Through our readings in class, I understand more about the schools in American cities. Therefore, I have some expectations about the school we are going to visit. Pictures about the high school we saw in class on Thursday somehow fostered my expectations. I guess most students are black and from working class. I expected that the quality of education is not up to the US standard as Traub described in his article. However, I desire to see something that challenges to what I expected. I want to have a different point of view in the future. I want to know whether this high school is one of a few successful stories about public education in the US.

I'm not sure what to expect from our visit. I didn't know until last class that the school was an exam school. When I heard this, I felt an unexpected internal change of attitude toward the school - as though I changed my opinion of what I would expect the school to be. This strong emotion shocked me. Based on previous experiences with exam schools in urban areas (Boston), they tend to be the "better schools" within urban districts. Therefore, when hearing that it was an exam school, I immediately assumed that it would be less of a decrepit and "demoralized" urban school that our readings have discussed and that I have witnessed. Regardless of whether or not exam schools are always the "better schools" in urban districts, I'm surprised that my expectations changed so instantaneously upon learning that it wasn't an 'everyday' urban public school.

I'm sure that it's being an exam school will have some effect on the atmosphere, but I'm not entirely sure how that effect will manifest itself. Will it be more competitive? Will it reflect the overall racial and socioeconomic distribution in Philadelphia, or will it be somehow disproportionate? Based on the experiences I have had with exam schools, I think it will be filled with students whose parents place a high value on education. I also expect the students to be smart and motivated to learn. I'm looking forward to talking to students, and I'm hoping that they won't view our visit as an intrusion, but instead as a chance for us to learn from each other. In short: I'm excited for our visit!

I'm not sure if I'm more excited or scared to visit the high school. For one, its a selective public school, the kids must be smart and I sometimes feel like I'm just bumbling through education. I expect to meet interesting people and also to be able to connect on an issue with at least one person. However I'm scared to expect anything too fantastic and then be disappointed when perhaps the visit does not go as planned. I mean no offense to the high school students but I don't know what to expect personality wise. I would probably ask what parameters were put in place for admission and also what drew them to the high school specifically (just like customs week haha).

As a lover of field trips, I must admit I am excited for the trip to the high school. I am even more excited about finally discusing what we did in class and connecting it to what we have been talking about, as I said in a earlier post, how will our perspective change? I am looking so forward to meeting with the kids that go there and really trying to immerse myself into their environment. On the other hand, I also think about the advantages of visint an under priviledged environment. In some ways I believe that it would have been more fruitful if we visited a school that didn't have a lot of resources. Not to genrealize, but I feel a majority of us are use to nice schools, I would have rather seen a struggle in order to understand how class effects someone than what we are going to now. If class matters, shouldn't we go to a place where class actually is felt? In my AP Government class I learned that the poor is the most self-aware of all classes they know they are disadvantaged, I would have liked to explore the relationship between this awareness and education.

The environment will definitely be different from educational environments I have personally experienced, but I don't believe it will definitely not be any major culture shock. Having worked with at risk youth at People TV in Atlanta and through my theatre company, I have some perspective on what is typical of an urban public school environment. Additionally it is one of the better public schools in Philly; the students are selected. Primarily I am hoping to compare and contrast Philadelphia public schools and Atlanta public schools. Georgia is one of the lowest ranked educational systems in the nation, so it will be interesting to observe public education in a higher ranked state.The capabilities of an educational system provides insight about the community, so my expectation is that learning about education in Philly will educate me about my new community.