High School Visit

I'm very excited for our upcoming trip to the high school--I love seeing new learning environments, and, this being a selective public school, I am eager to see what sort of differences there are here as compared to a regular public school, without an entrance exam. That being said, I don't know that I support public charter schools, as we call them in DC. I see their merit, in bringing students who don't have the opportunity to go to private school to a higher-level educational enivronment. But I also see how they might be detrimental to communities, where the kids who are left behind in the local public schools are even more likely to be neglected, with more resources going to help the kids who are already succeeding rather than going to those who have not yet reached success.

I do not mean in any way to say that the students at the high school do not merit their teachers' attention or that schools with an entrance exam are all fundamentally harmful--they certainly are not. I'm certain that the high school is teriffic, and I am very intrigued by the idea of going there and seeing students who are in the place where we were only a year ago, finishing high school and trying to decide what to do the next year. I hope to offer the students counsel that it really does all turn out fine (as I would have loved to have someone say to me about this time last year). But I also hope that I can learn from them, and what they are interested in, and what makes their high school experience special. It's very cool that they get to spend the whole year working on a senior project, and I hope to be able to discuss that with some of the students.