Hinojosa day and some more NYU Child Study Center and Advanced Learning Lab stuff

One of those good translation days-worked through some difficult poems--they seem so simple and then he uses words that one knows but he isn't using them for our time--they are locked in the 1920's. So how to make that happen? And how to not lose his very delicate music in Spanish to English? Talked with Pablo for a while about this tonight. He had some thoughts but essentially this is one I'm going to have to work thought and then depend on advice,

And got some good work in on some new poems. And a new essay on Lorca.

Sadness for the Eugene Lang family--Theresa Lang died the other night--a very good woman married to a great man. Our condolences.

Heard through the grapevine that the NYU Child Study Center is going ahead with ALL for next year and that contrary to what they told the initial group, now there will be a 9th and 10th grade (could it be that at least half of the first group mysteriously stopped coming?). And are they yet in compliance with the DOE (don't think so--be careful if you think your kid will actually get hs credit for attending)? And now they offer scholarships? Boy, we could sure have used those last year when they took our money and gave us nothing. Again,. be careful. They are giving scholarships because they know that you won't get anything from the DOE, so if you have been from other schools, don't count on a cent from the DOE (as the parents this year learned). Ask questions about what happened in the previous year. Ask me why as soon as my son left for another school he began to have a successful academic and social year. Don't let them song and dance you. They did it to us--we have all these documents about the amazing things the program would do in the coming year. Advanced math. Foreign languages. Social excursions with kids from other schools. Whoops.

Ask questions. Don't be satisfied with assurances. Harold is known as having an inflated ego and Glenn is known for being, well, Glenn. You should see the ridiculous e-mails he sent me about my son, who he never of course actually met. I think the word pompous here is very useful (I wish I could take credit but it's a word his current employees have used to describe him--I will protect my sources--the plural matters here). The NYU/ALL people will tell you it's all confidential but that is actually legally untrue. They just say it and think that we parents who want the best for our kids will take their word and will jump at the chance for this. Well, jump, if you must, but swimming out of the muck took us a long time.

We're clean now. At least on the outside. But our kids keeps asking why they did this. And we have to bear the responsibility for having allowed it to go on for him for as long as it did.


Saludos.

Mark