The bottom line is that nowadays parental pressure has virtually forced the hands of our educators in large cities to pull in the gangplank of the teivah when ‘average’ kids apply. Why? Because accepting ‘average’ kids is the kiss of death for many schools in the eyes of the ‘customers’; parents of prospective children (that’s you). The caring principals who were once accepting and tolerant regarding admissions policies have had their schools relegated to second-or-third tier status by parents (that’s you, again) who now shun their mosdos. Other school heads and board members who watched this horror show of a school’s decline due-to-word-of-mouth unfold learn the ‘new math’ rather quickly. The equation is quite simple and brutal. More children in these larger cities, b’eh, means more schools in the same geographic area. More schools mean more competition. And which parent wouldn’t turn over heaven and earth to get their child accepted in the ‘best’ schools?Read the whole thing... as usual. I've long felt that my elementary school (the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland) was an excellent school, though it took me until around high school to understand that. Not only was it a very wide mix of kids from different backgrounds, the kids were on a variety of levels - and while there are sometimes drawbacks to that, the HAC did an okay job (and now does a much better job) of catering to students who would gain from a higher-level curriculum. Meanwhile, other schools fall all over themselves to try to be exclusive... and their students don't come out anywhere near as well. The "best" school thing? Most of the time - it's all hype. (Heck, even among the Ivys for college it has been proven to be a lot more hype and dependent on the individual students than the schools themselves.)
It's time for schools to focus on education and teaching middos (and knocking down tuition costs) and stop worrying about reputation (like this post by Harry Maryles). They - and more importantly, the students - would be a lot better off.
With a former principal's grandson reading this, you'd better say good things about the school :)
ReplyDelete? Which one!?
ReplyDeleteThe truth is you don't need so many schools. Seems like in places like New York there's a school on every block, right next to the shul and the pizza place.
ReplyDeleteHow about fewer, more inclusive schools, pooling of resources, and offering different levels of teaching based on student aptitude and need?
I went to Dov Revel, and in "my day" we had three tiers for every grade, and I am proud to say that I spent all 8 years there in the "B" class (despite repeated attempts by pricipals to move me up--I wouldn't leave my friends).
But I think all of us who went there were served at our own levels.
Achdus people, achdus!
Now wait just a minute!
ReplyDeleteThese are orthodox schools that we are talking about.
You can take your "logic" and your "reason" and just walk right out of here dear sir. I will have no more of this type of talk, this...this..."sense" and "responsiblity". I'll not have it I tell you, not one more minute of it!!
-->? Which one!?
ReplyDeleteor at least Hebrew or English.