March 8, 2006--Safety Pre-Schools
A friend showed me his son’s application to school in which he was described as “enthusiastic, creative, inquisitive, and sensitive.” I told my friend that I thought his son would be a shoe in—“He sounds just like the kind of student Harvard is seeking.”
My friend said, “You don’t understand, it’s an application that I wrote for my 18-month-old toddler. For nursery school.”
And so it goes in New York City where the competition to be admitted to elite pre-schools is perhaps even fiercer than getting into Harvard. This is the result of an increase in the number of babies being born in Manhattan (interestingly, many more twins and triplets than in previous years) while slots in selective pre-schools has not kept pace (see NY Times story below). There are now 26 percent more children under five in Manhattan than in the year 2000.
Thus the application has become even more high stakes than in the past. Affluent parents are engaging consultants to help them thread their way through the process—from selecting programs to which to apply (including so-called “safe” nursery schools where little Justin is certain to be admitted) to how to psych out what to say on the application essay.
One frustrated parent was quoted as saying, “What do you say about someone who just popped out of the womb?” Well, “enthusiastic, creative, inquisitive . . . . “
And then what do you do if you have triplets--up from 60 born in Manhattan in 1995 to 299 in 2004—since nursery schools, looking to diversify their charges, are loath to admit three kiddies from one family. What these parents are apparently doing is seeking places in three separate schools! Sounds like a daily logistical nightmare to me.
But then I thought—maybe this is not such a bad thing after all, this hardball competition. Parents writing school applications for their children sounds familiar. Up to this point my experience with this has been limited to college applications where parents and their consultants, how shall I put this, “help” their high school seniors with their applications.
So perhaps parents writing pre-school applications for their enthusiastic, sensitive babies is just what the doctor, I mean pediatrician ordered.
My friend said, “You don’t understand, it’s an application that I wrote for my 18-month-old toddler. For nursery school.”
And so it goes in New York City where the competition to be admitted to elite pre-schools is perhaps even fiercer than getting into Harvard. This is the result of an increase in the number of babies being born in Manhattan (interestingly, many more twins and triplets than in previous years) while slots in selective pre-schools has not kept pace (see NY Times story below). There are now 26 percent more children under five in Manhattan than in the year 2000.
Thus the application has become even more high stakes than in the past. Affluent parents are engaging consultants to help them thread their way through the process—from selecting programs to which to apply (including so-called “safe” nursery schools where little Justin is certain to be admitted) to how to psych out what to say on the application essay.
One frustrated parent was quoted as saying, “What do you say about someone who just popped out of the womb?” Well, “enthusiastic, creative, inquisitive . . . . “
And then what do you do if you have triplets--up from 60 born in Manhattan in 1995 to 299 in 2004—since nursery schools, looking to diversify their charges, are loath to admit three kiddies from one family. What these parents are apparently doing is seeking places in three separate schools! Sounds like a daily logistical nightmare to me.
But then I thought—maybe this is not such a bad thing after all, this hardball competition. Parents writing school applications for their children sounds familiar. Up to this point my experience with this has been limited to college applications where parents and their consultants, how shall I put this, “help” their high school seniors with their applications.
So perhaps parents writing pre-school applications for their enthusiastic, sensitive babies is just what the doctor, I mean pediatrician ordered.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
2:56 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home