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Declining educational standards and finding different paths
I went to New York City public schools when I was a child. This meant I actually got a great education, on a par with some of the best private schools in the country, because I went to Stuyvesant High School.
Prior to that, however, I had several tough teachers that pushed their students. They were able to do this because most of their students were the children of immigrants.
If a teacher sent a child home with a note reprimanding bad behavior, the immigrant parents would be more likely to punish the child.
This did not mean the parents couldn’t be fiercely protective — when a girl pulled a knife on me in 2nd grade, my mother went down to the school and read them the riot act and had the girl transfered.
Mom and Dad valued education, and therefore so did I.
When it was time to go to high school, I entered the 10th grade at Stuyvesant. I had already skipped ahead a grade through another NYC program — I did grades 7–9 in 2 years, not 3. All the other students in that particular class did that. For those of us who went on to the elite public high schools — Stuy, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Tech — the schools made accomodation.
