After his neighborhood was rezoned, NYC dad Paul Elie had to move the family 100 yards within the same neighborhood–and pay 25% more rent for the new apartment–in order to keep to keep his boys in the same school district that they grew up in.
In the October issue of The Atlantic, he details how this event, coupled with a few other factors, eventually led him to become a homeschooler–a trend that seems to be growing in the nation’s big cities. His boys’ days, he shares, start at home with math and other subject lessons like history and language arts. Then his wife takes education to the streets, “[setting] out into the city for science at the Museum of Natural History, the Bronx Zoo, or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; history at the Queens County Farm Museum or the Wyckoff Farmhouse, in Brooklyn; or art at the Metropolitan Museum.”
Choosing a school (or not!) is a deeply personal matter, but I love the Elies’ approach of taking as much advantage as they can of the free–or at least cheaper–resources that our city has to offer. If nothing else, it’s a good reminder of just how much we have right at our fingertips. As the semester kicks into high gear and everyone gets as busy as ever, we encourage everyone to make like it’s still summer and continue to hit up NYC’s abundance of museums and educational centers with full force. (Need ideas? Check our homepage for our Picks of the Week every Monday.)
And as I’m dreaming about the upcoming weekend–is it really only Tuesday?–I’m thinking Cloud City rooftop installation at the Met before it gets too cold. Where are you getting your extracurricular education next?
–Christine Wei
Associate Editor
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