Yu Yang--is the student body predominately African American, does Yu Yang have a non-Chinese track..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The comment about how the info night isn't Chinese parent friendly wasn't idiotic, it was indicative - I had a similarly off putting experience. The comment about the holidays was just an example - no part of the presentation seemed geared toward bilingual families. . . . I'd rather have a free option in the District, but it doesn't sound like YY's lottery situation is ever going to change. No, bilingual parents wouldn't want to weed out all the poor minority children - those with exceptional language learning capabilities and special help from the school (e.g. CDs and DVDs to use at home) surely do fine. Kuang Chi takes some and they seem to thrive in classes in which most of the other kids are Chinese speakers.

Jesus - you're put off because the presentation wasn't geared to your special circumstances? Well, aren't you the self-centered little tiger mom. News flash, honey - the vast majority of families in DC are NOT bilingual chinese, so the presentation was geared towards them. Now, the administration not being able to answer basic questions aboput the school surely is a problem, but that's hardly specific to your situation, is it? Oh, wait, I forgot - EVERYTHING is about you. And as for you'd "rather have a free option in the district" that caters to your specific circumstances - wouldn't we all.

Finally, your condescending comments about "poor minority children" are really revealing. Those "with exceptional language learning capabilities" are welcome; other might detract from the experience, or worse yet, might deprive your kid of what you believe is your right by ancestry to a slot. Good grief. One more time - it's not a magnet school, it's a public charter school. Its mission isn't to cater to pre-existing bilingual students and those fortunate poor kids "with exceptional language learning capabilities" - it's to educate, as best it can, DC children, more than 25% of whom live in poverty. Sorry if that interferes with what you believe is your right to tailor a program to suit your needs, but life's tough that way.

[Anonymous]

The great majority of area Chinese are dialect speakers. Mandarin speakers make up a greater percentage in the NYC area, which attracts a lot of recent immigrants. Mandarin medium schools weren't the norm in most of China until the early 80s, and weren't in HK, Taiwan, Singapore, Macau etc. until the 90s. Only relatively recent immigrants generally speak Mandarin well. Dialect parents like to see structured dialect to Mandarin support. If more Chinese speaking families get involved at YY they'll ask for that type of instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The great majority of area Chinese are dialect speakers. Mandarin speakers make up a greater percentage in the NYC area, which attracts a lot of recent immigrants. Mandarin medium schools weren't the norm in most of China until the early 80s, and weren't in HK, Taiwan, Singapore, Macau etc. until the 90s. Only relatively recent immigrants generally speak Mandarin well. Dialect parents like to see structured dialect to Mandarin support. If more Chinese speaking families get involved at YY they'll ask for that type of instruction.

What part of "this isn't about you" do you not get? IT'S A PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL!!! They're teaching Mandarin to all children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm a current parent of a YY PK student, and can absolutely see what you're talking about re the open house presentation. It seems that the presentations are made by administrators who don't have access to fairly basic information that a prospective parent would want. I've been wondering what I as a newbie parent can do.

In my case, I had questions about how the PK program addressed basic socialization issues (making friends, learning to wipe one's nose, etc.). The admin making the presentation looked at me like I had two heads--she didn't even understand the question, let alone have information on what the program does. Again, I had to go to current parents to get my questions answered.

Really?
Teach your kid how to wipe his/her nose him/herself and shut up. Maybe they were annoyed because you're an annoying person. As for PA and admins "listening" to you---guess what. they don't read dcum because it would be like purposely sticking sharp sticks in their eyes.

Basic socialization is one of the purposes of PK. And there are current YY parents who are reading this who are interested in some of the issues being raised here, and will push for some changes as we're able.

Are you a current parent? How many years do your kids have left in the program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm a current parent of a YY PK student, and can absolutely see what you're talking about re the open house presentation. It seems that the presentations are made by administrators who don't have access to fairly basic information that a prospective parent would want. I've been wondering what I as a newbie parent can do.

In my case, I had questions about how the PK program addressed basic socialization issues (making friends, learning to wipe one's nose, etc.). The admin making the presentation looked at me like I had two heads--she didn't even understand the question, let alone have information on what the program does. Again, I had to go to current parents to get my questions answered.

Really?
Teach your kid how to wipe his/her nose him/herself and shut up. Maybe they were annoyed because you're an annoying person. As for PA and admins "listening" to you---guess what. they don't read dcum because it would be like purposely sticking sharp sticks in their eyes.

Basic socialization is one of the purposes of PK. And there are current YY parents who are reading this who are interested in some of the issues being raised here, and will push for some changes as we're able.

Are you a current parent? How many years do your kids have left in the program?

I am a current parent who has been there since the beginning of the school. I never expected a teacher to teach my kid how to wipe his nose. YY is an immersion school. The focus is both school readiness and language immersion. I'm sure if you read the handbook, talked to your child's teacher, and then maybe met with an administrator if your individual questions still weren't answered, then you'd be fine. Frankly, if you're this unhappy already that you're whining on a public forum that in no way can help answer your questions, you should find another school option.

[Anonymous]

Come on folks, keep the tone civil. I find the observations of Chinese speakers very interesting and helpful. I think that in person the Yu Ying community is very respectful and one of the things that I like about the school is the calm, orderly learning environment. To the current Yu Ying PK parent interested in ways to help--jump right in! Many of the improvements at the school are parent led or parent supported-garden club, fundraising for playground, ideas for field trips, etc., etc. If you go to either the PA or Admin with ideas on how to improve the open house (from a Chinese parent perspective) and present it in a thoughtful, helpful way, it would probably be appreciated. Just my two cents.

[Anonymous]

Yes, please do keep it civil or let this post peter out. Yu Ying is a highly diverse community and so is the community taking an interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm a current parent of a YY PK student, and can absolutely see what you're talking about re the open house presentation. It seems that the presentations are made by administrators who don't have access to fairly basic information that a prospective parent would want. I've been wondering what I as a newbie parent can do.

In my case, I had questions about how the PK program addressed basic socialization issues (making friends, learning to wipe one's nose, etc.). The admin making the presentation looked at me like I had two heads--she didn't even understand the question, let alone have information on what the program does. Again, I had to go to current parents to get my questions answered.

Really?
Teach your kid how to wipe his/her nose him/herself and shut up. Maybe they were annoyed because you're an annoying person. As for PA and admins "listening" to you---guess what. they don't read dcum because it would be like purposely sticking sharp sticks in their eyes.

Basic socialization is one of the purposes of PK. And there are current YY parents who are reading this who are interested in some of the issues being raised here, and will push for some changes as we're able.

Are you a current parent? How many years do your kids have left in the program?

I am a current parent who has been there since the beginning of the school. I never expected a teacher to teach my kid how to wipe his nose. YY is an immersion school. The focus is both school readiness and language immersion. I'm sure if you read the handbook, talked to your child's teacher, and then maybe met with an administrator if your individual questions still weren't answered, then you'd be fine. Frankly, if you're this unhappy already that you're whining on a public forum that in no way can help answer your questions, you should find another school option.

I think you need to work on your reading skills. In response to a complaint about information given out at prospective parent presentations, I said that I agreed that the presentations really need improvement, and gave my own example of a basic question that wasn't adequately answered at a presentation. I found answers in other places and chose to enroll my child. Now that I'm part of the community, I want to do my part to improve the prospective parent presentations, since if I hadn't had acquaintances at the school before enrollment time, there would have been no way for me to learn about an important aspect of any early childhood program.

Since you're still confused, I'll add that YY does indeed look after basic socialization skills--PKers are given tools to prevent them from peeing on themselves (and there's extra clothing on hand when they do), they're counseled not to put sticks in each others' ears (and reprimanded appropriately when they do), etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm a current parent of a YY PK student, and can absolutely see what you're talking about re the open house presentation. It seems that the presentations are made by administrators who don't have access to fairly basic information that a prospective parent would want. I've been wondering what I as a newbie parent can do.

In my case, I had questions about how the PK program addressed basic socialization issues (making friends, learning to wipe one's nose, etc.). The admin making the presentation looked at me like I had two heads--she didn't even understand the question, let alone have information on what the program does. Again, I had to go to current parents to get my questions answered.

Really?
Teach your kid how to wipe his/her nose him/herself and shut up. Maybe they were annoyed because you're an annoying person. As for PA and admins "listening" to you---guess what. they don't read dcum because it would be like purposely sticking sharp sticks in their eyes.

Basic socialization is one of the purposes of PK. And there are current YY parents who are reading this who are interested in some of the issues being raised here, and will push for some changes as we're able.

Are you a current parent? How many years do your kids have left in the program?

I am a current parent who has been there since the beginning of the school. I never expected a teacher to teach my kid how to wipe his nose. YY is an immersion school. The focus is both school readiness and language immersion. I'm sure if you read the handbook, talked to your child's teacher, and then maybe met with an administrator if your individual questions still weren't answered, then you'd be fine. Frankly, if you're this unhappy already that you're whining on a public forum that in no way can help answer your questions, you should find another school option.

I think you need to work on your reading skills. In response to a complaint about information given out at prospective parent presentations, I said that I agreed that the presentations really need improvement, and gave my own example of a basic question that wasn't adequately answered at a presentation. I found answers in other places and chose to enroll my child. Now that I'm part of the community, I want to do my part to improve the prospective parent presentations, since if I hadn't had acquaintances at the school before enrollment time, there would have been no way for me to learn about an important aspect of any early childhood program.

Since you're still confused, I'll add that YY does indeed look after basic socialization skills--PKers are given tools to prevent them from peeing on themselves (and there's extra clothing on hand when they do), they're counseled not to put sticks in each others' ears (and reprimanded appropriately when they do), etc.

Levity--thank you!

[Anonymous]

True story: when I picked my son up after his first day at YY, the first thing he said was: "I didn't even pee on myself!!!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:True story: when I picked my son up after his first day at YY, the first thing he said was: "I didn't even pee on myself!!!"

But did he say it in Mandarin, with the accent only a truly bilingual 4 yo would use? No? Yu Ying is a failure!

[Anonymous]

Yes, LIGHTEN UP folks, though difficult decisions have to be made. Reality bites - YY faces stark choices. The school either continues with the 2 tracks for Mandarin (and probably gets sued), or screens ALL applicants for chinese skills and exceptional abilities (and almost certainly gets sued). Others will disagree, but I suspect that the latter way is the lesser of the evils. It sounds like the PSCSB IS OPEN to pushing to tweak the law to help the immersion schools as a group. Not radically reinvent the law, modify it slightly. If stakeholders can't so much as discuss the issues without getting nasty, progress will be that much more difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True story: when I picked my son up after his first day at YY, the first thing he said was: "I didn't even pee on myself!!!"

But did he say it in Mandarin, with the accent only a truly bilingual 4 yo would use? No? Yu Ying is a failure!

You are so onto something--our children will never succeed at Chinese without peers who can teach them Mandarin slang for common bodily functions...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like the PSCSB IS OPEN to pushing to tweak the law to help the immersion schools as a group. Not radically reinvent the law, modify it slightly.

Curious, what makes you think that?

[Anonymous]

If YY kids go on to do business in China/in Mandarin, they'll find out how strongly the Chinese react to regional accents. If a kid can learn to speak Mandarin with the northern accent the school teaches, s/he will meet with greater acceptance in the professional world than not. Many dialect ABCs, and also non-Chinese, enroll their little kids in Mandarin classes for this reason, particularly in Chinatown NYC and San Fran. Wait til the upper elementary grades and the kid will have a non-northern accent, and it will be recognized every time they open their mouths. Chinese don't tend to find accent issues all that funny because of the high economic stakes involved.