Last June, I took the subway in NYC, riding the F uptown to Pearson's Corporate Publishing headquarters ... I went with my 9 year old son and two of his neighborhood friends. There, on the corner of Avenue of the Americas and West 52nd or so, we participated in the march with hundreds of other parents, teachers and students in a protest to the insane amount of useless tests our little ones are now subjected to in the New York Public School system... thanks largely to a group in our state mostly comprised of 1.men who themselves have NO kids, or kids who went to private schools with no similar tests, 2. an Educratic bunch (non Education) here in the state who are pushing consistently to make public schools a private venture, and 3. corporate connections (Joel Klein, Mayor Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee, Eva Moskowitz, et al) who are all benefiting tremendously by sending and receiving contracts for testing, test scoring and reporting.

The march and short protest with our children was lovely, all things considered. Our chants included "1, 2, 3, 4 ...Our children are not test scores", "Teaching, NOT testing", and similar phrases. The news media and the NYPD (Police) were there, making for some interesting exchanges along the way.

I have much older kids myself, and because of that, I have actually been a witness to how, in a matter of a few years, education in NYC for public schools has been nearly USURPED by the erroneous concept of "Accountability", and how experienced teachers and good schools are pushed aside, making way for a sort of third world 'charter' system.

I mention this because anyone who has traveled to areas and countries where poverty is rampant and education is a privilege and not a right...anyone who knows that good and free public education should be a right... they will understand from where I speak.

My own children will get to schools they need; we will either be capable of living in areas affluent enough to provide a similarly affluent and good public education, or we will pay for a private school. My children will continue to pass the tests  and do well regardless of little else.. because all through the process of childhood and schools, social life and travels.. they will see and hear from adults and other children and peers about how wide the world, how complex the differences, how intricate the ways people are and learn and see others around them.

NYC/DOE has truly become a place not unlike a deep and dark black hole; preparing kids for essentially little else than testing and filling in bubbles. And, shockingly, it ("Tweed") has become a place where people working are younger and younger, business and finance oriented... and where deeply educated learners and teachers are increasingly shoved aside.

This, now, as a new school term begins for my ten year old son and the million plus other students in the largest public school system in this country, reminds me how very urgently we need as parents and teachers, students and citizens, to continue to voice our displeasure with the City of New York, and with how the Department of Education has become little more than a bastion of privatization contracts and fraternization...    

Parents Speak Out against "Billionaires Boys Club"

Recently, I was asked to contribute to a NYTimes story (havent seen anything in 'print' yet); it was ostensibly about PTA's and school funding here in the city...and I served well, providing the journalist with a number of excellent other 'sources' .. surprisingly not such an easy task, since people are just AFRAID or UNWILLING (sometimes one, sometimes both) to discuss. To parents who mention that they worry their children will be in some way vilified or treated badly because we (parents) talk to the press, I say this: it would be some very (VERY) unwise principal to take any action against any of our students. In fact, opening our mouths, discussing how funding and 'privatizing' of our public schools has affected school positions, arts programs and a myriad of other resources in the schools ... discussing ALOUD, in blogs, at forums,... all that may prove the ONLY way to make things better. In this, the climate of the PRESUMPTION that teachers are mostly a waste of money, in the climate where Bloomberg and the Billionaire's Boys Club (Diane Ravitch, "Death & Life of the Great American School System) have managed to all but convince unsuspecting citizens that the TESTING MADNESS is the best way to use our classroom time.. in this economically squeezed period of time, our students NEED our voices. Principals in NYC Public Schools can essentially do WHATEVER they want, ratings for teachers are (presumably) about 'TEACHING' but they are actually ONLY about TESTING. And the TESTS, well those are designed to the 10's of MILLIONS of dollars spread by the Mayor (Bloomberg) and his DOE/Educrats to friends of those (men). And the idiocy of the questions our littlest learners are subjected to? Well, who will stop the madness if it's NOT the moms, the parents, the guardians, the public citizens of the 99% who actually want our kids to keep LEARNING, (NOT TESTING)... ? just thoughts for the day. I entreat each of us to speak out, and to speak up. Rachel

Reality Check in High Schools in NYC

Rachel Leinweber • 4 minutes ago on Schoolbook.org:

This response is to a discussion about a Stuyvesant student who presumably did some 'research' with a few kids in that school about achievement, and specifically what made a given student maintain a superior drive to succeed?.. Not clear about the details of that 'study', but this was my comment:


If anyone thinks that looking at Stuyvesant (or any of the select few high schools in NYC where only the top 5% of students get into) is an interesting way to look at 'achievement', we have allowed the entire system to go the way that Bloomberg & The Educrats want us to go. Try looking at the majority of kids in urban high schools(UNDERFUNDED, largely minority, largely poor) who actually have to FIGHT to achieve. And in those majority rise up a few fantastic learners, and THEY are the remarkable ones. And the teachers who work and help those few kids in the morass of the more than 50% of the poorly run, poorly administrated high schools in NYC ... they - those teachers who stick it out - are the other heros of that story. Stuyvesant and Harvard are bastions for the very few select, and studying how their achievement for those rarified group of students is about disingenuously 'playing' at presumed 'research'. If this is student led and directed, I hold my criticism for Schoolbook and any of the grown ups promoting the work as significant... and invite people to look at the massive bodies of research (generally ignored by the current NYC/DOE) which shows that a supportive educational and literate friendly familial system is the way for success at schools and beyond. What more do we really need to think about besides how to rescue the nearly 100,000 students in high schools this term who are NOT at Stuy or anywhere equally strong academically, financially or otherwise?

Got $$ ? PTA's and the 10% in NYC

AT NEST+m, G&T Citywide on the Lower East Side, the 'suggested' donation for each family is $1000. Many parents (myself NOT included) mistakenly think that because their child 'scored' a seat at one of the very few G&T available by the NYC/DOE, they (the families) should be happy to foot the bills for whatever the principals want. AT NEST this year, the general fund raising was expanded, when Principal Livanis decided to cut the number of cluster and other teachers, eliminating Dance, Chess and at least one teacher position in the lower grades. The PTA at NEST is a good support for the school community generally, but the idea that she (the Principal) KNOWS that parents can/will fill in to restore services is a controversial topic.
For example, at NEST, where Technology is part of the name (new explorations in science, TECHNOLOGY and math), my son has not had a single Technology focus class since KINDERGARTEN! Until this term, when the PTA got permission and then raised monies for a Technology teacher... isnt that shocking to anyone at all?
Schools which are not eligible for any federal Title I funding (due to rather affluent demographics of the student body) tend to use the PTA's in this manner. And there are certainly some legitimate arguments to be made (we - the parents, can afford it, have our kids in a high performing school, etc etc)... but isnt there a problem with the principals strategically cutting programs that they KNOW the parents/PTA's will cover?
The current way the principals are told to manage their financial pool is an issue. And, if programs cease to exist in schools simply because PTA and Parent Groups dont have the resources, what does that say about the political voices in terms of PUBLIC (tax paid, free) education for the vast majority of our students ??

Blogging again... too much to say about Public Schools in NYC

As a parent, educator, citizen of NYC, as a former public school kid here in NYC, a child of a public school teacher (28+years), and for all the multitude of other roles we all play in this complex and busy city, I say this to those who ask for the reality about public education here and now:

We live in a city where public school is in fact NOT free

1. if we want to have smaller or better staffed classes
2. if we want to have our kids participate REGULARLY in afterschool programs that are NOT JUST a sort of glorified babysitting in the school's cafeteria
3. if we want our kids to be learning about foreign languages in any meaningful or substantive way
4. if we want our kids to be able to get into better schools than 50% of the city's kids get into generally; ie the Specialized Middle and High Schools such as NEST (G&T), Mark Twain (Coney Island Gifted), LaGuardia, Stuyvesant, Tech etc...

In fact, this topic of how much we "pay" into our kids' PTA funds, afterschool programs, trips and 'enrichment activities' is really about how the city has become increasingly a place of the families/kids/students who HAVE enough to support the "GetIntoAGoodSchool&College" habit and those who DO NOT (have enough), and/or about how parents who 1.are not literate, 2.not prepared educationally, socially or economically, 3.struggle with day to day subsistence here in New York ... how these multitudes of parents and family units are left INCREASINGLY out of the entire game .

That leaves the aproximately 10% of each grade, PreK to 12th, who still attend public school, but who could PROBABLY both get into private schools and pay for them, WHO LIKE ME choose to 'stick it out' but who also understand the level of $$ commitment and who can articulate the issues enough to get into the schools we want to attend.

Rachel Leinweber
IPhone : 718 757 5110

Leaving the Nest...AGAIN...

It's been some time, more than a few years, since I last left my kids with a babysitter, or at the school doors..to head off for full time employment. And at this point, I know it's what I want..to leave the madness (literally!) of being the full time mom, wife, cleaner, lunchmaker, laundrydoer,errandrunner, foodmaker,did I mention cleaner-upper?? and head driver and picker-upper behind? It has been some time and I know it is MORE than enough time and it is definitely a good idea to get the heck out of the house and go back to work.

It takes way longer than I would ever have thought; leaving work after so many years in the corporate arena, I remember just feeling elated ... and always carry to this day the acknowledgement that I left that job I had with absolute assurance I was doing THE RIGHT THING. Never looking back, if that can be believed...and just sure that being at home with the kids was absolutely what was what was good and necessary. Working woman dropout, I used to say slyly to my still-working friends, and happy for it too! And then to return so many years later to the idea of working and bringing my now so much more motherly persona back into the 'professional' world: this is going to be good, I think to myself often as I ponder how to pull it off.

MOMMY MADNESS: it is essentially what it really is that is pushing me to this new point. Understanding what many of the mothers in history and still today go through...it's all about the kids, the husband who essentially looks at the mother unit patronizingly...the friends who wonder, "what does she do all day???" MOMMY is MAD... and not really interested in taking it anymore.. Get something somewhere else going on, I am thinking. It's way past time. Get a Job!

And that is what this blog spot is about. Being the mother who has also been the full time worker, mother, wife, child care worker and then more recently, the mother who also went back to graduate school to further 'explore' intellectual and educational opportunities... and how it is and has been to be that multiple personality in a world that neither essentially respects the enormity of the task (of motherhood) and/or accomodates in a crazed city like this one that I both love and despise (hello, NYC !) for how challenging it is to both live, love and parent inside of.