Don't Leave Any Evidence!

You would think it would be easier to get your child into an elementary or primary school than a prep or high school, right? Not exactly. Depending on where you live, demand for places in elementary schools may be greater than the supply. The other issue frequently encountered is the style of teaching. With all of these things and more in mind, let's explore what's involved in getting your child into private elementary school.

Supply and demand

Places for the best elementary schools are always going to be in demand. What do I mean by best schools? Mostly 'best' is a subjective description because there are no rankins of private schools available. Much of a school's reputation rests on things like its campus and facilities as well as the quality of the curriculum and teaching. It is amazing how word gets around about such things but it does.

If you live in cities like New York, Boston or Washington, you literally will need to put your child's name on the list shortly after birth in order to even get an interview at some of the most sought after schools. Well, I am exaggerating a tad. Perhaps not that soon, but don't delay calling the schools and finding out their admissions procedures. Do it well in advance. Two years ahead of time is not too early.

Determine the kind of school you want

This part of the process is the toughest. It is also probably the most important. It

Two television series about private schools have received a certain amount of buzz recently. Gossip Girl airs on CW. NYC Prep is on Bravo.

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl is based on the novels of Cecily von Ziegesar. Ms. von Ziegsar herself is a graduate of Nightingale-Bamford, a Manhattan girls' school. The Gossip Girl series made it to the best-seller lists in 2002. It chronicles the lives and exploits of the wealthy teens attending The Constance Billard School for Girls. Gossip Girl premiered on CW in 2007.

What's to Like

The cinematography is fabulous. You will have plenty of New York City vistas, shops, and restaurants, as well as those incredible Park Avenue apartments to soak up. HDTV makes it a breathtaking experience without a doubt.

The fact that show really does not depict what actually goes on in a fine old Manhattan girls' school. That's a good thing. Because we can only imagine what those poor teachers and administrators have to deal with on a daily basis. New York is a vibrant, exciting city, but it can be terribly rough and 'in your face.' It takes a very tough teacher to face some of those parents and children in a conference room discussing little Rebecca's failing grade in calculus, that's for sure.

The clothes. No American city does clothes better than New York. And these kids know how to wear those clothes. And where to wear them. Fashionistas will find much to

Competitive employment markets mean that you must make the best possible impression at every step of the employment process. All it takes is a couple of common mistakes to quickly move your employment application to the bottom of the pile. You may think that yours is the only application for that math teacher position at Shady Grove Country Day School. Unfortunately, in these very tough economic times, your application will be one of the dozens of applications - perhaps hundreds - for that coveted teaching job. That's why it is so important to make sure that somebody reviews your application, and places it on the short stack of applications marked "Interview".

Put yourself in the place of the person who will be screening job applications. You understand how your students' minds work. Use the same approach here. Think about how an administrator determines who should get interviewed. She has advertised the position in all the usual places. Every business day she receives dozens of envelopes from applicants. Why should your application go on the stack of applications marked "Interview" instead of the one marked "reject"? Because when she scans your application, she sees most of what she is looking for. Remember: she's a very busy person. A lot is riding on her choosing the best candidate for the position which she has to fill.

Depending on how hands-on a person she is, she may delegate the initial scanning process to an assistant. Assistants can be very diligent and

These titles are books that private school teachers and administrators have shared with each other on various lists and groups. One or two are quick reads. Most are pretty meaty. They all deserve a place in your collection. Parents need to read many of these books in order to understand what really goes on in the classroom.

Adios, Barbie: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity (Live Girls)
By Ophira Edut (Editor), Rebecca Walker ISBN: 1580050166 "In more than 20 candid and humorous essays, a diverse group of women explore how they have chosen to ignore, subvert, or redefine the standard of beauty. These women break down modern culture's feminine ideal and reinvent it for themselves."

After Long Silence
By Helen Fremont. ISBN: 0385333706 "In her mid-30s Helen Fremont discovered that, although she had been raised in the Midwest as a Catholic, she was, in fact, the daughter of Polish Jews whose families had been exterminated in the Holocaust."

The Age of American Unreason
By Susan Jacoby ISBN: 9780375423741 "A scathing, witty indictment of American modern-day culture examines the current disdain for logic and evidence fostered by the mass media, religious fundamentalism, poor public education, a lack of fair-minded intellectuals, and a lazy, credulous public, condemning our addiction to infotainment, from TV to the Web, and assessing its repercussions for the country as a whole."

A Separate Peace
by John Knowles ISBN: 0743253973
"At a New England boarding school during World War II, a group of boys discovers the depths of human