My Short Experience with the NYC Education System

A great need with great problems

I’ve always had some thoughts here and there about our education system, mostly from my own perspective of course. In my life, from what I can remember, I’ve been to public school for the first two years of my education, then private for 5, and starting from middle school on public education in NYC. When I was younger and in middle school and high school, you don’t really sit around and ponder the school system that you’re actually in. You’re just a kid and you just do as you’re told.

For elementary school I lived in Jersey City, NJ. It can be a pretty rough area and the public schools are horrible. If any parent can do anything about it, they’ll get their kids into one of the surrounding private schools, which was what happened to me. Even in high school when I went back to visit some friends and I walked to his house, he was surprised and told me I should have just asked my parents to drive me because even the short 20 minute walk was dangerous for a teenager. Growing up during those years, you would hear about the local gangs, and some shootings on West Side Ave, which was a couple of blocks from my house, but as a kid, I guess you can be sheltered. I have no deep thoughts about it because I didn’t think about it at the time. I must say that I was pretty lucky to have gone to that private school when many other kids went to the local elementary schools that were failing. Of course the local demographics should be looked at. From what I can remember most of the area was made up of hispanics, blacks, and southeast asians. It was a lower to middle class society and most of the adults worked far away from the area. Parents were also rarely home or came home late and had to send their kids to other families after school or other things. This was what happened to myself and my friends. Unless you had family at home, you basically went to a friends house until your parent came to pick you up. I think this is still true not just back in Jersey City but also in many cities around the US.

I moved to NYC after elementary school and started middle school in the local area. It was my zoned middle school and we moved there because from Asian parent rumors the local high school was decent and you had to live there to attend it. Well, we moved and the high school was not all that it was talked up to be and actually got worse because they closed down some other high schools that were failing and transferred a bunch of the kids over. So it became overcrowded with the sudden overflow.

As for middle school, it was only about a 20 minute walk, but my first impression of it was that it was a local jail! This was because of the barbed wire fences and the barred windows and the whole building just looked down right depressing. They had one super smart class and two smart classes and the rest were regular. My parents didn’t even know about this but praise God they brought my old report cards from elementary school. They placed me in one of the smart classes and I basically spent both my 7th and 8th grades in this class.

This is pretty interesting because since I’ve attended this school, and hearing from my friends in the other classes, the teachers that we got were definitely a lot better and held us to much higher standards and pushed us in ways that the other teachers did not. I still remember what one teacher told us.

I don’t give praise because I demand everyone to perform at  my standards.

Strict teacher, but she was a good one. I must say that the teachers were definitely a great part of my experience at the school even though the kids were roudy and there were fights everywhere. I still remember the best teachers who made the classes interesting.

So the question is then:

What happens to the rest of the kids in the school who weren’t in the “smart” classes?

Does no one care about them? Hopefully not. I believe that for many of them, if their parents had the money, they were sent to private high schools. If not, and the kids went to the local high schools, if the parents had money they would send them to prep schools. If you didn’t have those options it wasn’t very bright.

I went to Stuyvesant High School, which was a public school in NYC that you had to test into. It’s arguably one of the best in the nation and possibly the best in NYC. I actually might not have even gone there if it wasn’t for my parents friends who told them about the test you had to take and how you have to study for it. So my parents sent me to prep schools to start studying. If it wasn’t for that I might not have made it into the school! So praise God for that! I probably wouldn’t have studied on my own and my middle school definitely didn’t prepare you for the test and barely mentioned it at all. Most of the kids were probably going to the local middle school anyways.

So how did I get into Stuy? God’s grace in giving me a decent brain, great parents who cared about my education and had the money to help me achieve it, and some elbow grease. My circumstances definitely helped me and there’s no denying that. Many many students in NYC don’t have these circumstances and miss out on these opportunities. And even that, I got into Cornell with mad extra help from prep academies.

In going to Stuy we definitely had some of the best facilities, programs, and teachers! It was a blessing to be there and not many other schools give those opportunities to their students. A lot of students, though with the same mental and intellectual possibilities were left out and left to mediocre staff and facilities and with a low expectation for their futures. In no way are all high schools like that in NYC but it’s not a pretty picture at all. A lot of people saw no need in their education and simply gave it up.

What I’m trying to say is that I’m really blessed by God and the problem is great. I’m not saying I have the solution or anything near that. I can only understand a tiny bit because I’ve been in it and can only imagine what it is like for many others.

In another post I think I’ll talk about my thoughts about other factors that make this problem even more complicated.

But even with so many problems, I think that we should not give up and support those who are fighting and do our best to help in the ways that we can! 😀