So...where did YOU go to high school? (St. Louis, Kirkwood: private schools, gated)

[ShadowCaver]

Originally Posted by HCC

This is late in coming, but in case someone reads this, I thought I'd chime in. I'll give you an example of how this question works in STL. I moved back to STL after college for a year to give it a chance, see if there was anything there for me, make my parents happy, ect, ect... I lived across from Forest Park in the West End in a great, old high rise, with a door man and a corner apt overlooking the park. With gated parking, work out rooms, ect, it was only $640/month!!! Can't beat THAT! Anyway, I was determined to get involved in my community, volunteer, go to cultural things, meet the love of my life, find a great job, make new friends... My father got me a membership to the STL Art Museum. I decided to go to an event they had one summer night for the 20s/30s crowd. I showed up and a 30-something Clayton couple started talking to me. They seemed enlightened, even for STL. Of course all they were interested in hearing was where I went to high school. I said, "I went to Westminster." Well, that was all they needed to hear and they sniffed, "Oh..." Their eyes glazed over and they just walked away. They couldn't care less where I went to college, where I had lived, traveled or what my ambitions were. I didn't meet their expectations based on that question and they had no use for me.

There were 2 attitudes I found over and over in STL in meeting people. One was something like, "Well, if I haven't met you by now, why on earth would I want to get to know you!" The second was this idea that one should just be friends with the same people they went to high school with the rest of their lives. Unless they were looking to upgrade to meet someone who went to a better high school than they did. It isn't called the "Show-Me State" for nothing. Eventually, I was frustrated and found these attitudes so completely narrowing and boring. I now live in NY, where most people think of STL as one big trailer park, which is also frustrating and ridiculous.

However to give in, slightly, I will answer one of the questions posted here. The top schools, at least in people's minds, are, (pretty much in this order):

Private, non-sectarian-
Mary Institute-Country Day School, John Burroughs School

Catholic-
boys-Priory, though Chamanade gets points by sheer location
girls-Villa, Visitation Academy

Public-
Ladue, Clayton, though Clayton is superior to Ladue academically, at least it was.
Also, most people who went to Ladue weren't even people who actually lived in Ladue. Most Ladue residents sent their kids to private schools and the student body was mostly made up of 63141, St Louis Annex kids and a large inner city, bused-in population, mixed with local Ladue-ites who either couldn't afford or couldn't cut it at a private school. Sorry, but that was the reality and I know this as I grew up almost across the street from Ladue High School.
You could maybe get away with Parkway Central, but I remember people sneering at Parkway West and North and South were out of the question.

Close, but not quite-
Thomas Jefferson School- yes, it may be the closest thing in STL to a real New England boarding school and the kids are something out of a Wes Anderson film, but it is too small and is located in South County and thus, will never be taken seriously in STL.
Westminster- ok, I went here, so I can rag on it. It has a good location, Ladue/Spoede, but it is too young (only founded in the 70s) and the word Christian conjures up images of scary, cross burning, right-winger, Fox News-watching bigots and sadly, that's not far from the truth.
St Joseph's Academy- Ok, it really isn't bad to say you went here, but let's face it... stocky, hard-drinkin', field hockey girls from Kirkwood go here.
De Smet- Too diverse to ever be respectable.
St Louis University High School-it's located in the city. Enough to scare most St Louisians to the core.
CBC- I guess it qualifies, but, not really...
Whitfield- Everyone knows this is like a fake private school, though I've heard it's come up since my days there.
Nerix Hall- See St Joseph's Academy for more details. Just substitute, Webster for Kirkwood.
Cor Jesu- Totally underrated. Academically superior to any Catholic girls school in the area, but it's in Affton.

You see how stupid this all is? And this is how people are branded the rest of their lives. If your school wasn't mentioned, I mean, what does THAT say? I moved to NYC where the first question is, "What do you do?"

Good story... Shame though that StL has that mind-set. That is their loss for being so shortsighted, narrow-minded.
Wonder what they'd say if told 'em that I went to Marvin School [Ritenour district] just north of St Charles Rock Road

[aaronstlcards]

Originally Posted by WestCoDude

The Catholic school system here is so amazing lots of non-Catholic families send their kids to Catholic schools. And, depending on where you live, the public schools are quite strong in many parts of the county and I would wager that many public schools are majority Catholic. If you send your kids to a public school, it's not like they'll be a minority or anything. I mean....come on!....it's St. Louis! lol. It's a very Catholic city. If you do choose to go parochial, there are many, many solid options and depending on where you're moving, I can certainly recommend some.

For public schools, the Rockwood and Parkway districts are especially strong in West County. Ladue and Clayton, a bit closer to the city, are pretty solid, too. The only really terrible schools are St. Louis City public schools....so much so the Catholic school system has capitalized on it and become really very dominant in the city.

If you're looking at Catholic schools....St. Louis University High is one of the better ones in the city. Visitation, desmet, JFK, and, as my story suggests, Nerinx Hall are all very, very good (though, obviously, Nerinx Hall is all-girls). Christian Bros. High is a really good Jesuit school and has excellent college placement (I think it's all-boys, though I could be wrong). If you're gonna be in West County...Gateway Academy, though pretty pricey, is an excellent Catholic school in Chesterfield. You can rest assured that no matter where you are in the metro area, you will be very close to any number of good private schools.

On you saying that the entire SLPS is bad. You must not have heard of Metro Academic and Classical Leadership Academy on the near north side. It is tied for the 11th highest average ACT score for schools in the St. Louis area out of 100 schools. But overall, I would say your right.

[aaronstlcards]

Originally Posted by 60'sGal

I went to Roosevelt Class of 72. Great school back then. Grew up in the Tower Grove Heights area. Wonderful neighborhood. Safe as safe could be. We spent hours upon hours in Tower Grove Park and never had a single problem.

We stopped at Kingsway (Grand & Arsenal) every morning before school and Tilmans (other corner) after.

Roosevelt holds many sweet memories for me. The memory of coming down those big steps and seeing Greg Coletta waiting for me still makes me weak in the knees. Oh, he was dreamy.

i wish Roosevelt was still like that, same thing for the neighborhood I guess. Now I would consider a "ghetto" school for local kids. (average of 14.3 on the ACT)

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by aaronstlcards

On you saying that the entire SLPS is bad. You must not have heard of Metro Academic and Classical Leadership Academy on the near north side. It is tied for the 11th highest average ACT score for schools in the St. Louis area out of 100 schools. But overall, I would say your right.

The St. Louis public schools as a whole ARE that bad. There may be a couple of schools with a decent program or two but the level of education is very bad.

When I was recruiting in St. Louis, I received over 500 applications for 10 positions. In order to narrow down the applicants, I rejected all applicants who could not spell the high school they graduated from. Over 60% of applications were rejected on that criteria alone - "Rosevelt", "Vahson", "Lincon", etc.

[aaronstlcards]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

The St. Louis public schools as a whole ARE that bad. There may be a couple of schools with a decent program or two but the level of education is very bad.

When I was recruiting in St. Louis, I received over 500 applications for 10 positions. In order to narrow down the applicants, I rejected all applicants who could not spell the high school they graduated from. Over 60% of applications were rejected on that criteria alone - "Rosevelt", "Vahson", "Lincon", etc.

That's why I said "But overall, I would say you're right".

[Smtchll]

Originally Posted by HCC

This is late in coming, but in case someone reads this, I thought I'd chime in. I'll give you an example of how this question works in STL. I moved back to STL after college for a year to give it a chance, see if there was anything there for me, make my parents happy, ect, ect... I lived across from Forest Park in the West End in a great, old high rise, with a door man and a corner apt overlooking the park. With gated parking, work out rooms, ect, it was only $640/month!!! Can't beat THAT! Anyway, I was determined to get involved in my community, volunteer, go to cultural things, meet the love of my life, find a great job, make new friends... My father got me a membership to the STL Art Museum. I decided to go to an event they had one summer night for the 20s/30s crowd. I showed up and a 30-something Clayton couple started talking to me. They seemed enlightened, even for STL. Of course all they were interested in hearing was where I went to high school. I said, "I went to Westminster." Well, that was all they needed to hear and they sniffed, "Oh..." Their eyes glazed over and they just walked away. They couldn't care less where I went to college, where I had lived, traveled or what my ambitions were. I didn't meet their expectations based on that question and they had no use for me.

There were 2 attitudes I found over and over in STL in meeting people. One was something like, "Well, if I haven't met you by now, why on earth would I want to get to know you!" The second was this idea that one should just be friends with the same people they went to high school with the rest of their lives. Unless they were looking to upgrade to meet someone who went to a better high school than they did. It isn't called the "Show-Me State" for nothing. Eventually, I was frustrated and found these attitudes so completely narrowing and boring. I now live in NY, where most people think of STL as one big trailer park, which is also frustrating and ridiculous.

However to give in, slightly, I will answer one of the questions posted here. The top schools, at least in people's minds, are, (pretty much in this order):

Private, non-sectarian-
Mary Institute-Country Day School, John Burroughs School

Catholic-
boys-Priory, though Chamanade gets points by sheer location
girls-Villa, Visitation Academy

Public-
Ladue, Clayton, though Clayton is superior to Ladue academically, at least it was.
Also, most people who went to Ladue weren't even people who actually lived in Ladue. Most Ladue residents sent their kids to private schools and the student body was mostly made up of 63141, St Louis Annex kids and a large inner city, bused-in population, mixed with local Ladue-ites who either couldn't afford or couldn't cut it at a private school. Sorry, but that was the reality and I know this as I grew up almost across the street from Ladue High School.
You could maybe get away with Parkway Central, but I remember people sneering at Parkway West and North and South were out of the question.

Close, but not quite-
Thomas Jefferson School- yes, it may be the closest thing in STL to a real New England boarding school and the kids are something out of a Wes Anderson film, but it is too small and is located in South County and thus, will never be taken seriously in STL.
Westminster- ok, I went here, so I can rag on it. It has a good location, Ladue/Spoede, but it is too young (only founded in the 70s) and the word Christian conjures up images of scary, cross burning, right-winger, Fox News-watching bigots and sadly, that's not far from the truth.
St Joseph's Academy- Ok, it really isn't bad to say you went here, but let's face it... stocky, hard-drinkin', field hockey girls from Kirkwood go here.
De Smet- Too diverse to ever be respectable.
St Louis University High School-it's located in the city. Enough to scare most St Louisians to the core.
CBC- I guess it qualifies, but, not really...
Whitfield- Everyone knows this is like a fake private school, though I've heard it's come up since my days there.
Nerix Hall- See St Joseph's Academy for more details. Just substitute, Webster for Kirkwood.
Cor Jesu- Totally underrated. Academically superior to any Catholic girls school in the area, but it's in Affton.

You see how stupid this all is? And this is how people are branded the rest of their lives. If your school wasn't mentioned, I mean, what does THAT say? I moved to NYC where the first question is, "What do you do?"

Wouldn't it depend on the social circle? I mean, to WASPs, the non-sectarian and the top public schools would be highly regarded. But to wealthy Catholics, the private, single-sex, Catholic schools would be more highly regarded. And for wealthy Evangelicals, it would be the non-denominational Christian schools.

We have those 3 divisions here in Memphis with our private schools, but depending on what social circle you're in, you might say one school is better than the other.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by HCC

This is late in coming, but in case someone reads this, I thought I'd chime in. I'll give you an example of how this question works in STL. I moved back to STL after college for a year to give it a chance, see if there was anything there for me, make my parents happy, ect, ect... I lived across from Forest Park in the West End in a great, old high rise, with a door man and a corner apt overlooking the park. With gated parking, work out rooms, ect, it was only $640/month!!! Can't beat THAT! Anyway, I was determined to get involved in my community, volunteer, go to cultural things, meet the love of my life, find a great job, make new friends... My father got me a membership to the STL Art Museum. I decided to go to an event they had one summer night for the 20s/30s crowd. I showed up and a 30-something Clayton couple started talking to me. They seemed enlightened, even for STL. Of course all they were interested in hearing was where I went to high school. I said, "I went to Westminster." Well, that was all they needed to hear and they sniffed, "Oh..." Their eyes glazed over and they just walked away. They couldn't care less where I went to college, where I had lived, traveled or what my ambitions were. I didn't meet their expectations based on that question and they had no use for me.

There were 2 attitudes I found over and over in STL in meeting people. One was something like, "Well, if I haven't met you by now, why on earth would I want to get to know you!" The second was this idea that one should just be friends with the same people they went to high school with the rest of their lives. Unless they were looking to upgrade to meet someone who went to a better high school than they did. It isn't called the "Show-Me State" for nothing. Eventually, I was frustrated and found these attitudes so completely narrowing and boring. I now live in NY, where most people think of STL as one big trailer park, which is also frustrating and ridiculous.

However to give in, slightly, I will answer one of the questions posted here. The top schools, at least in people's minds, are, (pretty much in this order):

Private, non-sectarian-
Mary Institute-Country Day School, John Burroughs School

Catholic-
boys-Priory, though Chamanade gets points by sheer location
girls-Villa, Visitation Academy

Public-
Ladue, Clayton, though Clayton is superior to Ladue academically, at least it was.
Also, most people who went to Ladue weren't even people who actually lived in Ladue. Most Ladue residents sent their kids to private schools and the student body was mostly made up of 63141, St Louis Annex kids and a large inner city, bused-in population, mixed with local Ladue-ites who either couldn't afford or couldn't cut it at a private school. Sorry, but that was the reality and I know this as I grew up almost across the street from Ladue High School.
You could maybe get away with Parkway Central, but I remember people sneering at Parkway West and North and South were out of the question.

Close, but not quite-
Thomas Jefferson School- yes, it may be the closest thing in STL to a real New England boarding school and the kids are something out of a Wes Anderson film, but it is too small and is located in South County and thus, will never be taken seriously in STL.
Westminster- ok, I went here, so I can rag on it. It has a good location, Ladue/Spoede, but it is too young (only founded in the 70s) and the word Christian conjures up images of scary, cross burning, right-winger, Fox News-watching bigots and sadly, that's not far from the truth.
St Joseph's Academy- Ok, it really isn't bad to say you went here, but let's face it... stocky, hard-drinkin', field hockey girls from Kirkwood go here.
De Smet- Too diverse to ever be respectable.
St Louis University High School-it's located in the city. Enough to scare most St Louisians to the core.
CBC- I guess it qualifies, but, not really...
Whitfield- Everyone knows this is like a fake private school, though I've heard it's come up since my days there.
Nerix Hall- See St Joseph's Academy for more details. Just substitute, Webster for Kirkwood.
Cor Jesu- Totally underrated. Academically superior to any Catholic girls school in the area, but it's in Affton.

You see how stupid this all is? And this is how people are branded the rest of their lives. If your school wasn't mentioned, I mean, what does THAT say? I moved to NYC where the first question is, "What do you do?"

And, it's a shame the first question asked to you in NYC is "What do you do?" As someone who has lived in NYC and has spent considerable time there, while that mentality exists with some people there, I'm refreshed to know it doesn't exist with many others in NYC. People who ask this question are either sizing you up or are too lazy to think of something more interesting to say.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Smtchll

Wouldn't it depend on the social circle? I mean, to WASPs, the non-sectarian and the top public schools would be highly regarded. But to wealthy Catholics, the private, single-sex, Catholic schools would be more highly regarded. And for wealthy Evangelicals, it would be the non-denominational Christian schools.

We have those 3 divisions here in Memphis with our private schools, but depending on what social circle you're in, you might say one school is better than the other.

Do realize that MANY of the students at religious schools are not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. Most are pretty close to the demographics of the local public school.

[Smtchll]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Do realize that MANY of the students at religious schools are not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. Most are pretty close to the demographics of the local public school.

I meant the wealthy religious schools like Chaminade, Priory, Viz, Villa, and maybe a few others.

[HCC]

I thought perhaps I would take a trip down memory lane and give you all a glimpse of growing up in Ladue, Missouri in the 80's.
Our neighbor on one side was Buckey Bush. Uncle of, yep, you guessed it, good 'ol dubbya! Our neighbors on the other side were Dr. Masters and Dr. Johnson, the famous sex therapists. It was THAT kind of neighborhood! We belonged to Old Warson Country Club, The Bogey Club and The Log Cabin Club. My father was considered an outsider as he was from Greenwich, CT, but my mother got him on the inside, as her family is descended from one of the founding families of St Louis. (A fact that I am still unsettled about) The following is a somewhat satirical breakdown of who you will encounter if you ever find yourself in the throws of Ladue.

Ladue, A Guide:

The Ultimate STL Blueblood:
him- look: gray hair, barber-cut, over to one side, tortoiseshell glasses, starched, monogrammed button down, gray wool, flat-front trousers, burgundy tassle loafers, no socks. Heavy crease lines between the eyes from sneering.
Schools: Country Day, Williams College, Harvard Law
profession: non-practicing lawyer
Associations: St Louis Country Club, Log Cabin, Deer Creek Club, St Peter's Episcopal Church, (or) The Church of St Michael and St George, St Louis Williams-Harvard Alumni Club.
Pass Times: pretending to golf, driving up and down Clayton Rd in an antiques, yellow Mercedes wagon with luggage rack on top, being aloof, hanging out with a Johnny Walker and a Marlboro red at Sportman's Park, Sat night dinner at Bush's Grove.

Her- look: saggy, aged, sun beaten face, blood shot eyes, 90 proof breath, white tattered lacoste shirt, navy poplin wrap skirt, showing her bruised athletic legs and cellulite, navy hand-knit cardigan, graying bob haircut (she gets rolled and sprayed every week at Buckley's), swept back in a grosgrain headband, Nantucket basket purse with her initials monogrammed on a piece of ivory, shaped into a whale. Simple wedding ring.
Schools: Mary I, 2 years at Mt Holyoke (She was VP Queen in 1962)
Associations: Kicked out of the Junior League after that coffee spilling incident. "My hands we're shaking, and my eyes were blurry. I couldn't judge the distance between her head and the cup."
Where you'll find her: Lunching at Women's Exchange, her needlepoint club at Sign of the Arrow, buying groceries with her maid at Straubs in Clayton, her living room-finishing off a bottle of brandy and a pack of Marlboro Lights each night.
They vacation in: Palm Beach/Bermuda

The Wanna-be
Yes, their house is bigger than yours and their car is better and shinier and they may live on Cella Rd and have more money than anyone in the neighborhood, but they'll never get into St Louis Country Club. However, we need them to support all our causes and lend their Mondrian paintings to the St Louis Art Museum.
Look- Stuff you can't buy in STL. $64 socks from Hermes, custom-made suits from Italy, all black sportswear and over-the-top evening gowns that cost more than the event raised. Perfectly cut swing-bob, done at Preston Salon.
Associations: Westwood Country Club, Temple Israel or The Church of the Immaculata, any and every charity board in the city, bi-weekly dinners at Tony's.
They Vacation In: Turks and Caicos

All-Around-Good Guy and The Bully:
These 2 are kind of cut from the same cloth. Overly-privledged, Catholic, good schools, tops of their fields, work hard, adored and feared. Both are sort of over-grown, beer swilling, cigar smoking frat boys, who prize material things above all else, but one is genuinely sweet and the other is looking for a fight. Typically good-looking, preppy as hell, the nice one is generally slim and the latter is of a stockier nature.
Look- striped, brooks brothers button down, too-short khakis, needlepoint belt with their names spelled in nautical flags (gag), Gucci loafers-no socks!
Work: owns distribution rights to all Busch products in the St Louis area, CEO of something or other.
Schools: Chaminade, Notre Dame
Where you'll find: Annuziata Church, Old Warson Country Club, Raquet Club, cruising Forest Park, in his BMW wagon with Beasley School sticker on the back window, looking for something more..."sexually eclectic."
They Vacation in: Naples, FL

The Redneck
Came from nothing, but became successful and the real estate agent just had to sell that hideous monstrosity to somebody. Fat, crass, thick St Louis accent, "Highway farty-far," life of the party, full of racist, sexist and dirty jokes, the first to buy a big screen and all the new gadgets. Has a "Cardinals clubhouse" in his wood paneled basement, civil war gun collector.
Schools: Maplewood, Mizzou, University of Pennsylvania Dental School
Work: Orthodontist, lawyer, money manager
Associations: Still on the wait list at Bellerive Country Club, "They let one of those mulattos in before me!"
Where you'll find him: Card's game, Ram's game, Blue's game (though about to give up on them), hosting NASCAR parties.
Her- look: badly done bob, overly sprayed and a little too teased, Talbot's T-shirts and houndstooth slacks-"Hey I got 'em at Frontenac!" Sensible flats from Natrualizer. Chews gum, wears lots of yellow-gold jewlery.
Associations: one hour a week at Junior League, John Burrough's Mother's Association, Ladue Chapel lady's committee.
They Vacation In: Hot Springs, AR