What's Up at New Trier?(or Down at NT) (Chicago: fit in, neighborhood)

[homewifeev]

I have been reading some reviews on greatschools.net and some other websites. I just moved to Glencoe from Evanston last week. I love my new neighborhood, its so kid friendly, family friendly, even adult friendly. One of the reasons we moved to Glencoe was to avoid Evanston Township High School. Another reason we chose Glencoe over Wilmette and Winnetka because of it's tolerance of African-American families. My wife and son are very light skinned because my wife is part European. We fit in well here, I would say even better than we did in East Evanston. The reviews that I read said that New Trier students were not very tolerent of people with differences. The most common thing I heard was critisizing people because of their orientation. But what I am worried about are racial tensions. We just left Evanston because of that, and I do not want to run into something like that. My son is not weak or anything, and he can deal with bullying and thing like that. I am really woried about thing like kids getting beat up and harassed. Is this true?

[Drover]

I don't really have the data to confirm this, but I think you're more likely to find racial tensions in schools where there is, to use today's favorite catch phrase, "diversity." It's hard to have "racial tensions" where there simply aren't enough participants on the other side for there to be any tensions -- you can't have tensions between parties when one party isn't even there.

So racial tensions isn't going to be much of an issue at NT. I went to a school with similar demographics, both in terms of ethnicity and money. Whether or not the 10 or so black kids (in a school of 2,500) were accepted depended a lot on their behavior. Most of them grew up in "white" suburbia and, for lack of a better phrase (even though I hate it), they "acted white" and got along fine with their classmates. The one kid who grew up in the 'hood and moved out to the lilly-white suburbs was never broadly accepted. So basically, culture was more important than skin color.

[homewifeev]

I heard there was not even teasing at the school nowadays because you get a breakfast club if you are caught by the security (which is supposedly in every hallway).

[vester72]

Truthfully, I do not think there are any kids capable of physical bullying at New Trier. I'd worry about prevelance of drugs and drinking, but bullying should not be a big issue - not a rough high school.

[reppin_the_847]

Let's not forget that your area (Glencoe & the New Trier District) has a very large Jewish population as well. Some of the more native Israeli descendant types tend to have a tan complexion and may even have a similar skin tone to your wife & son. The NT district by default is a less predominantly WASP'ish zone than say the Lake Forest High School district because of the large Jewish presence. However, the ultra-affluent WASP population is still very much alive & kickin' in the NT district as well (lol, just take a stroll through Kenilworth or Winnetka some time).

And you're right that Glencoe has historically had a small, but still significant African-American population. I used to go to school with an African-American "gentleman" at a private high school in Lake Forest, who came from a good family, and seemed to stock up on just about every new rap music release (every week). One time I ran into him in downtown Evanston throwing up gang signs and hanging out with some of his friends from E-Town (Evanston) & swearing & yelling at some car that was passing by. It was a pretty funny situation to say the least. What I'm trying to say was that despite the fact that his family had money and lived in Glencoe (and sent him briefly for private schooling in Lake Forest, and later back to New Trier), the dude made an EFFORT to look & act thugged out. It could've been an age thing too, who knows. Many kids, including many Caucasians & Asians, go through a similar identity crisis at some point in their lives.

By the way, I'm a pretty young person of Indian ethnicity (born in Chicago) that has traveled all over the place and mingles with everyone (anywhere I'm at.....I have a bit of that transient blood in me lol) so I actually don't fit into any of those categories, though I grew up in and around the North Shore (Skokie, Libertyville, two totally different suburbs) for most of my life.

Originally Posted by Evanstonian1974

I have been reading some reviews on greatschools.net and some other websites. I just moved to Glencoe from Evanston last week. I love my new neighborhood, its so kid friendly, family friendly, even adult friendly. One of the reasons we moved to Glencoe was to avoid Evanston Township High School. Another reason we chose Glencoe over Wilmette and Winnetka because of it's tolerance of African-American families. My wife and son are very light skinned because my wife is part European. We fit in well here, I would say even better than we did in East Evanston. The reviews that I read said that New Trier students were not very tolerent of people with differences. The most common thing I heard was critisizing people because of their orientation. But what I am worried about are racial tensions. We just left Evanston because of that, and I do not want to run into something like that. My son is not weak or anything, and he can deal with bullying and thing like that. I am really woried about thing like kids getting beat up and harassed. Is this true?