Over the 5 ½ years that it has been open, our Baccalaureate School For Global Education has seen many changes, some good and some bad.
We’ve gone through a variety of faculty, modifications in curriculum, scandals, and more importantly two principals in 5 years. However, while the school keeps changing, the students stay the same, seeing these constant occurrences, not happy with them in any way.
In terms of school history, 5 ½ years is an extremely, extremely short amount of time, with many schools in our city such as Forest Hills High School or St. Francis Prep serving as a source for education for several decades now. However, you can ask the kids from those schools and they will explain to you that over the years that they have been there, the changes that were made, if any, were unnoticeable and at most minimal. In comparison to those schools, BSGE is constantly editing itself, with different teachers, different rules and a different outlook on how to teach its students.
The original students of BSGE, who are now gone to college, were taught with excessive liberalism and broad-mindedness throughout, as opposed to the newer students that attend BSGE, who are taught on a more moderate base, with less and less political input during class. In a regular school, liberal teaching is absolutely unacceptable, however, we have come to learn that BSGE is far from regular, and many of us like it that way. Though some students complain about being widely different in comparison to other high schools, originality is quite rare in todays day and age, and BSGE had that originality in place for several years.
Although ingenuity was once key here, since late 2005/early 2006, the school has taken a decline in terms of allowing students to be themselves. Several years ago students were allowed to listen to music when applying their skills in an individual assignment or project, now, kids are limited from that privilege, limiting their ability to work better not allowing them to achieve what they could with that extra step of breathing room. Music is a small example, yet it goes a long way in terms of the broad-mindedness of the school. Prior to the past couple of years, the school had a tendency to input politics into all classes, let alone some classes, allowing kids to learn about geography and the various ways to apply mathematics, English, etc. into the world, learning several subjects at once rather than just one. However, as time goes on, many students, as well as teachers that will remain unnamed, have noticed that these things are changing slowly, for the worse. We are losing that sense of originality where we can describe a single aspect of our school and we will immediately be known as BSGE. The level of maturity of the students, has declined tremendously, with loud and obnoxious students roaming the hallways, as opposed to 3 or 4 years ago, where that was never a problem and the school was calm, collected and commendable. The level of competence and flat out intelligence of students had completely fallen through the floor over time, mainly because the majority of newer students have not been forced to take the absurdly difficult admissions tests. These are all changes that have been applied by the school and its faculty for the past several years , forcing students to adjust abruptly throughout their time here.
My worry is that these new students coming into the school, new 7th and 9th graders will never see how great BSGE used to be. Before these past years, many students would not even want to leave the school. They would stay after in the cafeteria or in the classrooms and interact with teachers or fellow students, however, now kids are rushing out, not wanting to stay. The school was at one point a friendly counterpart to its students, with teachers working with and understanding students, as well as vice versa. Now, with the exception of few students and teachers, that is not the case. New teachers and new students have been brought into the school not knowing how it used to be, thinking that it is a regular school and nothing more, as opposed to several years ago, when it was much more than that.
Several news stations had come to our building in the past, doing stories on our school and its vast development, yet recently we have not seen a camera, a reporter, or a spot of attention for that matter.
Though the building itself is falling apart, the school has lost the sizzle that it had once had, and it’s quite upsetting for the students that have been here for more than 3 years. Looking back upon the school’s evolution over the years, it’s easy for me to say – Bring back the school that Bill built.
The BACC Rag 