My 10-year-old did not want spend Sunday afternoon at another test and interview at another school since that was already the focus of her Saturday.
We went to the school and were directed to the cafeteria where we turned in copies of our children’s report cards and signed in.
The children’s names were called and they were taken away somewhere and we, the parents, were welcome to stay in the cafeteria and wait for them or leave the building to go find a coffee.
Yesterday, parents weren’t even allowed in the building at the citywide gifted and talented school. We were told; “Back away from the door and clear the sidewalk.”
Today, we talked with friends of other children going through the same process.
One dad said his daughter is over it.
Now we’re starting to protect our children.
We force them to go through the interview or test or audition if we have a good feeling about the school. But, at this point, the dad said, if he has doubts about the school and his child is completely fried (the kids are getting sick for normal winter flu seasons and for reasons of stress) they might just blow it off. Mostly we don’t do that because it’s not like we’ve got a lot of choices and if we can get any more information about the school by going through the admissions process we want to do it.
I wanted My Kid to go to that school today. It’s a school I think is right for her.
My Kid did not want to go. It’s not her first choice. She doesn’t understand that she might not get into her first choice.
We talked to the other parents, one of whom teaches high school in Harlem.
Fellow parents who work as public school teachers don’t have any more information about the middle school application process that I do which I find somewhat unnerving.
We brought our kids in for testing because we could. Some of the schools offer a single hour with less than a weeks notice with the invitation for an interview. That’s not enough time to change work schedules. The kids are not old enough to get to the interviews by themselves.
Does the DOE set it up this way to separate the children of professionals from the children of the poor???
Most of the parents at the school today are professionals. How do working class shift workers, restaurant workers and store clerks get their kids into a “good” school. What if English isn’t their primary language? The DOE prints the middle school directories in multiple languages. But, that’s not where we get our information. Gossip and rumors and grapevines is how we find out how to apply to the more selective schools. Single parents who works even regular hours (much less multiple jobs or shift work) and drops their kids off early and picks them up from the aftersschool program at 6:00 pm. How do they get their information about things like how many schools to rank on your application. It’s not obvious.
The DOE application says rank the schools. I would have ranked all the schools if I hadn’t been told by other parents not to rank all the schools. I was told by other parents not to list any school on the marking form that l I didn’t want her to go to because if you list it on your form your child can be sent to that school, even if you don’t want your child to go to that school, because of an unworkable commute for example.