QOTW: High Schooling

January 27, 2008 | Filed under Family & Friends, Q.O.T.W., Uni/Work

With my brother poised to enter high school next year, I’ve been spending a lot of time recently researching various nearby schools and their academic and extracurricular policies. Seeing my brother have a well-rounded education which caters to his personal strengths is important to me. For two non-high-school-graduates as my parents, just getting an education, any education, is the important part.

Ideally, I think the points that a school must fulfill (to suit my brother’s needs), would be:

  1. Highly ethnically diversified school community.
    • I personally attended a high school comprised primarily of white middle-class kids who had their first cars given to them as a birthday present. I hope my brother will grow up surrounded by all races, learning to see people as who they are, not simply the colour of their skin.
  2. Strong emphasis on students assuming leadership roles.
    • My brother is actually quite shy and withdrawn. I’d like to see him have the chance to join committees and the like, to have opportunities to have his opinions heard by large numbers of people.
  3. Encouragement of academic extension outside of the classroom (e.g. university-led academic competitions, Tournament of Minds, camping trips examining local botany, etc.).
    • He is, by nature, lazy and prefers spending hours (days even!) on his Playstation over doing a spot of reading or anything that might take him ahead of his peers in academic stakes. It’s a bit of a shock for my parents after having a daugther who devours book after book after book. Making him do something outside of what is compulsory is essential.
  4. Wide selection of subjects in VCE, especially when it comes to choices of second language studies.
    • At my high school, I was only offered French, German, and Indonesian as second language possibilities. I think with Australia’s political and economic position, it makes more sense for a school to offer languages such as Chinese, Japanese, or even Sudanese.
  5. Excellent career guidance and student welfare services.
    • My brother is somewhat effeminate, and I can already see him being taunted by more macho members of the male student population. Thus, the school would need to have a good guidance counsellor, and excellent disciplinary strategies.

As you can tell, I have very stringent requirements. Essentially however, all these requirements are aimed at helping my brother do better than I did in high school. To help him score above my 97.35 (top 3% of the state!), to help him be more involved in his school’s extracurriculars (I only played football and soccer, and filmed and edited the school’s musical production), to give him a better idea of what he’d like to do post-high school (instead of dicking about for two years in a course he hates the way I did), and essentially, to be happier (as opposed to my voiceless endurance of the daily grind).

You’ll note that I didn’t include anything regarding the standard of teaching, the facilities and equipment standard, or anything along those lines. I believe (and always have) that ultimately, one’s academic achievements depends on one’s own motivation and willingness to put one’s head down and learn. No number of personal laptops, Bunsen burners, flashy technological equipment, or world-class teachers can replace that simple ingredient for success.

While I know that the majority of the readers here are nowhere near a stage of their lives where they have to assess high schools for their own child, I’d like to know:

Questions of the Week: Did you have any input into the schools that you attended? Were you given the chance to choose a school that catered to your interests? Or was your school chosen for you by your parents?

22 Responses to QOTW: High Schooling

  1. The schools in my town are equally awful, we were new to the area, and we didn’t know really what to expect. We did the school tours (I wanted to go to the big school my friends were going to — but it was just too big and at the time I was too shy) so my parents picked somewhere more appropriate.

    Anyway, I partly agree with you but don’t (essentially) on your second paragraph. Maybe those things aren’t directly proportional to success but, my God, I bet they help. At my school we have failing equipment, the teachers who are appalling cannot be fired because we cannot get the replacements and we don’t even have white paint in the art department! It makes success that much harder. Because you’re not just trying to excel in the curriculum — you have so many more obstacles you have to get over too. I’d say finding somewhere like that is of really high importance…

    My school is now an “emotionally intelligent” school. Whatever that means!

    Amber on January 28, 2008 #

  2. I didn’t get any say, really, in what high school I went to! I think being the oldest meant I did everything first, and so the ‘rents weren’t experienced in enrolling me and all that. However! I think they chose a decent school: It’s definitely ethically diverse, and the equipment, teachers etc. are good enough. There are definitely better schools out there which I could have gotten a scholarship for (Or my parents could have coughed up more dough for.. Heh) but, then again, they didn’t know about all that scholarship stuff until it was too late.

    I agree with you (mostly) about the facilities not having to be state of the art to = good education. My brother and his friend are always endlessly complaining about teachers and how they are out to suck their blood or do equally evil things. Their defence for saying those things about their teachers is “if they were good teachers we wouldn’t insult them like this!”. But they are good teachers! You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, right.

    Although, I do think facilities and stuff need to be to a certain standard make people want to learn and whatnot… I’m sure it would be very discouraging to find that the art room only has two different types of brushes and only primary colours when it comes to paint!

    Melinda on January 28, 2008 #

  3. I was given the choice of two schools: a private one with a huge fee, or a public one which everyone I knew was going to.
    I probably should have chosen the private one, it’s the one my parents wanted me to go to, but I ultimately picked the public one. I’m too much of a wuss to enter a new school all by myself.

    Kristina on January 28, 2008 #

  4. I guess I had a choice, as they did ask me, but I remember whenever I suggested any other school they did their best to be as vague and off putting as possible.

    We didn’t have student counseling, nor many extracurricular activities. There was a debate club, but that wasn’t offered by the school per se.

    We did have very good teachers though, who managed to make us enthusiastic about their subjects, so that we’d participate in national contest (our class won the most prizes in the school).

    That’s why I ended up choosing computer science. The teacher really made it look so interesting and challenging… plus she had a way of making me want to strive for the best.

    Then again, here we don’t have all those facilities like abroad. They’re trying to do that, but only private school actually implement them well.

    Vera on January 28, 2008 #

  5. My school was more like a selection. You get all As for your Primary Certificate of Education and you’re in, provided you’re a local. I wanted to remain at my previous school though, but my parents told me that the bills would kill them. My school is considered the best school here, with the best facilities, teachers, etc. I doubt it. To me, it’s like any other school.

    Chien Yee on January 28, 2008 #

  6. My school was chosen for me by location; the thought of attending a private school didn’t even enter any member of my family’s head. My best friend in eighth grade, the girl who was poised to be class valedictorian, ended up going to a private prep school/convent in the city. She’s smart, I’m smart. I don’t think her “better” high school education will make her future any better than mine, though; it’s college that people see on one’s resume.

    This is why I’m confused by your second to last paragraph: if it all rests on the individual, why all the “stringent requirements”? For perspective, my measly public school education was enough to get me into a “top-ten” university, even though my high school only offered French and Spanish, and there are *maybe* five extracurricular activities that mean anything. I didn’t need to go to an awesome-super-great high school for that, and I expect my true growth to take place during college. To extend the contrariness even further, it was probably encouraging, exciting teachers that gave me the most throughout my high school experience — no amount of extracurriculars or forced leadership could have helped me grow as they did, because they were the ones who helped my interests and voice blossom.

    I don’t know about your brother, but I was still a child when I entered high school, and only now that I’m about to graduate do I think I have any semblance of adulthood in me. That said, if your brother would rather play video games than read, it’s up to him to change; it seems to me like he’s still a kid, and no matter what environment he’s put in, it’s all going to be up to him to change.

    Of course, I might end up “dicking about” like you, since I have no idea what I want to do after high school other than learn. I’m saving that for college.

    It all depends on the person, I guess. You strike me as a “helicopter sister,” which is good for your brother if it really will help, but I know that I personally would resent such control over my future and would yell at you to butt out of my business if I were him.

    P.S. In my experience, putting rednecks and gangstas in the same school can make both groups even more racist towards each other, if only because ignorance and stereotypes are so easy to perpetuate in such an environment. Diversity only works when everybody is willing to see past it.

    Leila on January 28, 2008 #

  7. I chose my school completely by myself. Near me, there are about 7 or 8 quite good schools, and a few more with a lower reputation. I was first choosing between two top schools, but after “information day” (when you get to visit three schools of your choice), I easily decided for one. My parents agreed, but if I chose the other one (or some other school), they would not tell me not to go there, because they knew I can chose a good school for myself.
    The schools I chose from are not very different, except maybe the one I chose is known to give more attention to languages.

    Nika on January 28, 2008 #

  8. I’ve chosen my own secondary school last year and I like it. It is true, though, that there aren’t such big differences between secondary schools here – there are two or three that are supposed to be “better”, but I am not sure if they really are.
    I’ve chosen this school because it is close to where I live and I liked the school subjects and activities, but if I have lived somewhere else, I would probably have chosen another one. Time spent driving everyday and not studying or doing anything else actually – it’s just not worth it.

    Zala on January 28, 2008 #

  9. I went to an opportunity class from year 4 to 6 then a selective school for all of high school. Both were based on a system of state-run tests for kids who excelled academically. Not sure if you call that a choice as it was just expected that I sit for the exams and go to the school I got into.

    I did horrendously in the last two years of primary as I was surrounded by uber smart kids. High school was better and I really enjoyed the emphasis on learning (though the one I went to wasn’t terribly well funded).

    Certainly the most practical skill I got out of it was using public transportation. From the age of about 10 I had to get used to riding two buses to school and two back with about 40 minute trip one way, and it was a little more for high school. One got used to it and it’s helpful being familiar with buses and trains.

    Belinda on January 28, 2008 #

  10. I didn’t decide, and my parents didn’t decide. There is only one high school in my town, so that is where I went. Inter-city transfer is not allowed (not that I’d want to go to their school either).

    If I wanted to go to a ~good~ high school, I would have to move somewhere at least three hours away.

    But I don’t really think my life has been ruined by my choice of schools. It was my decision to get involved, to get college-ready. I didn’t need my school telling me that.

    Jennnifer on January 28, 2008 #

  11. I had a choice between continuing with French school, or going to English school. I chose English school. I was fortunate that the English school also had an excellent drama program, and great academics. The French school only had great academics. Ultimately, it was the best choice for me, although I did lose a lot of my French. Which was sad. But life has a way of sorting itself out, and I got to gain my French back, by living with French people for almost a year.

    Aisling on January 28, 2008 #

  12. I come from a very small village, so I had no choice. There’s only one school, where everyone but one person was white when I attended it.

    There are three other high schools within thirty minutes by car, but my parents certainly wouldn’t drive me there and there is no organized transport (i.e. no buses).

    Besides, the quality of the other high schools was pretty much equivalent to that of the one I attended.

    Julie on January 28, 2008 #

  13. All possibilities taken into consideration, during Primary School, I was poised to enter a selective school – if I applied myself in the admissions exam. But I didn’t – and ended up missing out on going to a Selective school by two marks.

    Ergo, I had no choice but to go to my local public high school – this was decided based on contributing factors such as proximity, and … proximity. I could have gone to another high school within my area, but I was (and remained so for the following six years) a lazy bugger.

    So instead of being able to take the bus for 10 minutes or so on a daily basis to a secondary college in my area that ended up ranking in the top 300 schools out of the 600 in NSW, I opted to go to a high school with a 2007 rank of 490th/600-odd, that was a five- to ten-minute walk away. *sigh*

    I’m not too savvy on the inner workings of the VCE compared to the HSC, but best of luck to Jackie on this!

    Xuan on January 28, 2008 #

  14. If I asked to go to another school, my parents probably would have let me, but I would have been the one bearing the extra transportation times and all that. As it stands, my high school is the closest and all my friends go there, and it’s reputation isn’t that bad.

    Kaylee on January 28, 2008 #

  15. I only had the choice of two schools. I lived in a small city on the northern side and there were only two schools that had bus routes from my house. One was co-ed, the other was vagina-only. I ended up going to the single sex one because I liked the uniform better.

    I went to a co-ed school later on though and I was surprised at how much bitchier the girls were with boys around. I ended up leaving after only three months to be homeschooled.

    Nellie on January 28, 2008 #

  16. Mine was by location as well. You lived in this town and its surrounding area, you automatically went to this high school.

    It was actually a pretty good high school until after I moved out of state, and then we find out about kids shooting their girlfriend’s parents (yup, that was my town) and people shooting cops and all that jazz.

    When I moved out of state, I didn’t want to enter a new school for just my senior year, so I homeschooled myself. Talk about the best school ever, seriously.

    Meli on January 28, 2008 #

  17. Chosen by my parents. I went to Sacred Heart High School when I was in London. My parents said, “if it’s good enough for the prime minister’s daughter then it’s good enough for us.” I couldn’t really argue. It was a good school though, I enjoyed my stay there.

    When we moved here to the Philippines, the school was chosen by convenience. All high schools here are equally crap.

    Kat on January 28, 2008 #

  18. Oh I said from the beginning I HAD to go to the school my brother went too because it was 1) a really good school with lots of different classes, organizations, activities etc. and 2) it was a hell of a lot better than even the best school in my district.

    The schools in my area suck and luckily I was able to transfer. It was pretty unfortunate that they cut down the number of transfers my year though…most (almost all) my friends who wanted to go there were not allowed in because they just didn’t want any transfers. The only bad thing was that everyone in the “smart” classes was SUPER smart…that’s stiff competition, lol.

    marilyn on January 28, 2008 #

  19. My school is quite small, which means its support system is great. The teachers tend to know everyone, and most of them care about your well-being so it’s not difficult to get support (so long as you get along with said teachers, anyway…). On the other hand, there aren’t many subjects offered at VCE at all. We don’t even offer languages at year 10, let alone VCE. Many students choose to do a subject through correspondence, because the blocks are three subjects each and sometimes they’re all pretty bad. There just aren’t enough students (~60 per year level) to justify having more than three subjects in a block.

    It’s definitely ethnically diverse, though. At VCE, maybe as little as a third of the students are white, and less if you’re only talking about Anglo-Celtic whites. I love that aspect of it; my friends have come from all over the world, and I get to learn about how things are in Kenya, China, Korea, PNG, etc.. They have a subschool which teaches intensive English, and that attracts many non-Anglo-Celtic people to the school.

    My school has an “accelerated” class for years 7-9; while the work isn’t really harder, your classmates are more intelligent (and less likely to drop out), and the teachers give you more credit and will, say, give you analytical questions rather than comprehension. And they try to force you to do competitions, but you can get out of them easily.

    I might be biased – as you may have realised, I like my school. Since its choice of subjects is fairly poor, it probably doesn’t meet your stringent requirements (and it could be too far away, anyway). Good luck finding a suitable school! :)

    Jessica on January 28, 2008 #

  20. Here in the US, you cant choose what school you go to unless you bring in the voucher system or pay for a private school. It is based on districts and where they draw the line determines where you go depending on where you live.

    My last high school offered Spanish and French for languages. I took Spanish…

    Skye on January 29, 2008 #

  21. I went to a school that was one step below amazing for me. The same school was absolutely horrible for my brother, and is only mediocre for my sister. Don’t you think you should let him choose the school he’s going to?

    As a side note, you might also want to increase the font size in your comments box. I didn’t realize how tiny it was until right now :p

    Mike Haddad on January 29, 2008 #

  22. I went to a selective school — which was kind of a choice, as I chose which four schools I wanted to be considered for, in addition to the local high school. But I wouldn’t recommend it, ’cause the environment it provided was rather sheltered and confined. Those who attended tended to be the “good” kids, who … well, studied, as their main priority. It works, I think, if your main focus is academic education and not a “well-rounded” individual who can take on all sorts of people regardless of race/intelligence.

    Jen on January 30, 2008 #

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