Ohlone Elementary School

Kids love to learn at this school — where they are encouraged to dig deep and collaborate to find answers.
Parent community is a gem; since this school doesn’t have grades, this has got to be some of the most laid back parents in Palo Alto — which is a good thing!
Lastly, teachers go above and beyond, constantly assessing the children and giving them challenges and stretching them/​keeping them engaged. It’s amazing to see.
Good luck as you apply for this lottery school!

I sure hope this joke of a school has changed since I attended from 1977 – 1982.
Classrooms were totally disorganized, desks all over the place facing different directions so we couldn’t even see the teacher when lecturing if we had a bad spot. Homework was «optional».
The school’s priorities were totally out of balance. There was lots of time playing with clay, doing art, and other «skills» that are completely useless as a foundation for learning to make a living. This stuff should be dessert, not the main course in one’s education.
I managed to graduate without knowing my times tables or how to do long or short division. I was shocked when I found the dumber kids in the dumbed-​down Jr. High classes actually *could* do these things! Thank God for the remedial education I got in order to catch up with kids who attended proper elementary schools!
Ohlone didn’t even have grades so there was no way to know if a kid was actually mastering basic skills or not. Junior High was a very hard awakening and I spent the rest of my academic life (including my MS in Computer Science) trying to catch up with those who had competent foundations.
There was minimal, if any, effective discipline. There were fist fights sometimes and the useless teachers *maybe* delivered a sweet, soothing little lecture that no kid took seriously. If anything, it just showed us that the adults were soft when challenged.
Ohlone was exactly the kind of «school» where the development of a kid’s self-​esteem was more important than that of his or her abilities. We all know this has gotten the USA into a lot of trouble over the past two generations.
I sure hope that this ridiculous, asinine social experiment has gotten its act together.
There’s no way in hell I’d send my kids somewhere like this school was when I attended. If you love your kids I suggest looking elsewhere.

Ohlone is one of 12 great elementary schools in the Palo Alto Unified School District.
Wonderful staff & dedicated, talented teachers.
Great programs in music, art, technology & science.
New two story modern building recently opened on this campus.
Ohlone also offers a ‘Mandarin Immersion’ program.