School of Dreams

The pressure to succeed in our nation''s most competitive public high schools is often crushing. Striving to understand this insular world Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes spent a year at California''s Whitney High a school so renowned that parents move across town-and across the world-hoping to enroll their children. That''s because schools like Whitney deliver everything parents want: love of learning a sense of mission and SAT scores that pave the way to elite universities. Attending such a school of course carries its own toll: High-achieving pressured kids survive on espresso and four hours'' sleep a night falling into despair if they get a B. Lively personal and very readable School of Dreams uncovers what works-and what doesn''t-at this model high school offering parents students and teachers some powerful messages about public education today.