<p>"A Manhattan mom is suing a $19,000-a-year preschool, claiming it jeopardized her daughter’s chances of getting into an elite private school because she had to slum with younger kids.</p>
<p>Nicole Imprescia yanked 4-year-old Lucia from the York Avenue Preschool last fall, angry the tyke was stuck learning about shapes and colors with tots half her age - when she should have been prepping for a standardized test.</p>
<p>‘This is about a theft where a business advertises as one thing and is actually another,’ said Mathew Paulose, a lawyer for the mom.</p>
<p>‘They’re nabbing $19,000 and making a run for it…’"</p>
<p>Great story. Thank goodness the elite colleges so many of our kids attend don’t claim to be preparing them for anything except for a lifetime of having been educated, make of it what you will. Otherwise…</p>
<p>When I read the thread title, I was so hoping that The Onion would be the source for the article. Poor child … imagine her feelings when she googles herself for the first time.</p>
<p>It’s kind of ridiculous that four-year-olds have to take an admissions test to get into elementary school to begin with. What is this?</p>
<p>There are plenty of Ivy League kids who never went to a $19K preschool. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of them probably didn’t go to a preschool that expensive.</p>
<p>Poor kid. What if she wants to be a plumber?</p>
<p>When I saw the thread title, I thought it must be a spoof. </p>
<p>This mother has certainly killed her daughter’s chances of being admitted to any “elite private school” now. No school wants to deal with a parent like this.</p>
<p>The story seems to be about admission to NYC private elementary schools. And, yes, they do have to take a test - and, yes, kids as young as 3 or 4 are prepped by professionals for this test. We were living in NYC when DS1 turned 3, and I saw what was coming. It is even hard to get an application. Each school gives out only so many, and on a certain day, and there is a specified procedure.</p>
<p>The admissions frenzy for elite NYC private schools is much, much worse than the college admissions scene.</p>
<p>If people have this kind of time and money, I always thought the best education possible to give your kids (supplementing a good public school) would be personal. Not sending them off to boarding schools or paying others thousands of dollars, but to study with them, train with them (for sports/club things), have intelligent discussion. I prefer the Aristotle-Alexander model to the private boarding school model. Especially if Aristotle also happened to be a better version of Philip II (Alexander’s father).</p>
<p>
<em>snooty rich woman voice</em> “Ha ha, the plumber wants a raise! And what are you doing, child? Polish my diamonds, I’m not letting you eat out of the trash for nothing.”</p>
<p>ooh she should come to Seattle.
I have it on good authority that the school where Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos sent their kids have accepted children who not only may be younger ( and on financial aid…even), but whose parents attended a community college!
& some didn’t even graduate from high school!
G.A.S.P.</p>
<p>NYMomof2…I completely agree! Does this woman realize that she’s definitely now killed her daughter’s chances for any hope of getting in to a prep in NYC; no private school is going to want to touch this family! I, too, feel horrible for Lucia.</p>
<p>“I have it on good authority that the school where Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos sent their kids have accepted children who not only may be younger ( and on financial aid…even), but whose parents attended a community college!
& some didn’t even graduate from high school!”</p>
<p>Yup, Billy went there, then dropped out of Harvard, and then his mother had lunch with the head of IBM, and then Billy hired a bunch of smart people from India. That’s how he became an expert on public education.</p>
<p>Now I admit I was irritated when I enrolled my D in a Montessori program.
She was 5 & the neighborhood K teacher did not think the K program was appropriate.
The montessori school had a “5’s” program with lots of science- a male teacher who was warm & funny and a small class size.</p>
<p>But when she began school, they had decided that since she would have been the only girl in the 5s class ( something that wasn’t important to us), so they placed her in the larger 3-6 yr old classroom instead. </p>
<p>I wasn’t attracted to Montessori, but we needed to find something ASAP- the 5’s class would have been fine, but I didn’t think the traditional classroom was a good fit, but luckily we were able to find a co-op '5s class.
( the school where D went wasnt actually Lakeside where Bill went- it was a very freeform experiential school- compared to Lakeside anyway)</p>
<p>D1 took THE exam to apply to K in NYC. In as much as I could get out of D1 when she was 4-5, it was done with an adult tester where he/she asked a whole series questions. Prior to the test, I said to D1 that I would take her out for ice cream if she would just be nice to this nice person who would be asking her a lot of quesitons. D1 was very cooperative and did well enough to get into the school we wanted her to go to.</p>
<p>My girlfriend paid for someone to tutor her son, did everything they were suppose to. Her son came out of the test (it was very expensive because it was 1:1) and was very proud to tell his mom, “You told me not to talk to strangers, so I didn’t talk to that man asking me lots of questions.” My girlfriend almost had a heart attack.</p>
<p>When I heard it on the radio today I cracked up. I also thought it was a joke at first, but sadly the Mom is serious about the insufficent academic content of said school. :rolleyes: I swear, guys, my post on D’s preschool experience on the Crazy U thread preceded the breaking of this story. :D</p>
<p>… meaning I don’t buy preschool = Ivy equation any more than the vast majority of sane people do. </p>
<p>We never had ‘admissions tests,’ LOL for preschool. However, we had just-as-absurd “admissions tests” for kindergarten. D passed those with flying colors, but what she didn’t pass was the apparent Extroversion test. Insufficiently extroverted IN A ROOM FULL OF COMPLETE STRANGERS AT THE AGE OF 4.5. </p>
<p>Went to a different kindergarten (private but religious). Outdid most of said private K admittees referred to above in her college admissions results.
:p</p>
<p>“ooh she should come to Seattle.
I have it on good authority that the school where Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos sent their kids have accepted children who not only may be younger ( and on financial aid…even), but whose parents attended a community college!
& some didn’t even graduate from high school!
G.A.S.P.”</p>
<p>Yep, it’s true. About 30% get financial aid, and almost 50% are “students of color” whatever that means (it’s a rare person in Seattle who has a tan, maybe). Some parents are even…wait for it…blue collar workers, some are single parents just struggling to get by. Yes, there are some schools where it’s actually about the children’s drive and desire for education, and not getting accepted to Harvard (even though, coincidentally, the odds are pretty high for getting into the ivies). But that is surely not the purpose of the entire school experience.</p>
