Martin Luther King, Jr Middle School

Terrific school. The teachers who work there almost never quit, which tells you something. Very diverse student population, fabulous (and kind of famous) Edible Schoolyard garden.
A very positive place to mitigate the hell on earth known as middle school.

This is a beautiful school, and then there’s the incredible addition of the Edible Schoolyard. But the most amazing thing is the dedication of the teachers. Given all the hardship that our society puts on teachers, the annual pink slips, the poor pay, etc. How do they do it? We don’t know, but are thankful that they do.
We’ve gone the private school route before, and were disappointed. We are very happy with MLK. It is difficult to believe that a private school could do better than this one.
Gosh, I wish my school, in the 1960’s, had the zero-​tolerance for bullying that this one does. I find myself envying my kid.

If your child is at the bottom end of the performance scale, this is the school for you. Teachers appear all professional and there is plenty of help for low performers and special ed. In contrast, if your child is a top performer, math geek, or interested in sciences, you may want to look somewhere else. In fact, the administration happily admits that they have no program for advanced kids.
I took time to look into most of the class rooms of all grades, 6 – 8. Some rooms are off limits because of confidentiality issues. All teachers are great and do their best. Students, however, are largely bored, unenthusiastic, don’t pay attention, or have any kind of issue that you can imagine. Active, bright kids can be found here and there, but are drowned out by the generally depressed performance.
This school could do better considering the mostly impressive teachers and all the money that is poured into it..

In Berkeley, if you don’t happen to have tens of thousands of extra dollars languishing in the ol’ family trust fund, you pretty much have 2 real options for middle school for your child (and a third, which is not really an option. Yes, Longfellow, this means you!!!)…You don’t even really have an «option», as I understand the word. Basically, if you live north of University Ave., you are sent to King. South of University Ave, and you are relegated to Willard (I will not go off on a tangent, but who in God’s name would name a junior high after a rat??!)…Ooooppps, sorry, lost my train of thought.
ANYWAY, the point of all this is that by all means, get yourselves over to The Edible Schoolyard! Say what you will about the decline in public education, and things are about to get worse (thank you, Ahhhhnald), the Edible Schoolyard, with the chickens, the gardens, the adjacent kitchens and the solar powered (thank you Stuart!!) pond cannot be beaten. My advice: on a sunny day, grab a slice or two of pizza from Gioia’s, and walk over to the hay bales near the chicken coop here. You can’t do this when school’s in session, but what’s to stop you on a weekend? It is so peaceful… just the sound of water trickling over rocks, contented chickens clucking/​scolding, and bees hummin’ along. In Spring the sweet peas are abundant, and the lavender is everywhere. It is just a little slice of paradise. Very worth a stroll over here.