After I wrote that the four National Merit semi-finalists we produced this year were more than many private and suburban schools produced, someone wrote to tell me that Cistercian, Greenhill, Highland Park, Episcopal, Hockaday and St. Marks had more.

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My reaction to that letter was the realization that Woodrow compares favorably to even the best private schools — schools that are highly selective and expensive (a home being the price of admission in the Park Cities — not to mention the peer pressure prices in social and material accoutrements). One would expect more semi-finalists there.

Woodrow has a good track record in dealing with the biggest challenge that public schools have to face: serving all the students in its district, a fair number of who face disadvantages — socially, academically or economically. Even communication is difficult for many recent immigrants and more than a dozen languages are spoken. In some ways, Woodrow is a tale of two schools, the highly motivated, competitive advanced placement students all the way down those who are low performing and at-risk

The Dallas Yellow Pages lists nearly four pages of private and parochial schools. Only 20 have semi-finalists (source Dallas News website). Among our close rivals, Jesuit had four, Ursuline had two, Bishop Lynch had two and Episcopal had five. Public school rivals include one at Hillcrest, three at Richardson and two at Bryan Adams. We had more than the entire school districts of Birdville, Carroll, Cleburne, Crowley, DeSoto, Denton, Duncanville, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Grand Prairie, Grapevine-Colleyville, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Keller, McKinney, Rowlett, Weatherford and Wylie. The Allen district also produced four and the Mesquite district, with five high schools, produced a total of five. We even look pretty good next to academically rigorous schools like Plano, with 33, when you consider that their two graduating classes total over 2500! In that case, I think you should also consider that our smaller class sizes allow students to participate in any activity without being third-string or on the bench — in athletics or academic clubs.

I think some of those who live in the suburbs to insulate their families, or who are paying big bucks for private schools, are suffering an opportunity cost. Your children are missing out on Wildcat camaraderie, tradition and spirit — and probably diversity.

And last, but hardly least, let’s congratulate those four outstanding semifinalists: Noah W. Bailey, Michael C. Karnowski, Dana E. Saunders and Laura K. Smith. You do Woodrow proud.