Blog Post 1
My first experience with elite schools was in third grade. My parents started looking into private schools for my brother and I after my brother expressed his hatred for school in general. I think they were mostly concerned about my brother’s shenanigans and frequent trips to the principal’s office, but they decided that if he were to look at other, more elite, schools they would only feel like unbiased parents if they gave me that opportunity as well. They tried to explain to me the “better opportunity” that a school like Nashoba Brooks could offer me, blah, blah. They explained why my brother was interested in them, probably in the hopes that I would be more optimistic about the whole situation. Considering it was a privileged opportunity, I probably should have been nicer about it all. I was a stubborn child, though, and aggressively refused to express any interest in changing schools.
Fast forward to the interview (more like casual conversation) I found myself in the middle of as part of the application process to this school. My mom had left the room, so it was just me and a faculty member of Nashoba Brooks School (a private all girls school that led all the girls I knew who attended to choose more elite high schools later on). The interviewer was a very nice woman, and started by asking me about sports, summer activities, and other kid-friendly topics. Then, she suddenly asks, “why do you want to come to Nashoba Brooks next year?”. All of a sudden I was overwhelmed at the prospect of answering this question. I looked around the room contemplating how to respond, considering I did not in fact want to attend her school. However, I realized my mom was gone, remembered how nice this lady was to me earlier as we discussed soccer and going to the beach, and replied something along the lines of “Actually, I really hate it here and don’t want to come.”
I then went into depth about how I LOVE my friends and I LOVE my teachers and how I LOVE going got school everyday. I went on about how recess is really fun because the boys let me play soccer with them, and how an all girls school would not allow for that. Then I started trashing Nashoba Brooks (unclear why I felt the need to do this) and told her I hated all the kids I had met and didn’t like the classes. So there you have it, my third grade desire to be in the elite world. I really could not have cared less their life style.
After that, I attended the public school in my town (Concord, MA), so until now, I did not have the same kind of elite educational experience that the Chilean students we will interview have. My high school experience involved all the typical high school stuff you hear about: drama, easy classes, hard classes, free range over my wardrobe, and horrible cafeteria lunches.
I will note, however, that the public school’s I attended in Concord are apart of a well respected school system. So, while I would consider Concord Carlisle High School elite, it did hold some values that I presume are the same at elite institutions. For example, my high school heavily encouraged students to become involved in extra curricular activities. Flyers and school-wide announcements were constantly reminding us that a certain club had a meeting after school at 2:30 in the auditorium. The difference in this sentiment between my public high school and a more elite high school is that my classmates did not hold the same feelings towards these clubs and extra curricula’s as the administration. Despite the flyers, the announcements, and the teacher encouragement, students were tentative, if not antagonist towards, partaking in the kind of “well rounded” education our principal certainly wanted.
Following this, in terms of how my experience may differ from the Chilean students, I think most of the differences will lie in the motivation of students to perform for their school. Attending a public high school, there was a range across the student body in terms of how committed students were to studying. Of course, most students went on to attend four-year colleges, so the spectrum was small to begin with. However, there was always the group of students who, for some unknown reason, refused to complete minor worksheets or read over simple instructions. This was probably more of an angsty teen act of rebellion than anything else, but those attitudes existed within the walls of my schooling experience, which I do not think would in an elite school. The application process, I would think, would filter out students like that, resulting in a student body made up of competitive students.
All together, I am curious to hear from the Chilean students and get a better grasp on what it means to them to attend an elite school, and compare that to my experience.