Mary2007

I just finished reading "The Best of the Best: Becoming Elite at an American Boarding School" by Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández.

Does anyone know what boarding school was researched in the book?

Benley

Just read a few pages from google books. If it is indeed a real school, there are 3 hints I found: 1. founded over a century ago; 2. one of the "most prestigious" elite boarding schools in NE; 3. students admitted from hundreds of applicants. The author also mentioned he was once an admission officer of a "smaller" boarding school, indicating "Weston" is not so small. It seems to me that Hotchkiss meets all those criteria except the number of applicants (as a matter of fact, if with "hundreds of applicants", the school is not so selective as most elite boarding schools are).

edit: then the author works (studies?) at Harvard, so it could be a school close to Boston.

neatoburrito

I think he intentionally mixes physical descriptions of many schools to throw people off, but it seemed to me to be Exeter. He even describes a senior ritual of opening time capsules.

It's funny you asked this because I just finished this book. I thought it was very interesting. (But I'm kind of a nerd.)

The point is that it really could be any of the elite schools other than ISL schools since the one he observed had PGs.

skibum4

From his bio at Harvard School of Ed, where he teaches, seems he went to public school, but then taught guitar at Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts - here it is:

"Unlike mythical northeasterners such as Garp or Holden Caulfield, the actual Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández grew up in Latin America, in Puerto Rico. “I attended a public school,” he says, “but one that is considered ‘elite', like a Boston Latin type of exam school.” With that education under his belt, he came to Boston in 1989 to study classical guitar at the Boston Conservatory, with a major in performance and a minor in composition. After graduating from the Conservatory, he met his wife-to-be, a Massachusetts native and modern dancer then working with the Prometheus Dance Company. Some months into their relationship, as they were making wedding plans, Bonnie learned that the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in the Boston suburb of Natick was looking for a pair of artistic house parents. This good job— Rubén doubled as guitar teacher and house parent—was the introduction to the rarified world of elite education, northeastern style."

wickedcrazy

It's Exeter. I promise. Definitely Exeter-- I know people who knew him there and in the actual dissertation, he disguises it much less well. Even in the book, the two dining halls, the seating in both the cafeterias and the auditorium, everything correlates.

Mainer95

Keep in mind that a book like this reveals at least as much about the author as it does about his subject - and, in this case, perhaps even more about the author.

neatoburrito

You are right Mainer. One must be extremely objective in reading it. There were times when I felt the author completely misinterpreted what a student said, or missed what could have been sarcasm on the part of the student. One of the most quoted parts of this book is when a student asks if he would send his daughter there and when he hesitates, another students says, "Why, because you love her?" which is an appeal to emotion if ever I've read one. However, these kids are incredibly smart. Who is to say that the student posing the question isn't "playing" him. He goes on at length about how these kids have wonderful powers of observation and can get to the heart of the matter very quickly. Perhaps she was reading him, analyzing him. I have witnessed my own daughter do something similar to a school counselor. She resented being "studied" and decided to turn the tables.

The author's background is in educational sociology - not gifted education. It must not be "read into." Be as objective as possible. I didn't think it made the school look bad at all because I assumed that the author was simply stating his interpretation of what he observed.

Venezuela

hi, im Valentina from Venezuela and currenntly studying first year of psicology so i was wordering if some of you can post some of the best books that i will use... thank you and sorry for my really bad english...