Thank Goodness I Didn't Go To Prep School There...

(image courtesy of: http://thepreppyprincess.files.wordpress.com)

Confession. I love Bravo reality shows. The Real Housewives of Orange County. Top Chef. Project Runway (it just won't be the same on Lifetime this season). I waited, with baited breath and anticipation for NYC Prep. I assumed that it would be my new summertime guilty pleasure while the rest of my television viewing schedule includes Gossip Girl repeats and 16 & Pregnant on MTV (classy, I know).

Well, we know what assuming does...

I watched the full hour-long premiere episode of NYC Prep last night and, I can't lie. Part of me felt nauseous. Part of me wanted to gauge my eyes and plug my ears. Let me give you the rundown.

Quite possibly the worst part of the show. Overachieving Camille. Overachieving Camille who is nothing like fictional (yet fabulous) overachieving Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl. Blair Waldorf would never check her SAT scores via Blackberry herself (she would have her devout minions do it for her). She also would never think that at 40 she would be "married with two children, after taking on the business side of a genetics firm." While I know that there are legacies to follow and family footsteps to fill, this girl is what? 17? Why does she have everything so planned out to the spaces and commas? Doesn't she see that this only leads to disappointment and? On top of this fact, petty, but true, why does she wear her hair like she does?

Also horrible? Sebastian, who hooks up with "between 2 and 16 girls a month." I have nothing else to say.

Aside from the obnoxious, overindulgent, ignorant kids (and I say this as a former overindulgent, ignorant kid), the perception that this show casts not only on the students' respective schools, but over private schools as a whole is unflattering and unattractive. Prep school, as a whole, was like any other high school experience. I'd never go back. The reasons for that, however, are not due to the fact that children had unlimited funds, Upper East Side penthouses and considered a $300 Alice + Olivia dress "cheap." However, looking at students now, I'd be inclined to not bring my future children into a private school atmosphere, for fear that either they would resent everyone around them, or, even worse, become one. Call me lame and adult, but I side with the school administrators on this one. Ugh. Back to a summer filled of DVD box sets and CW reruns.

-M

You Know You Love Me

In the midst of my young, post-college professional life, I have little time to indulge in guilty pleasures. One time that I allow myself is Monday's at 8pm. One of my bestests (ironically enough, we'll call her S), comes over to my New England apartment while we gorge on junk food and drink overpriced champagne (my current bottle of choice? Veuve Clicquot.) while watching B, S, D, C, Lily, Rufus, and whoever else happens to be on the Gossip Girl that evening. We forget how mortifying high school really was, and kind of miss it. I, a prep school graduate, tend to lean on the side of regret as I realize that I should have fully embraced private high school. Oh how everything is so clear in hindsight.

This weekly tradition, however, has been let down by the CW. First a month-long hiatus (completely skipping over the holidays!). And now what looks like a gap week inbetween episodes. What's a girl to do, left malnourished of trashy, gossipy drama?

My answer? Read the books. I caught onto this bandwagon a bit too late, as I was too busy ignoring my true vein interests and trying to look like an intellect circa 2004 and was buying books like 'A Million Little Pieces' (and okay, I won't lie, all of the 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' series). Plus, prep school was a little too close to the realm of my actual life to fully indulge and enjoy books about prep school. Regardless, now with my stuffy New England prep school years just about five years behind me, I can indulge. And I do. Don't even try to tell yourself that these books are geared towards twelve-year-olds (just hide your face in your Pashmina like I do as you need to head over to the young adult section as your local Borders or Barnes and Noble Booksellers), because the action that Serena, Blair and Nate get in the books is just about comparable to (or sadly, more than) any action that my group of twenty-something's get on a regular basis. Another plus to reading these books in your twenties? You can bust through one a day -- no lie. It's like reading an extended episode of the show, which is wonderful and a curse all at the same time. I'm now just starting the prequel (that just came out in paperback) with the rest of the series read and under my belt. What am I supposed to read next? Any suggestions? Do they write a 'Gossip Girl' for adults that I'm unaware of?

-M

Public vs. Private?

Newsflash! Word got out on Friday that the Obamas have chosen the prestigeous Sidewell Friends School for their daughters Sasha and Malia to attend come January. While some feel that the Obamas should attend public schools in DC for whatever reasons, I, personally feel the Obamas side of this situation. As a child bred in private schools (Kindergarten-12th grade, the first public school I set foot in was my first day of college at UMass Amherst), I have always (and probably will always) be an advocate for a private school atmosphere. The smaller class sizes, the closeness to teachers, the community that's built. It all sounds very cheesy, but I swear that it's true. Also true, however, the pricetag that a private school holds. Sidwell clocks in at about $29,000 per student for the academic year (the girls' current school, the Chicago Lab School, clocks in at a little under 20k/year -- note, most New England area prep schools clock in at about 30k-ish).

Elitest much? Yes. But, do we, and should we, expect much more from families that can afford the private school tuition? With the advantages that private schooling gives to students -- I can attest to a great work ethic, creative thinking, and an emphasis to detail -- why wouldn't the Obamas want the best for their girls?

-M

Prep School Antics

"Prep schools have been long criticized for their exclusivity. They educate only the nation's elite. They are too expensive and white. They are bona fide country clubs."

During my lunch break on Thursday afternoon, I couldn't help but nab this from Barnes and Noble in the Prudential Center. As a 2004 graduate from a certain New England prep school, I was immediately interested (and connected) to the book. I think as a prep school student, I didn't ever fully realize what being one meant. I grew up in the world of private schools. I relentlessly broke dress code rules (no shoulders showing, no jeans, no skirts shorter than the length of your arm, etc). I didn't ever see the prestige in the ISL or ESL. I never equated the ongoings of the campus -- which, although tamer (I think), than what Jones and Miley found with Milton's class of 2005 (remember that pesky little sex scandal?) -- with the prestige, wealth, or social standing of the student body.

More interestingly, as I finished reading the book (yes, I stayed in on a Friday night and Saturday to read my trashy social critique of the rise of sexuality in prep school students), I realize that the latest crop of prep school students are vastly different than even I, eight years ago. I look at siblings of friends, going to school with Juicy Couture accessories and Tahari pants and Theory blazers. They use Neiman Marcus credit cards and have only the finest. Unlike before, these students know their social standing. There isn't just a rise in sexuality within prep school students, but in elitism as well. Do we look at The Hills and Gossip Girl as the excuses for this? Books like Restless Virgins? Or has this always been the case, and my eyes are only open to it now so far set apart from the prep school haven I once saw as my second home?
-M