Reply to Barrie School?

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Barrie School?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I attended Barrie for a year in HS.  This was in the 80's, so take this all with a grain of salt.

Back then, 75% of the kids had been attending Barrie since preschool.  The overwhelming majority had very idyllic memories of the lower school.  Many kids do not make the transition to the Upper school, and the class size shrinks dramatically.

The Culture:
The majority of the kids that attend lived near by- and were attending the school as an alternative to to public school.  There were a few kids on scholarship there that thrived in that setting, they comprised maybe 25% of the class.  It was not especially academically rigorous or competitive, but some of the teachers were fantastic and the relationships were much more authentic and deeper than in a traditional setting.  They really knew all of the kids very well and the ones that needed extra attention definitely got it.

There were some very intelligent kids there that went on to Ivy League schools.  There was one of these in every class. A very smart and motivated child with an easygoing temperment thrived there.  Every class had a few outliers: weirdos that failed in public school due to social quirks or serious emotional issures and could not make the cut in a more competitive academic setting.

Because the school was so small, the kids were very close.  The odd ones were generally accepted, even they only had one friend, there was no climate of bullying or cruelty.  It was a quirky place.   People that might have not been pals in a larger setting found one another.  There was a lot of incestuous dating- only a small pool of people to be involved with.  Everyone knew all of the details of who was sleeping with who.  There were a few church-y type kids who never dated there.  The others dated, drank, experimented with drugs- maybe more so than other private schools because they school attracts more liberal families.

As far a the program itself, it was creative and wonderful.  Lots of walks to ponds for science, bike trips, camping trips, etc.  Every Wednesday we had a very Montessori activity day.

I loved my time at Barrie but it did not fix all the problems I was having, so my parents put me back into public school...

I hope this helps![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics