Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics

[OKCMallen]

What do people think of OSSM?

[Midtowner]

I have mixed feelings.

They take Oklahoma's brightest kids and prepare them to study at universities out of state.

[bwana_bob]

Is that a hunch, scuttlebutt or verifiable fact?

[Midtowner]

Originally Posted by bwana_bob

Is that a hunch, scuttlebutt or verifiable fact?

40% go out of state. That's a verifiable fact.

[bandnerd]

Mixed feelings about it here, too. Though I can't quite put my finger on why. But they perform, that's for sure.

[mmm]

back in high school, a couple of my friends decided to go... i chose not to apply (not even sure if i would've been accepted) since it felt as if the students were sequestered from reality. perhaps the rules are different now, but my friends were required to live at the ou dorms and were bused to ossm each day. while i'm sure the education was great, i believe that they missed out on interacting with "normal" people.

-M

[OKCMallen]

No, you're right, living on campus is required. Now they have their own dorms on the campus at 10th and Lincoln, so the bussing is a thing of the past.

Midtowner, each class is approx 70 students, sometimes a little less. So about 30 per year leave the state. How many of these kids would have left anyway? Probably the vast majority of them. So, given those pretty fair assumptions....what's the difference? Some of those kids come back, but not many.

Moreover, some of these kids would not have had the resources to even come close to realizing their potential if they stayed in their small towns. They would have been there, had math through trig, then not have had a shot into attending top-notch schools. OSSM provides the opportunity for some of these Oklahoma students to be competitive where they otherwise would not be.

[Patrick]

I was accepted and ended up turning it down. I wanted to have a life, and didn't want to move away from home at the age of 14.

[redland]

Originally Posted by Patrick

I was accepted and ended up turning it down. I wanted to have a life, and didn't want to move away from home at the age of 14.

The choice was yours to make of course, but I find it somewhat offensive that you assume students at OSSM do not "have a life." They do.

As for the students who subsquently leave the state, most of them would have done so with or without OSSM; and wherever they may go they bring credit to their state of origin.

[Patrick]

It's really just a difference in how you "have a life." I also had no life studying all the time, but I wanted some sense of normalcy, living with my family, etc. There's some pretty brilliant people that come out of OSSM though. The reason more of them probably leave the state is because they get accepted to Ivy League schools.

[OKCMallen]

Patrick-

The commitment is certainly not for everyone. It's a major commitment, but the opportunity you get is worth it. Think of it this way: lots of people don't go because they want to play competitive sports in high school. Well, not hardly anyone that plays competitive sports in HS will play in college...but everyone that goes on to college will be competitively learning, so in a practical sense you're putting yourself in a better position to succeed.

But, like I said, the commitment is not for everyone. It can be pretty intimidating for a 16 year old to leave home.

[jsenter]

The children at OSSM are immersed in learning 24/7. I don't feel that's very healthy emotionally. These children need lives outside of academics, and OSSM doesn't offer much room for that. I know several students that go to OSSM and their life is constant studying. They have time for little else. There's more to life than that.

[OKCMallen]

Originally Posted by jsenter

The children at OSSM are immersed in learning 24/7. I don't feel that's very healthy emotionally. These children need lives outside of academics, and OSSM doesn't offer much room for that. I know several students that go to OSSM and their life is constant studying. They have time for little else. There's more to life than that.

Exaggerated.

I'm not going to sit here and say that OSSM breeds perfectly well-rounded individuals because it doesn't. That's not the idea. You're not going to get All-American Tommy Joe Quarterbacks out of OSSM with high ACTs and All-State atheltic performance. What you get are kids that have been allowed to learn at the accelerated pace at which they are capable.

The school provides an environment with mandatory physical education, fine arts courses, and community service hours. One could even argue that these students are MORE well-rounded than those that go to a normal high school where they take blow-off arts classes (if they are even offered or required) and do zero community involvement.

Just because it's not for everybody doesn't mean it's not for anybody. I guarantee if you take a poor, yet very bright and curious, student from Gotebo and ask them if they'd like to go to a school where they will be fed all the information they can handle, will be safe, paid attention to, live with other students just like them, and have your own path to almost literally choose your college and earn scholarships VERSUS staying in Gotebo and good luck on the rest, that student will likey choose OSSM.

OSSM is more Hogwarts than prison.

[jsenter]

The students who go there live in a sheltered environment and don't get to go out to the real world.

[ewoodard]

I do not have enough info on OSSM to make an honest judgement, but I fully believe any student get out of education what they put into it. Many students today do take blow-off classes just so they can graduate, while other really strive to improve themselves for college.
OKCMallen, do you have a problem with competitive athletics in school? I am just curious. The few that you talk about going on to play sports in college are getting their school paid for, and that allows them the chance to go to college. In Oklahoma, the number of schools that have athletics allows for more of these kids a chance to attend school for free, or having some of it paid for so their parents can now afford to send them to school.

[OKCMallen]

So do private residential school kids, Senter. I'm not saying you don't have a point, because you do. However, I don't know that your point outweighs the benefits.

[kevinpate]

half correct jsenter. Unless it's tightened up dramatically, the students do get out, albeit supervised outings. It's not the school I would have wanted in my youth, being the free spirit not so big on studying animal I was, but several years back a friend's son ate the challenges up like fat men eat their ice cream, with great gutso. it was an excellent setting for him, far more so than the course path I took at his age would have been.

[betts]

I think we have to look at something else. It's something the city can point to as an option for people interested in moving themselves or their business here from out of state if they've got a high-achieving child. NYC has a famous high school of science and math and a school of performing arts. It looks good for Oklahoma to provide a place for their brilliant students to study, especially if they're from really small towns where their educational needs might well not be provided for. If they go out of state to school, they'll always say they're from Oklahoma. And a certain percentage do come back, I know, as some of them are in medical school at OU.

[OKCMallen]

And over half of them stay in state to begin with, and a majority of those will end up staying in state.