My son is in eighth grade, so we need to choose a high school for him in a few months. I would very much appreciate it if people with knowledge on the subject would send me insight on the four public high schools in south Minneapolis.
My son is not very gregarious, so I am very interested in finding a school/program where he has the same kids in most of his classes. He'll make friends more quickly if he sees some kids a lot, and not so fast if every class has different kids. I really like the concept of the Small Learning Communities (SLCs). But I've heard that SLCs are more concept than reality. I think in most of them, one may only take one class per year in the SLC, so the kids may not see each other any more than any other kids at the school. My wife and I visited all four of these schools last spring. Based on these visits, we've pretty much ruled out Roosevelt, because it felt like a prison. But the other three are still possibilities. Washburn looks good because of their SLCs in Aviation and Engineering, which match my son's interests, but I don't know if we want to pick a school based on only the SLC (see previous paragraph). I like the IB program at Southwest. My son is currently doing well in the pre-IB program at Anwatin Middle School, so that would be a good transition. But I have heard that the IB program is very intense, and I don't want my son to give up the rest of his life just for academics. I think he could succeed in the IB program, but he's not one of those kids who can handle a tough program without a whole lot of work. I've heard that South is the biggest high school and that it feels like it. The parent liaison told us something to the effect that it was good to have the less controlled environment because it gets kids in practice for college. To me this implies that South gives kids less direction than other schools. If true, South is probably not the school for my son -- he still needs lots of direction concerning his school work. I think South does have two learning communities in which the kids take mostly the same classes. But I believe they are both pretty liberal artsy, which doesn't match my son's interests very well. I would appreciate any insight into these schools from anyone. Thanks Mark V Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
