On the OTHER hand, if you're going to spend an assload of money, why not send them to a school ran by the Blue Man Group? (new window)

The poor have the state lottery and Cash-4-Gold to scam their resources. The rich had Bernie Madoff, and now they have kindergarten test prep.

Great, so if they fail the tests, their lives are over before they even comprehend long term consequences. That sounds like a system every enlightened society should have.

/One of the chief reasons why The Nanny Diaries was not funny, even in a chick lit way.

Wow my kids get one on one schooling five days and week and personalized tutoring when they need it. They work at their own pace and have their curriculum customized to their strengths and weaknesses.

20,000.00 a year for less then that? These parents are crazy....

/I homeschool with a acc curr.
// My kids could out think their kids anyday.
///There is nothing that replaces parental attention.

eddyatwork: Whatever happened to letting kids be kids? The only test a kid should get in kindergarten is regular or chocolate milk before nap time.

Exactly.

I recently had an interesting conversation with one of the Indian women I work with. She said that she thinks kids in India today are missing out on a lot of childhood due to the focus on grades, and that our system is better. She was especially interested in what sports I played and what my kids play, because that was frowned upon while she was growing up.

I guess my point is that a person either hits their mark in life or they dont, but does it really matter that much? Is it worth the pressure? Which is more important, an Ivy League degree that places you one step ahead in the rat race, or a balanced life?

I have never, and will never, put so much focus on school for my kids. Yes it is important and I expect them to do the best they can, but school does not define them.

I feel very sorry for any kid who ends up with parents like those in this story.

Darkraven: You don't need to spend money on educating your child. Seriously.

I went to a public school for my entire life. My first public school didn't introduce us to letters until the 1st grade. I grew up thinking that was normal until I learned most start in pre-school. Still, I turned out fine. And read very well.

The only thing I remember about kindergarten is that the milk was really cold and I hated the bathroom rug that my Mom sent for me to nap on. It was freakin purple and way too fuzzy. It was also from our bathroom, as my Mom didn't go to kindergarten or know much about it.

Ringshadow: On the OTHER hand, if you're going to spend an assload of money, why not send them to a school ran by the Blue Man Group? (new window)

That's my kids kindergarten. $27K a year (and I am am member of BMG.)


Darkraven: You don't need to spend money on educating your child. Seriously.

I went to a public school for my entire life. My first public school didn't introduce us to letters until the 1st grade. I grew up thinking that was normal until I learned most start in pre-school. Still, I turned out fine. And read very well.

Which public school in NYC did you go to?

T.M.S.:
Of course NYC also has the best High School in the country and it's public and absolutely free.

Good luck getting in.

Graduated from there in '05. It was a breeze to get in.

In regards to this article, I spoke no English in Kindergarten and got abused by my teacher for it. The test to get in is the equivalent to the SAT's. Top scores got you into Stuy, next tier was Bronx then BK Tech. Most of Stuy's grads did well on the SAT's with avg scores in the 1400's (old test). I don't know what it's at now with the new exam.

Regarding Stuy, I certainly wouldn't send my kids there. The rumors you've heard are true. Or at least we were all so traumatized by 9/11 that we resorted to hard drugs and gambling. That and our teachers, many of whom turned out to be sociopaths.

I haven't heard of any other high school, where kids smoked weed in class. Then again this particular teacher was a dumbass. Not only did kids smoke weed in this teacher's classroom and prank him in all sorts of ways, he caught a classmate cheating on a test 5 times. That day he was returning the exams, while that student was taking a make-up. Other students kept passing him their exams, which he kept taking away. Cocaine, Full Monty's and whippits were the norm. The teacher spoke terribly broken English with a heavy Chinese accent despite living in NYC for ~20 years.

In this class we watched a video every week, one happened to be about digs... big digs.

Kid: "I heard Africa has some really big digs."
Teach: "I don't know, just watch the video."
Kid: "Have you seen any really big digs?"
Teach: "No! Just watch the video."
Kid: "How big are the digs in China? I heard their digs are really small."
Teach: "I don't know, just watch the video."

The write-up for the video was usually written in 1st or 2nd grade essay style.

This video was about digs. There are big digs in the whole wide world. Big digs are nice. They can be in different colors. In America, our digs are small and big. China has small digs. I want to have my own big dig.

Ahh, High School.

I've heard this from parents in NY. But then - I've seen what passes for public school in several parts of the country and it is highly variable. They want their kids in 'gifted' classes because the class sizes are smaller, the teachers higher qualified and less loaded up with stupid sh*t meant for the average classes where the teacher has to keep half of them from eating the supplies (Ralph, crayon) or from just in general making a ruckus of the place because they are kids and that is what kids do. What actually happens to some of these kids is they can't keep up with the 'gifted' curriculum and are actually behind their peers once they are dumped back into the regular stream.

The worst thing is inconsistency. They don't pay attention to what the student actually needs or knows. And when they do pay attention - it is applied haphazardly and the kid ends up confused. I was in gifted science classes in middle school but kept in the lowest math class at the same time -- which made no sense whatsoever as we were using math in the science class two grades above the math I was failing. The real question is why I figured out the math for the science and still failed the math class?? Inconsistent teaching, testing and application of knowledge.

I'm fairly certain we cannot homeschool our daughter, but terribly uneasy about the public school system here in Tennessee. She is smart but stubborn as either of us and just as easily distracted. If she's anything like us she will do well in something she really wants to learn about and tell the teacher to kiss her a** on everything else...

T.M.S.: scut207: I believe that getting a kid in one these "prestigious" kindergartens is somehow more for the parents to confirm their social status than for the welfare of the child. Pretty damn disturbing actually.

Let me guess. You went to a school that looked more like The Breakfast Club than Cooley High.

What is your point?

Guest: drinki bird: this being a major news story is no good for me and my daughter...

my daughter is 4, and she can already read, write, add, subtract, and is starting to learn her multiplication table.

she is going to go insane if she is put in a class of kids who all still have yet to learn those things, she needs the GT program, but I am scared that all these rich parents with tutors are going to take that opportunity away from us. :(

If your child is advanced then she will pass the tests without you having to pay the tutors. You may want her to go over some practice tests just so she is not nervous, but you should not have to pay for multiple sessions just so she can appear more intellectually (spelling) advanced then she is. So stop worrying.

What she is saying is that there are only so many slots available - and if all the kids get the same score on the tests (due to intelligence or coaching) they start looking at other things to narrow them down... birthday, or medical history or allergies etc... things that have nothing to do with intelligence. I've been talking elsewhere with some parents going through this in NY and sometimes they even go back to to the child's first doctor checkup - it's ridiculous.

I'll worry more when my kid actually gets closer to Kindergarten age. But for the previous poster she is already getting to that cutoff and has less time to find a solution.

MrCab: Too much standardized learning. Kids don't get to play outside, kids don't get exposed to stuff, kids immune systems stay weak, swine flu actually kills people.

As the great George Carlin said, what ever happened to letting kids play with a stick? I don't even think kids know what a stick is anymore. I think the production of sticks got exported to China!

- "It's Bad For Ya"



This was a year ago... Sticks were and still are some of her favorite toys.

Here's what I predict will happen in the medium term, if this kind of teaching-to-the-test becomes the norm:

The number of kids in the program will drop in the first couple of years. The same number of kids will be accepted, but a disproportionate will wash out in the first few weeks due to the artificially-high test score.

The school district will react, increasing the initial number of accepted kids, with the expectation that the same proportion will wash out, leaving them with the same number of kids as before all of this started. They'll probably lose about half of the test-taught kids, and keep the other half that might rightly legitimately deserve to be there, especially if their parents will continue to invest in the child's education through the next thirteen years. Those that wash out will still have their parents invest in their educations, but will never really continually test high enough to edge out their peers, and will remain in that high-regular to regular level that is appropriate for their abilities.

I do not see a problem with kids with support structures advancing because that support structure gives them an edge. That's what schools would die to have; parents who take an active interest in their child's education, as opposed to parents who assume that the school's job is to both educate and raise the child. A child who's bright on their own can be brought up to outstanding with good support, one who's adequate can be brought up to excel, one who's possibly falling below average can be gotten into average levels. Sure, some won't follow this, but enough do that it's worth it to give those who try an incentive to keep doing it, and those who haven't yet done it a reason to try it.

Which public school in NYC did you go to?

Actually, the school giving me the problem was in Sioux City, Iowa. Seriously, no letters until the 1st grade.

I caught up, though. I was reading White Fang in 3rd grade, The Sea-Wolf in 4th... Loved Jack London. In 7th grade I was tested and had a college level vocabulary. And now I'm actually in college, with a combined English/creative writing as one of my majors.

The point is: school systems suck. But they don't guarantee you can't do well. I don't think I'd be any smarter right now if I had gone to a private school. Much of it depends on the student.

Kayla, who will be 4 in December, held her tiny pointer finger still as she inspected the four choices. "Too hard," she meeped.

they're trying too hard.