School Days - Golden Rule Days

I love September because it marks the beginning of the year with new clothes for school, untouched notebooks and new text books. But that's just stage 1. This year there is a Stage 2 which is the long twisty road to finding a high school for Kate. We could continue to send her to her excellent school but we also have to send her to college and since I don't think she will thrive at Bob's college in Podunk, USA, we are making some mid course corrections. So here we are as minor but intense players in an annual New York ritual called find the right high school and figure out how to get your child in and forget the other 200,000 kids who want the same 125 places. It totally reminds me of Suzanne Collins' book The Hunger Games.

Got the picture? It's pure Marat Sade plus crowd control. Education is hardly even on the table. It's numbers, metrics, open houses, screening tests and being in District 2! Luckily I have a number of friends who are veterans of these education games and we've had great support and tips all around. We got Kate some tutoring, signed her up for the Critical Test which is part of an endurance spectacle. We will list our favorite schools based on a wish and a prayer and then hope like crazy. We've been to many of the fabled NYC schools and I discovered that Brooklyn Tech which I had no thoughts about is really a good school. Who knew. And my favorite even though I haven't seen it yet is Brooklyn Latin.

Yesterday we visited Baruch High School -- affiliated but not part of Baruch College -- which occupies a brand spanking new building in our neighborhood and then in the evening we went to Bard -- affiliated but not really part of Bard College -- which sits inconviently in the middle of no where. None of these schools have elevators and most people climb up and down the stairs which has become soemthing of a problem for me with my post operation big shoe. By the time I got home last night I was exhausted.

Today it's all about Eleanor Roosvelt which is also district 2.

Lets see if they have elevators...