I received an email a few days ago stating that the Mayor of New York City wanted to meet with some bloggers to discuss NYC’s education issues, and that I was one of them! I was very excited, this was a huge first for me.
I approached the security booth and told them I was a blogger here to meet with the Mayor. I was ushered right in! We do not always get treated this nicely, especially as we are heading in to speak with the top political figure in our city!
There were 2 issues being discussed, Universal Pre-k, and after school programs for middle schoolers. My son will be a middle school student this coming September (I hope!) , and I have been following the on going education battles in this country for along time so I was very interested to hear what was being said.
As my quote states in the NY Daily News:
Mitch Chaitin, who runs gaynycdad.com, said the cause was more important than ever with students facing more rigorous state and federal standards. “The Common Core is so demanding, I think we need universal pre-K to get them there.”
I detest the Common Core program, I think it is a sham, but it may be here to stay for a long time, so for practical reasons we must learn to work with what we have. Adjusting it is a topic for another day and another meeting, and the Mayor said that will be happening. These are long range issues and the conversation has started with some of NYC’s more vocal parents. Parents of private school children, charter school children, and public school children. The Mayor included many diverse groups of parents!
I was honored to have been part of this blogger group and especially wanted to thank Rebecca of Kidzvuz.com who not only arranged this, but also arranged our meeting with Citizen de Blasio last year, when he was the last place candidate. I bring that up to point out that this is a man who made a promise as a candidate for Mayor: to be inclusive. 1 year later, as our new Mayor, he started to make good on that promise by inviting the bloggers to Cit Hall. I am proud to write about promises kept by a politician since it seems we too often read about the promises continually broken by them. But not by this Mayor!
And here is the proof, last years picture with the last place mayoral candidate who we helped become Mayor of NYC:
How exciting! I am a little jealous, though. 🙂
So cool that you got the chance to ‘meet’ him and that he invited bloggers there to cover this and bring in “real” people.
I am glad to see you got invited and he got some diversity of prople. I do hope he listened rather than just spoke like so many do!
That’s great that you got the opportunity to do this. I hope he listens.
Hopefully you will be included in further dialog on the schooling efforts. DeBlasio does seem focused on keeping campaign promises. Charter school issues seem to be heating up for him.
When I was corresponding with Rebecca about setting up KidzVuz accounts for my daughters, I had no idea she was involved in stuff like THIS. Kudos to you, Mitch. They need parents like you who aren’t afraid to speak their mind!
Being involved in discussing childrens education now and moving forward is truly an important cause. How wonderful you got to be a part of it!
Wow what an awesome experience, congrats on being included in the article, too. Its also just great to hear that he’s listening to real parents. Hopefully you guys were really heard.
What a great opportunity for you. That must have been so interesting!
What a cool opportunity for you! I agree with you about Common Core. I think all standardized tests are a sham though.
That’s quite an honor! I never know who you are going to get to meet next! Always surprising us!
Goodness, you look like you should be one of those people. You as a mayor, I think it’s in the bag. Think about that for the next election.
This must have been a read head rusher to get to get to share your views on education with the mayor of NYC. It is very important for parents (and you as a blogger) to share your views and express concerns about education for the good of the children.