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yendiTook Elayna to her High School Night of Excellence last night. It was the first of two intros/orientations they offer to the eighth graders (the other one is in March).
I'm genuinely blown away by her school.
Remember, I went to a private school that wasn't exactly shabby -- it produced the world's most famous sex addict, The Joker (version 1), and the biggest asshole at the New York Times, as well as one of my favorite directors. More importantly, it prepared me well for college (and life beyond it) and let me focus on developing a lot of useful skills.
Elayna's high school reminds me of it in a lot of ways, way more than I expected from a small-town high school. Hell, I wasn't expecting her high school to have a headmaster instead of a principal, for starters.
But this school focuses extensively on individualized learning; there are a lot more electives than I'd expected, as well as a major focus on art, band, chorus, and other activities. There's CAD, a full (and huge) cable TV studio, wireless access, a great learning center, engineering, and all sorts of other stuff. Thirteen AP classes (and plenty more honors courses). Small classes. One of the food classes (there are two of them) made gingerbread and coffeecake for us. Fourteen sports teams. Tons of clubs. Trips to Australia and China within the last year (as well as a band trip to New York City)!
This is in a high school of 700 students, by the way.
Elayna's already excited about the idea of re-starting the school's radio station. If we can get her half as excited about the school's academics, I'll be damned pleased.
I'm genuinely blown away by her school.
Remember, I went to a private school that wasn't exactly shabby -- it produced the world's most famous sex addict, The Joker (version 1), and the biggest asshole at the New York Times, as well as one of my favorite directors. More importantly, it prepared me well for college (and life beyond it) and let me focus on developing a lot of useful skills.
Elayna's high school reminds me of it in a lot of ways, way more than I expected from a small-town high school. Hell, I wasn't expecting her high school to have a headmaster instead of a principal, for starters.
But this school focuses extensively on individualized learning; there are a lot more electives than I'd expected, as well as a major focus on art, band, chorus, and other activities. There's CAD, a full (and huge) cable TV studio, wireless access, a great learning center, engineering, and all sorts of other stuff. Thirteen AP classes (and plenty more honors courses). Small classes. One of the food classes (there are two of them) made gingerbread and coffeecake for us. Fourteen sports teams. Tons of clubs. Trips to Australia and China within the last year (as well as a band trip to New York City)!
This is in a high school of 700 students, by the way.
Elayna's already excited about the idea of re-starting the school's radio station. If we can get her half as excited about the school's academics, I'll be damned pleased.