Once again, a few people at the DOE have substiuted their judgement for reality and have destroyed successful, working programs, enjoyed by thousands of children over 30 years. It seems the DOE's mantra is: "If it ain't broke, break it."
The Big Apple Games, a New York City Public Schools Athletic League summer program, began in 1979 in a small number of sports, and was intended to prepare the athletes going to the Empire State Games, a New York State program, also sorely missed. The Big Apple Games missed Summer 1980 but was reinstated in 1981 and showed exceptional attendance. It included instruction in the various sports it provided, along with in-house competition finally ending with a series of city-wide tournaments. The program was open to any and all New York City high school students, at the time with age limits of 13-21. Students could attend any site they wished, with all students treated like it was their home school. Around 1982, Mobil, then headquartered in New York City, began to subsidize the program until they moved to headquarters elsewhere a few years later. During those years, many of the protocols that made the program so successful and well attended developed and continued on until the DOE dropped it in favor of empty buildings under Summer Rising. I was a teacher in the program at Kennedy High School, August Martin HS and from 1982 forward, a teacher and some years, Teach-in-Charge at Long Island City High School. At all three sites, attendence was excellent. Students came because they enjoyed the program, they learned from the instructional piece and we continually encouraged them to come tomorrow and bring a friemd. We used to say this was New York City's answer to the expensive sports camps our students couldn't afford, many of whom were Title I eligible low income families. While I worked with our students in gymnastics, we were able to offer a middle school afternoon program also and a unique gymnastics program for a group of truly challenged special students for whom LICHS was also their home school building. At the same time, because of the building's size and available spaces we had the other gym in use for volleyball and basketball, as well as the field during various years. In the last years before the pandemic, we had reached the point of having slightly more than a hundred boys in the gymnastics gym nightly. Those numbers were underheard of! We provided a safe, healthy and educationally sound environment to these children so they need not hang out on the streets to get in trouble or get hurt. Students came for our program from across the City. At the end of the program they would plead for a few more days which, of course, we could not provide. And as students began to drift away from our schools as one result of the Pandemic, one of the few programs that students willingly came to at the schools, something that could bring therm in, was scrapped by those at the DOE, above the school leadership, above the PSAL (Public Schools Athletic League), leadership, and working under their usual mantra: "If it ain't broke, break it!" Surely there could have been Summer Rising in the classrooms to enhance instruction, easily co-existing with the years long, successful, Big Apple Games.
NYCDOE killed the best summer program that ever existed when they got rid of the Big Apple Games. This program, started around 1979, offered many options to get kids off the streets and into supervised activities. High school athletes could train with qualified coaches. There were game rooms and other activities. Afternoon and evening programs covered middle school through high school ages. Swimming programs in schools that had pools. Clinics featuring Olympic athletes and coaches were run. No academic component, just a place for kids to have an opportunity to learn new skills, have fun and be safe by not being on the streets. Why does a good student have to go to a program with 4 hours of academics during their summer break? What happened to a great program? The DOE decided they had to reinvent the wheel again and lost the best summer program the city ever had.
Once again, a few people at the DOE have substiuted their judgement for reality and have destroyed successful, working programs, enjoyed by thousands of children over 30 years. It seems the DOE's mantra is: "If it ain't broke, break it."
The Big Apple Games, a New York City Public Schools Athletic League summer program, began in 1979 in a small number of sports, and was intended to prepare the athletes going to the Empire State Games, a New York State program, also sorely missed. The Big Apple Games missed Summer 1980 but was reinstated in 1981 and showed exceptional attendance. It included instruction in the various sports it provided, along with in-house competition finally ending with a series of city-wide tournaments. The program was open to any and all New York City high school students, at the time with age limits of 13-21. Students could attend any site they wished, with all students treated like it was their home school. Around 1982, Mobil, then headquartered in New York City, began to subsidize the program until they moved to headquarters elsewhere a few years later. During those years, many of the protocols that made the program so successful and well attended developed and continued on until the DOE dropped it in favor of empty buildings under Summer Rising. I was a teacher in the program at Kennedy High School, August Martin HS and from 1982 forward, a teacher and some years, Teach-in-Charge at Long Island City High School. At all three sites, attendence was excellent. Students came because they enjoyed the program, they learned from the instructional piece and we continually encouraged them to come tomorrow and bring a friemd. We used to say this was New York City's answer to the expensive sports camps our students couldn't afford, many of whom were Title I eligible low income families. While I worked with our students in gymnastics, we were able to offer a middle school afternoon program also and a unique gymnastics program for a group of truly challenged special students for whom LICHS was also their home school building. At the same time, because of the building's size and available spaces we had the other gym in use for volleyball and basketball, as well as the field during various years. In the last years before the pandemic, we had reached the point of having slightly more than a hundred boys in the gymnastics gym nightly. Those numbers were underheard of! We provided a safe, healthy and educationally sound environment to these children so they need not hang out on the streets to get in trouble or get hurt. Students came for our program from across the City. At the end of the program they would plead for a few more days which, of course, we could not provide. And as students began to drift away from our schools as one result of the Pandemic, one of the few programs that students willingly came to at the schools, something that could bring therm in, was scrapped by those at the DOE, above the school leadership, above the PSAL (Public Schools Athletic League), leadership, and working under their usual mantra: "If it ain't broke, break it!" Surely there could have been Summer Rising in the classrooms to enhance instruction, easily co-existing with the years long, successful, Big Apple Games.
NYCDOE killed the best summer program that ever existed when they got rid of the Big Apple Games. This program, started around 1979, offered many options to get kids off the streets and into supervised activities. High school athletes could train with qualified coaches. There were game rooms and other activities. Afternoon and evening programs covered middle school through high school ages. Swimming programs in schools that had pools. Clinics featuring Olympic athletes and coaches were run. No academic component, just a place for kids to have an opportunity to learn new skills, have fun and be safe by not being on the streets. Why does a good student have to go to a program with 4 hours of academics during their summer break? What happened to a great program? The DOE decided they had to reinvent the wheel again and lost the best summer program the city ever had.