Gratitude at the Summit

How refreshing to hear a kid at the top of his class hand the credit to those who put him there. That’s what George Lee did. Lee, a graduate of the North Hollywood High Magnet School for the Highly Gifted, topped the national list of students taking Advanced Placement exams. He passed 18 of the grueling tests, earning a 5, a perfect score, on 15 of them and a 4 on three others. By virtue of his scores Lee earned a year’s worth of college credit at UC Berkeley.

Lee wasn’t surprised at his performance, but he credited the supportive environment of his school. “They really want the kids to do well,” he said of his teachers. “I think that helped me quite a bit.” Indeed. And he wasn’t the only one. Two other North Hollywood students--Carmel Levitan and Howard Chong--also ranked in the top five students nationally, giving the magnet the best showing of any school in the country.

Los Angeles’ only high school magnet for highly gifted students (those with IQs above 145), North Hollywood High consistently produces large numbers of AP scholars. That track record is a tribute to the school’s demanding curriculum, its encouraging teachers and, most of all, its talented students--young people who delight in knowledge for its own sake. It is a sharply focused bright spot in the beleaguered L.A. public schools.

Congratulations to Lee, Levitan and Chong for their remarkable achievements.