What really bugs me about the Specialized Science High Schools

[conuly]

is the way nobody in this city will ever shut up about them. Especially Stuy. People are obsessed. And then some bright spark will inevitably say that the solution is to "fix the other schools" or "fix the middle and elementary schools" which... yes, it would be very nice if all schools in the city were very good schools, but people would still never ever stop their endless harping on these specific schools.

The state is now considering holding hearings on the subject of the SHSAT. I'm considering going, but as my only input is "The scoring is whack, we don't know if it tests for what it says it tests for, and those schools are overrated, and everybody in this room needs to seriously get a grip" I'm not sure I'd be quite welcome. Literally nobody ever appreciates my truth.

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Comments

[dewline]

I wondered who else was going to notice and take heart from that particular news item from Slovakia.

[conuly]

Me, that's who!

[batwrangler]

You could wear a sticker that says, "Hello, my name is Cassandra".

[conuly]

With all the STEM obsession, would anybody get it?

[zesty_pinto]

Sounds like you're getting a taste of the Asians.

Because seriously, that was all I heard during my tween-to-teen years between "SAT" this and "SAT" that.

Incidentally, I have a friend who came from Stuy and she told me it was traumatizing.

[conuly]

The SHSAT schools do have rather a large Asian population, for reasons unknown. That's why the lawsuit, with both sides alleging racism.

You know, I went googling for one article on how those schools are overrated (they are, they really, really are) and I found another one from somebody who entered the same year I did. He had an overall more positive view of that school, but his article reiterated many things I remember - including, from his perspective, the fact that many students simply disappeared during his four years there, and yes, that affected him. I don't know what that surprised me - that's what I did, isn't it? - but it did. Seeing your classmates fall off the radar has got to have an effect!

And it's proof of what I've been saying. It's not just one or two kids who end up transferring out. Their success, those schools, depends on kids leaving because there isn't a support structure ready-made for students who start to struggle, emotionally or academically, once they arrive in high school. And it's so unnecessary! Every kid who entered 9th grade that year could've stayed there if the school had been willing to do its job and actually educate its entire incoming class.

[zesty_pinto]

You're reminding me as well about the articles about the problem these magnet schools do to brain drain other schools in the process, too. Not much to win from.

Though I know in my case, I think we envied those schools because they offered more options. At the time I was a teen, no one else had robotics classes. Columbia didn't make their own school (with that sketchy but justifiable lottery system). So many problems with the education infrastructure no matter how I think about it.

[greghousesgf]

There's a pool in my apt bldg and I wish some mermaids would show up.
Loved the D&D article!