Stareheans on the Net - Learning how to lead Starehe-style

I often take for granted what priviledge it was attending 4 years of Starehe. Foramtive as they were, one often gets caught up in trying to nyakua the future than by constantly dwelling on the past... so when i come accross articles like this one on
Learning how to lead Starehe-style , I am struck by How much my past has contributed to where I am today as a person.

With Starehe coming TOPS again in the high school academic charts again with a clear distinction (grade point average & weight of Number of students) , it is undeniable that Starehe is one of the most remarkable schools in the world. yeah, i said it. WORLD. I had began this post thinking 'best school in Africa' but notice how both the superlative and frame of comparison have changed. Remarkable is more apt, because it attempts to quantify & aggregate intellectual horsepower, creativity, contribution to society, contribution to character development, management, student empowerment, faculty, extra-curricular dvp, student population diversity among other yardsticks.

As meek rabbles we were always in amazement Fridays at visiting heads who had toured the school all day showered us with compliments during the extended assembly. As Rowdy 2nd formers, the lavish praise was beginning to get redundant, by third form i think we had gotten so deep into the systemic culture that we wondered what was so hard to figure out about running a school well. By fourth form the shared basic assumptions deeply entrenched dictated that most of us (atleast for me) completely took for granted some of the reasons Starehe was such a brilliant environment for success.

When i look back, i find personally the best thing about it was the unbridled exposure with other individuals who were
1) Far Far less fortunate than I
2) Far far Smarter than I was (when u get in first form u think u are such hot shit..until the first set of form-wide exam results are out)
3) Both 1&2

A certain humility about my position in life settled in(not so comfortably as well i assure you - sometimes I felt like I would like to trade places just so that i didnt feel like everything had been handed down to me on a silver platter..the guilt of being 'priviledged' was sometimes hard to throw off). when u find a jamaa throughly enjoying the murram in the Dining hall becuase he has nothing better to look forward to, your frame of reference has to change at some point.

Anyway long story short, this is always my argument in favour of Boarding schools. Moreso boarding schools that dont have a status quo, or entirely uniform, rigid mental models. I have had interesting discourses with a friend of mine on why he would NOT want to attend Havard Business School given the chance. He feels there is a certain culture of distasteful superiority that one acquires there knowingly or unknowingly. Or why some people attest the same 'who do these folks think they are' after their first acquataince with McKinsey & Company employees. Anyway if there is anything I would want for my kids, it is to learn more than they can at home with me and see as many perspectives as they can as they find themselves and prepare themselves for the real world. Starehe managed to do both for me and I am grateful.

What did high school do in shaping the person you are today? Good? Bad? What would you change if you could go back?