Northern Chicago Suburbs Suggestions for House

[LakeCountyBang]

Originally Posted by 4122

Stevenson actually does have a big drug problem. A lot of North Shore high schools do, but Stevenson's is much worse. The academic environment is just different. Stevenson has a lot of great teachers but it is very competitive. Vernon Hills isn't as competitive but it does give students a solid education that prepares them fir college.

Exactly! Competitive is good, right, but there isn't enough focus on the kids at Stevenson, but that's because its big. VHS is smaller, which is kinda what I like TBH.

I know drugs are everywhere, even in my area schools(Antioch HS especially, Lakes HS not so much, but it is smaller). Smaller HS(in this case VHS) appear to have smaller drug problems, even the example I gave about my area. Antioch HS has a ton of kids all over. Lakes HS is only a few kids from Lake Villa and East Antioch, and it has less of the drugs.

[damba]

My friends who teach there and have kids there would disagree. SHS actually has an amazing concentration of resources which do allow them to 'focus on the kids' (horrible and somewhat unuseful term since there is no
good way to really measure it.). The notion that a school is big does not necessarily
mean it cannot deal with its students. Of course a big school won't work for some kids,
nor would a much smaller school be the right fit necessarily for others.

Originally Posted by LakeCountyBang

Exactly! Competitive is good, right, but there isn't enough focus on the kids at Stevenson, but that's because its big. VHS is smaller, which is kinda what I like TBH.

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[amd555]

Thank you everyone for the input. We've yet to find a good house that suits us and our price. We've seen a few around $330k but nothing that we loved. We've look at MP and HP mostly as of now. There are a few in Northbrook we might look at bu time will tell.

[LakeCountyBang]

Originally Posted by damba

My friends who teach there and have kids there would disagree. SHS actually has an amazing concentration of resources which do allow them to 'focus on the kids' (horrible and somewhat unuseful term since there is no
good way to really measure it.). The notion that a school is big does not necessarily
mean it cannot deal with its students. Of course a big school won't work for some kids,
nor would a much smaller school be the right fit necessarily for others.

Again, I took the advice from my friends, and their explanation is not as biased as yours. There is a LOT of students, understand me. They dont have time for all of them, which is why many get a tutor when they go to SHS.

Imagine, you running all those kids around, you cant spend time on all of them, way too much!

[damba]

What I am hearing as an argument is mostly hearsay, with a dose of 'all big schools are bad'. More logic is needed on your end for sure.

There are quite a few reasons why some kids might opt to get a tutor at SHS (and other high performing schools such as SHS) which include:

-The student simply wants to improve a grade in a particular class
-The student/student parents are passive and/or poor communicators and do not appropriately reach out to a particular teacher
-The class in question is presenting challenging material to a student who is simply not very prepared and does not really spend adequate time outside the classroom preparing/reading/studying/etc
-The students GPA may need some work
-The student simply does not do a good job grasping certain types of material/information/concepts
-The student expects the teacher to do the work instead of the other way around
-The student honestly could use someone else besides a teacher or parent helping them with their work
-The student is enrolled in many challenging courses (AP, perhaps) simultaneously, in which case a specific class happens to be the 'hole in the ****'
-The student needs to boost a grade to become more attractive to certain colleges/universities
-SHS can be quite competitive, so there might be that pressure on its own leading certain students to opt to the tutor route

Please note that all of these scenarios are possible at other high schools, regardless of size. Are class sizes twice as large @ SHS? No, they are not, hence the notion that 'they don't have time for all of them' idea is rather silly and poorly thought out. Hopefully you can see my point.

Originally Posted by LakeCountyBang

Again, I took the advice from my friends, and their explanation is not as biased as yours. There is a LOT of students, understand me. They dont have time for all of them, which is why many get a tutor when they go to SHS.

Imagine, you running all those kids around, you cant spend time on all of them, way too much!

[wjj]

Originally Posted by damba

Are class sizes twice as large @ SHS? No, they are not, hence the notion that 'they don't have time for all of them' idea is rather silly and poorly thought out. Hopefully you can see my point.

If anything, Stevenson is over-staffed. It was built to handle the 4,500 kids who were there a dozen years ago. There are about 3,800 now. Staffing has not decreased proportionally (as evidenced by my soaring real estate tax bills). I agree with you that it is simply not true that the staff does not have time for all of the students there. Both of my kids went there when it was near peak enrollment and even then, the school staff was very proactive in identifying kids who might be struggling and getting them the help they need. The school is highly competitive in everything, but so is the real world. That's life. But SHS staff go out of their way to help those who need help and challenge all students. But students also need to accept that help. Some may prefer to get that help outside of the school. Nothing wrong with that.

[damba]

Precisely

cheers

Originally Posted by wjj

If anything, Stevenson is over-staffed. It was built to handle the 4,500 kids who were there a dozen years ago. There are about 3,800 now. Staffing has not decreased proportionally (as evidenced by my soaring real estate tax bills). I agree with you that it is simply not true that the staff does not have time for all of the students there. Both of my kids went there when it was near peak enrollment and even then, the school staff was very proactive in identifying kids who might be struggling and getting them the help they need. The school is highly competitive in everything, but so is the real world. That's life. But SHS staff go out of their way to help those who need help and challenge all students. But students also need to accept that help. Some may prefer to get that help outside of the school. Nothing wrong with that.