Monta Vista High School

I'm not sure how much my opinion of this place matters now as I attended Monta Vista high some 10 years ago, but I cannot say my experiences there were overwhelmingly positive. The Monta Vista staff did little to curb the bullying and taunting of the weaker and more socially awkward kids while I was there. As a child who grew up without the "nicest clothes" or the "coolest haircut", I was constantly put down by other students during my time there. There seemed to be an unspoken necessity for students to "fit in" both academically and socially and for those who didn't fit the typical "Monta Vista" paradigm, life was usually miserable. With that said, I have little to complain about regarding the base academic curriculum there as it did aid me in my engineering coursework during my university years and beyond. But I have to wonder if the academic success at Monta Vista had more to do with the teachers or the parents of the students themselves? Many of these students came into Monta Vista as "ready made" academic stars having been tutored and taught these academic skills from an early age through their "professional parents". If you were to run down the list of parentage, you'd probably find more academic degrees per capita from these parents than you would these teachers. It's for this reason that I wonder if the teaching staff at Monta Vista deserves any credit, if at all? To use a sports analogy, let's say a championship basketball team loses its coach for the upcoming season. The reason for the loss is irrelevant, but what's key here is that this former coach made this team what it is with all the player and personel changes that would entail. Would a new coach therefore, deserve the same credit if he were to guide this same team to a championship in the upcoming season? The Monta Vista High students are analogous to the Championship Basketball Team in this case whereas the teachers are the new coach. How deserving of Monta Vista's academic reputation is this "New Coach"?

I attended this school quite a while ago (graduated in 95). I would say that this school is focused on educating its Asian majority, while paying little attention to other races/nationalities. Teachers are given credit for making the school great, while it is the over-educated parents who push their desires and dreams upon their kids... forcing the kids to be like their parents. Monta Vista High is a school where noone fits in, and most students are happy to get the hell out, even if it means finishing 6 months early and starting De Anza College, where the educators are excellent. My ten cents worth. Oh, and I AGREE with the comment above.