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08/07/2006

School of Dreams — Whitney High delivers everything we could ask of a school: a love of learning, a sense of mission, and SAT scores to die for. But there are unintended consequences to attending the school of our dreams, as I learned during a year immersed in this world of high achievement and high pressure.

In School of Dreams, I tell the story of life inside California's top-ranked public school, where students often work nearly around the clock building futures to please parents as much as themselves. Their drug of choice? Caffeine. Their goal? Getting into a top college. Their greatest fear? Not living up to their families' stratospheric expectations. Teachers here struggle daily to find an elusive balance between creating great test-takers and fostering great learners. But what these kids have going for them is the extraordinary community within Whitney High — a school with doors open seven days a week, where teachers love teaching, and the students linger long after the school day ends. Their experience has much to teach us about what works, and what doesn't, in our public schools. School of Dreams is now available in paperback.