Q&A with teachers on their perception of SHS students

Editor’s Note: For this Q & A, The Falcon interviewed teachers from different departments and asked about their views on Saratoga students.

Q1: What are some things that characterize Saratoga High and its students?

*Chemistry Honors teacher Janny Cahatol: I think Saratoga kids have way better study skills than most high school students in the nation. I’m [also] always amazed at how nice they are to each other; they’re nicer than most other students in other high schools.

[However,] I think Saratoga students are overcommitted. I am astounded by how involved they are in extracurricular activities, and I think it’s costing students sleep, and that is a little worrisome.

What was really striking [when I first came] was how motivated they were academically: Sometimes, even though I gave [them] material, students were like, ‘We want to have more worksheets,’ and I was like, ‘Why would you want more worksheets, considering you’re overcommitted anyway?’

*English teacher Suzanne Herzman: I think it’s dangerous to lump all students together. If I start saying, “Oh well, there are students that are this way and students that are that way,” I might shut off an opportunity to teach certain students well. This is my sixth year here and I’ve met so many different students — not different types of students, but different humans who think differently and learn differently.

Q2: How do your students compare to those when you were in school?

*Cahatol: When I was in high school, we had no Internet. That’s a huge difference, [because here students can get] my lectures online, but back then if you didn’t get it in class, you never got it at all. We only knew our grades when the progress reports or report cards came out; [students here] can monitor their grades any day, any time. I [also] think when I was in high school, I had time to burn. I did way more reading for pleasure, I watched a lot more TV, I was able to have space and time to actually just think about nothing and daydream. I would not trade that for anything else.

*Math teacher Audrey Warmuth: I grew up in a “blue collar” neighborhood, [where] a lot of people didn’t have college at all. Families were intact, but [for example, some] people couldn’t afford to  have a car. It was a very different upbringing; when you go to a school like that, you’re kind of a freak if you care about your grades or want to do something. I know [some students] feel really stressed out and [that] it kind of sucks to go to Saratoga, but the alternative [is having] really no expectations of you.

Q3: How do you feel about the pressure that students face at SHS? How can students improve?

*Herzman: I don’t know if the pressure comes from each other or from outside, but many students clearly feel pressure to take difficult classes because it’s what you’re supposed to do. Here’s a place where we have open access to honors classes, [unlike] other schools I’ve taught in, [where] honors was by exam or application. And I like this, but students feel like they have to take the most rigorous course load or there’s something wrong. I didn’t see that as much at previous schools.

I see students feeling a lot of pressure. I think it would be short-sighted to say teens at other places don’t feel that.  [But remember], even though high school feels like such a long, long period in life, it’s really not. There’s a world beyond.  Knowing that, we should get better, all of us, at practicing that thinking is something that is good for life, not just for getting into college.

*Warmuth: I think a lot of [the stress] is self-imposed, and that it’s somewhat misplaced in that a lot of students feel like that if they don’t make it into the handful of “good” colleges, their whole life is ruined. One of the great things about living in the United States is that there are a lot of schools that are great schools, where you actually get an excellent education. It’s not just the name of the school, it’s the education you get. I wish kids were more relaxed about knowing that [there are] so many different ways to be happy in life; [otherwise you’ll] end up making yourself miserable thinking that there is a narrow path that you have to follow, because it’s not true.