For me, one of the motivating factors of urban life is my long-standing belief that if the middle class leaves the city, the city will die and the 'burbs around it will as well.
Anyway, I was having this discussion about wanting Lydia to go to school in the city, if at all possible. There was a story last month in the paper about the 38% graduation rate at Albany High School. (A later story noted a reporting error on the part of the school, so that the number was really a still dismal 53%.) Her elementary school is brand new. The middle school is problematic, though I don't know how it'll be seven years from now, and I indicated that, by the time she's ready for that level, perhaps we'd put her in private school, or even home school her, but that abandoning the city was not my desire. To which someone noted, "Do you want to sacrifice your daughter for an ideal?"
You have no idea how much this ticked me off.
I never criticize those people who move out of the city to do what they think is best. But I don't want to be criticized for staying and trying to make things better. I noted that suburban schools are not bereft of problems; note the location of many of the mass school shootings.
Anyway, this article, which eventually be at a different address in the Metroland archives, best expresses my love for the city.
ROG
Demographics of cigarette smoking
20 hours ago
1 comment:
Hey Roger,
I'm with you, as a native New Yawka, Albany is about as suburban as I can get. We have grass in places that aren't parks, a lot of folks live in houses rather than apartment buildings. Heck, the members of my family who never visit here, think of Albany as "the country"!
The Albany public schools have their share of challenges, but, as somebody intimately involved,I'll tell you that public schools were the right choice for Sierra. She's doing great in school on all levels. Yes, I have concerns about what middle school will be like (now only 4 years away --time is flying way too quickly for me), but I know folks who have their kids in the middle schools, and I'm not hearing complaints -- a good sign. Plus, I've seen work being with kids on the middle school level at Livingston and it's exciting.
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