Anonymous wrote:I am the one with the patience to get the person telling me I am racist, lack humility and nickle dime my details to get them to remember a very well loved English class.
I am that parent — the one who cares enough about books and the girls themselves to not just accept what the school tells me, who complains about taking out books by Great Black authors and foundational texts of Civilization. If you want this conversation, don’t expect to have it with parents at brearley. They care too much about keeping up with the other parents, too much about not putting a toe over the line, to making sure their kid is in the right enrichment class or invited to the party to sit around reading a book. Those that aren’t are too scared of the school to have this conversation where someone might hear it.

I am leaving because I am so unhappy with the way they are teaching literature and so tired of trying to fight for the kind education I thought I was getting. I would have this conversation all day every day if I at all thought it wouldn’t end with me being screamed at or my kid being picked on for not falling into line.

If they knew I was having this conversation, daring to besmirch its reputation, they would expel my family. They wrote the contacts so they can do it. They have done it to elementary school students families whose parents dared to say such things in parent meetings. Yes, this type of rhetoric gets you flagged. Part of the reason we won’t be revealing to my daughter’s so called friends is because we know she will be bullied for not “being smart enough” and not as good as them. These are her friends. They are spoiled, overindulged not as bright as they have been told they are ill-informed not very nice girls but also the best she could do. Years and years of watching these once bright little girls — ugh, spare yourself.

I would like to send my kid to the Brearley you have in your head (I once had it, too). I’ll let you know if I find it. One place it is not is on 83rd and East End.

Anonymous wrote:There is no perfect school. There are some that teach better material, have better teachers who have been there for decades, don’t suddenly push out long term employees and don’t chase every newfangled trend, notice that their math whizzes have slowed down because they can’t do arithmetic in their head, don’t overload the children with busywork at a stupidly young age and also don’t punish children if their parents complain. If you’re going to load kids down with so much work they don’t have time to read on their own, they should get something out of it.


quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to be able say you send your daughter to Brearley, send her to Brearley. If you want her to be able to critically think or know her multiplication tables, maybe have a long, hard think about which is more important because right now it’s a choice.

(it’s not en vogue to teach math in ways we know works, it’s why everyone does Russian or Kumon because those ways actually do work. i figured out my kid did math facts on a computer which is why she didn’t reach fluency, i looked into and supplemented it on my own. all that homework, all those tutoring hours to fill out worksheets about how you feel about your friends rather than learning to do arithmetic in their head. no wonder they are cranky).

So which is the school that you’re moving your child to that does everything the traditional way? I’m curious because all the private schools do the same thing. Brearley at least does Singapore Math, which is more traditional than Bridges and the like.