George Washington High School

Should be a 2.5 star review, but Miss. Lovrin is a condescending, ignorant, and hypocritical pessimist.
OK First let me state that the only teachers that care about their students AND can actually teach are Miss. De los Reyes (AP Calculus), Mr. Ochi (AP Econ) and Mr. Hajel (AP Computer science). Of course there are gym teachers, but their jobs aren’t really jobs.
On to the bad; DO NOT. DO NOT under any circumstances take Miss. Beresford, Mr. Lauter, or Mr. Shimamoto. These teachers are the old teachers; they lack the social skills to properly interact with their students, let alone teach. I’ve also heard horrible things about Miss. Contrares.
The English department at this school is terrible, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was this bad at any other school because it’s not like you talk to people in real life like you read or write in English class.
The Science department is meh; I found myself having to just learn from the book because the teachers don’t engage their students.
The Social Studies department have funny teachers, but the material and homework is very boring (and sometimes overwhelming).
The Math department teachers are overall descent; I only took the highest possible level of Math for each grade, so I can only say that Tak, Baker, De los Reyes, and Nanjo and all above average in terms of teaching (Baker was the most boring class though)
If you want to go to a school where there are actually good teachers, Wash is OK. Do extensive research on each teacher before deciding your classes and you should have a nice experience. Also do some sports; it’s a good place to make friends if you can’t make friends by talking.

I went to this school between 1998 to 2001 (1997 to 1998 in Newcomer High School). It was a painful memory for me as a student there. I was an immigrant and I was placed in the ESL program. All I experienced were ignorances and bullies. Plus discrimination against races and family backgrounds were common. Most of the teachers there were hardly pay attention to support their students in their learning. It was still stir fearsomeness to me when I recall my days there.
My personal experiences with the ESL courses:
The course set up hierarchy from level 0 to 8. Immigrant students are mixed. Students from mainland China, Hong Kong, Hispanic, Vietnam, Russia and other ethnic groups were mixed together. The issue was students enrolled in higher levels tended to look down at the students from lower levels. Students from developed regions tended to look down at the students from developing regions. It was a discrimination. Conflicts among Chinese students were common too. Bullies happened because of this matter.
Still, we can change.

great HS experience, just graduated 4 months ago! im goign to give it 5 stars for the people — most of the students are very dedicated to learning and even those who arent big on the education aspect are very nice and open minded — not a gang-​dominated school. mr. murphy the stats teacher is great — puts tons of effort into making sure his students get the material. we have the best history dept ever. mr. ko, mr. vera, and mr. layug were the 3 history teachers i had soph, junior, and senoir year and their classes literally changed my life b/​c they were the most attentive, caring teachers ever who gave 200% to their students, even tutoring them outside of class with no extra pay whatsover. it changed my viewpoints and perspectives on not just history, but in life — to be more open minded and senstive to political idioms and the real life curent problems and to be more active in our communities and just to be a better person. so thank you.
the honors and AP classes are popular here, our school has its share of dedicated, intellectual students who are up for a debate on anything. — we have a speech and debate team and a dance company. we are one of the fw SF High schools with a speech team and one of the ONLY High schools that have a dance company, aside from lowell. lots of really dedicated, kind people here. we do have our share of crazy, really bad teachers though — public edu system, what can i say, and the on campus beanery food sucks and the balboa street off-​campus resturants are Overpriced,
but definitely consider coming here — there are tons of opportunites you can take advantage of here :]

I just graduated and I already miss you, Washington. Best 4 years of my life. I had so much fun there. Great classes, great teachers, great concerts and events. My teachers always cared for my grades and always tried to help. I am very thankful for that. I also liked our college center. just go there, ask whatever you need, they will always provide you with information about colleges and financial aid.
I regret that I wasn’t involved in any clubs and extracurriculars, because my house was too far from school and I didn’t have enough time for that. But I am still thankful to every adult at Wash for many good things they’ve done to students.

Everyones high school experience was pretty much what they made out of it. If you didn’t enjoy it, don’t blame the school. Every school has jocks, sports, clubs, homework, rallys and the like.
What this school offered is what I’m rating.
–3 stars for the quality of the teachers and office workers. No professionalism, there were two teachers I encountered in 4 years years of attendance that genuinely cared for students, were passionate about teaching and were respectful and aware of the transitional phase our young and impressionable minds were at. 2 is a pretty low number.
+1 star for the location and accessibility. This school is located near the ocean and at some places has a great view of the rest of the city as well as a relatively attractive layout. The stores in the local area helped. The artwork, especially the piece on the main football field was amazing in my opinion.
–1 star for safety. The security measures this school takes and the protocol are a joke. This is coming from a youngster who has been on every side of the «at fault» you can imagine. The security guards are physically inept, how are they supposed to stop students from a physical altercation if they can’t walk normally? The campus police were bullies who seemed more interested in harassing skateboarders than actually looking into youth violence and drug use.

ohhhh of all the schools i went to. this was my favorite.
why?
cuz it was within walking distance of home… but if i got lazy i could take the 38 ocean beach and it would drop me off practically in front of the school.
the orchestra was actually good back then (yay first place gold at the anaheim heritage music festival).
the school actually had spirit when it came to rallies. and unlike other schools *ahem lincoln… their football team actually won games. lol
i wish i got to finish up my HS years here but i was forced to change schools to go to the same school as my sister. which didnt matter cuz we pretended like we didnt know each other anyway! lol.
inside. i’ll always be an eagle. :)

I had to give 4 stars mainly because of the view. That’s prime real estate right there.
a few points to make:
it’s funny how most of the people who reviewed took AP classes… did you guys even have a life during school?
also, i notice how some have used this review space as a way to flaunt what they’ve done with their lives since high school by stating what they did in college or thereafter… guess what… no one cares.
anyways i think GWHS was okay. being on the girls basketball team was often a painful joyless track, but it had it’s perks… especially since we were all tight with the deans.
yes, half of our team was gay… to the guys who ended up in the cross fire — on behalf of my teammates who figured the aforementioned fact late in their high school years – sorry.
i still believe in public school education. f*ck private high schools.

Dear Washington High School,
Although you provided me with a half-​assed education, I still love you anyway. Because the school is poorly funded and funding is based on attendance, faculty members turned a blind eye to cutting school. The result? Nobody comes back from off campus lunch. This afforded me many leisurely afternoons spent smoking pot and drinking boba. Also, if you didn’t take honors and AP classes, everybody in class was stupid and borderline illiterate (think immigrant kids and ghetto kids) The result? I got into a UC by doing almost nothing in high school. Thanks again, GWHS, for letting me succeed with mediocrity.
i also had dr. won for homeroom for four years. i wish she would grow the hell up and STOP WEARING SNOOPY PAJAMAS AND PIGTAILS!!! she was like 60! i loved mr. vedar too! best history teacher ever

I spent the best years at GWHS. Very proud to be part of the Eagle family! My grandfather Mr. Firpo taught and coach there for over 25 years and my mom graduated there in ’67 also!
Class of ’87!

This is my one «GLORY DAYS» revue… Most of my friends went to S.I., nice guys, but seriously folks…
If I were 15 again (Freshman in 1984), I would pull my skateboard out of the basement and head straight to 32^nd Ave, on top of the hill looking down at Geary. Anyone who was shredding at the WASH knew this was the best Friday= school is out feeling to bomb that intersection.

When the lunch bell rings, run, because once those doors open, animals will come pouring into the street, filling every inch of the sidewalks and shoving each other in the middle of the road. I still gotta give Wash some props because my brother goes here and it is a good school. The best part is the breathtaking view that they get from their football field.
Still, GO LOWELL!

I just wanted to give my condolences to Sid Sherrill’s family. He was an English teacher at Wash for 11 years and also one of my English teachers as well. I had no ideal he was battling cancer, and unfortunately read an article in the alumni website that he lost his battle recently at only 44. If you would like to read more please visit this link. I will always remember him as I’m sure will all his past and current students. Rest Peacefully Mr. Sherrill and thanks for caring about all of us. :(
.

So I really didn’t care for high school or this school. Sure I’ve met some of the most fantastic people in the world here but some of the teachers were just a bunch of !@#$%^.
Oh yeah like ms gilmore who made my life a living hell each morning in economics. PSHH, I’ll always remember the time she basically laughed at me and ridiculed me in front of everyone cuz I didn’t know what «laissez-​faire» meant. well guess what, i’m almost 25 now and i STILL don’t know what that shit means NOR DO I CARE!
BUT I would like to thank Mr. Blodget, Mr. Thomas (both who arent there now) and Mr. Eichler for helping me regain my spanish skills.
AND Mr. Propster who helped me realize that yes you CAN make a living creating movies and commericials and thanks to him, I went on my way to college to get a degree in Broadcasting. I think he may have saved my life from doom!
Let’s say Miss Taylor too because I was able to learn to write these scripts and news stories from her yearbook class!
Otherwise. I guess this school is fine. It’s high school. Seriously.
And to all of my fellow class of 2001’ers that i was NOT friends with. STOP friggin trying to add me as a friend on your stupid myspace/​facebook/​imeem/​livejournal sites. I could care less.
Hope they got the toilets fixed in this school. and told Ms Brunato to shove it. and realized that Fogarino really wasn’t crazy. he was into the green organic living from the start!

Long ago, in another century, I visited this school along with a group of teachers and business people. We had been told it was one of the top high schools in SF, though not as high in quality as Lowell, still a great school. We were pretty shocked… looked very much like an inner city school with some rough edges. Classrooms looked used and beaten up, stairwells were depressing. The one thing that has stuck with me all these years is that beautiful view from the football stadium. That has to be worth a few million $.

I’m not usually the one to live out and talk about my golden years, but what can I say… I spent some of the best times of my life here.
George Washington High School — «School of the Hard Knocks»
What you know about the Infamous Sugar Wars!!!

I was force to waste 4 years of my life here.
Class of 2001.
Best teacher in the school was Mr. Fogarino. Marine Bio. If you didn’t take his class, you probably aren’t successful in life… He opened my eyes when snapped in class one day!
«You Kids these days show no respect. I’ve been teaching 17 years! 17 Years! And you guys have no respect!!! Walking into class, wearing your caps backwards, headphones plugged into your ears, not listening, coming to class doing nothing and thinking your so coool… BUT WHENS THE LAST TIME YOU READ A BOOK!!!
I’ll never forget those words. made me lol !!!
Gave me an A+ for going on all 7 or 8 of his field trips one year… I help plant Crissy Field. Did more good there than all my time spent in the classrooms.
Other than marine bio, school was near worthless.
my lack education consisted of out of date text books, cutting class to go to gym class to play basketball, writing 1000 lines for my homeroom teacher, and asking my spanish teacher if my friends could cut class and come here to play cards.
SFUSD is a joke… don’t send your kids anywhere in the city if possible…

Some of my best memories were here at Wash. But watch out for Mrs. Nicholas cause she is one damn incompetent dean for the job. And you can tell her I said so too. She is racist against Asians and she will JUDGE you if you are Asian, «LOOK» like a bad kid or hang out with the «wrong» people. If you never got into trouble before but look like a bad kid, she might be on your ass. If you’ve done wrong before, she’ll see you as that person and possibly frame you by suggesting your face in the yearbook to the so-​called «victims» of a situation. I’m not just talking S**t but she truly pisses me off. And I know because I’ve witnessed people go through this and go through court (innocent) because of her. I once looked up to Mr. Ishibashi as well, but he disappointed me in this situation as well. But I still believe he is overall a good principal.
Now that the CONS are out of the way. this is a GREAT school. They have lots of nice teachers and some wonderful classes. And you get a super nice view of GGB. If the following teachers I list are still at this school, you guys should definitely take them!
Mr. Vedar (history) ONE OF THE BEST TEACHERS IN THE WORLD!
Mr. Propster (video production)
Mrs. Miller (Chinese)
Mrs. Philipps (english)
I heard Mr. Lu/​Luu? was super cool too, but I never had him
Oh, and off campus lunch was the bomb!

My name is William Chiu, and I graduated in 2001. I share many fond memories for this school, and there were some notable teachers that changed my life for the better. In no specific order,
Mr. John Propster taught the public speaking class and coached the speech and debate team. A couple years down the line, while attending UC Berkeley, I won the 1^st Place Northern California Debate Speaker award.
Mr. Dennis Gregg taught world history honors and AP Economics. A couple of years down the line, I majored in economics at UC Berkeley, and led several sections of Econ 1 (Introduction to Economics) at the university.
Señor Tunzi and Señor Eichler taught Spanish honors and AP Spanish. A couple years down the line, I sit at El Pollo Loco and listen to people’s conversations. I feel like a well-​rounded and well-​cultured person because of my ability to understand a foreign language.
My younger brother informs me that the quality of education has gone down considerably since he and I left. My brother is 4 years younger than me. I blame this on the lack of financial incentives for potentially great teachers from entering the profession. Let’s face it, people who were 4.0 GPA students from high school end up in the financial services industry or make the big bucks at other private companies. Great teachers like Propster, Gregg, Tunzi, and Eichler are a dying breed. This is a pity. This isn’t just a San Francisco problem, this is a problem of aligning social benefits and costs with private benefits and costs.

I’m only giving this school 4 stars bc its soooo crowded, everything else is great…
— amazing views of ggb/​marin
–great teachers, best ones are: Ms. Bailey, Mr Gregg, the ceramics one (sorry i’ve forgotten names.), Mr Marquez, Mr Vedar, Mr Tunzi and the verduras…
–my tips for ultimate experience: sit on the bleachers during lunch on those amazing sunny SF days! Go to at least one game, go to the rallys and yell your lungs out, join a club, order ahead to tsing tao and pick it up (yes its against the rules but do it anyway), go to brown bag theatre, and connect with your teachers… and yes drive to the beach on a hot day too during lunch

Graduated from Wash in 2001.
I just barely made it outta here. Sucks that alot of people left or dropped out. A couple even died. Its got quite afew teachers that are real passionate about what they do (although I wasnt real passionate about being a student). Excellent view of the Golden Gate, but usually cold.
Good times.