Rating: 
Summary: For Local Residents Only
Review: I bought and read the book because I live in the area and wanted to get some more insight on one of the best high schools in America. It was a good read, but unfortunately there wasn't anything informative in the book. I find it unbelievable that no one appreciated what Neil Bush tried to do in the school. I agree with some of the other's comments about the book being over-exaggerated.
Rating: 
Summary: a B plus
Review: I can't vouch for the accuracy of this book, but it was certainly an eye-opener. The only drawback was how angry I got that a quality education like the one Whitney offered was available to so few. Hume does a great job of sketching about half a dozen students in depth, and others in slightly less depth. There are stressed students, laid back students, supremely organized students, students in serious trouble, and many who fall in between. We learn of the sacrifices required to keep up in classes; many of these teenagers are carrying a workload that would make a regular working adult blanch. We also meet several memorable teachers, one of whom boldly decides to try working without a net. He allows his students to develop an experiment on their own for the entire semester, then test it before judges. The results are somewhat unexpected. Another section deals with Neil Bush's (George W's brother) visit to the school, and his failure to get the students enthusiastic about his new program. Reading this book, it is hard to tell if the students or parents put the most pressure on the kids, but clearly it's a certain personality style that flourishes at Whitney. The students' informing Bush that subjects should be rigorously pursued to his bafflement is priceless. The only problem came when the author swerved away from describing the students and teachers at the school, and began giving background on how Whitney came to be. That was the weakest section. Luckily, the focus switched back to the students. While it is true that many seemed somewhat stressed, so too are students at less rigorous schools, and when it crosses the line should be decided on a case by case basis. Are teens really happier with a flourishing social life and less academic rigor? I think it depends on the teen.
Rating: 
Summary: Read This book
Review: I care about education, and this book is a must. It tells the amazing story of an outstanding high school that has been built by a group of people who know that kids can learn and excel. It tells you how it happens, and especially how the teachers function. This ranshackle school makes everything happen, and while a lot of the students are under terrible pressure to succeed, they teach you the lessons we need to know about ambition and its costs. It's a wonderful read, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing
Review: I found the information in this book disturbing, about students who did nothing but study, who rationalized away craming for tests only to forget mere moments after. Do you know what the most disturbing part was? That the information in this book is not true. I go to this high school, and this book glosses over everything that truly makes the school what it is. The author does not understand the essence of this high school and presents a highly skewed and flawed viewpoint. I might even go as far as to call it a muckraking book, but one with none of a muckrakers helpfulness. This book is naught but a twisted pack of lies and no one should buy it
Rating:
Summary: Engaging multi-dimensional look at a top public high school.
Review: I found this book fascinating! Get inside the heart of a great American high school as students prepare for their futures agonizing over test grades, college admissions and course loads that often lead them to all-nighters and caffeine addictions. This is a compelling look at educational excellence and the benefits and stresses associated with putting a priority on a future HYP (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) education. The author includes student essays, sound bites on classroom curiculum, background information on how the school was started, and so much more! This book is a must read for every administrator, teacher, and parent who is concerned about the academic success of their children.
Rating:
Summary: A Poor Portrayal Of The REAL Whitney High School
Review: I graduated from WHS in 1998, and I have to admit that this book was laughably inaccurate. This high school is nothing more than a way for the ABC Unified School District to make itself look good. They hand-pick students and put them into this high school, not realizing that they're actually doing students a disservice. First off, students at WHS are nothing like what the author describes. I had a 3.9 GPA in high school and I got a full night's sleep every night, I never drank tons of coffee, and I never injested caffeine pills. Nor did I know anyone who did these things. Students played sports, watched TV, hung out with friends, and did everything that normal adolescents do. One things that was extremely obvious was the way in which everyone hung out with their own little clique and never deviated from their own circle of friends. Everyone knew who the "cool" kids were, and they didn't consort with the "dorky" ones. Also, we didn't consider ourselves failures if we didn't get into Harvard/Yale/MIT. Only three or four WHS students per year go to these kinds of colleges. Most of us end up at Berkeley or UCLA. It wasn't until I talked to my old high school classmates during college that I realized that I wasn't the only one who secretly counted the days until I could leave Whitney. Everyone I spoked with, including our class president, admitted that they hated that school. The only thing that makes Whitney different is that all classes at that school are either Honors or Advanced Placement courses. That's it. Those who take these classes at a "normal" high school are getting the exact same education. There's also nothing particularly special about the faculty. For the most part, they're all normal teachers. Some of them are downright incompetent. Once you leave the city limits of Cerritos, NOBODY cares that you went to Whitney. For all those students that are buying/reading this book hoping that they'll gain some insight on how to get into the school, I say don't waste your time. Your time is better spent watching TV, going to a movie, or hanging out with your friends. No matter what your parents tell you, your life is not over if you don't make it to Whitney. People from the other high schools in the district also do well on the SATs, make it into Ivy League schools, and go on to lead successful and happy lives.. If Whitney doesn't accept you, the only door that will be closed to you in life is the door to Whitney.
Rating:
Summary: A Poor Portrayal Of The REAL Whitney High School
Review: I graduated from WHS in 1998, and I have to admit that this book was laughably inaccurate. This high school is nothing more than a way for the ABC Unified School District to make itself look good. They hand-pick students and put them into this high school, not realizing that they're actually doing students a disservice. First off, students at WHS are nothing like what the author describes. I had a 3.9 GPA in high school and I got a full night's sleep every night, I never drank tons of coffee, and I never injested caffeine pills. Nor did I know anyone who did these things. Students played sports, watched TV, hung out with friends, and did everything that normal adolescents do. One things that was extremely obvious was the way in which everyone hung out with their own little clique and never deviated from their own circle of friends. Everyone knew who the "cool" kids were, and they didn't consort with the "dorky" ones. Also, we didn't consider ourselves failures if we didn't get into Harvard/Yale/MIT. Only three or four WHS students per year go to these kinds of colleges. Most of us end up at Berkeley or UCLA. It wasn't until I talked to my old high school classmates during college that I realized that I wasn't the only one who secretly counted the days until I could leave Whitney. Everyone I spoked with, including our class president, admitted that they hated that school. The only thing that makes Whitney different is that all classes at that school are either Honors or Advanced Placement courses. That's it. Those who take these classes at a "normal" high school are getting the exact same education. There's also nothing particularly special about the faculty. For the most part, they're all normal teachers. Some of them are downright incompetent. Once you leave the city limits of Cerritos, NOBODY cares that you went to Whitney. For all those students that are buying/reading this book hoping that they'll gain some insight on how to get into the school, I say don't waste your time. Your time is better spent watching TV, going to a movie, or hanging out with your friends. No matter what your parents tell you, your life is not over if you don't make it to Whitney. People from the other high schools in the district also do well on the SATs, make it into Ivy League schools, and go on to lead successful and happy lives.. If Whitney doesn't accept you, the only door that will be closed to you in life is the door to Whitney.
Rating:
Summary: balance
Review: i sincerely enjoyed reading about my alma mater. i know that there are many arguments about the content of the book not being enough to completely show the world how whitney high really is, but i just appreciate the fact that i have something that can help me look back on what i went through. i believe that many students go through their six years at whs feeling like no one notices them, especially not their parents. many feel like they're just walking grades, but with the little insight this book gives i think it could help bridge the gap between students and their parents. reading about the teachers made me remember that they are people too and that they are not there to make the kids' lives hell but instead are there dedicating their lives to make the school work. sure, the students are exceptional in the academic department to begin with, but who prepares them for the rigorous work of college and of the real world? its motivators that help people hold enough enthusiasm to move forward.
i know about the many flaws of whitney high and i've spent enough time during high school complaining about them, but after reading this book i felt a bit humbled. i was lucky to be in whs and i'm proud to have humes' book in my collection.
Rating:
Summary: a pleasant read, but not much more?
Review: i was quite skeptical about this book at first. i didn't think that any overly-general blanket statements about omnipresent all-nighters and "lattes" (come on mr. humes. let's not get so dramatic. i slept a good 8 most nights and hated coffee, and so did many people i've asked) was going to capture my whitney high school experience, nor did i think the book would say anything deeply informative by way of an ethnography about the cultural values of asian-americans and their immigrant parents, nor about the clashes and cooperation between the values of those parents and the values of american capitalism and education, nor about the experience of the "reverse-marginalized" (whites, blacks, hispanics, bad test-takers, and others) in whitney's environment. by "deeply informative", i mean anything other than the cliches that pass amongst the students, teachers, administrators, and parents - all part of something one can call the "whitney bravado", which is at best shallow, at worst, twisted or completely false. i despise whitney's bravado, and i don't think most of the students actually learn any of the arrogantly self-proclaimed "college-level" knowledge the bravado claims they do (the some-kids-seeing-the-point-of-the-Anthem-experiment example in the novel is rather laughable). but, the book turned out to be such a pleasant read i finished it in half a day. it was pretty well written, embellished or partially-truthed (in my opinion) enough to make for an engrossing read. some of the commentary on our public school systems, and on the behind-the-scenes of whitney's formation, administration, etc, was decent. that's about it, i'm afraid. whitney alumni, if you're looking for an in depth look at whitney high school as you experienced it, then forget about it. you will just feel cynical about how you were not represented in the book at all, and continue to wonder how the hell this school REALLY influenced your life (aside from all our quasi-theories and rationalizations). but i think it's safe to say, if you're not whs-affiliated, or if you are and you don't expect that which is rather unreasonable to expect, you'll enjoy this rather moving book. i just want to point out that one serious oversight in the scope of the book is the non-mention of Mr. Smilde, who is still the coolest. i am comforted in knowing that he would probably self-deprecatingly laugh at my suggestion that he ought to be in this book, and that i still have original written memories of him - a sheet of paper i just found with the definition we all had to memorize in AP Euro: "Dialectical materialism is the philosophy of Karl Marx which he formulated by taking the dialectic of Hegel and joining it to the materialism of Feuerbach, extracting from it the contradictory, interacting forces called the thesis and antithesis, culminating at a critical nodal point where one overthrows the other giving rise to the synthesis, applying to it the history of social development and deriving therefrom an essentially revolutionary concept of social change". i thought i was so smart back then. haha!
Rating:
Summary: Snapshot looks into the more interesting qualities of WHS
Review: I went to WHS roughly 15 years ago. While there are clearly many changes to the campus since I was there, many other things remain the same today: the faculty, students, and parents invest a lot into the students' successes; and the high expectation brings out many good and some bad consequences. Hume weaves together stories that follow selected Whitney faculty and students. The book focuses on the more interesting aspect of the Whitney experience by condensing away the quiet mundance daily routines. While this has the effect of making the stories more dramatic than in real life, the description of the highs, lows, and the quirky moments captures the essence that underly the lives of the people that make up this 1100-student school. At times, Hume ties the Whitney story with more general commentary on the state of the education system. Still, the book should be read more as documentary stories than as a study into what consitutes a good academic system.
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