The Harker School

Indeed Harker has contributed SO MUCH to my son’s growth, we just cannot give enough gratitude.
My family appreciates every single teacher from the middle school, all the staff members including members of the BEST staff, administration, and parent volunteers, for their effort, care, love, and diligence to guide and nurture Harker students.
I frequently share my comments with my friends that we need to give a huge hug to each and every one of Harker students, not just for their stellar academic performance but for exhibiting role model behavior as ideal citizens of the society!
We definitely owe this to Harker who truly believes and teaches our students value of life.
I would give Harker 10 stars and more!!!

Yes, Harker offers a great education for kids and they will learn something from the money that you fork out for them to attend this educational institution. I attended this school from Kindergarten through 8^th grade. That means my parents could have purchased a home with the amount of money that they spent on my education before high school.
Although the education is great here, that isn’t what is really most important for kids at this age. You can visit this school as a parent and be impressed by their impressive winnings of Intel contests, great test score, and fantastic cafeteria offering up sushi, pizza, and whatever your heart can desire.
I don’t think this school produces smart kids, they just choose only the smart kids so that it looks like their teachers have done such a great job at creating «geniuses» by providing them an ivy league education from K-​12^th grade. They believe in pushing you as hard as they possibly can all the time which is so wearing and it breaks you down at that age. I believe we were in school for 7 hours starting from Kindergarten on. Yes, I learned a lot. But I never had fun which I should have had in those early grades.
However, this school is EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE. I firmly believe that children shouldn’t experience extreme stress at such young ages and I was quite stressed with this very competitive environment. Their also wasn’t a lot of nurturing at this school. In fact, I was told by professors that I needed to do better all the time, that I wasn’t good at writing, etc. I was often criticized academically which really lowered my self confidence level which affected me greatly at this time in my young life.
This school is also fiercely competitive among students. Fellow students were really very mean to other kids. I can’t comment on how racially diverse this school is today, but when I attend I was in the minority of students as I was Caucasian and was often taunted for being «dumb» and «a stupid white girl» and «a dumb blond girl.» I was told I was stupid a lot which was really hurtful.
Throughout my career at Harker I was told I was one of the worst writers in my grade level and that I would really struggle in high school and through standardized tests. I chose not to attend Harker for high school as I didn’t want to deal with such a competitive environment anymore.
When I entered an equally good private catholic high school I felt much less stressed, earned all A’s in my classes, was commended for my excellent writing abilities. I also received a 2200 on my SAT’s. Obviously Harker believed in breaking down their students but luckily for me I overcame their negative commentary and realized I was smart and moved on for high school and moved onto a great College.
Harker really does prepare you for everything you may encounter in the future and offers a great education, but it does come with consequences at the same time.

How come there is a one star??? That is nonsense!!! Ms. Matsui is the funniest teacher EVER!!! We play at least 3 action games each day and she gives out candy to everyone! Every student loves her! She is a cute, nice young lady who really knows how to teach students!
Anyways, Harker can be stressful and have lots of homework, but the reason is because they want you to be prepared for college, not like public schools who barely learn anything! Harker pushes you, and I cannot tell you how much I have grown in just one year at Harker. My study habits rose tremendously, my athletic skills have also greatly improved, and my academic mind is really rising! This is the best school in California, as proven at the Intel finalists and numerous awards in all subjects! This is as good as it gets, everybody!