While I was in Block Island, the Brooklyn Paper published this letter to the editor from the headmaster of the Berkeley Carroll School.
To the editor,
I read Smartmom’s recent column on public vs. private schooling (“Public school is best because she’s broke,” June 16), and had this reaction: There are many of us who join Smartmom in believing that having the opportunity to attend a great school should not be so difficult.
I think we would all agree that there just aren’t enough quality choices. With the above in mind, I would encourage Smartmom not to be critical of those kids and parents who elect to attend an independent school.
The independent schools of today are very different than the elitist examples of the past. I know that at Berkeley Carroll, we commit over $3 million a year for financial aid to ensure that we bridge economic classes.
Our students collectively do thousands of hours of community service in Park Slope and in New York City, and our students, even the youngest ones, raised thousands of dollars to help children suffering from AIDS in Africa, children left without school supplies in Louisiana, and others.
Even though we have admission standards, we have students with a range of abilities, but all students share one trait: they are willing to work hard in order to achieve. It is not racist or classist to provide motivated kids with stimulating reading, challenging math, innovative science and exposure to all of the arts.
Yes, as is the case in the public schools, we have families who have summer houses out on Long Island, but we also have families where our school is their number one commitment — and tuition comes before vacations, fancy houses or new cars.
I thank Smartmom for raising this topic and I applaud her efforts to bring a sharper focus to this dilemma. Let’s all keep working to provide kids with the best schools possible.
Robert D. Vitalo, Park Slope
The writer is head of Berkeley Carroll School
Park Slope’s Dirty Little Secret, aside from its rep as a liberal bastion, is that the Slope is all about Class and Elitism. Owners vs. Renters. Private schools vs public. Private sector employment vs. public. Mr. Vitalo, I am sure you are well meaning but you haven’t a clue what goes on in this community and your comments display your apparent naivete. In the Slope, IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
that was supposed to be how “many” parents first choice was actually BC.
Well, I can’t let this one ride. Our son was in Berkely Carroll for 4 years and not only was it a mediocre and uninspired education (unless your goal is for your kid to become an olympic swimmer) for well over $20,000 a year, but this statement by Mr. Vitalo is laughable – “We have students with a range of abilities” – when you put in the real life context of the way the school actually teaches, which is, as one fed-up parent put it to me – “To the middle.” BC caters to kids who have two main criteria – they are middle-of-the-road and unchallenging in terms of learning styles (An interesting statistic to have would be how any parents’ first choice of private schools was Berkeley Carroll), and of course, their parents can afford to put them there. As I said in another posting about this school once, in looking back, our four years at 20 grand would have been better spent on a country house!