The pressure to succeed in our nation’s most competitive public high schools is often crushing. Striving to understand this insular world, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes spent a year at California’s Whitney High, a school so renowned that parents move across town-and across the world-hoping to enroll their children. That’s because schools like Whitney deliver everything parents want: love of learning, a sense of mission, and SAT scores that pave the … More >>
School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School
Tags: American, Dreams, edward humes, Grade, High, insular world, journalist, Love, Making, parents, public high schools, pulitzer prize, school
#1 by C. Wood on January 29, 2010 - 2:03 pm
This book was a chore to get through. There were some spots that were entertaining, but for the most part I found to be boring.
And maybe because I went to a public school that was doing this kind of AP type stuff 30 years ago, and managed to do it without excluding anyone or needing entrance exams.. and still found time for those kids who maybe did not wish to go to college (and believe me, they did everything to try to talk you into going to college).. I was just not that impressed. Back then many of my teachers saw alot of this college prep stuff as a memorization game rather than true learning and said so. Anyone blessed with a good memory could play the system. This whole book to me had a pompous tone, and many of the students seem like little elites. But to be fair the author does point all this out, which is why two stars. If you really want to read this, please get it from the library so you can give it back.
Rating: 2 / 5
#2 by Anonymous on January 29, 2010 - 4:07 pm
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.
Rating: 1 / 5
#3 by Anonymous on January 29, 2010 - 5:07 pm
The SHORT VERSION: This Isn’t a Great Buy
The LONG VERSION:I attend Whitney HS, I know some of the people that were mentioned in the book, but…. I have never even heard of some of the stuff that has happend. It starts out shallowly, going from student to student, giving odd glimpses into their world, but not enought grounding for any of it to make any sense. It also begins as, more or less, a biography of the school, and ends as an episode of some soap opera. Rather than asking questions and giving answers to questions that make a difference,he goes into student/ teacher problems, things that can happen in any school. I think that this book should have been more of an observation of the schools success, and how it achieved it,rather than a glimpes into teachers and students lives during the year.
Also, I know for a fact that everyone, does drink coffee, and have every kind of music listening system at the school, but it isn’t that important, still, half of the school population doesn’t drink coffee, and the allowance of cd players and mp3 players makes student and faculty that much closer.
But I do believe, although, Dr. Brock looks like he has an easy job, im sure he works, no matter what, he is a riot to talk to.
and by the way, i think that the indian population (which is huge) was pretty much unrepresented, and many teachers were passed by dispite there creative ways of teaching.
Rating: 2 / 5
#4 by Anonymous on January 29, 2010 - 7:29 pm
I bought and read the book because I live in the area and wanted to get some more insight on one of the best high schools in America. It was a good read, but unfortunately there wasn’t anything informative in the book. I find it unbelievable that no one appreciated what Neil Bush tried to do in the school. I agree with some of the other’s comments about the book being over-exaggerated.
Rating: 3 / 5
#5 by Anonymous on January 29, 2010 - 9:44 pm
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?
Rating: 2 / 5