About schooling kids in NYC by George Packer (Togo)

George Packer

The October issue of The Atlantic has a true and fascinating article by George Packer (Togo 1982-83) entitled “When the Culture War Comes for the Kids” with the subtitle of “Caught between a brutal meritocracy and a radical new progressivism, a parent tries to do right by his children while navigating New York City’s schools.”

Having raised a son in the Big Apple, and having experienced the same system that George and his wife are now enduring, I feel their pain.

It all begins this way, Packer writes, “places at the preschool were awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. At the front of the line, parents were lying in sleeping bags. They had spent the night outside.”

And it continues through middle school and high school.

It is no wonder young parents flee Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx for the suburbs.

Read George’s tale of terror of the public and private schools of New York. If you do. And pass. You don’t have to raise your children in New York City.