I Used to Fear Dublin High (I was wrong)

Let me tell you a bit about my past.  When my older daughter was in middle school, I started to seriously look into high school options.  Even when my daughter was going from kindergarten (a local Montessori school) to 1st grade, we investigated all the local options – public and private.  We finally settled on Dougherty Elementary after talking to neighbors but most importantly, after we went to the school to meet the principal.  While we are generally in favor of public schools, at the end of the day we are going to do what is best for our children.

When our older daughter reached middle school (Fallon), I started to ask a lot of questions and attended all the high school information sessions that Fallon hosted.  During these evenings, I got to talk to the counselors, hear Dublin High seniors talk about their experiences (these young ladies were dynamic, all going to the college of their choice) and talk to the Dublin High administrators.  My initial worries about Dublin High were based on fear, second-hand information, and misperceptions – much of it decades old biases against Dublin in general.  I would not send my daughter to a high school if I didn’t believe it would prepare her for college.  We are blessed with two children that perform extremely well in school and we want them to have every opportunity to both enjoy their education and succeed.  Our children also have diverse interests – one passionate about performing arts, the other athletics.

During this process of scrutinizing Dublin High I soon discovered that a lot more is needed than just a strong GPA to get into a top tier college.  Colleges look at extracurricular involvement to make the final decision in many cases – clubs, performing arts, sports, community involvement, all of this is important.  What I discovered is that Dublin High offers both a rigorous curriculum for college-bound students and a diverse set of non-academic activities to educate the whole child.  From AP courses (choices for students on arts, math or science tracks) to non-academic activities (performing arts, athletics, clubs and community service) – Dublin High won my confidence with a diversity of choice that we wouldn’t get from other options we considered.

My daughter is a freshman; she is taking Advanced English and three sophomore courses.  Dublin High has so much to offer – programs already in place and so many opportunities.  The Dublin High counselors coordinate summer programs for high school kids at colleges like Berkeley.  This year’s Homecoming Princess has a GPA of 4.8 and only had two errors in her SAT test and that she spent her summer at MIT – from my daughter’s early experience and my own research I have complete confidence in Dublin High’s ability to guide students at all levels – including the most academically capable – to their full potential.

I used to fear Dublin High – but my fears were not grounded in fact.  The more I’ve learned about Dublin High the more confident I feel in the school’s ability to help my daughters succeed, and the more I want to help the school get even better.

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