The mania of school branding

By Joyce Szuflita
I say this all day long, "There is a mania for naming schools things that may or may not have anything to do with what is going on in the school." Whether you are looking at elementary, middle school or high school- look past the name. They are trying to differentiate themselves from other schools, but generally, and particularly at elementary and middle school, they often have the exact same curriculum and enrichments. Sometimes the name is wildly out of date. Sometimes it is aspirational.

Many 'magnet schools' no longer have their magnet money or the access to placement. The Specialized ("Science") high schools are neither particularly specialized or science based. "Telecommunications" (HS for Telecommunications Arts and Technology) is a terrific gen ed, college prep program. I joke that they are called "Telecommunications" because they had a video studio in the 80's. In the name, "Math and Science Exploratory School", the important word is 'Exploratory' NOT "Math and Science". They have plenty of arts and "New Voices" has plenty of math and science.  At PS 10: Magnet School of Math, Science and Design Tech, they spent their magnet money many years ago to build two beautiful science and computer labs, which is super, but PLEASE! lets just call them PS 10.

Don't buy a school by the name! and don't ignore a school because of the name. I just finished reading a parent's account of how they love Brooklyn Tech for they child's renewed love of fiction and literature, and insight into marketing and design. I have long been a fan of Stuyvesant's baseball team as well as their humanities classes which in my opinion were superior to the science there. Look deeper or miss out.