(The author of this guest post wishes to remain anonymous.) The “Fame” school is not “gonna live forever”; that is, not if the current principal has anything to say about it. Since her arrival at LaGuardia High School in September 2019, Principal Yeou-Jey Vasconcelos has been on an anti-academics, anti-merit crusade, despite the alleged “dual… Continue reading Is the ‘Fame’ School Gonna Live Forever? Not Under This Principal!
As the mom of a relatively recent homeschooler, Chalkbeat’s February 17, 2022, post entitled, Home schooling nearly doubled in NYC since pandemic’s start, instantly caught my eye. They reported that: This school year, roughly 14,800 children across the five boroughs have opted to learn outside of school walls, according to internal education department data obtained… Continue reading Everything You Need To Know About Homeschooling in NYC But Didn’t Know Whom To Ask. Your Cheat Sheet Is Here!
The New York City Department of Education defines racially representative schools as “those that enroll between 50 percent and 90 percent black and Hispanic students.” By that definition, the public high school my sons attended, even though it was only 18 percent white, was still not diverse. That’s because it was also 71 percent Asian. … Continue reading Why I REALLY Sent My Daughter to a ‘Diverse’ Public School
You can’t blame The New York Times for lagging behind. They’ve spent so many years arguing for the abolition of the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), the exam that qualifies New York City students for entry into the eight Specialized High Schools believed to be the best, it’s inevitable they’d be a day late… Continue reading Finally! Even the NYT Admits What’s Really Needed To Diversify Specialized High Schools!
When I first planned to write this Olympic-themed post (back in 2020, oops), I was going to talk about two things: Simone Biles’ athletic feats being deliberately underscored due to “a fear that Biles is so good that she might run away with any competition she enters simply by doing a handful of moves that… Continue reading What NYC Schools Can Learn From Simone Biles & Olympic Gymnastics
(This is a guest post by Natasha Cherry-Perez, Senior Associate Director of Community Engagement at Uncommon Schools and super Mom to an outstanding high school student.) In middle school, Ruth Kendall remembered the mathematical expression Pi (3.14) all the way out to 400 digits. She loves numbers so much, the Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School… Continue reading A Brooklyn School Working to Help Students Share Their Own Voices
I started homeschooling myself in November, but before I could begin that endeavor, I had to complete two tedious tasks. Firstly, I had to register for AP exams. Secondly, I had to submit an Individualized Home Instruction Plan and Letter of Intent to the NYC Department of Education. Registering for AP exams took the longest… Continue reading So You Want To Homeschool? How To File the Paperwork You Need & Register for AP Exams, Too!
At the beginning of November, I left 11th grade at Stuyvesant High School, and started homeschooling myself. One of the primary benefits of homeschooling is that it freed me to select my courses of study. Had I stayed at Stuyvesant, this year I would have taken American Literature, Spanish 3, US History, Health, Regents Physics,… Continue reading Exceeding Expectations: How I Chose My Homeschooling Classes
We see a child in a maple tree We’re watching him climb, You and I. You say, “Come down, You’ll hurt yourself!” I say, “Go up You’re touching the sky!” – “Seeing Things” by John Kander and Fred Ebb Those who’ve been reading me regularly might remember that my middle child has been begging to… Continue reading Whatever You Do For Your Child, You’ll Be Wrong: Why I Gave My Son Permission To Drop Out Of High School
Two Mondays ago I began to homeschool myself in lieu of completing my tenure as a Stuyvesant High School student. There are many reasons I did this, including greater educational and temporal freedom, but it is important that I share not only why, but also how I homeschool, so that others may find it easier… Continue reading From Stuyvesant HS to Homeschooling in One Marking Period
