I live in NYS so I know the disparity that exists between the wealthy and poor public school districts, never mind the much larger gap between the poor public and wealthy privates. NYS communities are already experiencing deep resentment because of the disparity in how our tax dollars are allocated for education. Throwing the educational opportunities wealthy families can afford in the face of the children of the poor, for any reason, without providing them the resources to access those opportunities is offensive.
How does letting poor 10th graders shadow rich private school students for a few classes help them? Did someone assume they didn’t know they were poor or that they could aspire to something better? The University Heights students academic records were nearly halfway completed before they visited the private school. Most were not going to earn any merit awards for high stats, their parents weren’t suddenly going to be able to afford to pay for college any more than they could before the visit, and the chances of winning a full ride Posse Scholarship (about 4% in 2014) weren’t going to increase as a result. There’s nothing the rich students could learn about the poor from this misguided exercise that they couldn’t learn by shadowing the UH students at their school, working in a soup kitchen, or volunteering in the poorer neighborhoods of the Bronx.
It’s telling to me that the private high school teacher “remembers” the day the UH girl (who was so upset during the visit to Fieldston) was awarded a full scholarship to a private college in VT, but says she never went because she “probably just got scared.” She didn’t go to the private college because she was never awarded a scholarship there. However, reinvent history if it makes you feel better. Some people are just clueless.
This whole thing bemuses me. I have a young family member who was “waitlisted” for kindergarten at Fieldston last year. (Made the mistake of not attending the Ethical Culture preschool, no family connection to the school, no famous parents.) Tested into the G&T program in the NY public schools, but with no prep not high enough to get into the uber program on the UWS. Apparently the price one pays for not preparing for K admissions a couple of years in advance, something that outsiders frequently deride in NYC parents. Grandparents would have made sure the tuition was covered.
This child is in a G&T program in District 10. There are two schools with G&T programs in the district. One, highly regarded, has substantial parent fundraising to support arts programs that are cut by the city and so forth, and 46% white kids; the other, 10%. That’s the one she was placed in. She’s the only white girl in her class. They live in Riverdale, although not in the fanciest part.
There are plenty of kids who are locked out of the heaven that is Fieldston. Of course, she comes from a well-to-do, well-educated background, with all of the advantages that entails. They have choices that other people don’t, but just because you can pay the bills and have a gifted child doesn’t mean you can go to Fieldston. It will be interesting to see what happens. They need to live in the city because of their work. They now have a second child. Will they hold out?
One of the aspects in the podcast that I had not really considered before is the impact of being a finalist for something like Posse and then not getting it. That was something the young woman profiled in the podcast indicated was devastating to her. Something like that is hard enough to handle even for a kid with a robust support network; kids who are candidates for Posse and similar are not likely to have that level of support. I don’t know the answer to how would be best to handle something like that, but it did give me food for thought
austinmshari, you and I had dramatically different reactions to the podcast.
For the three students who are extensively profiled in the piece, the effects of that visit were dramatic, and in one case was definitely something that helped. That’s the young woman who graduated from Bates, who is now a teacher. It was that visit that made her realize that she wanted college, that she wanted a place where she could sit on the carpet and have long discussions with her similarly-minded peers. By proxy, the visit could’ve also made a difference to her boyfriend, because he was swept up in her enthusiasm and ended up with the Posse scholarship. Which didn’t work out, for heartbreaking reasons, but still.
And even for Melanie, the young woman, who didn’t get the Middlebury Posse scholarship, it was life-changing. It may yet be life-changing–she now has a paypal donation account so she can take college classes. Might work out for her. Might not. Dunno. It took guts for her to break her silence after all these years, to tell the story of how no, it hadn’t worked out for her, she hadn’t been able to move away from her neighborhood. I’m hoping that she’ll be able to soldier through this time.
Melanie dropped out because she didn’t apply anywhere else. Teachers and fellow students said she was brilliant, that she had insights during a Fieldston class that no one else had. We have no idea why she didn’t apply elsewhere, why no one at either school suggested she apply elsewhere. Posse is a wonderful program, but any student who gets to the final round without being accepted should be able to find another option for college that would cover expenses.
What I reacted most strongly to wasn’t the exchange per se, it was all of the things that my children take for granted that these young people couldn’t rely on. How to ask for help. How you can use the library. How they do deserve success when they’ve worked for it and demonstrated competence. How college admissions for them wasn’t like a reality show where odds were they’d get voted off the island. How they’re not the exception for getting a college degree. How they don’t think they’re sand their parents don’t tell them they’re s.
These aren’t things that are exclusive to expensive private high schools. These are things that should cost almost nothing.
At least one of her teachers at University Heights DID advise her to apply elsewhere – to Harvard – but she didn’t because she didn’t believe the resources available at her school made her a competitive applicant against students who came from schools like Fieldston.
We also know why Melanie didn’t apply elsewhere. She applied for the Posse program (at Middlebury College) and made through several rounds of interviews, but was ultimately rejected. In the interview she said, “There could have been another opportunity (after Middlebury). I just got so frustrated to the point that I didn’t want to look for the opportunity. I was just like, I want this ■■■■ over and done with, because I felt like it wasn’t going to change.” So she graduated from high school early. She’s been working at a grocery store and taking classes at a local college as she can afford them.
[url=http://www.possefoundation.org/quick-facts/#whatareyoulook]Posse[/url] isn’t a merit award for high stats kids. “Posse looks for students who have done well academically, but who may not be considering (or might be missed by) some of the top universities (which often rely more heavily upon traditional admissions measures such as SAT scores).” So not all students who are nominated for Posse will have the stats to get a full ride to another college.
Did any of you think it was odd ACT and SAT scores didn’t come up once? I listened again this morning as I wanted my children to hear and now wonder if they were misleading us about Melanie’s accomplishments in high school. On second listen, the “schooling us on John Locke” also felt a bit contrived.
I remember the podcast. It was devastating. Fieldston kids came off poorly, like they are socially engaged in a rather limited way. This is common amongst well off people. I know a lot of them. The Posse program sounds horrendous. The idea of a poetry slam type competition seems wrong. I wish the top universities could come up with a better program for admissions, like a consortium for secondary school students to be better students and applicants. It is shocking that kids at the colleges don’t have the support needed. I would have thought that once at the college, their peers would have helped them. Overall, a very depressing episode.
Exactly my thoughts. Fieldson admins are wrong, at so many levels! They made it for their own good, to demonstrate wealthy parents the importance of education at Fieldson. IMHO that was the intent and it is served well.
If you want to “shatter stereotypes” - there are so many ways to do it!
You have to take kids to a neutral territory: park, church, recreation place.
You have to come up with some common activity. Something that they can do together. Common project. Making a newspaper. Playing sport (but not against each other). Making some art project. Music. Dance. Together.
Highlight the team spirit. Highlight that members of the opposite group have unique skills that are important for the team. Highlight individual achievements.
It sounded familiar to me too. I think the difference is they have found Melanie and so they updated it. Still, a heartbreaking story.
The Posse angle is a bit of a mystery. I know a girl who got one of those scholarships and she is white, suburban, and upper middle class. They choose students for their DC posse from the well performing suburban public schools. (at least they did a few years ago). Those students have probably had better preparation and will do better in college but it’s a bit misleading. Posse needs to assist the students that are not chosen too. There should be viable options for them that are more local and offer success without the culture shock of being transported out to the prairie or wherever. You don’t want vulnerable kids to be set up for failure, at any stage.
Posse is actually a leadership scholarship. While academics are important because each school ultimately decides who to admit, you would be attending with your “posse” of about 10/14 other students. The group dynamics, the ability to lead and work with others is a very important part of the program
One of the points of the radio show is how unbelievably difficult it is for the inner-city kids, even the very smartest. to succeed at a college where they are surrounded by affluent kids. Kids that do are truly the exception, not the rule and it is a huge waste of potential. Apparently, there is a lot of research going on as to how to reach those kids. Sounds like even if the top schools admit more disadvantaged kids, nothing will change unless there is a much stronger support system at both the HS and college level.