2024 the best private high schools in america review
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For two years, Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández shared the life of what he calls the "Weston School," an elite New England boarding school. Vividly describing the pastoral landscape and graceful buildings, the rich variety of classes and activities, and the official and unofficial rules that define the school, The Best of the Best reveals a small world of deeply ambitious, intensely pressured students. For Gaztambide-Fernández, Weston is daunting yet strikingly bucolic, inspiring but frustratingly incurious, and sometimes - especially for young women - a gilded cage for a gilded age.
ASIN : B003MKAYDI
Publisher : Harvard University Press; Illustrated edition (January 30, 2010)
Publication date : January 30, 2010
Language : English
File size : 2830 KB
Text-to-Speech : Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Not Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 312 pages
Reviewer: Marco Antonio Abarca
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Ethnography of an Elite Boarding School
Review: While a graduate student at the Harvard School of Education, Gaztambide-Fernandez was given research access to an elite, New England boarding school. For two years, he conducted ethnographic field reserach. He wanted to learn how over the course of four years, students began to see themselves as an "elite" group. It is this focus on the creation of elites that makes this ethnography so very interesting.Boarding schools have been the object of popular fascination for a number of years. For the casual voyeur, it is best to remember "The Best of the Best" is a scholarly work not intended for mass consumption. But for those willing to deal with theory and academic writing, "Best of the Best" is a worthwhile read. However, if you are looking for something a little more accessable, I would recommend Sarah Chase's "Perfectly Prep."
Reviewer: Literaryxplorer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not hard to figure out the school he studied
Review: This is a fine book on the subject of the grooming of elite youth at a famous New England boarding school. And it's not hard to figure out which school the author studied. There are at least a dozen clues. No doubt in my mind it was Phillips Exeter Academy. What I like best is the author's empathy toward the kids. He makes a real effort to understand them, and his portrayal of the school struck me as extremely fair. One surprise: how closely the social stratification at the prep school resembled the stratification at a top notch suburban public high. Excellent job!
Reviewer: David A. Laverty
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Similar to though not quite as good as Professor Khan's book on St
Review: Similar to though not quite as good as Professor Khan's book on St. Paul's. Also, the identify of "Weston" is quite transparent, so why bother with a thin disguise? Apart from being interesting sociological studies of American educational institutions, there are plenty of student comments that help to give a flavor for what it might be like on the inside.
Reviewer: JHD
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: don't judge a book by its cover
Review: DOn't let the iconic tie and jacket on the cover fool you. This book is not just about boys being groomed for elite lives filled with entitlement and success, but about girls as well. THe author is a bold and insightful writer and the book is an absolute must read for social scientists and students interested in the cultivation and continuance of class. Well researched, well written, highly recommended.
Reviewer: Binnie1
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Eye-opening
Review: Great book.
Reviewer: Kind Reader
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Best of the Best and elitism
Review: It is impossible to respond to this book without considering my own experience as a graduate of a boarding school in New England and as a teacher in several boarding schools over the course of the past forty years. I currently teach some of the brightest and, by any standard, best in a school of considerable ambition; our graduates go on to the most celebrated colleges and universities and find their way to positions of considerable importance. Gaztambide-Fernandez is not incorrect in presenting some cautionary skepticism in his portrayal of the boarding school he encountered, and his treatment of the healthy independence many boarding school students find in their time away from home and parents is right on the money. There are schools burdened with self-satisfied hubris (probably NOT the school Gaztambide-Fernandez profiles!), and the intensity of interest in those schools during the application season seems to endorse their perpetuation of elitism. There are, however, a number of exceptionally fine schools that have worked hard to become inclusive and truly diverse. The best of these are educating their students for a life of purpose and meaning; their dedication to the recognition of difference and commonality in a healthy and open community endorses the life of the mind and heart and encourages service in every meaning of the word. I encourage parents to read this book if interested in a boarding school option, but I would hope they might also consider a school's publications and presentation equally carefully. As an author describing a year in the life of a good school, I chose to present some of the issues that arise in almost any boarding community as well as the triumphs. I am grateful to Gaztambide-Fernandez for his diligence in presenting what is largely a balanced portrait of a school.
Reviewer: James A. Fergus
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Boarding School Syndrome
Review: If you are the parent of a child whom you are considering sending away to boarding school you owe it to that child to go to boardingschoolsurvivors.co.uk and/or look up "boarding school syndrome" on Google. There is growing and convincing evidence that sending children away from their families to boarding school, and especially children under the age of 13, can do lasting psychological damage.How do I know? I am one of those damaged children still struggling with issues of trust and intimacy at the age of 50. Many boarding school survivors are loath to admit to their problems, but their spouses or ex-spouses will confirm the symptoms.