I am so damn proud of my kids

School Work

Art2Art Afterschool Program

First, let me tell you about my daughter. This
past summer she got a job at a day camp. They liked her so much when they hired her they gave her three weeks off so she can attend an intensive drawing class at Cooper Union. Below, are the terrible cell phone pictures we took at the art show they threw for her at the end of the program. To the right and left are things she made during the school year.

From Cooper Union Summer Drawing Program

Then there's my son. He continued volunteering at the Prospect Park Zoo, and then he got a real job working for the City Parks Foundation in Hallets Cove.  Yes, I typed in Howlett's Cove instead of Long Island City because he often was in the East River

Thats him, behind the pole. I know it's him because he's wearing the yellow hat I gave him. It's a SpongeBob hat that was swag from the New York City Marathon about 10 years ago

I more than just proud of my kids. I am happy for them. I am excited to them. As they are entering the last year of high school I can definitely say that their education was so much better than mine. They might complain, but their curriculum helped them learn more about the world than mine ever did. Their teachers collaborated on subjects that were current. They were never forced to memorize useless information. They are leaving high school understanding how the world works.

My summer job opportunities were in fast food. Where I learned to hate people. They volunteered at zoos and soup kitchens and learned that helping other people was better than making minimum wage.

When I left Stony Brook after earning my BA, my MSW, half a PhD and having been a full-time employee there I remember saying to myself that I would never send one of my kids there or to any other giant university. But it wound up on top of my son's list of schools because of its marine biology program. It only took the speech from the admissions person to convince me that Stony Brook has changed for the better. I know that if one of my kids go there or to another giant school they can have a much better experience than I did. Not just academically, but socially.

So the economists are saying that for the first time in American history the current generation might not be living as well as the past generation. But my background is in sociology. I can say for certain that my children are going to have a better life than I did......  as long as they avoid Red States