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Andrew Shapiro  My wife, Nancy and I entered our second grade boys (Max and
Arthur)
into PS3 in the fall of 2008. They had attended
Kindergarten and First Grade in public school in Westport, CT.
Although it was a very rich school with a seemingly unlimited budget it
was a soulless education, without diversity, without respect for
individuality and people’s differences. There was only
perfunctory use of art. Cloning of little robots seemed to be the
school goal.We toured PS 41 and found a city school with the same values and agenda as Westport. We were offered places in 41, but declined 41 and enrolled in PS3. What a great choice! From the first person we met (Raquel) to so many teachers, administrators and parents, we found a learning community at PS3 that fosters diversity, nurtures the arts and promotes learning with smiling faces on our children. We have attended so many wonderful events (music, dance, art, poetry and writing) and volunteered for the Arts Council, the Antiquarian Book Fair, the Auction, the Square Dance and Spring Fling. We hosted one of children’s fall class dinner and both of their classes for a Halloween party. We have chaperoned class trips and I have enjoyed being one of the necessary males to accompany the swimming lesson class. Now, having experienced our school community, I would enthusiastically like to give back by participating in the SLT. The news is that classrooms full of children of parents that made 41 there first choice, will be coming to PS3. They demonstrate an attitude of entitlement and are already disgruntled not attending private school or 41. We must continue our school’s mission as a progressive alternative. I took offense to a recent New York Times article that labeled PS3 a “sister school” to PS41. We are not a “sister school”, but was established as a progressive alternative. In the curriculum issues we need to be true to our roots, protect our progressive legacy and preserve our uniqueness from those who would want to change it to the place they didn’t get into or the private school they no longer can afford. We must be vigilant to protect our school from those who get “stuck” here by default. Besides overcrowding and continuing our arts programs, there are other curriculum issues. The pressure of teaching to the test is a fact of life, but we cannot allow that to replace the valuable lessons that PS3 has taught over the years. We are blessed with out of the box thinkers who see the City of New York and beyond as our classrooms and many of our lessons. I am a graduate of Vassar College, Boston University Law School and Georgetown Law Center. Although I keep my bar license in three states, I last practiced law on a full time basis in 1981. Currently, I own and manage commercial real estate. My wife was born and raised in Greenwich Village. Both of my parents attended NYU, here in the Village. My mother was a New York City school teacher. My Grandfather built (and subsequently lost) an artists studio building on the corner of West 4th and 12th streets that still stands today with his name etched in stone “Hatoff & Hatoff Studio Building”. When you ask your child at the end of the day “How was school today?” and you get the answer “great” and they read and ask good questions, that is a reward unto itself. As William Butler Yeats wrote: “Education is not filling
a bucket,
but lighting a
fire.”
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