And Getting the Best Education For Your Children
By Rupert Green
PUBLISHED BY
Seaburn
A division of Seaburn Publishing Group
PO Box 2085
Long Island City, New York 11103
Email: info@seaburn.com
ã 2001 by Rupert Green
All rights reserved including the right to reproduction in any form
ISBN 1-885-778-98-8
Interactive Discussion Questions
Please e-mail your opinion to the following questions at Educateme3@juno.com
4. Do you believe that male babies get more attention in infancy than female babies do?
5. Do mothers give more smiles and facial expressions to girls?
6. Do fathers spend more time with daughters?
7. During toddler-hood, is “no” the most common word your baby hears from you?
8. Since children learn by exploring, do you believe that there will be any positive psychosocial effect if they hear “yes” more than “no?”
9. Do you purchase dolls and other “girls play things” for your daughters, and Lego sets, trucks and Play Station for your sons?
10. Do you believe that giving your daughter the type of toys that you give your son will allow her to later master the math and physics and thus enables her to become an engineer, architect, or computer scientist?
11. If given dolls, will boys develop the sensitivity to become better men, or will their father reject such a move because “he doesn’t play that?”( He sees this as feminizing his son.)
Public Schools As Opposed to Private Schools
For information about public and private schools, contact
http:// www.abacusguide.com and http://www.nycenet.edu/distschwed/
Some of the private schools to which your children can gain scholarships are listed below. They can be found at:
http://www.albertgoliver.com/member.htm
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Brooklyn Friends School The Chapin School The Collegiate School The Dalton School Elizabeth Irwin School Emma Willard School The Fieldston School Friends Seminary Madeira School Westminster School Westtown School |
Milton Academy The Nightingale-Bamford School Northfield Mount Hermon Packer Collegiate Institute Phillips Academy (Andover) Phillips Exeter Academy Riverdale Country Day School St Paul's School The Spence School Stoneleigh-Burnham School Suffield Academy
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Friends Seminary The George School Groton School Horace Mann The Hotchkiss School The Lawrenceville School The Loomis Chaffee School Madeira School Suffield Academy Trevor Day School Trinity School
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The NY Urban League has excellent training program for parents. Contact them at (718) 624-5700 or www.nycslt.org .
Middle / Junior High School – The Critical Link
The 6th grade class in which your child will be placed is determined by their 5th grade score on the citywide reading test. If your child had good grades and performed poorly on this test, the teacher has the prerogative to have your child placed in a good class. This will be done if you are deemed to be a concerned parent, or if your child is a mannerly student. If this is not done and such a child is placed in a class of low achievers, he/she will be lost.
Significant scholastic opportunities begin at the middle school level. Yet, middle schools are the weakest link in the public school system. This is a crucial time and you must be very vigilant, especially if you find that your child’s 6th grade citywide test scores show a significant decline, from those in the 4th and 5th grades. If your child has had consistent grades ranging form the 80s-90s then scored much lower on a citywide 6th grade test, speak to the guidance counselor about having your child retested, if mitigating factors caused his/her poor performance. All tests that your child will take can be viewed at: http://www.nycenet.edu/data/schedule
Fortunately, new technology based magnet-middle schools are being constructed. These magnet schools can be researched on the Internet at http://www.nycenet.edu/distschwed/. Administrators wanting to learn more about real technology programs can contact Professor Nwoke at New York City Technical College.
The School of Cooperative Technical Education, George Westinghouse, Alfred E. Smith, Queens Vocational, Gompers, Staten Island Technical, and Avionics High are premier technical schools. There are also many other vocational schools that offer nursing, welding, carpentry, auto mechanic, and high technology electronics/computer courses. These schools can be found on the Internet at: http://www.nycenet.edu/distschweb/. The NYC Board of Education web site is not a parent friendly one, so you may have to link to the website of the school you are interested in.
If your child in interested in business careers, Murray Bergtraum is a magnet school for such training. Being a magnet school, students from any borough can apply for entrance. Http://mbhs.bergtraum.k12.ny.us/ .
Technology and Special Education. For children placed in special education and genuinely in need of this type of instruction, innovation in technology makes it possible for them to participate in ways that were not possible before. There are computer programs that convert typed text to speech and other devices such as those that enable handicapped individual such as Professor Stephen Hawkins to continue to be one of the most brilliant scientists in the world. Assistive Technology devices are covered by Medicare. Some sites to visit are: http://www.ayitall.com, http://www.franklin.com, http://www.llsys.com, and http://www.edmark.com
Advice: The education department will pay for private tutoring of students deemed to be in need of such instruction. Ask the guidance counselors about it.
Getting Help with Homework
By the time children get to the 7th grade, many parents will not be able to help them with their home work. Even if they can, it may present some problems for the child. In my zoned school, one parent who was a former teacher in her native country–Jamaica–taught her son (an Honors Student,) Mathematics. It then caused a dispute with the math teacher who wanted the work done “his way.” Parents can call their school districts to find out the local Dial-A-Teacher phone number. They will assist children with homework. The proliferation of the Internet has opened a new world of help to students. Sites such as Ask Jeeves, provide answers to questions. Real- time help is available on many sites. Some teachers are aware of available sites so they will provide the address. One such site is http://www.yahooligans.com/.
Invariably, if computers are to have any impact on low-income schools, teachers must be comfortable with them. In a cooperative education program, I teach public school students to repair and upgrade computers. These computers are then donated to public school students who are also trained to use them. The organization responsible is called Computer for Youth (http://www.cfy.org/). If you cannot afford a computer, or you are a teacher who has no computers in your school, contact them.
Advice: