I enjoyed my times at the Bronx High School of Science from September 1979 to June 1982. The US News & World Report has acknowledged Bronx Science as one of the top high schools across the nation.1
I almost didn’t get into Bronx Science.
In the middle of my eighth grade year at Ryan Junior High School (JHS 216) in Fresh Meadows, several of my classmates and I took an entrance exam for specialized high schools such as Bronx Science, Stuyvesant High School and Brooklyn Technical High School. These high schools specialize in mathematics and sciences such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and require a passing score on the entrance exam.
I failed that exam and could not care less about it. Very few classmates of mine passed the exam, but I recall most, if not all, of them deferred their entrance until the next year. There was always the risk of failing the entrance exam in the following year. I knew two classmates of mine who happened to be twins. They passed the first time but decided to defer until the following year. They took it again, and one of them passed. I felt badly for the one who failed – he attended a regular public high school while his brother went to Stuyvesant.
Generally, when a student becomes a freshman, he or she will go to a high school, but I stayed at JHS 216 for my freshman year because I wanted to spend one more year with my friends from the public schools I attended before entering JHS 216 as well as those I met in the seventh grade at JHS 216.
In the middle of my freshman year, I took the same entrance exam for those specialized high schools. When I got my result, I scored an 138 out of 200, and the minimum passing score for Bronx Science was 138!
I missed the passing score for Stuyvesant by one point. My parents said that if I wanted to go there, they were sure that Stuyvesant would take me in spite of that lone point. I firmly put my foot down by saying “Thanks but no thanks, Mom and Dad.”
I was happy about Bronx Science, but I felt a bit uneasy because the length of transportation, whether it be a private bus, public bus, private car or subway train, from my home to Bronx Science varied between 45 and 90 minutes, depending on the extent of traffic (e.g., rush hour traffic). That meant that I would have to wake up earlier than I would “approve.” Of course, my parents would overrule my “approval” or the lack thereof.
The question you may be asking is, why would I mention Bronx Science, other than my being one of two students with hearing loss? The other student heard more than I did, and identified himself as hard of hearing. His twin brother with typical hearing also attended the same school with us.
The reason is mathematics.
I loved mathematics at all the public schools I attended before Bronx Science. It is the subject that I could easily associate numbers with concepts. As for other subjects such as English, they were more difficult because I could not hear every single word that was being said in the classroom. I had to read and grasp how words were put together to create a sentence, how sentences were put together to assemble a paragraph and how paragraphs were put together to produce a concept or a plot, as compared to a person with typical hearing who could automatically put everything together to get a concept by simply hearing someone speak in a classroom. The only way that I could get help from any public school was my copying the notes taken by a classmate who would sit next to me. Even these notes were never complete because it’s impossible for any classmate to write everything that’s being said in class.
Let’s go back to mathematics. On the first day of school as a new sophomore (as compared to old sophomores who passed the exam and decided to attend school as freshmen), I remember my first class was mathematics. I think it was algebra/trigonometry. In any event, that class was sooooo disappointing. The teacher was inept and uninspiring – he tried to humor us in a miserable attempt to hide his ineptness. It was so different from what I had learned at JHS 216, especially because all the classes I took there were honors classes. I wondered why I was placed in a terrible mathematics class and I worried if I was going to enjoy HS.
When I came home at the end of the first day of HS, my parents asked me how the day went. I mentioned ‘Meh’ about the mathematics class, and my parents went bonkers. Within the next day, my parents had a meeting with the chair of the Mathematics Department, Ms. Berman. She expressed her concern how my deafness would affect my performance in a more challenging mathematics class, and my parents blew her argument out the window. Mercifully, a mathematics teacher by the name of Ms. Mirsky rescued the day by expressing her willingness to take me into her honors algebra/trigonometry class.
I was happy for the rest for my high school career. I had Ms. Mirsky as my math teacher for two years. When I was a senior, I had Mr. Greene for Advanced Placement Calculus BC as well as Ms. Strauss for a challenging but fun math elective. Mr. Greene’s Calculus class was the only college course I took at Bronx Science.
This blog is dedicated to Ms. Mirsky. She was an alumna of Bronx Science (1964) and she was a wonderful teacher.
Reference Cited