The Globe is of two minds on Boston schools

Yvonne Abraham in City & Region: Who knew Boston public schools are so great?

Michael Blanding in the Globe Magazine: Boston schools suck and are getting worse.

Now, Abraham does mention problems, and Blanding briefly mentions successes (mainly as a bridge to still more horror stories like one about parents taking their kid out of a public school because he kept getting bitten by a special-needs kid), but left hand? Meet right hand. Also: Seems very odd to have a magazine cover story about how Boston schools suck without giving the new superintendent, who supposedly is known for the sort of innovative programs the writer gushes about, a single sentence.

Ed. parent of Boston public school student note: The truth is somewhere between the extremes. We got lucky, our daughter's in a good school, seems to be doing well, and none of her schoolmates have ever bitten her. But the Boston Public Schools can be a frustrating, even terrifying experience for parents. We are, to be honest, scared of middle school and high school (although a bit less so now that her school's gone K-8): If she doesn't get into Latin (or if she does get in but we decide it's not for her), what do we do? If somebody has a good word to say about any middle school in the city, I'd love to hear it.