One won't even let us attend its Open House or Orientation ("We're so sorry, it's too complicated right now").
The other paid for our hotel to attend its school revisit. A sat in on three classes.
One insists on having A take a Math test now, despite my affirmations that A will be taking the next (advanced) level Math course this summer at CUNY.
The other school says it will wait to re-test A once he is done with his class at CUNY.
One school has barely any sports teams.
The other invests a lot of money into its sports teams.
One is so far away from the subway, and you have to walk through dubious characters in the projects to get there.
One is a bedroll away from your classroom.
4 comments:
Well, when you put it that way. . .
But who is the orientation FOR, then, if not for incoming students?
How bizarre.
I recently spoke to a mother of a current 9th grader there, who unfortunately says that there is not much sense of community.
However, can you really even compare a fancy boarding school with its infinite resources to a NYC public school?
I guess to make a fair comparison you would need to look at the culture as a whole in the boarding school, and see if that's really what you and A want for him. I believe there is a "down side" to all that luxury. My guess, and it's just a guess, is that there is probably, underneath it all, much less "tolerance for diversity" despite whatever they do there to recruit minority kids, etc.
As for the geography of the public school,I'm reminded of a quote from John Cage, who said he LOVED living right above Sixth Avenue in the Village. He said how what to others was street noise, to him was music.
However, he was John Cage, and we're not. On the other hand (thank goodness there are so many hands!) I would fear that the boarding school would make my kid into some version of "suburban" --- using a VERY broad sense of that word.
I think. Who knows. Good luck with your (plural)'s decision!
It's not so much the neighborhood I worry about (I love the LES -- I really, really do, and A did his Hebrew studies right on Suffolk; I am also a big fan of Schiller's and Clinton St. Bakery) but have you actually walked from the *subway to the school*?
I have. The school abuts a major highway. On one trip, two residents of the projects actually decided to interface with me. Yo, yo, wuss yo name?
Then there's the traffic on Houston that gets lots of press.
The issues I pointed out in this entry are the only chief concerns I have. These concerns genuinely bother me.
And we actually like the school.
Trivia: I went to an (elitist, snobbish, etc., etc.,) boarding school. And I think I turned out not so suburban.
I forgot to insert a smiley face in response to anonymous.
: )
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