentoring and options, how many would choose the science research? So what makes a great high school is a lot of things I think.
Ren
