Emerson School

This is a review long overdue. 2 years ago my kid started at upper Elementary at Emerson and was assigned to a class with a homeroom teacher who just joined the school. We had to leave the school in the middle of the school year knowing the tuition is non refundable and never regretted the decision. (Parents: Purchase their tuition insurance, in case you find the school is not a good fit.)

Here are the reasons why we left the school for good. Unless you joined at early age, it is very difficult to fit in this school. Many after-school and enrichment programs are highly selective and only accept students with high parent involvement in the program or parent also teaching at the school. No standard grade level curriculum, homeroom teacher has full autonomy in terms of choosing teaching material and curriculum design. The main reason we decided to pull out of the school is the homeroom/lead teacher who is teaching all main subjects including reading, writing, math and social study and whom our kid spent most of the school time with daily is a leftist insanity, political activist and extremely passionate promoting left-wing agenda to immature elementary kids! Instead of teaching the three R's - reading, writing and arithmetic as what the elementary students should be learning, this teacher devoted unlimited class time daily to discuss and brainwash the children with left-wing social justice, race, gender and LGBT issues. Let me give you an example, the only book my kid brought home provided by this teacher for free (paid by our tuition!) is a book called "George" which is a story about a transgender kid. If you want to know more about this book, here are some comments of this book from opposing parents on amazon, quote from one of the parents', "Here are some excerpts, examples of what I mean: ""So, like, do you want to"--he made a gesture with two fingers like a pair of scissors--"go all the way?" George squeezed her legs together. "Maybe someday," she said" "She lifted her skirt to see her underwear, covered in tiny red hearts. She pulled it down, sat, and peed just like a girl..." Can you believe this book was introduced to elementary children and this teacher even encouraged in class discussion??? With only 15 kids/class, this teacher doesn't have time to grade writing homeworks! I am sure there are good teachers at Emerson, but we had no luck meeting one.

This school is definitely not a school for highly gifted students as it claims it is, however we were lucky and the teachers that our daughter had so far were absolutely amazing! She is a gifted child and they did challenge her. Math is a bit weaker than we hoped in a sense that the school does not make enough effort to help the advanced kids make more progress. But this year they have made some positive changes in this respect.

They also do a very good job in matching your child with the appropriate teacher every year. I was also impressed how well each teacher knew my child!

In my opinion, Kindergarten is weak and we felt tempted to leave the school after that, but I am glad we did not, because it gets better every year.

I do not agree with the previous postings. We never donated large amount of money to the school, we are not among those parents. However, we never felt that our child was treated any different because of that. Contrary to what the other two parents said, except for the large donations from some parents (for which frankly, we should all be grateful for), there is no obvious display of wealth. My daughter is in 5th grade and nobody in her grade has a cell phone, which is quite unusual given the fact that about 70% of the parents are either doctors or lawyers. I have friends whose children go to public schools and they already have cell phones and other expensive devices.

This school has a poor academic curriculum compared to the cost of tuition. This is especially apparent for a school that is supposed to be for the academically gifted.
Rather, the emphasis at Emerson is on the ability of the child to belong to a group. A group that neither your child nor yourself will have chosen. The people running the school are not the teachers or the academic and admissions staff, but parents. More specifically, those parents who use their wealth as a shield to anyone doubting their legitimacy to make decisions for the school. Most families that are part of this clique have children with emotional and mental deficiencies.
If you have an intelligent, well-adjusted child this is NOT the school for you. As you are already willing to spend over $17,000 per year for a school for your child, you will quickly understand the urgency to choose your school wisely with a view towards choosing the next one. Many students who have gone on from Emerson to other schools that are for the academically advanced have found themselves overwhelmed because their abilities and academic capabilities are not equivalent with that of their new classmates. In the five years our children were at Emerson, only a quarter of their classmates were academically rounded.
In short the basic education is not provided. Math and English follow the public school model. Two good points for this school are its decent library and good computer lab and art teachers. But it is obviously not enough. If you are searching for a strong education and academic excellence for your child then hire tutors or move away.
It will cost you less in the end as you are also “pressured” if not “expected” to make “gifts” to Emerson of a minimum of $12,000 per year, per child, in addition to the regular tuition. This, you are told, is because the school never has enough money. If you do not donate substantially, your social interactions will be ruined, not to mention the repercussions on your children. Even giving too much will not suffice as the governing clique will then assume that your patrimony is protecting your children so they need to be taught even less than others. In short, the goal of those who run the school is to make sure their average or below average children succeed, and this goal is accomplished by sheer economic manipulation and social domineering.

During the 2013-14 school year, nine teachers have left. The Head of School is also leaving after providing little to no leadership during his tenure. The middle school culture is like the Lord of the Flies. There is NO accountability for poor teachers or poorly behaved kids. The blame is always put on "high maintenance parents" and "high maintenance kids." The mission of the school is to develop the whole child and to serve gifted learners. It is nearly impossible to see that in practice except for a handful of teachers who give everything they have. We would not recommend this school to anyone in its current state.