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Old 06-24-2012, 10:57 AM
 
Location: Boston, MA
3,962 posts, read 5,707,058 times
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Troubled English High School showing little improvement after three tumultuous years under untested headmaster Sito Narcisse - The Boston Globe

Somehow, the oldest public high school in the whole nation cursed itself and is seemingly having a hard time regaining its once great reputation. What to do now?
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Old 06-25-2012, 10:09 AM
 
Location: West Roxbury, MA
289 posts, read 564,939 times
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English was established in 1821. Latin has it beat by 186 years, at 1635.
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Old 06-25-2012, 11:07 AM
 
Location: Boston, MA
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I know that already. I graduated from Boston Latin. BLS wasn't originally a high school. What's your point though?
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Old 06-29-2012, 11:48 AM
 
Location: Boston
1,082 posts, read 2,879,488 times
Reputation: 920
The point is that your statement was highly misleading.
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Old 06-29-2012, 07:23 PM
miu
 
Location: MA/NH
17,762 posts, read 40,021,896 times
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The problem is that the parents of these students are expecting schools to do all the raising and educating of their children for them. The best headmasters and teachers in the world can't correct bad or lazy parents.
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Old 06-30-2012, 05:30 PM
 
Location: West Roxbury, MA
289 posts, read 564,939 times
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I'm going to spout the propaganda here: BLS considers itself a high school from seventh grade on. (Don't hit me, that's what they say, that their seventh grade curriculum is equivalent to ninth grade.)
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Old 07-01-2012, 10:36 AM
 
Location: Boston, MA
3,962 posts, read 5,707,058 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bostonbarney View Post
I'm going to spout the propaganda here: BLS considers itself a high school from seventh grade on. (Don't hit me, that's what they say, that their seventh grade curriculum is equivalent to ninth grade.)
Seventh grade = ninth grade is a bit of a stretch but then I graduated a while ago. Back then it was one year's curriculum difference hence seventh grade = eighth grade and yes the curriculum is really rigorous in all years. You come out of a school like BLS with a new feeling that you can beat many odds even if you failed to do so while there.

Really though, I researched the history of Boston Latin, Boston English, Boston Latin Academy and a couple of other high schools in the past and English High School is considered the oldest public HIGH school in the nation while my alma mater is considered the oldest public school in the nation. Just look up the Encyclopedia Britannica under Education, History of and you'll find a snip-bit about English (it was originally named English Classical School until 1824 when it was renamed English High School and like Latin used to be all-boys until 1972). You have to get deep into the definition of what a "high" school originally meant and that was to train students (again usually male at the time) in the business, mercantile and mechanics trades rather than prepare them for college for which "Latin-grammar" schools such as Boston Latin were intended for. Later in the 19th century, as more fields in the liberal arts and sciences required more education, schools like English had to adapt to compete and so they too started preparing students for college, in fact Harvard University stipulated that they would accept students from English only if the school changed from a 3 year to a 4 year model. That is when the rivalry between Latin and English intensified and somewhere along that line, the 4 year model of freshman-sophomore, junior, and senior that we all are so familiar with nowadays came into hold and spread throughout the nation. So influential was this once great school that you can find traces of its influence in all the high schools in the country from Stuyevesant High and Brooklyn Tech in NYC, to Eleanor Roosevelt in Metro DC, to Long Beach Polytechnic in Long Beach, CA, and of course even Boston Latin itself.

Unfortunately, as the recent news implied, English has not successfully adapted this time around. It along with all the other high schools in Boston save BLS, BLA, and Boston Tech (now the O'Bryant) got whacked hard by the busing crisis in '74, the old-school Boston community started to not care about the public schools anymore preferring to send their kids to private schools or simply to move out to suburbs, English lost it's reputation as a rival and alternative to Latin, lost a great deal of support from it's alumni base, lost funding, and even lost a good looking yellow brick building that once stood across the street from Latin and was built to house a school, not that non-descript, shapeless, ugly old factory shed it's in right now. For too many years, it's been plugged with troubled kids who don't care about education much less the school, incompetent administrators who are there just to further their own careers, a few lousy teachers who no longer love teaching and are in it just for the money, and then mixed in with good teachers who care about the school, good hardworking students eager to learn, and competent administrators who too often are let go because they dared to challenge the status quo.

So is it time for Boston English to go? In spite of its near 200 year history, has it run its course and needs to be replaced with something new and bold? Or can it still fix and reinvent itself like it did so many times in its history? I don't see much help from the school department honestly. Any change I see is just another political ploy to put a pawn of the Mayor or Superintendent into the driver's position. Whatever change will have to come from within the English High School community itself unless something radically bold like turning it into the fourth examination school and completely redoing the curriculum takes place. Any thoughts?
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