Mount Hebron

Mt. Hebron is a classic suburban high school. In a well-to-do but certainly not “rich” area of the country, Howard County, Mt. Hebron is generally viewed as a high school which caters to families with the means to send their children to private schools yet for whatever reason enjoy the stability and community of a local public high school. Mt. Hebron students, put simply, aren’t cultured. Most have lived relatively stable and nice upbringings but have never experienced different cultures or beliefs. This occurs for many reasons. One, parents of Hebron students generally aren’t from elite backgrounds. They followed the rules of the game to moderate success and are complacent with their lifestyles. Most never travel abroad or for that matter travel anywhere outside of the Eastern beaches. Two, Hebron students expect success yet do not understand what it means to be successful outside of the “Hebron paradigm.” For example, most Hebron student accept doing ok in school (aka getting good grades in honors courses), which leads them to state colleges. Henceforth, they expect that they will live the lives of their parents and friends in Ellicott City. While holy untrue for most part, this myopic view isn’t there fault; it has been ingrained in them throughout childhood in Howard County. Many Hebron students, as in almost all public high schools, don’t reach any level of academic success and end up in community colleges. These students tend to hang around the Hebron scene for years, partying nights away, going to school part-time, and working at dead-end jobs on the side. Unfortunately, the realities of life usually hit them soon enough; a fifteen dollar per hour job isn’t going to buy you the average $300,000 rancher in Ellicott City. They realize that they wasted their opportunity at Hebron to be successful. Three, Hebron students don’t understand real privilege. Most Hebron students believe that everyone is the same, which is a great utopian way of viewing the world. The commonly held view is that everyone that goes to Hebron has a car, has two parents, and will be ok in life. While it was nice to think from that perspective during high school, the reality of class and difference hits quickly after Hebron. Since nearly everyone at Hebron has a decent floor of family income, class realities are blurred. Only if one goes to an elite college and sees what it means to be from money and understand the power and prestige that comes from it will a Hebron student understand the fallacy of their beliefs about Hebron, the complacency with which they lived there high school years, and the absurdity that all students will end up ok just because they lived in Howard County and went to Hebron. While Hebron was a great place to attend high school, it isn’t the utopia that many believe it is. And finally, to the first observer, who talked about how “cool” the lacrosse team is, I have one point. Very few Hebron lacrosse players, especially on the men’s team (which isn’t all that good to be honest), will become elite actors in America, not to mention on a world level. They have neither intellectual acumen nor the social skills (cultural capital) to interact with important actors in the elite world. If someone would like to respond to any of my points, I would be happy to engage them. Additionally- my views are of the Hebron from which I graduated.