Tuesday 3 August 2010

By Grand Central Primary School I Sat Down & Wept

Coming to a status conscious household near you: a chance to spent $1000 preparing your 4 year old to get into the kindergarten of your choice. (via). These people are the market leaders it seems:
There are so many things to worry about when applying to top public and private schools in NYC. We, at Bright Kids NYC, will take away the anxiety associated with prepping for the appropriate tests so that you as parents can focus on the rest of the admissions process.

It is brutal out there for parents with young children. The public gifted and the private school entry in New York City is getting increasingly competitive, particularly for young kids. If you are serious about gaining admissions to a top school, you must get serious about preparing your child for the appropriate tests.

They say social mobility stopped more or less dead with the cohort born in 1970. That makes a kinds of sense - those were the last people who grew to maturity as the West went through the shift from needing lots of both skilled and unskilled manual jobs into a world where there are many more white collar workers, more and more layers of which get deskilled or simply routinised into 'call-centre type' work experiences as the years tick by. The opportunities for advancement out of routine or dirty or dangerous or simply boring family work traditions are not widening as they were when I grew up - they're narrowing. & no amount of guff about 'the knowledge economy' coming to save us is going to change this fact.

So education becomes a frantic, scary, elbows-out-push-your-neighbour-aside scramble to get on that ladder. 'Cos now it's one-in-and-one-out for the class with the nice life.

& 4 year olds start studying for tests - and the class that can afford it bribes its way to the top.

This is a human disaster.

3 comments:

  1. That group Bright Kids learned everything they know from Manhattan Edge Educational Programs, since the Bright Kids founder hired them to tutor her child for the Kindergarten admission tests

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah, Manahattan Edge? That would be the people with the website that boasts:

    "We are parents and teachers who have negotiated the pitfalls of the New York City public and private school system. Along the way we developed a mode of study strategies through the coaching of Wall Street traders that we applied to our children. " (my emphasis)


    I think I'm going to cry.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The distractions of traders are similar to those with learning disabilities like ADD/ADHD. Research shows improvements in working memory and delayed gratification through our strategies. Both of these are primary factors for school success. Email me if you would like more info.
    Harley Evans
    Founder
    Manhattan Edge
    info@tutorsnewyork.com

    ReplyDelete