<p>High Hopes and Heartbreak Set For School Tots</p>
<p>Elite kindergartens across the city are rejecting more students this year than ever before, with some schools reporting admission rates in the single digits and many 4-year-olds stranded without a single acceptance.</p>
<p>But, with many of the shut-out students sitting on multiple waiting lists, parents will have to wait until next week for a final verdict on the year’s million-dollar question will every 4-year-old have a spot?</p>
<p>The coveted kindergarten program at Hunter College High School likely dealt out the most heartbreak, with a record 1,550 4-year-olds applying for just 48 spots, meaning the school only has space for less than 5% of applicants, its director of admissions, Lindley Uehling, said. Ms. Uehling estimated she received about 300 more applications this year than last year</p>
<p>Don’t these parents understand? To be competitive, one must begin the research on the night of conception, and submit all materials in a timely fashion == while the kid is in utero. </p>
<p>For entree into the l0 Top-Ranked Preschools, it has become the norm to send in ultrasound photos, including stats and measurements. VIdeography of the actual birth is considered tacky, so don’t go there. </p>
<p>In cases of international adoption, usually it’s wise to have a strong letter of recommendation from that nation’s king or president, especially if s/he was educated in Britain or the U.S.</p>
<p>Although EC’s are not expected prior to birth, some clever and resourceful families are nonetheless able to list a few organized and culturally enriching activities. Research indicates a correlation, demonstrated by neonatal Apgar scores of l0 in most cases.</p>
<p>Some newborn applicants are “hooked,” for example: they have extra sweet toes, demonstrate perfect pitch first cries, are legacy, or are born already possessing a masters degree.</p>
<p>New York is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I have a number of cousins there, and I can report that the pre-school anxiety is real. (And why wouldn’t it be, if schools have a lower admit rate than Harvard?) One couple just moved to New England primarily because they couldn’t handle it anymore.</p>
<p>I actually am a preschool teacher…( Bachelors degree in early Childhood) I always have to suppress laughter when prospective parents ask where my own children went to preshool----THEY DIDN’T GO! I always tell them children learn through play and it is inappropriate to have 3&4 year olds sitting down at desks practicing writing letters and numbers!!!</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that the kids at Hunter College preschool are kids, and that they don’t spend any time sitting down at desks writing anything.</p>
<p>Where we live, it’s actually sort of interesting. Most of the established institutional preschool programs either cater to affluent, highly educated families, or are based around Head Start and serve low income families. (Also, the state has been trying to use its subsidy money to nudge more lower income kids into regulated preschools.) The affluent parents are very comfortable with the “play” philosophy. It’s some of the less affluent families that want to see their kids introduced to “work” as soon as possible.</p>
<p>JHS - It is not exactly the same as the “work” vs. “play” issue, but kids from affluent, highly educated families are much more likely to be exposed to a lot of books and educational activities at home than kids with poorly educated parents. I have heard that poorer kids who do not have a lot of books and other educational experiences at home start off school at a disadvantage - they may not even know that one reads from left to right, for example. So it kind of make sense that the preschools geared to those kids might emphasize pre-reading “work” more than the preschools for kids who are more likely to learn some of those things at home.</p>
<p>In my limited experience, JHS is correct. Neither of my kids spent any time learning their letters and numbers in a formal manner at preschool. </p>
<p>Could someone enlighten me about the nature of the appeal of the extremely selective preschool programs? Are the programs themselves that much ‘better’ than alternatives, or is it a matter of making the ‘right kind’ of personal connections, or does having tippy top preschool listed on the resume make a difference for future school admissions, or what?</p>
<p>I didn’t have to deal with this level of competitiveness, since I lived in very different kinds of communities when my kids were young. I did, however, note very real differences in the quality of the programs my two kids attended. The oldest was able to attend university and college-run programs, which worked very well for him, but alas, funding dried up before my daughter reached pre-school age and the programs were abandoned. The programs she attended were OK, but just. Both kids attended on a part-time basis; my standards would have been different if it had been an all day, every day, year round situation.</p>
<p>Apparently you have to attend the “right” preschool in order to be accepted to the “right” private elementary/high school. I wonder if it counts against you not to have attended preschool at all? “Your child stayed home with you? <em>Every</em> day?” :D</p>
<p>I can’t imagine preschoolers “sitting and writing” but they certainly can and do learn letters, colors, numbers, etc. in an age-appropriate manner. I think this is what low-income parents mean they want for their child–that they are engaged in learning things that other kids may be naturally taught by other, better-educated parents and not merely sitting in front of the TV at some caregiver’s house all day. Which is apparently all too common.</p>
<p>my kid went to one of the programs JHS is referring to.
It was called Comprehensive Day care and it was in a Phila public school. It had a sliding fee scale which was a blessing for me. My son spent full time there from 18 months till kindergarten. It was a great experience for us. </p>
<p>The staff had been there a long time</p>
<p>I would have been in a bad situation if I had to pay full price for day care since when my son was young I was making well under 20K a year. Sadly, this program no longer exists. </p>
<p>A couple of months ago, I was approached by a lady when I was out to eat. She recognized me as a parent of one of her students from that program (from 14+ years ago). She even remembered my son’s name.</p>
<p>Well, the article gets the name of the school wrong. It’s Hunter College Elementary, one of two Hunter Campus Schools. The other is Hunter College High School, which begins in 7th grade. </p>
<p>If your kid gets into Hunter and does all right there, the next time you’ll have to choose a school is for college. Not many public schools go from K-12. (Hunter accepts roughly 200 more students for 7th grade. Those kids can be from any borough; elementary is only for Manhattan-ites.) It’s also FREE. The school is diverse. (By law, the elementary cannot be more than 60% white.) If you check either the Worth or the WSJ “feeder” school lists, you’ll see that Hunter C. H.S. is ranked at the TOP public school in the nation. </p>
<p>The kids are all smart. Moreover, everyone had a parent or guardian who cared about him/her enough to go through the admissions process. The regular public schools invariably have at least a couple of kids who have uncaring or overwhelmed parents. Many of these kids latch on to teachers as substitute parents and take up a disproportionate percentage of their time.</p>
<p>If you really do have an off the wall brilliant kid, you can rest assured that there will be other off the wall brilliant kids with whom (s)he will fit in socially. This really is the <em>star</em> attraction for many parents. The other kids will all be smart too. Nobody will try to push your kid ahead 4 grades, but if they can do math 4 grades ahead, they will be allowed to do it.</p>
<p>There’s more emphasis on creative arts than at most public schools. Everyone at Hunter learns to read music well in elementary school, for example. There’s a wonderful chess program–which usually makes it to natonals. </p>
<p>So, yes, parents trip all over themselves trying to get their kids in. There are some other excellent public elementary schools in Manhattan, but none of them offer the chance to go to school in the same building for 13 straight years.</p>
<p>I loved my years living and working in Manhattan, but as soon as H & I decided it was time to start reproducing, the first thing we produced was the map and the U-Haul.</p>
<p>Many private schools now offer preschool and then it is the gateway to be admitted into their upper school. And that is the case in my community. While the upper school is wonderful, they unfortunately hired uneducated terachers for their preschool program and the kids hate it! They ARE sitting and writing a large part of the day. The complaints are falling on deaf ears because the admin knows others are willing to put with it for the chance at attending the upper school. It’s sad. Kids have a short time to have fun before academics is forced on them. I think it is more important to get used to following directions and extending attention span than learning to write letters at the age of 4 and then be tested on them. Learning is supposed to be fun at that age-or any age!</p>
<p>My kids attended co-op preschools which were great & a nice support for me as well because I didn’t have a family/social network that did so. ( they also were very affordable & gave them kids to play with, in a neighborhood that was in transition without many kids- now we have kids)</p>
<p><a href=“of%20course%20their%20kids%20are%20much%20younger”> blatant name dropping</a>However-my oldest attended elementary school in the same school that the Bezos & Gates families send their kids & her Apgars were 4, 4 & 4. [ /name-dropping]</p>
<p>I don’t think there is necessarily a corrolation .</p>
<p>Both the elementary school & the preschools were very experiential & child focused.
[National</a> Association for the Education of Young Children](<a href=“http://www.naeyc.org/]National”>http://www.naeyc.org/)
There is some good info re preschools here.</p>
<p>I think some of you are missing the fact that this article is about kindergarten admissions, not pre-school. Kindergarten is the main point of entry into any of the private schools. Most of the private schools are k-12.</p>
<p>Ya know I originally thought K-12 was a great idea.
We have one K-12 public in Seattle and one K-12 private (secular)
I liked the K-12 public for my oldest- even though the K teacher seemed out of sync with rest of school. ( We didn’t look at the private- oh an several families had many kids go through the same K-12, they loved it. One family had their last graduate in 2007, their oldest graduated in the 90s)</p>
<p>D#1 was waitlisted for the public, hence the private ed, but her sister attended for 6 years. However a school that seems right for a kindergartener or even a 6th grader, can be too small or confining for high school.</p>
<p>Its great if you can find a school that meets their needs in K and not have to look again until college, but when my younger daughter was getting close to high school, she wanted to go to a very different type of school.
I don’t think that was uncommon.</p>
<p>Your observation is true. But Hunter does change. As noted above, the high school, which begins in 7th, admits roughly another 200 kids each year, so the kids who attended the elementary school are in the minority. (It’s rare to end up with more than about 225 kids total in the class though.) </p>
<p>Some kids do leave. But the VAST majority of the kids who start in kindergarten graduate from high school there 13 years later. There’s no other public school like it in NYC.</p>
[ /name-dropping]</p>