If you went to a public school in southern Brooklyn, Dyker Heights was often called out as a magnet school for "gifted" students. I remember hearing the idiomatic phrase "cream of the crop" for the first time in my life, and it was used by then principal Madeline Brennan to describe the freshman class. Ms. Brennan was the longest serving principal in New York History, and rarely failed to mention she became principal before the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was completed. I don't remember seeing any of the usual social hierarchy tropes movies make you expect of middle school. Everyone existed in various shades of nerd. You had your band nerds (of which my trumpet playing self was a proud member), your drama nerds, and of course, your handball nerds. It was a good place to come of age, if such a place can exist. I can still recite the school song by heart:
Cheer, cheer for old Dyker Heights
Ours is the school of bright shining lights
All our boys and all our girls, strive for, fight for all that's right!
What though the odds be great or small
Our boys and girls will win over all
And we'll sing her praises
Marching onward to victory read more