rat race

I was in BN Saturday and just browsing through the books on one of the fiction tables, reading the backs. I typically don't buy books at BN because they're never on sale (speaking of which - when did books get so expensive??)...but one of the summaries caught my attention:

"When turbocharged Park Avenue mom find that she's been downsized from her platinum-card corporate job and her marriage, she swiftly realizes that she's going to need a whole new way to support herself and her two private-school daughters. So she dreams up a new business - helping upscale New Yorkers get their little darlings into the most exclusive kindergartens in the city. What begins as one woman's bid to earn a living becomes an everywoman's tale of midlife reinvention and unexpected romance, set in a looking-glass world where even tots have resumes."

As opposed I am of paying $14 for a paperback book...I just had to get it. It's like someone wrote a book about my life. Well, without the midlife crisis, without the kids, without the romance...hrmm OK fine. Someone just wrote a story about the rat race that is the NY education system. But for all the sarcasm in it...it's so true.

Rich Manhattan people are crazy. The tuition for these private schools that start from kindergarten are comparable to what people pay for college. Imagine paying upwards of $25,000 a year, per kid, for 13 years. Forget sponsoring a child, you could sponsor a small third-world country.

In my experience tutoring, I've met all sorts of families.

"He's in his room, you can take the elevator up to the 5th floor" - meaning, they have a gorgeous elevator INSIDE their gorgeous 6 story brownstone. Each kid has their own floor. His room is bigger than my entire apartment. And he's 13.

A kid bursting into tears and wailing "you mean I lost my VERY FIRST MOLAR and I'm NOT GOING TO GET A PRESENT???" (followed by more wailing, which instantly stopped when the mother acquiesed and said she would get a present - think Dudley from HP).

Overall, I really like my students, though some of them just astound me sometimes. Like tonight, I met with a new student, who basically needs firefighting miracle work...it's 3 weeks to the end of the term and he was completely lost. I got the suspicion that he wanted me to just do his work for him.

Seriously though...it's a rat race. And if you don't have your kid in a crazy private school with crazy private tutors...it's like you're already steps behind. Crazy...