May 4, 2004
Private School Headmasters Say The Darndest Things!
The profile of outgoing St. Ann's head, Stanley Bosworth, in New York magazine is possibly the funniest/scariest thing we've read since the comics this morning. Saint Ann's, the private school in Brooklyn (ranked #1 private school by the Wall Street Journal, according to the article), asked the 76 year-old Bosworth to retire after 39 years, and he's retiring, all right, but in a crazy blaze of glory. NY reporter Ariel Levy write that a former student, after telling her that Bosworth loves women, says, "Call me back after you meet him. I want to know if he makes a pass at you." And, a few (web) pages in, Levy writes of a lunch with Bosworth:
After he’s finished his scotch and several glasses of wine, Stanley says, “I’m half in love with you, and you know it. If I invented you, you’d be the same you; you’d have the same bust, the same figure, the same nose, same eyes, and all that shit. Not that I was looking, I never do."That's Bosworth! He continues to scam on Levy in the article. New York magazine, Levy deserves a day off for this article. Gothamist hears that at a St. Ann's meeting last night, one of the speakers mentioned how Bosworth told prospective parents that if they sent their daughter to Stuyvesant, she'd get raped in the halls. We think Bosworth needs a public access TV show, where he goes around saying outrageous things to people on the street, sort of like Jackass or Stuttering John. And it makes us wonder if Stuy principal Stan Teitel will ever get a profile.
For the record, Gothamist has always thought of the Far Side cartoon, the one where a kid is pushing a pull door (or pulling a push door) at the School For Gifted Children, when we've thought of Saint Ann's.
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Just because St. Ann's has a dumb headmaster doesn't mean the kids are the same (re. the cartoon comment).
That's just what the public school kids thought...
I thought that's what all the other public school kids thought of Stuy kids.
This doesn't smack of sexual harrasment? Why was this tolerated for so long?
I hear they're replacing him with Joe Namath...
Actually we used to have that School for the Gifted 'toon taped up in the elevator at St. Ann's.
I’ve known Stanley for over twenty years and, for the record, let me say that the man is harmless. And he’s a genius - an actual real life smartest person in the room genius. His belief in sexual freedom and his appetite for women has gotten him in to trouble in the past it is true. But these things are dwarfed by his belief in intellectual freedom and his appetite for ideas. And it is the later that gave birth to Saint Ann’s School. Say what you will about it, it is unique in its character and in the quality of its students. They don’t give grades, and yet top colleges clamor for its graduating classes. Gotta hand it to the man. He’s passionate and inspiring and has built an amazing institution. And yeah, he looooves the ladies. But they love him back as well...
We Fieldston alumni laugh heartily at the lowly institutions on both sides of this debate.
As a Saint Ann's alum, I should really weight in and say that yes, Stanley's a pretty strange bird. But he also built and ran one of the best schools in the city. He loves seeing his students become unique people, passionate about what they do -- not because it makes him look good, but because he really feels the kids deserve it. Being understandably startled at meeting him for the first time, I think Levy spent far too much time on the "shocking" aspects of his life and personality, and glossed over the amazing institution he created.
And yes, a TV show with Stanley would be brilliant.
Holy moley! Hi Tobias!
L'il bro of
http://www.sashafrerejones.com/
pipes in.
I left before high school, but I think having had eight years there I am still entitled to speak of my experiences. St. Ann's was and is an amazing institution, and Stanley - as warped and insane as he enjoys being - is a very, very impressive man who crafted a really beautiful haven for young scholars across the City. I hope his exit doesn't change the school at all.
Isn't Ariel Levy a Stuy grad? 1996?
Um, Ms. Levy is definitely gorgeous, so I'm not sure that Stanley--as batty as he is--is necessarily batty in this instance.
You figure that a school like Stuyvesant can sue him for slander. I mean, the only thing a girl has to worry about at Stuy is a bunch of kids bugging her for calculus homework.
I bet the St Ann's kids SAT average is nowhere near the Stuy one... It's pathetic what these elite private schools do to keep their best kids from leaving for stuy and hunter.
Tobias as in toby frere jones? The king of all fonts? Talk about a genuis in our midst... A perfect example of the fruits of a Saint Ann's education out there making the world a more beautiful place: http://www.identifont.com/show?18P - and doesn't brother Sasha write for Slate? Man, they're EVERYWHERE these Saint Ann's people. Anyone going to the Zac Posen show?
http://www.d23.org/Ike/mayer/commentary_on_midvale.htm
Stanley created a place that a thinly premised feature article can never begin to capture. (The most interesting thing about it is Stanley's quotes -- certainly not its structure nor the writer's lack analysis and probing interviews).
It's easy to latch onto a single scandalous angle and play it up for the newstand. "Stanley is such a kook! How laughable a place. The author baited Stanley to hit on her ... how amusing to fuck w/ a man old enough to be her grandfather."
But a better testament to the place would have been interviews with its students over the years. People cherish St. Ann's like no other educational forum. It would be interesting to know why -- from them. And what is it exaclty that StAnn imbued the place with?
Surely it was more than just three+ decades of ontological outrageousness as Ariel Whatever suggests.
Hunter High Owns All of Y'all...and yes Ms. Levy is indeed a looker. And quite smart to boot, don't know if she's a Stuy alum though..
let's not quibble here: the big rivalry was between hunter and stuyvesant. go peglegs, baby.
Yeah, what she said. Hunter's the class of the field. (No. 9 in that WSJ ranking, by the way, higher than any other public school.)
ok, now i'm curious: does anyone have a link to a photo of ms. levy?
And to be perfectly clear, by "she" I meant Liz. Go Hawks!
St. Ann's rival, historically, has been with nearby Packer -- a rivalry about as one-sided as elephant vs. peanut.
As far as the comment that Gothamist is reminded of the Far Side comic when thinking of St. Ann's, well, how very Wonkette!
Not a compliment.
Actually I'd take the disapproval of a Wonkette-hater as the highest of flattery.
Let's get a few things straight here. The (facetious) comment about Stuyvesant being dangerous was made over 30 years ago; it was merely related by a Saint Ann's grad speaking at Bosworth's celebratory farewell event earlier this week.
And yes, Levy clearly chose to focus on a few outrageous quotes in order to produce a provocative article. The fact that this resulted in an unbalanced look at the school and, hence, Bosworth's acomplishment and legacy, is not really surprising considering the nature and quality of New York magazine.
And, finally, that someone would even mention SAT scores as some sort of comparative measure just shows that the educational world could use more Stanleys and fewer drones focusing on testing.
If the effectiveness of a piece of writing can be measured by the amount of apologists it flushes out of the woodwork, then Ariel Levy's article was superbly effective.
Actually, I think it's a measure of the importance of the subject matter. People step up to Stanley's defense because he's worth it. Decades of students have something priceless in their lives because of him, and for that he deserves better that what Levy served up.
i'd rather have a crazy man like bosworth in charge of my private school than the lying, prudish, conformity-worshipping bastard i had in charge of mine. i'd go to st. ann's even if it meant i would end up marrying him 5 years after i graduated after we re-met at one of my poetry readings. it's a fair trade in my mind.
I think the chances of a St. Ann's student marrying Stanley are about 1 in 3,000, so its sort of an irrelevant angle. If the effectiveness of the piece can be measured by the writer's ability to make her subject look like a fool then the New York Mag article was superbly effective. But wasn't the newshook related to the fact that the school was just ranked no. 1 by WSJ? Kind of makes you wonder why the writer doesn't get into that topic a little more effectively.
funny - i left hunter to go to st. ann's, not the other way around. i've always thought there were two kinds of high school students in ny - those that went to st. ann's and those that had to talk trash about it because they were jealous.
it's crazy and insulting that in a five page article, only two or three students are quoted. i don't know any st. ann's alums who don't want to send their kids there as well. what higher praise is there than that?
The most important thing is to separate the figurehead (loony as he is) from the school. They are two separate and distinct things. The school has afforded many opportunities to many people who think differently from what is considered the social and intellectual norm and allows a great deal of creativity. This particular article was about Stanley. As students, as alumni, and even the parents, have accepted the fact that while Stanley is a complete nutjob, the school that he founded is enormously successful and has turned out amazing people from the student body and the faculty, regardless of Stanley's ongoing contempt. His contempt is not new, it is simply part of his rare and ridiculous personality. And most people ignore it.
As for the earlier post that challenged the SAT scores of St. Ann's with those of other schools, I suggest that you never send your kids to St. Ann's as you just won't get it.
Levy's profile has provoked this storm of response, while Lynda Richardson's similar piece in the New York Times did not. In addition, opinion here seems divided between those who thought Levy did an inept job of reporting and those who say that her story was accurate but, somehow, should not be taken seriously. Why is Levy is such a target?
Stanley's a raving looney, and I'm not sorry the article exposed him for the elliptical individual he is. Somehow, and one wonders really how, over forty years, he's attracted fantastically interesting teachers and parents who have together created something really unique. Latin lovers, string players, fashionistas, mathletes, cool geeks, now that's an achievement. The article was a good rundown of the man behind the scenes... didja ever wonder if Stan was playing a game with her, too?
Actually, I think Jenny's comment is interesting. Stanley did, in fact marry Beth, St Ann's class of '75. (my class) With an approximate graduating class of 35, over the span of '69 through '84, the odds are closer to 1 in 700, not 3000.
Sorry, those would be the odds in MA. In New York, the odds would be around 1 in 350.
I went to St. Ann's, and I am currently the Coordinator for Student Affairs (and a teacher) at Stuyvesant. There should be no hatred between these two institutions--aside from having an incredible student body, there is almost nothing they have in common. Students who don't mind a pressure-packed environment filled with strivers are ideal for Stuy, while those who can handle self-directed learning along with a bit of chaos are good for St. Ann's.
As far as Stanley is concerned, when I went to St. Ann's, it always seemed to me that he was more of a figurehead. I started there in 7th grade, yet only met him my senior year for the infamous "Stanley meeting" in which he tells students where to apply for college. He said that I should apply to Williams because "that's where the good blacks are."
Stanley set events in motion that created a fantastic school, but the place has run without him for at least a decade if not more and should not be judged by his crude eccentricities.
I wish I'd seen the article when it was still getting active comments!
Stanley is a nut, there's no question of that. His craziness was well-known and tolerated when I was a student there, as was his habit of hitting on students. I cannot fault the reporter for writing the article she did, given some of the things that he said to her. I'm actually kind of surprised the school let him talk to her without a chaperone.
But I agree that it's too bad the article failed to capture how Stanley managed to attract such an extraordinary staff and faculty. I would love to hear comments from teachers, especially some of the earliest ones like Swacker, talk about why they decided to come to teach at St. Ann's. That would be a great story -- even greater when contrasted with Stanley's complete and total lunacy.
--Tim Pierce '88
As someone who has happily and carefully made a career and a life far away from Saint Ann's, but who moved his entire family from Seattle back to NYC just so my daughter could attend Saint Ann's, it is somewhat appalling to read the sort of smug sententious self-righteous remarks above. Stanley is my father and can indeed be thoughtlessly cruel, perverse, and flippant. But, in fact he runs a great school where a love of learning and intellectual freedom is truly fostered. At 13 I learned Dante in the old Italian and a year later Chaucer in the old English and at the same time I learned the fine details of biology and 35 years later I still remember them because of the inspired teaching. As long as Jen Chung summarizes up a great school so flippantly, I very much doubt Jen will leave an equivalent legacy.
Adam Bosworth
Adam Bosworth's comments are eloquent, but that he should choose to top them off with a totally unnecessary attack on Jen Chung boggles the mind. Jen Chung has enabled this dialogue in the first place. All she was doing when she started this thread was expediting the discussion of something already in the news. She had no agenda of her own and was being 'flippant' only in the mildest way. Chung has maintained such a successful website precisely because she has an eye for what's topical combined with the apparent lack of any axe to grind. To attack Chung is simply to blame the messenger.
I personally failed the test for Stuy on purpose because I knew that my parents would have made me go there rather than St Ann's for HS.
i know that he once told a group of new parents that he would personally guarantee that their children would not be virgins by the time they graduated. no joke.