What online website should I use to learn about public schools?

By Joyce Szuflita
Inside Schools. Period. We are so lucky to have them. They are a NYC institution. They “get” us. They are nuanced, they are thoughtful, they are looking past the numbers, which can lie (or at least mislead).

Please STOP reading the grades and rankings on Great Schools. Although, feel free to read the blog. And also, please no more Niche or their ilk (they are all you have for Independent Schools, I’m afraid, but not any more accurate or insightful than for public school ratings with even less data). When families ask me, “what is the difference between a ‘9’ and a ‘6’?” I know they are using Great Schools. The answer is, “‘3’.” And yet, these are reputable websites that are doing their best to grade and/or rank schools with data that is crunched by big data people, but when we are talking about real professionals and families in communities that big data doesn’t understand, there are serious blind spots.

I don’t normally have occasion to look at the array of Great Schools grades laid out on the local map, but this week I chanced across one and I spit milk out of my nose. It bore little to no resemblance to the schools that I know. It was wildly cockeyed in both directions. If you are looking to move to the suburbs, you don’t have anything else to go by, and as inaccurate as it is, that is all you have…but in Brooklyn where you have the deep study of the New School for NY City Affairs and the professionalism and insight of education journalists who have studied every school in the City for over two decades - why would you go anywhere else? Because it doesn’t distill school quality to one number or letter? Because it doesn’t put them all in a line? Different people want different things. Different children need different things. Two different institutions can both be “good” AND different. When you try and cram the world into a line, you get a crazy line that is as unfair as it is inaccurate.

I know that I am telling you to turn away from information in a time when there is so little out there for you. That info is not always completely weird and off center. All I am asking is that you don’t make it your first or biggest resource. You should use your own eyeballs (through a virtual tour or open house, please God) in combination with the data and culture interpreted through Inside Schools, with a possible ‘grain of salt’ cross reference with Great Schools. Remember, there are a wide range of thoughtful schools that could serve your child. School (when it is in session) is 6 hours within 24, and 180 days within 365. Your child’s successful outcome may have as much to do with your good nutrition, making sure they get enough sleep at night, your reading to them every night, your modeling good habits, your thoughtful expectations and enrichment, your using big words, your turning your phone off and making eye contact with them, your expressing your own passions and hard work and respect for others, as weighing the difference between a “9” and a “6”.

Good luck, and remember that Inside Schools is an underfunded not-for-profit. In these last hours of the year, please send them a check, as I will.

your placement is not the reward for good work

By Joyce Szuflita
It is hard to really embrace this thought, and even harder to convince your child about it, but there is no other path.
Hard work should ‘pay off’, but there are plenty of times when it doesn’t. There are lots of people who don’t deserve things that get them. Life isn’t fair. If you are expecting a pat on the head and a key to the city for going the extra mile, you will often be disappointed.

The only true thing is that hard work- the satisfaction, knowledge and character that comes from it, is its own reward. The prize is the knowledge that you accomplished something meaningful, that is actively making you a more informed, more skilled, better person. It is almost impossible not to wish for the glittering prize (the admiration, the acknowledgement, the envy), but in the end, it often disappoints.

If you hold out the carrot of a plum placement as reward for a job well done, there is plenty of reason for kids to stop trying at the first disappointment.

Good luck.

By Joyce Szuflita
Well, high school placement is likely to be a couple weeks late. Without confirmation, it seems like notices are probably going out on or around March 18. If you applied through MY SCHOOLS, you will likely be notified through MY SCHOOLS.

Here is the thing. Life is uncertain. You can prepare and calculate and hope. It is hard not to fall in love with one place or another, but you can’t engineer your placement. Your mission is to prepare your child (and yourself, cause you have worked hard for this!) There is no doubt that you will be disappointed for any number of reasons, possibly just because there has been so much effort and angst.

This is what I hope students will consider when they get their placement:

This school is all potential.
It will be what I make of it.
I don’t know those kids, but my new best friend for life is somewhere in that crowd.
My first love is probably in there too.
There will be a teacher that I will never forget in that building.
There will be some uncontrollable laughter.
There will be something that seemed nearly impossible that I will conquer.
I will likely be sorry to leave at the end of it all.

You can focus on what you desire, but you don’t always get it, and you might even be sorry if you did, because you would have missed the wonderful thing that appeared when you least expected it. Go out and find it.

Wordsworth for parents of all graduating students

By Joyce Szuflita
I heard a wonderful interview with Priscilla Gilman on Leonard Lopate's WNYC show yesterday. Her memoir is called "The Anti-Romantic Child" about her son with hyperlexia. It sounds like a terrific book, but I had a driveway moment (while parallel parking) when she read an excerpt from "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth. Yesterday was my daughters' effective last day of high school. It is over. We did a good job; they did a good job. It is time to push them out of the nest with a brave face. So for all of you getting ready to leave the fours, 5th grade, 8th grade or 12th grade...

--That time is past,

And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this

Faint I, nor mourn no murmur; other gifts

Have followed, for such loss, I would believe,

Abundant recompence.

SHSAT is looking for specialists

This is not new news but it seems to surprise a great number of people so I thought I would include the link to the very interesting article from The New York Times from Nov. 2005.

You will do better to play to your strengths on the SHSAT and if you have limited time or test prep funds it may be a significant piece of information for you.

tips from the audition/screened workshop

The Screened/Audition workshop for public high school choice at Brooklyn Tech this week was pretty short and sweet considering the weather and the wealth of subject matter. You can find the great, detailed audition advice as a pdf file under the July event date.

Here is the take away and some answers to interesting questions that I stayed to the bitter end to record:

The interview/audition panel is not trying to trick you. They are truly interested in you and what you have to present and they want to see your best and understand your interest or passion.

This is not American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance. You are auditioning for a conservatory not a production. They want to see technique or potential in anything you do. That means a pretty traditional approach.

• no costumes, props, feather boas, spangles, bare midriffs, ruffles or florals. Anything that distracts from you and your real talent is a turn off. Be modest and simple in your attire, and age appropriate in your prepared piece (no King Lear).

• no R&B, rock or pop tunes when you sing. If you are trying for musical theatre sing only classic Broadway (look to Rogers and Hammerstein, or Lerner and Lowe, etc., not the rock musicals)

• If you are trying for a vocal program, the same advice stands. If you can sing a song in a foreign language convincingly it is great. They are looking for long melodic lines to really hear your voice (rock and popular songs are more about the rhythm and that is not what they want).

• you can audition for different talents (instrumental, dance, art) and if you play more than one instrument you need to check with the school to see if you can audition on more than one.

• If you play a large instrument, bring your mouth piece, sticks, etc., they should have one that you can use (I would double check with the school though)

• instrumentalists: it is important for you to be able to read music. The sight reading will be important. It is not as crucial for a singer, but a plus.

• visual artists: if you do cartoons or graffiti or anime, you may include one example but they want to see how you handle formal elements, not style. Can you draw? handle color? experiment with materials? understand something about composition? If you don't have anything that shows that - start working on some pieces particularly for your portfolio.

• if you have 3D pieces you may include some photographs of them in your portfolio, but they should be clear and it helps if you put in something for scale (a ruler, a hand) and if you have large canvases and they can be rolled it is better to bring the originals than photos of them. 

• your portfolio doesn't need to be expensive, but it needs to protect your work and show that you respect it enough to keep it safe, neat and clean

• they are interested in an artist's process, bring your sketchbook or notebook if you keep one regularly

• take time to experience and talk about your art form. Practice talking about your artwork with someone. Think about the artists in your discipline that you admire and talk about why. Do you go to museums or galleries as an artist? Do you go to dance, or concerts or plays? Practice talking about how you feel about what you see and how it influences you.

• dancers: you may have real proficiency in salsa, African, tap, hip hop or other forms but ultimately you need to have some grounding in ballet and modern. If you don't have experience in the classical forms, you better start now.

• often the auditions overlap. Don't worry - let your guidance counselor know as soon as possible and the schools will accommodate with an alternate date. Do not try and audition at two schools on one day.

• it may be a long day. Bring water and a snack. Get a good night's sleep. Be professional and polite the minute you walk in the door (you never know when an auditioner is taking a break to go to the bathroom or walk around)

• Are the arts schools good academically? These programs all have AP and honors classes. These are not "easy" schools. Students are expected to go the extra mile and excel academically as they would in a regular program.

• take time at the High School Fair to ask how each school weighs the audition (at some schools they give more weight to academics than to the audition). Do they want you to show creativity or traditional technique? First, read each school's detailed audition instructions in the directory and then come with your specific questions to the fair.