![]() It's now coed, and this year's 249 seniors are mostly black and Hispanic with ancestors from 30 countries. The initial graduates were all white males who studied literature, science, math and history. That first school still exists today as English High in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, its seventh location in 184 years, and its evolution echoes dramatic social changes in thousands of schools around the country. With new technology that puts the world at their keyboards, students can learn without a classroom or a formal teacher. Everything is up for grabs: curriculum, size, even the idea of school itself. Should they concentrate on preparing the best and the brightest for college? Should there be more emphasis on vocational training? Should students with different abilities and goals learn in the same classrooms, or should they be segregated into different tracks or even different schools? The debate has never been more contentious than now, when the attention of politicians, business leaders, educators, parents and students is focused on an unprecedented explosion of new ideas in big cities and small towns across the country. Ever since, Americans have been trying to figure out exactly what public high schools should do. ![]() At a time when advanced learning was largely restricted to the wealthy, they voted to create the country's first public high school, open to boys 12 or older who could pass an entrance exam. In the winter of 1821, the civic leaders of Boston approved what was then a radical idea.
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