Writer: Liam Luepker
Throughout my childhood, my family brought a scholastic legend to life through stories. The school they described was a distant memory, hidden beneath the experiences separating my lifetime and the late '80s. However, the legends of MPA became reality when I discovered it.
Early in life, my parents never put the hard sell on MPA. While becoming a more serious student in my sophomore year, however, my father started to nudge. Half a year later, after some serious discussion and reading, I considered transferring. Whether by choice, convenience, or necessity, the option of transferring schools is a pressing topic in many American households. Personally, I decided to switch schools out of choice, which isn't to say the prospect wasn't intimidating and foreign.
For most of my life, public school nurtured my learning. Being dropped off at my old schools, particularly South High and Sanford Middle, felt like walking into seven-hour daycares, my only concerns revolving around how I could pass my time. Whether by weekend planning with
desk neighbors, phone games through math, or missed classes entirely, I always chased the most entertaining way to escape responsibility. While consistently diligent, many teachers had to sacrifice attention away from teaching to meet other, more-pressing student needs. Those needs of your average Sanford kid far outweighed what even a skilled classroom teacher could provide. While this experience is not standard for public schools, it reveals a stark difference in opportunity between private school privilege and public education.
It was surreal when MPA accepted me on April 12 of last year. I felt as though I abandoned old loyalties by adopting privilege and engaging it in a way that might put me ahead of more deserving, less advantaged former classmates. But my feelings became suppressed during the fall quarter at MPA. The total attention required to manage a new community and immense workload diverted my thoughts towards behavioral adaptation. Specifically, the MPA way of thinking intimidated me, especially in humanities-focused classrooms. Unlike many public schools, the MPA curriculum teaches students how to think. Years of training developed critical thinkers who embrace reason as a virtue yet challenge conformity. I struggled to attach to this seemingly essential yet foreign mindset, scaring me into believing that I could not think like my peers. Only recently did I discover that thinking like an MPA student meant thinking as I normally do, but with the courage to voice and develop my opinion while accepting and considering the opinions of others.
The benchmark established by my father's stories about MPA appears to be thriving. Within a mere four months of attending MPA, I can attest to the same feelings of community belonging that my family honored as legend. While my experience as a transfer student partially links to my alumni relatives and background in public school, I’m sure that other transfers will find the same qualities of MPA that I preach.