My time at the friends school was mixed. I got a great education but at what cost. I was made fun…read moreof for being different. One kid called me a "stupid ugly fat cow" from 5th to 8th grade. The teacher I reported it to played it off "Oh he just likes you". This school taught me that my feelings didn't matter, made me feel like I didn't matter. This school taught me that no doesn't actually mean no, and that if you apply enough pressure they'll eventually give in. This school caused so much emotional and psychological damaged, that I've been left to fix on my own, because they didn't care to do their job. If the teacher had just done their job when I reported the other student, I would have self-confidence. my self-esteem and the way i see myself wouldn't be absolutely trashed. this school taught me that others can't be trusted and I can only rely on myself to protect myself. I started using self-harm in the 6th grade as a coping mechanism because no one listened to me, because no one cared.

So i at one point went to CFS and in kindergarten I loved it but in first grade I got a very strict…read moreteacher. She would be very unhappy if one kid was not doing their work or got frustrate. Also it was very stressful and I began to hate school. Other families have also left the community for similar reasons. Also they are quakers and want to create a diverse community which is great and all but they presented something called kids of color and becoming white ally's. They would talk for long amounts of times and usually kids didn't benefit anything good from it. Also bullying is a huge problem that nobody at CFS did something about. They would have 2 hr assemblies that were like torture when I was little. During the assemblies we'd sit on the gym floor and listen to music for 2 hrs. They also would rarely let kids get breaks. While at the assemblies the teachers would not only sit on benches against the wall but would get to take breaks whenever they wanted to get treats from the facility lounge. Do not send your child here they will become stressed.

This school it great but not always great there some nice teachers but there some bad teacherread more

its is such a good school for children to learn about god and staff are also the best!read more

Hope fellowship church is a church that really does care about everyone the people are supper…read morefriendly and so are the staff and elders

I saw a couple reviews that mentioned the church's Southern Baptist Convention roots and just…read morewanted to speak to that. I understand the resistance, truly I do. The past year that I have been in Boston has involved a lot of researching denominations and trying to understand them and the SBC certainly is a hard one to grapple with for many. But no matter how many times I've ventured elsewhere, I *always* come back to Hope Fellowship. Mostly, that is because I'm convinced that Hope Fellowship is led by godly, prayerful people and that the Spirit is bearing fruit here. Again, trust me, I get the doctrinal disputes and I struggle with the SBC on certain issues. At Hope, the leadership doesn't shy from hard topics but it also doesn't give black-and-white, pre-scripted answers; nor does it give wishy-washy, ungrounded ones. I've only ever seen Hope leadership tackle highly sensitive subjects in a nuanced, thoughtful, and humble way. Even if you don't agree 100%, you know you can share your perspective with leadership and be heard and loved. Furthermore, personally, I've found that this church has a refreshing way of incorporating confession and also rejoicing in God's mercy. During each service we have a call-and-response of a Psalm and then a prayer of confession and then a passage reminding us of how we have been redeemed from that sin. It's so balanced and thoughtful and, to me, really models what we see throughout Acts as people come to faith--a rhythm of repentance and joyfully accepting God's grace. If you are looking for a church that does not shy from tough questions and that will continually extend the love of Christ to you and motivate you to do the same for others, this place does that.

LMFAO at all these fake 5-Star reviews clearly written by EF Employees. No parent with a brain…read morewould send their kids on an EF trip. That's why now they have increased their recruitment of college students and single adults (EF College Study Tours and EF Go Ahead). EF Go Ahead Tours usually uses 3 Star hotels and above but K-12 and college students get ripped off. Right now I'm trying to advocate to my college campus to cancel our trip to London because the U.K. government has essentially banned all leisure travel. This greedy company won't even lower the cost of our trip as a courtesy for their previous bad behavior in the public eye. As long as London remains at Level 3 Travel Advisory they (EF Tours) can cancel at any time and yet the trip is still happening? Lastly, regardless of when you cancel your tour, you WILL lose between $750 to $3,000 per person in cancellation fees CLEARLY meant to ensure EF still cuts a hefty profit. I can already see 2021 trips being cancelled. They started cancelling 2021 trips months ago (these were re-scheduled from 2020). And guess what? Yep, this criminal enterprise will steal your money again and again with zero remorse. Dont people ever learn anything? This company will cancel your trip at the very last minute, try to convince you to "accept" a worthless travel voucher, then take nearly $1,000 in cancellation fees PER PERSON (after you demand your refund) despite noone going anywhere. But the most pressing concern is this: Why would you give this company any of your hard earned money after this? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy_PKuljk0s&t=702s https://eftourslitigation.mcgranepc.com https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/coronavirus-covid-19/education-first-class-action-says-tour-company-canceled-trips-over-coronavirus-refuses-refunds The truth is a hard thing to accept. Believe me, I know.

A Disappointing Bait-and-Switch: Not the Parisian Experience We Paid For…read moreMy experience with EF began with a very enthusiastic, bubbly, and responsive salesperson who painted a wonderful picture of the program. It's clear they have a large, polished sales operation--it feels very "pitchy," and we learned they have an entire floor of people dedicated to selling these programs. However, once the contract was signed, the reality was starkly different from what was promised, leading to a deeply disappointing two-month experience for my 21-year-old son from February to April 2025. 1. Misleading Location & Unresponsive Staff (The "Bait-and-Switch") The primary reason we chose EF was for an immersive experience in the heart of Paris, a fact I made explicitly clear as our family is originally from France but my son was raised in the U.S. . We were assured this would be the case. Instead, just a week before his departure, we discovered my son was placed with a host family a 40-minute train commute outside the city (Enghin les bains). This completely defeated the purpose of the program. When I raised this critical issue, the once-bubbly salesperson was suddenly unavailable. I was passed on to staff in Paris who were dismissive and offered no solutions. Their justification was that the fine print allows for a commute of 'up to one hour,' and I was essentially told I should be happy it was only 40 minutes. They made it clear that a move into the city was impossible and no refund would be considered. The communication and accountability vanished the moment there was a problem. 2. Subpar Host Family Experience The issues continued with the host family. Upon arrival, my son was informed of an unexpected 50 euro fee for laundry. More concerningly, the meals provided were so inadequate and unhealthy that my son lost a significant amount of weight during his stay. There were also unsettling instances where the host would eat certain foods while telling my son he was not allowed to have any. This is not the safe and nurturing environment you expect when you entrust your child to a program like this. 3. Ineffective Language Immersion and Academics From an educational standpoint, the program also fell short. The curriculum focused heavily on grammar, verb conjugation, and writing--skills that are not the most useful for developing day-to-day conversational fluency. Furthermore, the social environment did not foster language practice, as my son found that the majority of his new friends from other European countries spoke English together. The advertised daily activities were also a letdown, with very low attendance, suggesting they were not engaging for the students. 4. Questionable Review Integrity Perhaps most concerning is the integrity of EF's review system. When my son initially gave the program an honest 3 or 4-star rating at the end of his stay, he was brought into an office and spoken to by staff, after which he felt pressured to change his rating to a 5. This practice makes me seriously question the authenticity of the glowing reviews they feature and suggests a focus on maintaining a perfect online image over providing a genuinely quality experience. Conclusion: Overall, our two-month experience with EF was a lesson in over-promising and under-delivering. It felt like a classic bait-and-switch scheme, from the location to the quality of the homestay to the effectiveness of the program itself. I cannot recommend this program to parents seeking a genuine, supportive, and immersive experience for their children. I would urge others to exercise extreme caution, get every single detail (especially accommodation location) in writing before paying, and be very wary of the overly positive ratings.

Some years ago, after being annoyed enough, some parents indicated they moved their kids out of…read moretheir rowing program to a private program, because of a series of extremely questionable characters they (still) have involved there, that even with a minimum of investigation, the school would find quite concerning. Anger management issues, nepotism, career frustration, and various probable psychological complexes seem to only scratch the surface. There seems to be a clear 'look the other way' syndrome going on there, and am not sure to what extent it may be in other areas at the school.

BB&N, my high school alma mater, prepared me for academic life in amazing ways in which I can not…read morequantify. When I was a student, I definitely had times in which I struggled and had no idea how I would graduate, but in the end I made it and did very well. This school prepares you so that when you enter you undergraduate institution, it really does seem like cake, because when you were at BB&N from grades 9-12, you were pushing yourself already doing a college workload and being taught by teachers who were parallel to college professors who will follow you throughout your life. As Max B. said, you will come out of your four years here more than ready for college, and then when you're done with undergrad, you'll be more than ready for graduate school or your career because of what BB&N taught you. It's just that awesome. The teachers are top notch. They recognize talent and they will also help you when you are down. I will always be indebted to this incredible institution of learning on the Charles. -Andrea D., Class of 2006

How do all these places of worship go without being reviewed?…read more Christ Church was the second stop on my religious [pub] crawl; I've found that I have an affinity for most things New Englandy - New Englanderish? New English? This region has seen the entire history of 'post-European folks wanting freedom' America. Which is different from Stolen Land America and Stolen People America, but I digress. Something influential can be said of that. So, I set an appointment with the Assistant Rector, Reverend Jonathan Eden. How fitting is that last name, by the way? I joined the mailing list before the meeting so I could peruse some literature. They included a brief history of the church, its ties to England and its influence on the American government. Rev. Eden took me through the history of the church as well - he talked about King Henry VIII, the implementation of the Round Table as a religious approach, and the difference between southern and northern churches' stances on the Peculiar Institution. If given the chance, wouldn't you want to have your slaves and go to church too? Damn, I digress again. Anyway, the Black American Christian experience is relatively new when you consider the entire scope of Christianity. It's refreshing to hear about traditions and the use of Latin for Christmas carols. There is so much to be learned - so much in the borrowing and drawing of other, older institutions. So even if you don't put much stock in religion, I would encourage you to pull a Prometheus - yank it down from the heavens and make it your own. In my opinion, religion isn't the Divine's biography. It's ours.

As a recent visitor to Cambridge over Easter weekend, I stopped into Christ Church on a cold and…read morerainy Good Friday afternoon. I arrived between Lenten services but found the beautiful and historically significant church to be open - a lovely sacred space for peaceful contemplation. One of the clergy kindly lent me his charger to recharge my cell phone, which had run down navigating around Boston. As I stood in the foyer, I watched kids and adults dressed in costumes happily bustling about, preparing to perform the Passion play. Friendly parishioners young and old steadily streamed in and greeted each other (and me) warmly. It was obvious that Christ Church was an active and loving faith community.

Cambridge Zen Center, or CZC as it's commonly known, is a Buddhist temple and residential zen…read morecenter located in a busy urban section of Cambridge, MA. It welcomes any and all to public practice hours every day of the week with the exception of scheduled zen retreats that occur once monthly and last an entire weekend. Free introductory classes in meditation are offered each Thursday night at 6:45-7:15pm week and you can attend this class as many times as you like. Anytime during scheduled public practice you are also welcome to join in. If you are usure of what to do feel free to ask a resident for guidance. Residents at CZC are happy to help you get your bearings and will try to answer questions or direct you to someone else who can assist you. Please be aware that shoes are not worn inside the building and there is a shoe rack where you can leave your shoes. If you choose to come practice please silence your phone before entering the practice hall. Also hats may not be worn the practice hall. All things considered CZC is a unique community of zen practitioners with residents of all ages and backgrounds from around the world. Join us for a vegetarian public dinner on Tuesday nights before practice and get to know us! For further info about scheduling please check the CZC webpage cambridgezen.org

The Cambridge zen center is an amazing place, for many months I woke up at 4:30 am so I could take…read morethe hour long ride from dorchester to sit meditation for 30 minutes. They have weekend retreats that are amazing and not that it should matter, but the food is great. They have meditation morning and night (even noon sometimes), an on Sundays and Tuesdays they occasionally have Kong an (Koan) interviews with one of the Guiding teachers. Thursday is usually a dharma talk by members or residents (it's a residential center too). CZC is part of the Kwan Um zen school which translates to Perceive Sound, so I would highly recommend sitting and perceiving sound there.

I'm not religious, let alone Episcopalian, so I've never been to church here. But they have a nice…read morepublic garden right around the back, which I'm happy to give five stars.