HIgh School

Mr. G and I had a meeting with the head of the Upper School (that’s middle school for you folks who don’t have kids in K-8 schools) and the Head of Admissions (who is very involved in high school placement). The meeting was to discuss which High Schools Jane should apply to. We talked about the area schools, which would be academically challenging without crushing her, religion, the number of students in a classroom, philosophies, how “Hollywood” they are, and if they were all girls or co-ed.

I know Jane’s first choice school is Catholic and all girls. It’s NAIS accredited so it’s academically sound, great even but I’d sort of had this fantasy of sending my kids to a completely secular school. I’m so very very tired of Chapels and prayers and I don’t even GO to school. I just sort of cringe… it’s like we finally escaped Temple and now my kid is asking for prayer.

Prayer and no boys.

Her second choice school is also all girl but it’s secular and her third choice school is secular and co-ed but has Kardashians as graduates…. they went Ivy League, right? Oy.

When Alexander walked on that campus for the first day of Kindergarten I remember overhearing parents talking about where their 8th graders were deciding to go to High School. I remember thinking to myself, “Do NOT take parenting advice from these parents. Who lets teenagers make these sorts of decisions?” I do. I let my teen make the decision. It seems so logical now to give Jane control of this, she’s only looking at great schools and if she can get herself into one of them then I’m prepared to support it.

I know there are 8234823297 studies about how girls excel in an all girl environment and recently a high school physics teacher told me that all science teachers in co-ed schools have a bias against girls (even if they don’t think they do) so maybe my daughter intuitively knows what’s best for her.

Here’s hoping anyhow.