private school interviews

You should join Park Slope Parents group on Yahoo. They have lots of information on this topic.

It's Ridiculous

That sounds stressful. I loved my Montessori experience, and I wonder if I had to be interviewed!

Just don't take your kid for anesthetized dental surgery beforehand and I'm sure you'll be okay.

Or wait. On second thought, who knows.

Not so ridiculous, actually. Just practical and necessary.

Consider that these schools get somewhere between 300 and 500 applications every year for just 20 or so spots.

If you think about it, these interviews may represent one of the most organized and fair methods realistically possible (at those volumes, to be sure...) of getting to meet each applicant and their parents and take any notes that will help them remember and consider each child from among the pool of the 300-500 children applying for those limited few spots.

And they aren't simply imposing some make-or-break, on-the-spot IQ litmus test during these interviews and play-based assessments. They are more likely just getting whatever limited sample they can of personality, interests, play styles, family environment and whatever they can reasonably note among perhaps a zillion other elements that some admissions person might consider important to the process of assembling a well-rounded overall class balance of various personality and family types, backgrounds, needs etc.

I'm fairly certain the admissions folks are just doing their best to get some sense of each individual applicant in dealing with a huge volume where this information might otherwise be utterly lost or slipped through the cracks in the absence of meeting personally with each applicant and their parents.

I'm also fairly certain that people would consider the alternative utterly undesirable -- that of judging applicants only by what's on paper, without providing opportunity to meet them in person to fill in more individual detail where possible.

No?

My main concern about such a process is who they weed out. I work with children who are learning disabled and I teach them that they have endless opportunities and limitless potentials. I teach this because it is true. But would children with special needs be weeded out? If so, then folks like Albert Einstein and James Earl Jones would not make the cut. In addition, I believe that tolerance and understanding can be taught and one way to do so is by being around a wide range of people. I would hope that any interview process would appreciate this. I am not talking about affirmative action or quotas, I am talking about tolerance for those who have strengths outside of an IQ score. I work in the schools and I know that the students who are bright, who need little help and who sit quietly are usually the teacher’s favorites. While I understand why, potential comes from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.

Jeff.

Would you believe that I have never seen the picture you posted? It made my day though!

done.


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***edited to add:

Now available in applepants nano size
(in case the above was too beeeeg)


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