I don’t think the Title line is long enough for the whole story, which is…My 13 year old son wants to go to LaGuardia High School in the music program. As an afterthought, when he went for his audition, he tested for the art program also, mostly, no entirely, because he was there that day, and why not. And now he’s been accepted in the art program, but (we’re pretty sure) didn’t get into the music program. So, what should we do?
More background. LaGuardia is THE arts high school in NYC. It replaced the old High School of Music and Art. Kids from the expensive private schools often apply to go there.
And more background: Up until about a year ago, my son showed no interest or ability in music. Then he discovered electric guitar and has practiced every day he possibly could. He’s made amazing progress. After about nine months of playing he decided he wanted to go to LaGuardia. We warned him that he’d be competing against kids who had been playing classical piano since they were five but told him we would support him. We found him a great guitar teacher who taught him to sight read and a couple of other musical skills which they test. And he worked very hard and had the audition in November. But didn’t make it.
His art background is much different. When he was young we thought he was a prodigy. He sat at his “studio” - one of those FisherPrice tables - for entire evenings cranking out pictures when he was four or five. But when he learned to write he lost interest in visual art and didn’t do too much from 5 to 13 years old. The week before the test we were running around trying to find some drawings of his to hand in as his portfolio. We bought him his first canvas about a day before the test and he did something with it because they wanted some drawing on canvas. In short it looked like a disaster in the making. But he obviously showed some talent when he got there and he was accepted.
The question I have is: What is the value of going to a visual arts program for someone who wants to be a guitar player? I think he’d have to do about one class a day in art, which BTW, he says he’d be glad to do. And he’d be able to hang around with the artsy kind of kids. Probably a lot more connections for being in rock bands than if he went to some other school.
We don’t know yet what the opportunities for music electives and extracurricular activities are.
We haven’t heard from any other schools yet but the other alternatives will be the competitive overly academic type of school.
Any thoughts, advice, experiences, memories would be appreciated.
My advice in any situation like this, and I think its good advice, is to take the option that opens the most doors. Hes 13 years old. If I had a nickel for every 13 year old that wanted to be a rocker, well, I’d have a lot of nickels. In two years (or heck even two days) he might have absolutely no desire to play the guitar any more. The best course of action is the one that when he is 18 and wants to go study chemistry/be a musician/be an artist/be a writer/be a physicist/Egyptologist/whatever he has the best possibility of doing that. Let him do, and support in him, whatever is the flavor of the month so to speak but keep your sights on the big picture.
LaGuardia would be a great place for him, I think. A lot of the upside of school isn’t in the classroom, but in the kind of people you meet there, especially when it comes to a school like LaGuardia.
My advice would be to let him go. He’ll meet more musically talented kids there who can help him to grow than he would at a non-arts school. Class is all well and good, but if he makes friends he can jam with, there’s real learning there, too, and it’s a greater statistical probability at LaGuardia. Plus, I’m sure he’ll have use of the facilities.
I agree with letting him go to LaGuardia. He may even be able to transfer mid-term. I’m sure that they have kids transfer out or move, and he might be able to move in. And it certainly can’t hurt to improve his art skills, since he obviously has a talent.
Thanks for your thoughts, and thanks to all who’ve contributed so far. I don’t want to sound defensive or argumentative at all, but I don’t think that’s going to be too much of a problem. LaGuardia is after all a high school, so there are math and science courses, even AP courses. It’s not the same as choosing to go to Juilliard or RISD or SVA rather than Williams College. There will still be plenty of opportunities to go to any type of college he wants, if he decides to do something else later. Thanks again.
Let me approach this from a slightly different perspective:
Your son has an interest in the arts and expressing himself artistically. The fact that he bothered to have a back-up shows an interest in going to that school above others.
I’m in favor of whatever keeps the artistic fire burning in him, and so, I would counsel him to go into the art program and see how that fits. If after the first year it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t. But, along with meeting other artisitically inclined peers, he will be in an environment that rewards creativity. And that, like the commercial says, is priceless.
Accept the art program, send him to LaGuardia, encourage his creativity in an environment that values it.
It is hard to get into LaGuardia in certain populat instgruments. If your son played the Basoon rather than guitar he’d probably be golden.
However, you should bear in mind that LaGuardia will expect a high level from his art work just as it expects dedication in all the arts it teaches. If he is not prepared to buckle down on art to some degree he probably will not have a pleasant time at LaGuardia. Art courses are not “gimmees” they take hard work and yes, you can fail them.
I went to Stuyvesant but two of my closest friends went to LaGuardia for Drama. Its an interesting place.
“…he says he’d be glad to do. And he’d be able to hang around with the artsy kind of kids…”
It sounds like your kid is wiser than any of us! He is absolutely correct…having worked with a lot of theater majors, they all came from varied backgrounds that started with art, music, dance, literature…and just associating with other kids with an appreciation for the arts is a huge plus!
When you read celebrity bios, or hear them talk in interviews, more often than not they say “I wanted to be a dancer, but then took up singing…” or “I thought I was a musician, but then took this acting class…” etc etc.
Now, if he wanted to be a bio-chemist, this might not be a good move, but it sounds like your kid already has an inclination towards the arts, and this would be a good idea…I only wish my parents had been as supportive when I was that young…sigh.
I also was wondering, what other high schools is he considering? Is the choice between LaG and your local zoned public HS, and if so what is that school?
The other contenders right now are Bard and Brooklyn Tech. One or two more acceptances may still come in.
I think zoned neighborhood schools no longer exist in NYC. All the bright kids get sucked into the specialized high schools and then they bring average students and bad students into what should’ve been the neighborhood schools.
Ok, this is just me, I would recommend LaG 1000% over Brooklyn Tech. it is a HUGE school, a bit of a “tough” school. My brother went there and completely “fell through the cracks” – obviously lots of people do perfectly fine BUT. It is HUGE. And I went to Stuyvesant, which is 3,000+. Tech is MUCH BIGGER. Did I mention enormous?
So you are not applying to Murrow? Midwood? These are “zoned” schools that accept non-zoned students. However they are not specialized schools in the general sense of the term (there are no entrance exams). Murrow is known to be somewhat “arty.” Midwood is the original home of “Sing!” the student-run musical production ripped off by other schools and once embarassingly immortalized in a feature film of the same name.
As for Bard, I had quite a few friends who went to Simon’s Rock which is a similar program. It can be really great for some people, but as I understand it it can be extremely challenging and a pretty high level of maturity is required to suceed.
In my own opinion, you should probably choose Bard if your son is more academically inclined, and LaGuardia if he is more artisically inclined.
Best of luck!. Depite my current location I grew up in Brooklyn and went to public school the whole way.
Your kid needs to be in a creative atmosphere surrounded by creative people. It’s what makes him tick. It doesn’t look like this story has a down side to me.
He may be able to get in with the musicians at the school and switch over to that side after a while. It doesn’t really matter. He can still develop his musical side while working on his visual arts side in a more formal capacity. Just let him go with it. He won’t regret it.
The application process is a bit complicated these days. There are three lists: 1) LaGuardia 2) The specialized academic schools: Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science,… 3) Everything else, including Bard, Murrow, Midwood.
By January 1 you have to rank order the schools on each list. If you get into the first school on your list you are never considered by the rest of the schools. Since he had Bard on the top of his #3 list he never was considered by Murrow or Midwood or Beacon, BTW, which has recently risen in stature and is considered by that same group of students.
So the maximum number of schools you can be admitted to is three. I erred in my earlier post.
Some follow-up…We went to the open house at LaGuardia this evening. This thread was extremely helpful to us in clarifying thoughts and helped to prep me for the open house. Anyway, I was totally blown away by the school. I couldn’t believe how positive the experience was. And my son seems to agree with me. And, as it turns out, he wasn’t too crazy about the music program, which emphasizes classical and jazz, neither of which he appreciates. But he does like the overall feel of the school, the pervasive attitude of helping students to express themselves through their art. Seems like a grat way to spend four years without burning any bridges.
Thanks again to all for their input. Late thoughts of course welcome. I’ll be checking back here.
I am glad to hear you had such a positive experience at your visit. As I mentioned I had two close friends who went to Laguardia and I was exposed to it quite a bit – for a bit o’ name dropping from that circle of friends I knew Carla Gallo who had a significant role in the tv series Carnivale. I was always impressed by the dedication, focus and talent of all the students I met there. It is a great place with a unique spirit.
Best of luck with the process. Talk about things I would NOT want to have to do twice! And in three years it starts all over.
How many great musicians can you think of who studied art rather than music? I’m betting more than few.
If your son has talent in both music & art I very much doubt he’ll find that an art school education will introduce boundaries and hold his music back. Probably exactly opposite.
