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SoBo’s Take On Park Avenue’s Elite
Text by Sitanshi Talati-Parikh
SCHOOLS
1 Is That Kid Better? Are We Good Enough?
PARK AVE “I fretted as I considered the ever-contracting range of options we faced on the nursery school front…I was on some level increasingly anxious not to lose. Were they any smarter or cuter than my kid? Were their parents any nicer than my husband and I were? I doubted it. […] I was getting the hang of it. Or losing my perspective entirely.”
HERE Where mums are defined by the schools’ definition of ‘good enough’. Where they are judged on the size of their solitaires, residential address and ability to fund the school’s projects. And may fall short despite all that. Where mums fall over themselves trying to hold onto their ‘status’ and ability to ‘win’ the ‘right’ school.
2 Nursery School Auditions
PARK AVE “Before we got our son in anywhere at all, there were applications and parent interviews and child ‘playdates’ at the schools. […] I got down to work writing essays about what made my toddler special, what his strengths and weaknesses were, what kind of learner he was. Sorely tempted to write, ‘I really don’t know yet, since he is two,’ instead I banged my head against the wall until I came up with what I hoped were some good-sport responses. Next came the ‘playdates’, which I grumblingly referred to as ‘auditions’ because it felt more honest. They were generally scheduled during nap time…the schools were basically trying to exclude as many ‘nonsibling’ kids as they could. […] But what could I, or the other mothers, do? The nursery schools had all the power, and many of them, you could tell, believed that the fact we were all there begging to be admitted attested to their excellence. Really though, none of them was so excellent; it was a numbers things. There just weren’t enough schools. […] So I kept going, kept dragging my son to auditions. One day, holding my hand as were were about to enter yet another ‘playroom’ full of kids he didn’t know, he looked up at me and said, ‘Mommy, I can’t do this,’ and I wanted to weep.”
HERE That story where even after the children get into a reputed school, they are put through rigorous ‘interview training’ classes (stepped up during vacations) to be ‘good’ enough or prepped for the ‘better’ school. The interviews are rigorous where a slight misstep will throw the child out of the picture. So a 4-year-old child is required to know the name of the flightless bird of Australia, for instance. The pressure of performance based on rote learning.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5
SoBo’s Take On Park Avenue’s Elite
What do the elite of Mumbai have in common with those of Manhattan? See if you can spot your neighbourhood sophisticate here….
SCHOOLS
1 Is That Kid Better? Are We Good Enough?
PARK AVE “I fretted as I considered the ever-contracting range of options we faced on the nursery school front…I was on some level increasingly anxious not to lose. Were they any smarter or cuter than my kid? Were their parents any nicer than my husband and I were? I doubted it. […] I was getting the hang of it. Or losing my perspective entirely.”
HERE Where mums are defined by the schools’ definition of ‘good enough’. Where they are judged on the size of their solitaires, residential address and ability to fund the school’s projects. And may fall short despite all that. Where mums fall over themselves trying to hold onto their ‘status’ and ability to ‘win’ the ‘right’ school.
2 Nursery School Auditions
PARK AVE “Before we got our son in anywhere at all, there were applications and parent interviews and child ‘playdates’ at the schools. […] I got down to work writing essays about what made my toddler special, what his strengths and weaknesses were, what kind of learner he was. Sorely tempted to write, ‘I really don’t know yet, since he is two,’ instead I banged my head against the wall until I came up with what I hoped were some good-sport responses. Next came the ‘playdates’, which I grumblingly referred to as ‘auditions’ because it felt more honest. They were generally scheduled during nap time…the schools were basically trying to exclude as many ‘nonsibling’ kids as they could. […] But what could I, or the other mothers, do? The nursery schools had all the power, and many of them, you could tell, believed that the fact we were all there begging to be admitted attested to their excellence. Really though, none of them was so excellent; it was a numbers things. There just weren’t enough schools. […] So I kept going, kept dragging my son to auditions. One day, holding my hand as were were about to enter yet another ‘playroom’ full of kids he didn’t know, he looked up at me and said, ‘Mommy, I can’t do this,’ and I wanted to weep.”
HERE That story where even after the children get into a reputed school, they are put through rigorous ‘interview training’ classes (stepped up during vacations) to be ‘good’ enough or prepped for the ‘better’ school. The interviews are rigorous where a slight misstep will throw the child out of the picture. So a 4-year-old child is required to know the name of the flightless bird of Australia, for instance. The pressure of performance based on rote learning.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5