Posted on 07/20/2014 4:45:54 AM PDT by BlueStateRightist
In 2004, 7-year-old Ting Shi arrived in New York from China, speaking almost no English. For two years, he shared a bedroom in a Chinatown apartment with his grandparents — a cook and a factory worker — and a young cousin, while his parents put in 12-hour days at a small laundromat they had purchased on the Upper East Side.
Ting mastered English and eventually set his sights on getting into Stuyvesant High School, the crown jewel of New York City’s eight “specialized high schools.”
When he was in sixth grade, he took the subway downtown from his parents’ small apartment to the bustling high school to pick up prep books for its eighth-grade entrance exam. He prepared for the test over the next two years, working through the prep books and taking classes at one of the city’s free tutoring programs. His acceptance into Stuyvesant prompted a day of celebration at the laundromat — an immigrant family’s dream beginning to come true.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
What makes you think that they aren't homeschooling now? ( afterschooling)
My anecdotal observation:
Those Spanish speaking immigrant families who afterschool their kids have academically successful children. Those who don't, have kids that are semi-literate and innumerate.
The **middle class** Anglo parents of the children who are afterschool have academically successful kids. Those who don't, have kids that are semi-literate and innumerate.
My conclusion:
Not much is learned in a government brick and mortar school. Of course, studies have never been done to determine where learning actually happens ( home or schools) and who is doing the teaching ( parent, the child himself, or a institutional teacher).
How did I come to this conclusion:
My husband and I were asked to join the local Spanish speaking congregation of our denomination. We both speak Spanish. We have been there 6 years. Our first job was to start a cub scout program for the Spanish speaking children. Three years later this troop was combined with an Anglo troop. We now teach each week in the children's Sunday School that is a combination of both Anglo and Latino kids.
And....Having know several thousand families and their children as a health provider in my clinic.
Think about this! We spent up to $25,000/kid/ year and no one has ever thought to study whether or not children actually learn anything in these brick and mortar government schools.
My response:
You **will** homeschool whether or not your child is institutionalized for his schooling or not. You will if you have any hope of having a child who can read, do basic math, be a self-learner, and excel academically. You will do **everything** my husband and I did as homeschooling parents. **Everything**!
Democrats (Marxists) hate merit-based anything. Objective measures must be racist.
Dems and GOPe hate anyone who won’t tolerate and vote for a corrupt government.
You’re right about De Blasio!
And no, I imagine Brooklyn isn’t going back to what it was before the ‘60s. But even Bed-Stuy is fast gentrifying right now. I think Brownsville may be the last outpost to gentrify, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s started there, too.
Oh, and no car needed for lots of areas in Brooklyn now, and still some very nice housing stock to be brought back—though a lot of the original features need to be replaced.
Again, you’re taking the English language and your level of education for granted. Also, the ability to have someone home for the day for the kids. I suspect you don’t quite realize how extreme some of these immigrant family situations are.
Oh, and I agree about even uneducated, non-English-speaking parents being able to find resources and after-hours study for their children. That’s a big part of their success.
Many upper-middle-class parents have smart enough kids with ‘good enough’ schools in the ‘burbs and wherever, however, so they can succeed without parental involvement.
Speak for yourself. I’m white trash and if I ever have a kid that’s EXACTLY what I want for them, so they can have the opportunities in life everyone told me were “for others”.
The phrase used in medical school admissions is “Over-represented minority” Therefore, Asians must have higher GPAs and higher MCAT’s than whites - and outstandingly higher scores than blacks and hispanics, just to get an interview.
Wow. I have never, ever thought of it that way. I think u brought up a great point. Thanks for sharing that very different thought.
The real punishment is getting accepted. These schools are for training future worker bees to work long hours their whole life. It's not for everyone.
My husband and I have been working with the poorest of the poorest immigrants in the U.S. for 6 years.
Those families that afterschool their kids learn. Those that don’t, don’t learn. This is true for both immigrant and Anglo kids.
The immigrant families who afterschool look for and find support among family, friends, and neighbors even when they are illiterate (even in their own language) themselves.
Blue Ink, you have a valid point that I not considered before.
In all the families that I have dealt with over 30 years of a career, and as a volunteer for our church, I personally, have never seen a child excel academically, or even learned to read fluently and mastered fractions and decimals, who has not had a parent who afterschools. This is merely my anecdotal observation.
I have know **adults** who, having done very poorly in K-12 schooling, have ( as mature adults) excelled academically even going on to attend one of the highly competitive health professional schools ( medicine and dentistry).
bump
Really smart kids don’t need the after-school stuff.
But there’s a big difference between after-school enrichment and full homeschooling.
None in my immediate family needed it. That after-school attention is needed for reading or fractions is really just a byproduct of the public school system’s intentionally ineffective pedagogy.
But many, many kids learn to red on their own, without regular, let alone additional, schooling.
*read*
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