From: NWCS Principal
Date: 4/4/2014 5:55 PM

Happy April! It is great to start seeing kids coming out and playing sports on the somewhat still wet fields … but a little mud is not going to stop those energetic kids … but first save some energy for Chinese School though!

After last week’s email, some of you came up to me and said that you liked the message about the alumni visiting our school and some mentioned how cute the first graduating class students were … did you notice that they were all wearing suits and dresses?

Guess what, another parent, whose children are in the 1st grade and Kindergarten, shared with me that she too attended our school when she was little, in 1976. She remembered the New York Times did an article on our school in June 1977. When she told one of our board members, Francine, who is also an alumni, Francine suggested that she scan the news article and send it to me. THANK YOU, Carolyn and Francine, our two wonderful returning alumns.

I attached the article here: Chinese-Study-Their-Heritage-June-5-1977. It talked about how and why the school started some 45 years ago. At that time, most of the students came from Chinese Speaking families and they conversed in Chinese with their teachers. Times has obviously changed … but one thing did not change, as Carolyn pointed it out … the parents back then also expressed how difficult it was to get their kids’ butt out of beds on Saturday mornings (well, those are my words, the parents in the article were more graceful in expressing their “suffering”). Carolyn said the article resonated with her even more than others because she is still in touch with one of the families quoted in the article. Is that something or what! I am sure I can speak for many of you, hearing stories like these just makes us not only cherish its history, but also makes us appreciate the fact that we, as the parents, are doing the right thing for our kids … Besides the educational aspect of learning Chinese, the article also mentioned the friendships built during the years of spending Saturday mornings together. Just like the parents in the article, my family has met many people in the school and some have become good friends that we know we will keep for a long time to come. Our kids have also made some good friends since they were in Pre-K. My twins called them their buddies who they suffer with together every Saturday. I said “Whatever works, son!! Now go study some more like your suffering buddies are surely doing right now!” Anyway, I hope you will enjoy reading the article as I surely did.

Midterm for some classes tomorrow! Study hard and good luck to all!

Also one correction to the contest date! It is on Saturday 4/26/2014.

See you all tomorrow! Classes started at 9am sharp. Please be on time.

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李宜蓉 Eileen Y. Lee
北威校長 NWCS Principal, 2009-2014
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GO NWCS!!!! Visit www.nwcsny.org
or email LearnChinese@nwcsny.org