School life, between the linesBy Admissions Diary
School stories, admissions adventures, and the things parents talk about on the way home.
School portraits · Chicago, Illinois
A Chicago public high school gave students one class a week they could choose for themselves. The students knew exactly what to choose it for.
School portraits · Chicago, Illinois
Two Chicago seniors recorded a StoryCorps conversation two days before leaving school. It was mostly a map.
School portraits · Chicago, Illinois
Two Chicago sophomores started a fencing seminar at Walter Payton College Prep in 2023. The equipment was borrowed, and someone had to carry it.
Parent life · Between band practice and home
The middle one joined the band and chose the instrument with the longest case. Bus rules depend on which district you live in.
Parent life · At the school bus
Chaperone places on school field trips are fought over by parents. Two mothers wrote about getting the place, or nearly getting it, and then being turned down by the only person who mattered.
School life · Delmar, New York; Philadelphia; and Toronto
In 2008 a Delmar, New York, mother wrote about watching her sixth grader work on running crew and lights. Her proudest moment was a figure in black, carrying a bench across a dark stage.
School portraits · Queens, New York
Since 1996, a Queens high school has run a whole-school election simulation. Seniors play the candidates, the press and the super PACs. Freshmen are the voters, and suddenly everyone wants to talk to them.
School portraits · New York City
Stuyvesant High School is ten stories tall and has escalators. Two student reporters carried 12-pound backpacks up seven flights with a stopwatch to find out which is faster.
School portraits · New York City
In 1982 some Hunter College High School juniors started a company for student-written plays. Its opening weekend ended in the Blizzard of 1983. Forty-three years later it put on The Brick of Oz.
The admissions files · Medieval Novgorod
Around 1250, a boy in Novgorod practiced the alphabet on birch bark and then filled the rest with a horseman. My seven-year-old's homework sheet came home this week with the same layout.
The admissions files · American schoolrooms
A century ago, American schools ran savings banks. A 1914 federal bulletin explained the roll call, the bank book and what the penny was being saved from.
The admissions files · Chicago
Polio kept Chicago's schools closed that September, so 315,000 elementary pupils attended by radio. The station magazine noted they could finally throw paper wads at the teacher.
