Pomp and circumstance precious in Hempstead

Balto wrote:

I graduated Hempstead in 1965 at the Calderone Theatre on No. Franklin Street. I think my class was the last one that had a majority of white kids in it and things were getting dicey although the graduation rate was well over 90%. Everybody spoke English and there was no special ed or ESL then. And nodbody was breeding, on the dole, or going to jail then. Drugs were a non-issue.
White flight was in full stride at that time and the poor old town has been in the sewer ever since.

what kept you here? were you or shalkl I say are you the supplier..destroying the lives..flee now if it's that bad

THE FRITO BANDITO wrote:

Another class of illiterates pushed through and on to society.

I said you could not stand alone...so it took your friends a little longer to catch up with you..still a burger king huh?

justsayin wrote:

I had a friend that worked at a College
not far from Hempstead she told me
that many of the students applying
for College from Hempstead High had
a 8-10th grade reading level, They were totally unprepared.. They could not write a letter, No comprehension
skills. These kids are sent out into the world without much hope..
They lower the standards to get them threw school but leave them without much hope for the future.

I hear you...sad isn't it?

get out now wrote:

And of those that did manage to gradute with the 'dumbed' down standards the state requires will all fit quite well into today's society where laziness is rewarded and it is not politically correct to state that a kid could actually be 'stupid'.
It all comes back to simple parenting where the Mother/Father instill values and the importance of education (at the very least HS). But I imagine when you don't even know who your father is or you are too busy blaming soceity for your lack of upward mobility you end up with the Hempstead Class of 2009

Sounds as if you don't know where your father is ....so don't take your anger out on everyone else....get therapy and get over it!

UMMMM wrote:

<quoted text>
FINALLY A TRUE COMMENT AND WITH GREAT INSIGHT!

Herein lies the problem. The blame game, with the authority figures as the enemy, and no responsability placed on our poor "victims." This is the new "lib" society, that doesn't blame the parents or the individual, but instead "the man." Now the article on the homeless girl in Cali going to Harvard is a great heartlifter....this is just BBQ starter.

The feel you people have of Hempstead High School is totally innaproriate. They make HHS seem as if it's a horrible school, when in fact it's not. The school principle got principle of the year, because he worked hard to get these students to where they are now, and the reason most students dont come to that level of graudates as any other white school, is because of the money issues. It's not fair to the students who actually go to learn and look for an education, enough to have cold-heart, spiteful people speak of such ways of a town, as if they were perfect. There is no perfection in the world, so why look down at someone, or even worse, a group of people, just because of what you hear. Did you know that the Hempstead High School Select Choir went to an international competition in Italy, Verona against 30 INTERNATIONAL CHOIRS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, & they won FIRST PLACE GOLD WITH MORE POINTS THAN ALL THE OTHER INTERNATIONAL CHOIRS. It's the town that doesnt annouce the good that happens in HHS. Just the bad, because they dont appreciate the talent that is in the school. The school valadectorian was accepted to both Colombia & Georgetown on FULL SCHOLARSHIPS. The athletes have broken records, for example Charlene Lipsey & Terell Williams & William Carmona, students who have worked hard to get where they are now. If the school had better support & was in a different location, better yet, was filled with whites, there would be no comments as to this.

gng wrote:

Like Balto and Villid, I too graduated from HHS (in 1966). I agree with both. That town is just not the same, and my heart aches whenever I read about its many problems. Good luck to the class of 2009; maybe things will turn around soon.

i totally agree.

anonymous wrote:

The feel you people have of Hempstead High School is totally innaproriate. They make HHS seem as if it's a horrible school, when in fact it's not. The school principle got principle of the year, because he worked hard to get these students to where they are now, and the reason most students dont come to that level of graudates as any other white school, is because of the money issues. It's not fair to the students who actually go to learn and look for an education, enough to have cold-heart, spiteful people speak of such ways of a town, as if they were perfect. There is no perfection in the world, so why look down at someone, or even worse, a group of people, just because of what you hear. Did you know that the Hempstead High School Select Choir went to an international competition in Italy, Verona against 30 INTERNATIONAL CHOIRS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, & they won FIRST PLACE GOLD WITH MORE POINTS THAN ALL THE OTHER INTERNATIONAL CHOIRS. It's the town that doesnt annouce the good that happens in HHS. Just the bad, because they dont appreciate the talent that is in the school. The school valadectorian was accepted to both Colombia & Georgetown on FULL SCHOLARSHIPS. The athletes have broken records, for example Charlene Lipsey & Terell Williams & William Carmona, students who have worked hard to get where they are now. If the school had better support & was in a different location, better yet, was filled with whites, there would be no comments as to this.

You’re correct, it’s not the school that’s bad, it’s just the majority of students don’t want to learn. Those who do graduate and do well are proof of that.
You say it’s a money issue and I disagree. The 2008/2009 budget for Hempstead was $150,616,862 and it ranked in the bottom 14% for all NYS schools. By comparison, the Plainedge district has a 2008/2009 budget of $71,820,540 and ranks in the top 11% of all NYS districts. Tell me how Plainedge does more with less like most districts do?
Having a good choir or sports team has nothing to do with a student getting an education and most valedictorians have a decent choice of colleges to attend.
Until the students of Hempstead want and do better for themselves, don’t expect the comments to change.

anonymous wrote:

The feel you people have of Hempstead High School is totally innaproriate. They make HHS seem as if it's a horrible school, when in fact it's not. The school principle got principle of the year, because he worked hard to get these students to where they are now, and the reason most students dont come to that level of graudates as any other white school, is because of the money issues. It's not fair to the students who actually go to learn and look for an education, enough to have cold-heart, spiteful people speak of such ways of a town, as if they were perfect. There is no perfection in the world, so why look down at someone, or even worse, a group of people, just because of what you hear. Did you know that the Hempstead High School Select Choir went to an international competition in Italy, Verona against 30 INTERNATIONAL CHOIRS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, & they won FIRST PLACE GOLD WITH MORE POINTS THAN ALL THE OTHER INTERNATIONAL CHOIRS. It's the town that doesnt annouce the good that happens in HHS. Just the bad, because they dont appreciate the talent that is in the school. The school valadectorian was accepted to both Colombia & Georgetown on FULL SCHOLARSHIPS. The athletes have broken records, for example Charlene Lipsey & Terell Williams & William Carmona, students who have worked hard to get where they are now. If the school had better support & was in a different location, better yet, was filled with whites, there would be no comments as to this.

More money is spent per pupil in Hempstead than in Garden City. Throwing money at dysfunctional people never works.

http://longisland.newsday.com/schools/ranking...

High school singers and athletes who cant read or write are poorly prepared to face the real world.

Your grammar, spelling, and writing skills are horrendous.

Balto wrote:

<quoted text>
More money is spent per pupil in Hempstead than in Garden City. Throwing money at dysfunctional people never works.
http://longisland.newsday.com/schools/ranking...
High school singers and athletes who cant read or write are poorly prepared to face the real world.
Your grammar, spelling, and writing skills are horrendous.

Balto, you are a turd!!

Wow wrote:

<quoted text>
Balto, you are a turd!!

You're a graduate of Hempstead High.

Nobody got shot, stabbed, knocked up, or arrested when I went to Hempstead High a long time ago. And nobody was on the dole or spoke Ebonics.

I wonder what the change was?

Balto wrote:

Nobody got shot, stabbed, knocked up, or arrested when I went to Hempstead High a long time ago. And nobody was on the dole or spoke Ebonics.
I wonder what the change was?

The change was that instead of trying to teach young people to rise up and meet greater goals, we've lowered the bar and taught them that they should strive for mediocrity.

OhWellSchitHappens wrote:

<quoted text>
You're a graduate of Hempstead High.

No I'm not but your Governor is a graduate of hempstead high and so did many other successful people that went a lot further than u or Balto ever did.

Wow wrote:

<quoted text>
No I'm not but your Governor is a graduate of hempstead high and so did many other successful people that went a lot further than u or Balto ever did.

Paterson has proved himself to be a moron. Thanks for proving a point.

OhWellSchitHappens wrote:

<quoted text>
Paterson has proved himself to be a moron. Thanks for proving a point.

You can say what you want but, the fact still remains that he is YOUR Governor, and he is a Hempstead High grad!!! So when you say Hempstead does nothing but graduate uneducated underacheivers, maybe you should remove your blinders and lift your head a little higher. That is when you'll see thousands Hempstead high grads who got into great professions from Wall Street to Doctors as well as lawyers and realtors and many other professions and are living all over this globe and are doing pretty well for themselves.

Wow wrote:

<quoted text>
No I'm not but your Governor is a graduate of hempstead high and so did many other successful people that went a lot further than u or Balto ever did.

Carlos Santana graduated from Hempstead and was very successful. Name someone else everyone knows other than Paterson. How do you know Balto or I haven’t been successful?

Wow wrote:

<quoted text>
You can say what you want but, the fact still remains that he is YOUR Governor, and he is a Hempstead High grad!!! So when you say Hempstead does nothing but graduate uneducated underacheivers, maybe you should remove your blinders and lift your head a little higher. That is when you'll see thousands Hempstead high grads who got into great professions from Wall Street to Doctors as well as lawyers and realtors and many other professions and are living all over this globe and are doing pretty well for themselves.

Keep in mind that Paterson is an idiot who is the default governor. Now, I’ll admit that some who graduated from Hempstead must have done well for themselves, but the majority doesn’t.
Care to name the “thousands” of graduates who are in great professions? Please name those doctors and Wall Street whiz kids. You make it sound like most of them were Rhodes scholars.

Let's switch the student populations of Hempstead and Jericho for a year. Don't change anything else, keep the teachers at the buildings, books, facilities all stay the same. Just change the students. At the end of the year, check to see what the graduation rate is for the schools.
Would the results suddenly be reversed? Would the Jericho kids attending school in Hempstead suddenly have a graduation rate of 51% due to inferior facilities and inferior textbooks?
Would the Hempstead kids suddenly graduate at a higher rate due to the location of Jericho and has better support?

Rex Hudler wrote:

Let's switch the student populations of Hempstead and Jericho for a year. Don't change anything else, keep the teachers at the buildings, books, facilities all stay the same. Just change the students. At the end of the year, check to see what the graduation rate is for the schools.
Would the results suddenly be reversed? Would the Jericho kids attending school in Hempstead suddenly have a graduation rate of 51% due to inferior facilities and inferior textbooks?
Would the Hempstead kids suddenly graduate at a higher rate due to the location of Jericho and has better support?

That’s really the one true test to see if it’s the schools or the students. Unfortunately, there are those who will try to make excuses when the same students fails at a “good” school. They need to face the fact that if you send an unwilling moron to Harvard, you’ve still got an uneducated moron.