Back at School, New York Students Embrace Fresh Start

School is officially in session for all of the 1.1 million New York City public school students, and a mix of first day jitters was palpable among students Thursday.
Back at School, New York Students Embrace Fresh Start
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott with first-grade children from the Young Scholar’s Academy for Discovery and Exploration school in Brooklyn, Sept. 6. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)
Kristen Meriwether
9/6/2012
Updated:
9/29/2015
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/20120906-School1-IMG_0369-Amal+Chen.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-289295" title="20120906-School1-IMG_0369-Amal+Chen" src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/20120906-School1-IMG_0369-Amal+Chen-636x450.jpg" alt="Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott with first-grade children" width="590" height="418"/></a>
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott with first-grade children

NEW YORK—School is officially in session for all of the 1.1 million New York City public school students, and a mix of first day jitters was palpable among students Thursday. City officials fanned throughout the city, offering encouraging visits to schools and classrooms, adding to the excitement.

“I was very excited to come to school because I missed my friends,” 10-year-old Emily said at Young Scholars’ Academy for Discovery and Exploration in Brooklyn.

Students at New Settlement Community Campus in the Bronx got a visit from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to start off their year.

As Bloomberg and Walcott walked into the school building with an entourage in tow, parents snapped photos and students looked on. Michael Bracero, who started seventh grade Thursday said it was “cool” that the mayor was visiting his school.

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/20120906-School3-IMG_0523-Amal+Chen.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-289300" title="20120906-School3-IMG_0523-Amal+Chen" src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/20120906-School3-IMG_0523-Amal+Chen-659x450.jpg" alt="Students from the Young Scholar's Academy for Discovery and Exploration school in Brooklyn, Sept. 6" width="590" height="402"/></a>
Students from the Young Scholar's Academy for Discovery and Exploration school in Brooklyn, Sept. 6

Walcott and Bloomberg toured two classrooms, wishing the students luck for the year and passing along words of wisdom.

“The only advice I can give you is have a good time, but learning really does matter. Learn how to think. That is the most important thing,” Bloomberg told teacher Michael Morgan’s freshman math class.

Walcott toured a school in each borough, engaging the students in each classroom he sat in on, regardless of their ages. Walcott, who taught kindergarten long before he was the schools chancellor, sat in the tiny chairs in kindergarten classrooms to find out what the youngsters were learning on their first day.

At Harlem Village Academy High School, Walcott got into a rousing discussion with a freshman literature class about the book, “The Other Wes Moore,” by Wes Moore, a book the chancellor also read when he was in school. Walcott offered to try and arrange a meeting between the author, whom he has met, and the students.

In the first-grade class at Young Scholar’s Academy for Discovery and Exploration in Brooklyn, Walcott spelled out words using letter-shaped refrigerator magnets.

In general, the students kept playing games with their teacher, paying little attention to the throng of media around them. When first-grader Clive was asked what he was most excited about he replied matter-of-factly, “I don’t know, it’s the first day.”

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