US: Public v Private high school?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

(Inspired by the what are people in preppy clothes listening to now thread over on ILM.) So which did you go to? I'm guessing a lot of you overeducated types went to private school, but prove me wrong. What was it like? Did you wear a uniform? Private v public schooling FITE! (I went to public school -- Mount Vernon High School represent.)

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 31 January 2003 23:45 (twenty-three years ago)

public.

school= dud-ish. something to go through, to get yr qualifications and get out.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 31 January 2003 23:49 (twenty-three years ago)

In the UK, we call what you call private schools public schools. That is, public schools are the posh ones that you have to pay thousands to send your kid to. We call the free ones state schools. (Forgive a Brit for joining in!)

I went to a fee-paying boarding school from the age of 14, one of the pricier ones in the Bristol area. Yes, a grey suit-like uniform. It was good for me academically - I had not been working in the state school, and was middle of the top stream, and that would have been nowhere near Cambridge standard. Socially I'm less sure that it was good, and I am ideologically opposed to them.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 31 January 2003 23:51 (twenty-three years ago)

see also preppies: s/d

― jones (actual), Friday, 31 January 2003 23:52 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah I went to a state school but I just assumed Mary knew this so i typed public.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 31 January 2003 23:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I was principal student in my sixth form! State school all the way.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 31 January 2003 23:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, Brits join in to; though it hurts my head to get around what goes for public and private over there!

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 31 January 2003 23:56 (twenty-three years ago)

(American) private schools all the way. Except the last 6 months before I turned 16 and I was forced by law to go to the local state school. It was such culture shock I couldn't cope. I'd been to private schools my entire life. Often religious ones, to boot. Good old double-barrelled Prep School. Yuck. But I suppose it was good for my mind or something...

― kate, Friday, 31 January 2003 23:58 (twenty-three years ago)

What does "principal student" mean, Nick?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 31 January 2003 23:58 (twenty-three years ago)

American public school for me. But a pretty great one. Something like 90-97% goes-to-college rate. No uniforms though.

State College Area High School, or "State High" for short.

Distinctive quality is that the cliques didn't really rag on each other. Everyone just really kept to their own group.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:01 (twenty-three years ago)

(also does uk "form" = us "grade"?)

― jones (actual), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Kate, give me names! Do I hear Choate? (Note: I am asking ironically.)

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, go Knights. rah.

anyway, co-ed, reasonably priced, though less so now. I liked it even though I wasn't Catholic (about 1 in 3 is not). I would probably have done as well in public school, but I think that if you have a borderline kid (in trouble a lot), a private school can help. 99% of about 300 students per class (1200 in the school at a time), go on to at least community college.

There were uniforms. Guys had to wear button down or polo type shirts in white, navy or yellow, and had to wear slacks or nice shorts in navy or khaki. girls were the same but they could also wear skirts.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Um, kind of like 'head boy', I guess, only more up-to-date. practically what it meant was that I went to all the open evenings and gave speeches to parents, and represented student son the board of governors and such like. It got me out of working!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Monroe Twp. High School. A mediocre public school in central New Jersey - not terrible, not distinguished.

― mike a (mike a), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I've only ever been to public schools.

― Kris (aqueduct), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, the catholic schools are a whole other game right, cause they are private, but not super expensive.

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Hell. Coat and tie dress code. Single sex until 9th grade. Full of jock assholes who could torture anyone they wanted (or flunk any class) because the library was named after their Daddy. Fuck that place. (I guess you can count my vote to public.)

― bnw (bnw), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Public school, natch. Just enough education to perform!

― Nicole (Nicole), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:07 (twenty-three years ago)

UK forms don't exactly equal US grade, no, but they are also specifying years, mostly. You go to infants then juniour school (7-11) then start the First form of senior school at about 11. Fifth form is when you take your GCSEs, aged about 16 - you take up to about ten subjects. Many kids leave then. Then you go into the sixth form for two years (upper and lower sixth) to do A Levels, generally 3 or 4 subjects. Many of these go on to colleges/universities.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Public school, natch. Just enough education to perform!

You are one sick puppy. Your sister put you up to that, didn't she?

Yay public. But yay public schools that actually get the funding and teachers they need, which is a small amount, unfortunately.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Choate is not double-barrelled. ;-) My brother's school was TRIPLE barrelled!

― kate, Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I have hit rock bottom. This is my only excuse.

― Nicole (Nicole), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Teignmouth Community College roXor.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I went to a public school in rural Michigan. About 1400 students in total. I had a great time but the education was horrible. I still got into a top college but I totally felt at a disadvantage to others who had better prep...

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:11 (twenty-three years ago)

anecdotally, I know several people who were royally screwed up (pretty much tortured by classmates) by going to boarding school.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:12 (twenty-three years ago)

My school had a great educational program, it was the students I had a problem with. Almost 100% percent wannabe-preppie hateful cretins. That was the sad thing, most of them were not properly preppie, they just deluded themselves that if enough Polo or Obession were splashed on people would buy it.

― Nicole (Nicole), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I went to (U.S.) public schools, including one suburban school district for high school, which was probably better academically than I'd care to admit, but was hell socially.

― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:15 (twenty-three years ago)

i got transferred from my shitty local high school (you HAVE to see the picture on that page to understand the FEAR) to another slightly-less shitty local high school (Ms bean is still an assistant principal! oh my GOD!) It was better because: it was a 45-minute drive into the rich part of Knoxville. anyway this was right at the beginning of a state-mandated desegregation thing with lots of "busing" of students around (yes folks this = 1989); i think my parents felt a little weird because i was jumping ship to try and get in the rich-type public school at the same time that all these other kids were getting yanked out of their normal places with no choice in the matter, but fuck it, we thought, we ALL thought: my school sucked. and thank fuck i transferred, the teachers were tons better and there wasn't the same hick vs thrasher dynamic, which got old REAL REAL QUICK. anyway the reason i got the transfer approved was because i knew the name of the painting behind the superintendent's desk when i went in for my interview and he didn't (Empire of Light by Magritte). ha! guess you can learn something even in the shitty local school, huh?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:19 (twenty-three years ago)

you HAVE to see the picture on that page to understand the FEAR

Nice brick box there.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:20 (twenty-three years ago)

thanks martin, i've wondered about that for ages.

public for me too, in b.c. (the province, not Before Christ, although almost)

― jones (actual), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:20 (twenty-three years ago)

US public school. It's all right, about a third of the people go to community college and another third go to four-year colleges. I am quite glad that there's only one semester left though.

Boarding school always sounded fun. Is it?

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:21 (twenty-three years ago)

where are the windows, Ned? What have they done with the WINDOWS???

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Why the fuck does a school have custodial staff? ELEVEN of them?!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:22 (twenty-three years ago)

The role of the janitor in the American public school is sacred, Nick. Thus Freddy Krueger.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:24 (twenty-three years ago)

did anyone here go to Exeter (USA) boarding school?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:25 (twenty-three years ago)

How about perving principals that get caught having sex with the friends of their teenager daughter? That happened to my principal! Considering his daughter (my classmate) was the most stuck up bitch of cheerleader ever to walk the earth I have to admit this news made me very happy.

No wonder the principal showed so much favoritism to her friends...

― Nicole (Nicole), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:27 (twenty-three years ago)

i did a veritable private school TOUR from grades 9 to 11. One of them spawned the D1x1e ChiXorZ (Emily was the grade ahead) and another schooled hollyood 'it' boyz Owen and Luke Wilson, as well as Rh3tt Miller (0ld 97s). Hated both of those schools.

All very rich, very sheltered, very strong academically, and uniformly lame except the one in KS that produced no famous people.

― Aaron A., Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:29 (twenty-three years ago)

My public school was in the Minneapolis suburbs. It had 1/3 Jewish students with a strong educational focus (people were interesting; one guy was related to Trotsky; lots of parents and grandparents with intellectual properties and money), 1/3 Lutheran Minnewegians and 1/3 Catholic students - plus a further 10 per cent of immigrants' kids. There weren't many black kids but those who were there weren't just from the professional classes. Most of the AP teachers had doctorates. The teachers liked it there and were for the most part good to the kids, and a lot of them were teaching students whose parents had been in their classes years before. They had a counselor dedicated to getting the top stream into the best possible colleges, networking the fuck out of us, and seemed to really like the fact that they were doing this job.

The school even seemed to offer a decent education to people who weren't in the top stream. There was a radio and TV station, an open campus policy, and enough rapport with teachers who'd let you do anything as long as you could discuss it like an adult. I thought the only kids who went to private school in Minnesota were headcases or had East Coast parents who didn't know better.

― suzy (suzy), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, at my school the football coach (who was married) got a student pregnant! And he kept his job! She was a senior (so I assume 18) so they didn't do anything about it.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:37 (twenty-three years ago)

i went to a public high school. we had a uniform. it was red.

― di smith (lucylurex), Saturday, 1 February 2003 00:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I went to public school in Chicago until I was 13. Then, my mother sent me to private school in Evanston [an enrollment of 80. it used to be an all-girls jewish school]. There were too many niggers in the Chicago, she said.

― phil-two, Saturday, 1 February 2003 01:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Yikes. I went to a really fancy Catholic high school.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Saturday, 1 February 2003 01:38 (twenty-three years ago)

mr. appelstein went to Monroe Twsp High ... i went to Hillsborough Twsp High -- and i think we're both Rutgers (a public university) alum, yes? neighbors, practically.

(i spent a year at a private l-school [villanova]) -- other than that, it's all been public schools.

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 1 February 2003 02:01 (twenty-three years ago)

How about perving principals that get caught having sex with the friends of their teenager daughter? That happened to my principal!

Oh dear. I hope the humiliation was detailed and hilarious.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 1 February 2003 02:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Have any of you seen a John Hughes movie? I went to a school like that in the North Chicago suburbs at about the same time.

― felicity (felicity), Saturday, 1 February 2003 02:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Smart/talented kids in NYC usually end up applying to one of a number of "specialized" public schools that you need to test or audition for: LaGuardia (Performing Arts), Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech. I went to LaGuardia. My education wasn't so great, and my grades were horrible, but I still got accepted into the most academically rigorous college in the SUNY system, the one where all my nerdy friends ended up going. And eventually I got a pretty good job because the interviewer was an alum of my college. So it wasn't a total loss.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:14 (twenty-three years ago)

SUNY Purchase (a/k/a SUNY Poor Choice)!

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:21 (twenty-three years ago)

which SUNY college is that, Jody?

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:24 (twenty-three years ago)

seriously, some public universities are pretty damn good (like SUNY Binghamton, UCLA [hi Ned!], Penn State [whose alum network would put some Ivies to shame], Illinois, and my alma mater Rutgers). and a select few -- U Michigan, Virginia, UNC Chapel Hill, Berkeley -- are almost as selective as the most selective private schools.

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:26 (twenty-three years ago)

i know. i'm just curious because i may be a future product of the suny system. dun dun dun!

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:28 (twenty-three years ago)

has anyone seen that terrible 80s movie, "private school"? or am i the only person in the world unfortunate enough?

― di smith (lucylurex), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Large, 2,800-student suburban public high scool. I adored it, mostly.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:46 (twenty-three years ago)

I was always in public school. I went to V.I. Grissom HS in Alabama, which is named after a dead astronaut, and out of my entire graduating class of something like 600+ people the most common surname was Patel.

Space & Rocket center kind of flavored my early life a bit, I think.

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:47 (twenty-three years ago)

even the theme song gives me shudders.

― di smith (lucylurex), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:51 (twenty-three years ago)

speaking of theme songs, what about school songs? did everyone's school have a special crappy song that you sang on all crappy formal occassions?

― di smith (lucylurex), Saturday, 1 February 2003 03:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I went to public high school for the first two years before switching to a weird/cool "alternative" private school for the last two. I still cannot believe they let me work in a record store for a month and a half for my "off-campus" project...

― Jen (nstop), Saturday, 1 February 2003 04:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Here's my high school: http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/MtVernonHS/

Feel free to post pictures of your high school self; bonus points if in uniform.

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 1 February 2003 04:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I jumped out of the womb with silver spoon in mouth straight into the private school system for kindergarden on through high school (Stuart Hall in SF, La Jolla Country Day then Bishops (with Andy Cunanan no less!), then to a boarding school in LA (Webb Schools anyone?) for 10-12). From there I went straight to Cal (UC Berkeley, w/ ilx'er Spencer Chow), which was something like 30,000 kids strong, and I found it, interestingly, small.

Have since pawned said silver spoon.

― Colin Saunders (csaunders), Saturday, 1 February 2003 04:41 (twenty-three years ago)

which SUNY college is that, Jody?

Binghamton.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 1 February 2003 04:51 (twenty-three years ago)

but Colin, I know you kept the 1/16th scale train set running through your apartment!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 1 February 2003 05:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Private. 40%+ Jewish. Shares namesake with Ilx poster.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 1 February 2003 05:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Bishops (with Andy Cunanan no less!)

So YOU'RE to blame!

UCLA [hi Ned!]

Yay me!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 1 February 2003 05:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Public all the way. Why? b/c I'm really a commie and believe in education for the masses not just those who can afford an alternative.

Also, parents who take their kids out of public schools are contributing to their decline. Care about your kid's education? Be involved! Fight for what they need! White flight is evil.

my edu: inner-city high school. 80% "minority" (pretty equally mixed btw black, mexican and vietnamese). murders, gang wars, bomb threats etc. as all you would expect. I was the only student from my class to go away to college. :(

the school I teach now. . . 100% "minority" (about 75% black, rest mexican), Title 1 (which means all of our students qualify for free lunches), two shootings at the HS down the street so far although we've only had one knife situ. so far. Out of 30 middle schools in Dallas we are ranked, uh, 30th.

schools like this need smart caring people involved. namely those who are blood-related to the children it educates but beggars can't be choosers you know.

― That Girl (thatgirl), Saturday, 1 February 2003 05:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I went to this boarding school. The campus was exceedingly beautiful, and I went for a hike on the adjacent mountain almost daily. The students were a mixed bag. A lot of quasi-preppies and quasi-hippies, but also some very smart and friendly people. The teachers were all quite marvelous. I was still miserable. I still have not figured out why.
I had to wear trousers, a button-down shirt, and a blazer or jacket. Also, no sneakers. I rather liked the dress code, actually.

I have never gone to public school. From Junior Kindergarten until 8th grade (TEN years), I attended Burgundy Farms Country Day School. The school used to be a farm. We had animals. They ate our leftover lunches. It was founded by parents, almost as a collective, in the 1940s as, if I remember correctly, the first nonsegregated school in Virginia. Noted journalist Eric Sevareid was involved. The school became more posh as the hippy parents became more posh, essentially the Reagan years in microcosm. By the end of my tenure, all of the parents drove Jaguars and thought that the other parents were hippies. The other parents drove Jaguars, too.

I don't like to think about my years in school. Considering the high level of education I was presented with, I realize just how much I have fucked up my life :'-(

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Saturday, 1 February 2003 05:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember Burgundy Farms!

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 1 February 2003 05:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Yay!

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Saturday, 1 February 2003 06:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What part of town is your school in, That Girl? I am guessing S. Dallas or west (Oak Cliff) but I'm curious.

― Aaron A., Saturday, 1 February 2003 06:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Deep in the Cliff, Aaron.

― That Girl (thatgirl), Saturday, 1 February 2003 06:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Spencer: my girlfriend's dad went to Exeter.

― Kris (aqueduct), Saturday, 1 February 2003 06:19 (twenty-three years ago)

That Girl, what do you teach?

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 1 February 2003 06:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Felicity, which suburb? Part of Home Alone was filmed in a friend's foyer, and certain scenes from another such film were shot at Haven in Evanston.

Someone else mentioned going to private school in Evanston; do you mean Roycemore? If so I work 1/2 block away from it.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 1 February 2003 07:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Someone else mentioned going to private school in Evanston; do you mean Roycemore? If so I work 1/2 block away from it

Actually, yeah... Roycemore. It looks nice from the outside, doesn't it? Each class has about 20 kids. 10 are rich bastards who have been booted out of every other prep school in the city, 5 are rich bastards whose parents realize that their child is too fucked up to survive at a real high school, 3 are black kids on scholarship for racial diversity, and 2 got academic scholarships. Guess which one I was.

Do you work at D&D Hot Dogs? I love the cheese sticks and chicken tenders.

― phil-two, Saturday, 1 February 2003 07:45 (twenty-three years ago)

How many people here went to public school in suburban Maryland? I swear, it stinks of Montgomery County. Public school, Virginia. Bare feet almost mandatory, co-ed bathrooms, called teachers by first names, classes on Disney movies and video games. Completely to blame for turning me into a reactionary, though in retrospect I was lucky to have it.

― Chris H., Saturday, 1 February 2003 07:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, I forgot to mention. Before public school, I went to a Montessori school in Chicago [actually, park ridge] called Children's Learning World... Age 4 - 8. It was great - we played stupid learning games and shit, like math golden beads and reading & racing, or something. But then there was a huge scandal that two of the teachers were recruiting students & parents for their new School of Scientology - and the school fell apart when half the enrollment deserted en masse to this new school.

― phil-two, Saturday, 1 February 2003 07:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Do you work at D&D Hot Dogs?

No, I work at Northwestern!

My mom sent me to a Montessori school in Chicago for a day when I was about 8, to see what I thought. It was evident to me even at that age that all that unstructured time, and all the little bead games and so forth in place of written work, was a bad idea. I spent my whole life in public schools until college.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 1 February 2003 08:01 (twenty-three years ago)

My sister went to Montessori. Legend was they did wacky stuff like teaching you algebra at age 6. My parents obviously didn't think I could hack it.

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 1 February 2003 08:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Shermer High School -- we were in your conference, souvenez-vous?

Sorry to kid but I'm just a little weird/touchy about putting info like that online, "Amateurist" ;) nabisco has been to my parent's house -- you can ask him. When it warms up I'll come back for a weekend and we can all compare notes.

A swimming scene from Ordinary People was filmed at our high school's pool, or maybe just with our swim team, I forget. We had house parties where we danced in our natural fider clothing to New Wave records from Wax Trax and Vintage Vinyl. 16 Candles and Breakfast Club seemed quite realistic except how did they get Simple Minds to play at the prom???

Every so often a student would transfer from the Catholic high school down the road. These were invariably kids who had been kicked out and were quite glamorous to us. In turn, the North Shore Country Day and Ferry Hall Academy (hur-hur, "Fairy Hall" ) kids considered us pretty trashy. We were.

― felicity (felicity), Saturday, 1 February 2003 08:57 (twenty-three years ago)

or was that OMD? Anyway, the Psychedelic Furs played Harper College so I suppose it could happen.

― felicity (felicity), Saturday, 1 February 2003 09:00 (twenty-three years ago)

or was that OMD? Anyway, the Psychedelic Furs played Harper Junior College so I suppose it could happen.

― felicity (felicity), Saturday, 1 February 2003 09:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, we [Roycemore] were in North Shore Country Day's conference for awhile until we were booted out and then joined the Metro Prep league with two Orthodox Jewish schools [Yeshiva and Ida Crown]. Anyhow, we hated NSCD, but we always beat them in girls basketball because we had two girls that were 6'4"... We also hated Ida Crown because their boys basketball team all wore matching Red Nike Scottie Pippen shoes and had corny introduction warmups to "Eye of the Tiger" and there would always be offical timeouts so the players could pick up their yarmulkes when they fell off. Also, they always beat us.

I was always so jealous of my friends who went to public high school in Chicago that had real basketball teams.

― phil-two, Saturday, 1 February 2003 09:17 (twenty-three years ago)

jealous, really?

For some reason this reminds me of the Mr. Burns quote from the Simpsons re: the Harvard-Yale game "Let them have their 'football' and their 'academics.' Yale will always be the leader in gentlemanly club life."

― felicity (felicity), Saturday, 1 February 2003 09:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I went to state school, just yr normal run-of-the-mill grotty high school (we think we're good, but not that many people get good exam results). I hated it, in hindsight. Then, I went to a college because they scrapped the 6th form. Then it was my local uni, which is way down on the list. After, that I went to another lowly uni to get my MA. I'd like to do a PHd at Brunel (one day).

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 1 February 2003 10:27 (twenty-three years ago)

and pretty much every high school over here has a school uniform.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 1 February 2003 10:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I am a posh kid, and spent 14 years in paid for education. 10 years at Kings College School, Wimbledon turned me into a right-wing arsehole until I was about 15, when I discovered how much more fun a) people from state schools and b) girls were than my arrogant classmates. I did get a very good education, though.

― Mark C (Mark C), Saturday, 1 February 2003 14:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't suppose anyone here went to the liberal Summerhill school in the UK, subject of a Panorama documentary in the 80's? I'd love to know what it's like.

― stephen. s (yaye), Saturday, 1 February 2003 14:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I went to public school in Maryland, but in the western part of the state, so.. let's just say we didn't have all the advantages of Montgomery County. (What's a magnet school, I wondered when I got to college, as I tried to figure out how anyone could have taken more than 2 AP classes, 'cause my school only had 2)..

― daria g, Saturday, 1 February 2003 18:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Mary, I teach in Dallas. I don't want to say the name of the school on the Internet since I talk about a lot of things that happen that I probably really shouldn't.

Are you from the metroplex? Aaron?

― That Girl (thatgirl), Saturday, 1 February 2003 18:34 (twenty-three years ago)

In meatspace I don't know anyone that went to private school except perhaps a working-class Catholic school. My public school experience was much like That Girl's except it was the rural version. Some kids had an hour-long bus ride into town...we were that isolated, in the middle of the desert. Still only 100 kids per grade, probably 20% of graduating class went to a university. Bit of a misleading statistic though, as most kids dropped out as soon as they could to go work with their parents as migrant laborers. So many of the kids were so poor...dirt floors, no telephone, etc. I felt ludicrously wealthy until I went to university.

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 1 February 2003 20:35 (twenty-three years ago)

"hail hail to old state high!
hail maroon and grey!
to our alma mater fair...
we pledge our lives for aye."

how's that for some sad shit.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 1 February 2003 21:08 (twenty-three years ago)

"and pretty much every high school over here has a school uniform"

descriptions please! so i can perv, i mean, relate!

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 1 February 2003 21:49 (twenty-three years ago)

What Mr. Diamond said, although mine was a semi-urban Mich school. Only 4 of us made it into the state 'ivy league' (U. Michigan) and only 3 of us actually graduated (one dropped out and became a drug addict). I finished near the bottom of my class, although I did manage to go on to law school (thank god for standardized tests).

― webcrack (music=crack), Saturday, 1 February 2003 23:49 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.