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Photo: David Goldman for The New York Times (Pictured Erasmus Alum Terry Kaplan)
Cool story: NYTimes Reports on the history and disregard for one of the oldest High Schools in the country, Flatbush's Erasmus Academy
The thing many long term Brooklynites of a certain age remember is that if you took all those cheesy hollywood films about nightmarish crime ridden High Schools and rolled them into one they still wouldn't beat the reputation of Erasmus High. Seated in the Flatbush at what arguably is the geographic center of Brooklyn, Erasmus did a lot to earn that rep, or at least it's students did. Major crimes occurred just enough to make a Junior High Senior piss themselves at the thought of attending. And yet there is another side to Erasmus, as mentioned in the Times article, Erasmus is the oldest High School in the city, and one of the oldest standing in the country. Constructed in 1786 the building pictured above is the original school around which the modern school was built. It's also important as a former Tildenite that I mention Erasmus and all who attended were our sworn enemies and those epic stories are for another day.
Great point. I can speak on behalf of my mother, Erasmus was truly a great school, having spawned some notable people like Barbara Steisand, and Niel Diamond. But things changed, and by time I was set to graduate junior high, I WAS PISSING IN MY PANTS AT THE THOUGHT OF GOING THERE, thankfully I passed the entrance exam to Brooklyn Tech on sheer fear, and averted my untimely death in the halls of Erasmus!! But as you said this school definitly deserves to be recognized for what it is , Thanks, Will
ReplyDeleteAgreed, and actually my father attended Erasmus when it was a great school and he was there at the same time as Barbara Streisand. Yet when I sent in my application from Roy H. Mann, to pick a High School, there were wild stories about security guards at Erasmus carrying shotguns, which were chained to their wastes, and other insane but slightly plausible exaggerations.
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