Stuyvesant Boys, the 1960 Graduation and the 50th Reunion

by Norman Berdichevsky (October 2010)

Townhall.com and The Jewish World Review.

Sowell has used impeccable scholarship to demonstrate what all liberals refuse to acknowledge or even contemplate. Many of them including colleagues and former classmates of mine and later Stuyvesant graduates whom I have had conversations over the years have not only not known that Sowell attended Stuyvesant, they have admitted to me that they do not know who he is. This did not surprise me in the least, because as a former Stuyvesant boy from a Jewish-ultra-liberal background who shared many of the same beliefs in my early twenties, I have, unlike them, changed my mind on variety of issues that I once believed I knew everything about.

Secret Apartheid and Secret Apartheid II, calling the admission tests a “product of an institutional racism,” and claiming that black and Hispanic students did not have access to proper test preparation materials. They proposed initiatives for more DIVERSITY (sacred cow) in the city's gifted and specialized schools demanding that since only a few city districts provide the majority of these schools' students, the admission tests be suspended altogether until the Board of Education show that the students of every school in the system have had access to curricula and instruction to sufficiently prepare them for the test. These proposals have been rejected by the City but continue to make themselves heard. As recently as August 10, 2010, Thomas Sowell wrote a blistering attack “Cheering Immaturity”, on all those who would do away with the admission tests to the city's select high schools (FrontPageMag.com)

th reunion on November 6th. I enjoyed the 40^th but to my surprise and disappointment, no more than 135 of the more than 700 graduates of the 1960 graduating class showed up, and none of those with whom I had lost all touch. I have the premonition that those who stayed away then didn't necessarily share in the predominant views, opinions and recollections of a majority of those who appear in the pages of the 100^th Anniversary Album. We spent a few hours in the old school building on 15^th Street and then got a tour of the fabulous new building and its state-of-the-art facilities on Chambers Street, not far from where the twin towers of the World Trade Center had stood, (the new Stuyvesant was used as a first aid station in the days immediately following Sept. 11, 2001 and nine Stuyvesant grads were among those killed). It was also a thrill to walk again along streets I had known and loved from Union Square to Washington Square and historic Cooper Union where Lincoln delivered his great address that ensured his nomination for the 1860 election.

Chorus:
Stuyvesant High School now and ever
Deep graven on each heart.
Shall be found unwavering true
When we from life shall part.

High School Life at best is passing

Gliding swiftly by,
Then let us pledge in word and deed
Our love for Stuyvesant High

 

 

 

To comment on this article, please click here.

here.