[.ca] School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American ... (ISBN 0156030071)

From Amazon.com:
Journalist Edward Humes shows us a little-seen side of our nation's educational system: the side that works. Humes spent a year (2001-02) at Whitney High School in Cerritos, California, a small, middle-class suburb of Los Angeles, where he taught a writing workshop and observed the daily workings of this top-ranked public school. The book honestly examines the extraordinary effort (and elusive chemistry) it takes to achieve that status and the subsequent toll it takes on the remarkable students at the school. It also provides a wonderful portrait of American life. For all its distinction, Whitney High School reflects a cross-section of America, where immigrant families struggle with their American counterparts to guide their children toward academic excellence. It comes as no surprise that at the heart of Whitney's success is a devoted staff of teachers and administrators who are as overworked and brilliant as their high-achieving charges. Nor should it shock us that the school's ranking does not come without a price. Whitney students are driven and well-rounded, but they are also sleep-deprived and often subjected to extreme parental pressure. The downside of life at Whitney is that a focus on high grades and college placement sometimes takes the place of the joy of learning, and worse yet, sometimes leads some students to cheat. Still, as Humes's engaging narrative reveals, the triumphs far outweigh the inevitable shortcomings. Unfortunately, the model Whitney provides is easy to identify but not easy to reproduce. As Humes observes, our nation's most successful schools "are small, intimate, and attentive. . . marked by high expectations put to work in tangible ways. . . \owith\c rigorous traditional studies (as opposed to rigorous drilling for annual high-stakes tests); longer hours of study and work; strong parental involvement. . . low absenteeism and few discipline problems; and leadership with a vision." --Silvana Tropea

didn't make the honor role:
several years ago, as a flourishing sportswriter (who still can't spell) i picked up a used copy of Friday Night Lights, the classic book that follows a football team in texas where the gridiron, not the grades counts. i bought school of dreams because it seemed similar, and although i got what i paid for, the results were not satisfactory. humes took the friday night lights formula and destroyed it. too many students, to many "certain students" or "certain faculty members" quotes were used; making some of the text read like an inside joke. the book also had the extra added bonus of pages upon pages of academic theory and data that bored me to tears as i stayed at home with two ear infections and a nasty sore throat. I also agreed with one other reviewer who thought humes took way to many potshots at the bush family (and i would cut off my thumbs before voting for any of those lunatics). there were two refreshing parts; the example essays (any one of these students could be phenomenal journalists) and the accounts of Mr. Z's physic's experiments. overall, i would have enjoyed fewer students with more in-depth stories. but, i find myself asking, how do i get my kids into a school like this?

a close reading:
I'll start with a disclaimer. I'm a Whitney alum, so let's get a few inaccuracies and omissions out of the way. First, the big orange lockers were not part of the original décor; they were installed in the late 1980s, a vast improvement over the old one foot by one foot sorry excuses for lockers. Second, despite not having a gym way back then, Whitney still offered an impressive array of varsity sports, including basketball, tennis, and water polo. And third, unless the food in the Hutch has gone completely downhill over the past decade, it was never *that* bad. That said, as a scholar, I think Hume has written a good ethnography within a solid historical context. I have no doubt that if he'd spent a few more years on the campus, the picture he paints would be even more revealing, simply because he would have been able to share even more insight from a wider variety of people. (Perhaps this volume would then include interviews with my favorite teachers who are still teaching at Whitney, Mrs. Breik, Mrs. Kesinger, and Mrs. El Moussa, and maybe even a few in-depth portraits of students that were more like me!) In all honesty, however, I can't imagine the average reader wanting to read much more than the existing 400 pages. From an educator's point of view, here's what I think this volume has to offer to K-12 teachers and administrators: 1) Get parents involved. Parents have a vested interest in their children's achievement. Take advantage of their natural enthusiasm; the next time you run into obstacles with the school board, get your parents to attend a board meeting. 2) Believe in your students. It doesn't matter if you enroll your students through an admissions test or they came straight off the streets. If you believe in them, they will succeed. 3) Use technology wisely. Computers are not a cure-all. In fact, they can even be a hindrance. Don't let them displace a well-designed traditional curriculum. Use them only where they are relevant. Finally, as a parent, I find Hume's treatise to be a useful cautionary tale. Despite having attended Whitney not too long ago, I'd already forgotten much of what it was like, and this book brought it all back: the students' misguided focus on grades, the pressure cooker atmosphere during comps, etc. One parent's confession was especially poignant - she didn't know what it was like because her daughter never said anything to her. I want to teach my children to try their best but know how to have fun, and it's good to be reminded that what we don't say is just as important as what we do say.

a B plus:
I can't vouch for the accuracy of this book, but it was certainly an eye-opener. The only drawback was how angry I got that a quality education like the one Whitney offered was available to so few. Hume does a great job of sketching about half a dozen students in depth, and others in slightly less depth. There are stressed students, laid back students, supremely organized students, students in serious trouble, and many who fall in between. We learn of the sacrifices required to keep up in classes; many of these teenagers are carrying a workload that would make a regular working adult blanch. We also meet several memorable teachers, one of whom boldly decides to try working without a net. He allows his students to develop an experiment on their own for the entire semester, then test it before judges. The results are somewhat unexpected. Another section deals with Neil Bush's (George W's brother) visit to the school, and his failure to get the students enthusiastic about his new program. Reading this book, it is hard to tell if the students or parents put the most pressure on the kids, but clearly it's a certain personality style that flourishes at Whitney. The students' informing Bush that subjects should be rigorously pursued to his bafflement is priceless. The only problem came when the author swerved away from describing the students and teachers at the school, and began giving background on how Whitney came to be. That was the weakest section. Luckily, the focus switched back to the students. While it is true that many seemed somewhat stressed, so too are students at less rigorous schools, and when it crosses the line should be decided on a case by case basis. Are teens really happier with a flourishing social life and less academic rigor? I think it depends on the teen.

Wonderful outlook on today's top achieving high school:
Edward Humes aspiring book, School of Dreams is an incredible story of a top achieving public high school. The book is a satisfying read and a page-turner. It gives you a window of what happens behind high school doors. As a student enrolled in a top achieving high school I found the experiences in this book both insightful and misleading. The different types of ways in which students made themselves stay up at night and do tons of homework shows how everyone strives to be on top. Whitney is a school that attracts families from all over the world because of its high reputation. Because of all the high standards, Whitney is considered mostly Asian. Whitney is not a high school that is preparing its students for college or the outside world and realities. It is a school that is all about scoring the highest on the college placement tests. It is a story of 'pushed' students often driven by parents to achieve excellence. School of Dreams is a story for someone who wants to know about a student's life underneath the skin at a top achieving high school. Also, to see what lengths teachers and parents put on their students to get into a top university. And to reveal what hardships parents put on their child psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually to earn that top grade.

It's a book, nothing more, nothing less.:
The Los Angeles Times stated, "Humes'...book chronicles an entirely different group of students, with a different set of challenges." From the eye of the average unaffiliated person, this book may seem engaging, provocative, and very important to the future of education. Really, it is just a book. It is based on one journalist's perception of Whitney. It is neither the answer to any of the problems with the education system, nor is it meant to be the step-by-step guide to create a school to crank out more high scoring test takers. It is merely a book. I disagree with many of the anecdotes in the book, like the other alumni. It is a disappointment that the majority of the BEST teachers were not mentioned in the book. Also, the book fails to highlight the extent of the self-motivation that powered most of Whitney's students. I, however, cannot blame Humes for leaving certain details out, for he is only one person, who wrote a skewed book about a skewed high school. It was written, printed, and bound. It is a book.