Tag: Mirman School

Guest Blogger Jenny: Applying out from Mirman School for 7th grade

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Applying Out: When Does A List of Schools Go From Comprehensive to Absurd?

If you currently have a child going into 6th grade this Fall, you probably realize that she might be “applying out” to another school. It’s a sad fact that, just when you’ve gotten over the trauma of applying to private elementary school, you’re forced to do the horrible thing all over again. We’re so sorry.

 

My daughter Anna is going to go through this process, not because she doesn’t love her current school (she attends Mirman), but because, if she gets into Marlborough, she won’t have to be on a bus two hours every day. Maybe she can do an afterschool sport, since we’re eastsiders and Marlborough is far more geographically desirable. I figure that if she doesn’t get accepted, she’ll just stay at Mirman. For her, the process is fairly low risk.

 

For other kids who attend elementary only private schools, the risks go up. They have to get in somewhere, and the competition is fierce. Yet, I recently witnessed something that really made me question the way these private schools steer students.

 

One of Anna’s friends attends a very well known private elementary school. She has to apply out. Her parents met with an advisor at the school recently, who gave them a list of schools picked specifically for their daughter. Sounds all well and good.

 

Except that, upon hearing the list, I was mystified (I have no idea if her parents were mystified as well). This list of seven or eight schools ran the gamut from Marlborough to Campbell Hall to Windward to… New Roads.

 

Now, these are all good schools. But, it’s like a big list of apples and oranges. So, this girl’s a good enough student to handle the academic competitiveness and traditionalism of single sex Marlborough, but is self directed and artsy enough for the way loose atmosphere at New Roads? This list made no sense; it seemed scattershot. Again, all these schools are good, but a family that feels comfortable at Marlborough might not fit in quite as well at a New Roads.

 

Plus, keep in mind that while applying to dozens of colleges is easy now with that one common application, applying to private schools in Los Angeles is a constant and intense process. Each application costs money, each requires personal references and transcripts, and each school requires multiple events ranging from tours and info nights to interviews and student visiting days.  Multiply that process seven or eight times, with each disparate school wanting to hear different things, and you’ve got a new full time job for the next year. Add to this the pressure put on your kid, and 6th grade becomes the lost year.

 

Personally, I think you’re better off narrowing your school application focus to schools you and your kid really like, that fit your values and your kid’s abilities and interests. The more you dilute your efforts, the less effective those efforts will be.  Plus, when it comes to your kid, not all private schools are created equal. And the last thing you want is your child in an environment that’s just not right for her.

 

So, if your elementary school dribbles out a “hand selected” list of potential schools for your kid, peruse it closely. If some recommendations seem silly, they probably are. Eliminate some. And then focus your energy on the best choices. In the end, quality will win out over quantity.

 

Jenny Heitz has worked as a staff writer for Coast Weekly in Carmel, freelanced in the South Bay, and then switched to advertising copywriting. Her daughter started 4th grade at Mirman School in 2010. She previously attended 3rd St. Elementary School. Jenny has been published in the Daily News and on Mamapedia, The Well Mom, Hybrid Mom and A Child Grows In Brooklyn. She now writes about gift ideas and products on her blog, Find A Toad.

Guest Blogger Jenny: The Private School End of the Year Marathon and My New (smaller) House

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Jenny Heitz

Our fabulous contributor/guest blogger Jenny Heitz has been super-busy. She got married! She also moved to a new house in the hills of Los Feliz, from a bigger house in Hancock Park. Yes, that’s correct, Jenny downsized in L.A. (gasp!). Check out her new blog series about the new house and what she’s doing to fix it up on her style blog, Find A Toad. We know once it’s complete, Jenny’s unique, modern sense of style will transform her new space into a very cool family house! Unfortunately, she realized they moved without a coffee maker, but she found an awesome espresso maker that would make a great house-warming gift.

 

Meanwhile, end of the year at Mirman is upon her. Read on:

 

Once your kid has been in private school for at least a year, you recognize it: the end of the year slog toward the summer break finish line.

 

It’s as if all the private school powers that be got together and decided: enough learning, we must have ceremony, and lots of it! Thus, at Mirman, we had the Pops Concert, followed by the Spring Fair, followed by Colonial Day (presentations given by Room 5 students in full colonial regalia), followed by a music recital (skipped this; my daughter isn’t playing an instrument), followed by Open House (Mulholland and the 405 at rush hour: such fun). Soon, there’s a violin concert, the Upper School play, and then the massive number of matriculation and awards ceremonies. Finally, there’s Field Day, the final day of school that’s all about play.

 

Just reading the last paragraph, much less writing it, makes me long for a solid nap.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Mirman and what it’s done for my daughter, but driving up there from Los Feliz makes me break out in hives. And having to haul up there repeatedly over a two month span of time during critical traffic hours has brought new levels of road rage to the surface. What happened to spreading these things out, to moderation? Why was Open House the same night as Obama’s visit to George Clooney’s estate?  Why bother asking why? My daughter’s lucky to go there.

 

I’ve written in the past about how wonderful it is to have a bus route from the east side, so that we no longer have to carpool 4X a week. But, the bus has spoiled us rotten. Now that we don’t have to schlep up to the campus constantly, the occasional sojourn is that much more painful. While I realize that road construction is a temporary state of affairs, it has made the commute, even done occasionally, a total unpredictable nightmare.

 

I also wonder a bit about families with two intensely working parents: how do they cope? I work from home and have a flexible schedule; I still have a bad attitude about the drive and the constant events. How do doctors, lawyers, bankers, and anyone else with a “normal” job manage it? Are you tag teaming the events, or perhaps letting relatives fill in? Really, I want to know.

 

In the meantime, we will schlep. And slog. And clap for our matriculating kids. And, finally, welcome summer and some sort of sleeping in.

 

Jenny Heitz has worked as a staff writer for Coast Weekly in Carmel, freelanced in the South Bay, and then switched to advertising copywriting. Jenny is a graduate of Crossroads. Her daughter started 4th grade at Mirman School last year. She previously attended 3rd St. Elementary School. Jenny has been published recently in the Daily News and on Mamapedia, The Well Mom, Sane Moms, Hybrid Mom, The Culture Mom and A Child Grows In Brooklyn. She now writes about gift ideas and products on her blog, Find A Toad.

Guest Blogger Jenny: Forget The Carpool. We Need A Bus.

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Anyone who’s ever had any sort of school commute understands the intrinsic value of a carpool. It’s the well-oiled support machine that keeps your schedule running and keeps you from revving up and down L.A.’s heinous freeways all week long (I’ve written about the love I have for my carpool before). But sometimes, circumstances beyond your control render the carpool useless. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Cal Trans!

 

Seriously, Cal Trans is about to ruin my life, and the life of every other school commuting parent heading toward the Westside (which is almost all of them). The scheduled widening of the 405 freeway, along with the closure of the Mulholland Bridge, is about to make the east/west commute into one nasty and serious commitment.  Bring water and food, because if you decide to brave that commute come this August, you just might need it.

 

There’s a bunch of schools up on that stretch of Mulholland Drive, just over that soon to be defunct bridge and the 405. Schools with kids aplenty, like Milken, Curtis, Berkeley Hall, Mirman (Anna’s school), and Westland.  The commute was already pretty bad if you came north up the 405, since the Mulholland off ramp has been closed for a while, creating way more traffic on your only other option, Sepulveda.

 

But now, well, it’s going to be virtually impossible to get there. With the bridge closed, traffic will be forced onto some sort of serpentine route through a hapless Valley neighborhood (I tried this route once, just for kicks, and got lost. It does not bode well). Imagine all those cars snaking through some back route to Mulholland, complete with stop signs and Children Playing signs. Those peaceful neighborhood residents will hate us, and we will curse our sorry vehicular existences.

 

So you can imagine my delight when Mirman proposed a bus route convenient to Eastsiders like us.  Possibly shared with Curtis, it would pick our kids up close by and roll through the Westside. Our children will do homework, talk, possibly snooze, and do whatever else bus riding children do until arrival at their respective schools. This means no commute. This means no more sitting on the 101, sweating the time. This means dismantling the coffee IV drip system currently installed in the car. The bus is the answer.

 

If we can get enough parents (and thus, kids) on board.

 

And that’s a big if. Buses, you see, are pretty pricey. You might fork out another couple grand, on top of the tuition, for a twice daily bus route. That’s a lot of money. On the other hand, time is money, and without the bus, time will be lost, never to return. Plus, the gas prices are so insane these days, you could end up spending that much in commuting fuel costs anyway. And let’s not forget that “green” issue, since all those extra cars on the freeway add up to way more emissions than a single bus (I’ve often pondered this while staring at the idling SUVs waiting in the carpool line).

 

So I’ve done my due diligence on the subject, and went even further: I wrote a very persuasive email missive to every relevant parent on our school carpool list. It was a rational plea for bus usage, and I used every bit of my direct response advertising copywriting skill to make the bus as irresistible a transportation option as has ever rolled the L.A. streets.  I charmingly argued and cajoled. All the parents need to do, I wrote, is fill out the online form that merely indicates interest in the bus. It’s not a firm commitment, just an interest. Please. For all that is holy.

 

The due date for this online form was June 10. I still have no idea if our area made the cut for the route. I hope so, because otherwise, it’s going to be one long school year indeed.

 

 

Jenny Heitz has worked as a staff writer for Coast Weekly in Carmel, freelanced in the South Bay, and then switched to advertising copywriting. Her daughter started 4th grade at Mirman School this year. She previously attended 3rd St. Elementary School. Jenny has been published recently in the Daily News and on Mamapedia, The Well Mom, Sane Moms, Hybrid Mom, The Culture Mom and A Child Grows In Brooklyn. She now writes about gift ideas and products on her blog, Find A Toad.

Guest Blogger Jenny: The Frantic End of the Year at Mirman School

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While I seem to recall the end of the year at public school ending with a muffled whimper of truncated days and parties with bad cupcakes, the end of the year at Mirman is quite different.

 

Although the final fundraising push is pretty much finished after the Mirman School Fair, there are still used uniforms to sell, retirement parties (complete with fundraising for the retirement parties), plus various and sundry celebrations. There was an Upper School production of The Sound of Music, complete with very elaborate costumes (I stopped dead in my tracks last week when I spotted a nun in full wimple wandering through the campus).

 

Mirman even offers something on the “last day” of school called Field Day. Field Day, as far as I can determine, is a bit like “Color Wars” at sleep away camp.  Kids are assigned a color to wear (so it’s not a uniform day, but not precisely a free dress day, either), and the colors compete in various events. Just a last minute jolt of good competitive fun before the school breaks for a couple of months.  Anna, who’s always up for a contest, is already planning her “blue” outfit.

 

And then, of course, there’s graduation. Anna’s class is required to attend, lengthening her school year by another half day. I figure it’s good for her to see what’s ahead in terms of pomp and circumstance (although I’m always amazed at the fuss made over these lower level “graduations.” I mean, is there an option to not graduate from middle school? Really? It’s not like they’re earning a doctorate or something). Plus, Mirman is a small enough school that Anna knows some of those middle school graduates, so it becomes more personal.

 

While I won’t miss the drive over the next couple of months (and indeed, am campaigning like crazy to get a bus for our area. I love my carpool, but we’ve all had enough), I will miss being up at that campus. It’s a lovely, peaceful, happy spot. I’ve never been on a campus where the kids seem so serene and engaged. There’s always something interesting going on, always a topic to discuss, and the kids seem to treat each other with such decency.  This first year has been such an overwhelmingly positive experience for our family. Anna has changed in such positive ways, and seems so much more comfortable with herself.

 

So thanks, Mirman. And we’ll see you in the fall.

 

Jenny Heitz has worked as a staff writer for Coast Weekly in Carmel, freelanced in the South Bay, and then switched to advertising copywriting. Her daughter started 4th grade at Mirman School this year. She previously attended 3rd St. Elementary School. Jenny has been published recently in the Daily News and on Mamapedia, The Well Mom, Sane Moms, Hybrid Mom, The Culture Mom and A Child Grows In Brooklyn. She now writes about gift ideas and products on her blog, Find A Toad.

Guest Blogger Jenny: What I Did (And Did Not) Expect About The Mirman School

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Mirman is one of those schools that has a certain mystique surrounding it. Because it accepts only highly gifted children, there are people who refer to it as “the freak school,” “the geek school,” or, in one stunning instance, “the Hitler school” (I have no idea what that means). While I took all these nicknames with a grain of salt, I had some apprehension about sending my daughter Anna there. I felt it was probably the right place for her, but I was worried that it would be too serious, too high powered, and, frankly, too dorky.

Happily, none of these fears manifested into reality. 

Here’s What Surprised Me:

 

  • The kids are not weird. Well, ok, there might be a few little boys running around speaking in monotone voices, but they are few and far between. One of the interesting things about Mirman students is how normal they actually are. They may be super smart kids, but they’re still kids, and they act like kids. The only difference is that the level of carpool conversation is suddenly elevated.

 

  • The parents are far nicer than I expected. I was worried that the parents would be way too into their super gifted children. But what I’ve found is that most of the parents seem sort of puzzled and bemused to have these kids. The parent body is, for the most part, very smart, very educated, a bit shy, and really not snobby in the least. The “not snobby” factor makes dealing with Mirman parents a pleasure, especially on field trips. As far as I know, there are no celebrities at Mirman. Interesting. You can draw your own conclusions about that.

 

  • The workload isn’t nearly as heavy as I thought it would be. Naturally, I’d heard horror stories about Mirman kids working constantly, even during carpool, and how “unnatural” the whole thing was. That turned out to be nonsense. Anna definitely has homework, and it’s homework she has to schedule for herself during the week. It’s made her into quite the little time management pro. And while the school works the kids really hard during the school day, Anna actually seems to spend less of her time at home doing homework than some of her public school friends. I would not say that she is overworked on any level.

 

  • Parents are not treated like royalty. Unlike some private schools, where wealthy parents get the kid glove treatment, Mirman generally treats the parents like idiots. I’m not kidding. I’ve even brought up this fact to other Mirman parents and they crack up as they agree. All the school’s emphasis and efforts involve the kids; it is the most kid focused school I’ve encountered. While Mirman wants parents to give money and be on committees and be involved, it will not brownnose you when you enter the front office. If you’re looking for adulation, seek it elsewhere.

 

  • The commute isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Commuting from Hollywood to Mirman seemed like a nightmare at first, but it’s turned out to be ok. It’s made ok only by the fact that I’m in a carpool that I’ll defend with my life. At the moment, we’re trying to get together enough kids on this side of town to justify a bus. I dream about the bus, and someday my dream will be made a reality.

 

  • My child is even happier at Mirman than I ever imagined. I had a feeling that Mirman was the right place for Anna, but her transformation over her first year there has been extraordinary. She came in at fourth grade, at a distinct academic disadvantage, and has still managed to get really good grades. It has focused her competitive instincts, but also emphasized good citizenship and kindness. Her self-confidence in terms of public speaking has skyrocketed. She’s making new friends. All in all, she’s a different child now, and I really credit Mirman with all the positive changes.

 

  • The kids are so nice. Really, they’re nice. The bullying problems that seem so prevalent at other schools are far less at Mirman. If there’s a problem, it gets handled. And one of the advantages of putting together so many highly gifted kids, who were so often the butts of jokes, is that they’re generally kind to one another. These kids have empathy for one another. While Anna has had some girl politics moments, they have been mild and easily handled.
  • It’s more diverse than I thought. The reality about private school is that it will never be as diverse as public school. So, while Mirman doesn’t resemble a microcosm of Los Angeles, diversity wise, it’s still better than I anticipated. And because all the kids share the trait of high intelligence (that’s the main criterion for entrance to Mirman), this seems to be what draws them together, not race. My daughter heard plenty of racial slurs at her old public school, but hasn’t heard one thing at Mirman. Good.

 

As Anna’s first year at Mirman draws to a close, I’m delighted with the school. It has exceeded every expectation I had for it, and my child is having a wonderful educational experience. It’s so nice when a school turns out to be such a pleasant surprise.

Jenny Heitz has worked as a staff writer for Coast Weekly in Carmel, freelanced in the South Bay, and then switched to advertising copywriting. Her daughter started 4th grade at Mirman School this year. She previously attended 3rd St. Elementary School. Jenny has been published recently in the Daily News and on Mamapedia, The Well Mom, Sane Moms, Hybrid Mom, The Culture Mom and A Child Grows In Brooklyn. She now writes about gift ideas and products on her blog, Find A Toad.