PARENT TESTIMONIALS

"Our daughter is in her 4th year at Maybeck High School. Our family will be forever grateful for the education we have ALL gained during this time. In the new parents' orientation session, we heard, and took to heart, Maybeck's message that students accepting responsibility for themselves is a critical component of the Maybeck experience. It is a college prep school. (Somedays I think it is a college.) Just as in college, any student floundering is to approach the instructor(s) involved and ask for help. Some instructors are able to wait for the student to approach. Some reach out first. Parents are not encouraged to be involved in the kids' work. We are gently encouraged to start letting go. That said, there is a process for intervention on a student's behalf, and the school does have a process to alert parents of impending failure. Good communication with the student, at home and at school, is critical to fully appreciating Maybeck's strengths. The reward is an exceptional education, lengthy community service, travel opportunities, potential life-long relationships with excellent instructors and a strong preparedness for college."

—Kathie Fagan

"If there's anyone out there who has a high school aged kid who is unhappy, bored, listless, unchallenged in school, I'd love to recommend Maybeck High School in Berkeley. I have a kid with some minor learning differences who is totally in love with school; who is challenged academically, who is involved and happy socially. I couldn't be more pleased! A teacher-run coop, it's been in business for 30 plus years and these people really know kids and have built a wonderful community. I'd be happy to talk with anyone who's interested."

—Debbie

"Maybeck was my son's third high school. After trying a large public school for one semester, and then a smaller, less academically challenging private school for the rest of his freshman year, coming to Maybeck was, for him, like an infusion of pure oxygen. The school is small, safe and personal, with a rigorous anti-bullying/tolerance policy which everyone takes quite seriously. While the academics were tougher than he was used to, the classes were small enough, and the teachers demanding and supportive enough, that he was able to grow in confidence and competence. What especially excited him was that he was treated as an adult in most of his classes. He was expected to manage his own work load, keep up with the curriculum, and do extra work. Many teachers set aside time outside of class to meet with students. If he found him self falling behind, the burden was on him to ask for help; in this way Maybeck is more like a junior college, where parents are peripheral,than like a middle school, where the parent is very much in the academic loop. Parents can be involved in their kidís academics at Maybeck but, in my experience, they will have to take the initiative for that to happen. This sudden burden of personal responsibility can be quite stressful for some kids - it certainly was for my son. It was the dedication and encouragement of his teachers, many of whom let him redo assignments, that pulled him through that rough first semester.

—Anna Griffin

"Maybeck suffers from the following misconception: 'We thought we were enrolling him in a small arty hippy type of school-rather it was very academically challenging.' The result of this misperception was an unhappy student who struggled academically before transferring out and finding a likeable fit. My son is now in his junior year at Maybeck, having attended since the start of his freshman year. He loves Maybeck. He has received incredible support from his teachers, including especially intense development of his writing and critical thinking skills. He continues to be inspired and supported by his instructors and fellow students, and receives excellent counseling related to his academic development and college considerations. All of his class sizes are small, ranging from 4 students in Spanish IV to 18 students in Pre-calculus. His Greek Literature class is taught by an inspiring teacher, whose Ph.D. thesis dealt with some of the texts that the class is reading. The students love to have him read Homer from the original Greek (in class) and to compare his translation impressions with the translation that the class read. I think word of Maybeck's academic rigors really needs to get out to the community (and especially to Middle school counselors - that make high school recommendations to students/families). Although Maybeck is often misperceived as an ''arty hippy type'' of high school, it is actually an incredibly academic learning institution that really engages the student, resulting in remarkable achievement from its students (many of whom, for example, produce college level papers during their required 10th grade Literature class). Students looking for an easy ''arty hippy type'' of school are destined for a rude surprise, which may result in an academic struggle before they transfer out to a less rigorous school. However, Maybeck is an outstanding school for students interested in a strong small college preparatory school with a safe, lively, engaging, and tolerant social environment, located on Bancroft across the street of the UC Berkeley. I would be happy to discuss Maybeck with any family considering Maybeck for their student."

—Reuben Hale

"My name is Isaac Hale from the Maybeck class of ’07, and I’m currently a first-year at Occidental College. Occidental is one of the premier Liberal Arts Colleges in the US, and I can’t imagine anywhere that could have prepared me better than Maybeck High School. I started my first of four years at Maybeck as a scared little freshman, embittered and defensive from an unpleasant time in middle school. It didn’t take long for me to burst through this barrier at Maybeck though. The combination of the amazing community building on the beginning-of-the year camping trip, and a welcoming mass of upperclassmen broke my bubble; and soon I was an outgoing and excited member of the community. Once I felt comfortable in my own skin again thanks to Maybeck, I quickly set about becoming a leader in the Student body. I began to excel in my academics, and in my sophomore year I received the prestigious Lit. Paper award for outstanding work in the school’s required research paper.

In addition, it was through Maybeck High School that I expanded my horizons in ways far beyond those teachable in a classroom. During the spring special programs I got to spend two weeks each in Guatemala, Baja California, and Peru. In these trips I got to immerse myself in other cultures on a very personal level, learn team-building and leadership skills and greatly enhance my self-confidence. With the incredible level of education and community that Maybeck gave me, I have been able to attend Occidental College and develop the leadership, academics, confidence, and compassion that will define me for the rest of my life."

—Isaac Hale, Class of 2007

"I thought it would be easy to write about Maybeck High School, because I unreservedly love the place, and I'm full of gratitude for my experience there, but when I sat down to write this, at first no words came.  How could I explain the feeling of camaraderie tromping up Bancroft Ave at 7:30 am with friends for my morning donut before geometry class, or the slant of the buttery Berkeley winter evening sun and cacophony of Cal's very bad marching band floating over the field to us at 5:30 pm as we began a math lab with Jim Kelly that would end with pizza and root beer and many laughs at the burger joint up the street 3 hours later?  How can I explain the peace I felt in 2-hour-long drawing sessions with thoughtful Sue Mathews or being on the spot in Kathleen Aldrich's literature class, her eyes and mind boring into me as she waited, fully expecting an analysis worthy of a college senior?  I can't possibly capture the feeling in my haunches after a hundred mile bike ride through the desert with Dave Kinstle, or the mind-blowing slide shows of Stan Cardinet, who kept us up late in the dining hall at the Feather River campground for the first several magical woodland days of our school year and changed my understanding of world affairs forever.  

There was something about this group of teachers, a drive and dedication, a commitment to democratic decision-making and truly advanced learning that I have never really seen since.  They also had an unstated but very clear commitment to beauty—from them we learned to love the world we lived in: its history, its geometry, its ecosystems and its stories.  Learning at Maybeck was a living thing, a thing we participated in actively, not a passive affair, not a matter of regurgitation.  I watch my own children being drilled to death and taught to the test in these No Child Left Behind days of the public elementary school and I fear for their minds.  Teaching to a Maybeck test would be impossible.  How much have you really thought about this, the tests asked us, and what original thoughts do you have on the subject? 

What does a Maybecker achieve? While at Maybeck I traveled to foreign countries, hiked and swam and bicycled in some of the most beautiful parks of California and British Columbia, worked for U.C. Berkeley's college newspaper (the Daily Cal), and made friends that will last a lifetime.  Since graduating from Maybeck, I have gone to college to study psychology, lived in France for a year, taught high school French and English, earned a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology, done primary research in developmental biology, taught lab classes and lectured to undergrads at U.C. Berkeley, married, had two children, planted a tree, and written a book about science and caregiving (to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2009). I think Maybeck's encouragement to learn, explore, and enjoy the world I live in is very clear in every step of the meaningful, challenging, and pleasurable path I have taken in life so far.  Maybeck is a high quality, loving environment that fosters an exquisite kind of learning and a deep appreciation of life on this planet.  I hope my kids will want to attend Maybeck, in a few short years."

—Sybil T. Lockhart, Class of 1980