Is This the ‘Biggest Self-Righteous Arrogant Traitor’ Ever in School? May 19, 2006

THE NEW YORK SUN — May 19, 2006

[This story was the first to be published about Trees’ book. It was later quoted in a number of other newspapers including The New York Times.]

Students aren’t the only ones working on research projects at some of the city’s elite private schools.

A history teacher at Horace Mann School in Riverdale has used his intimate view of the city’s movers and shakers to pen a novel about a leafy campus in New York City where 17-year olds drive Mercedes cars, take prescription drugs to boost their academic performance, and turn to seduction and plagiarism to guarantee a slot in the Ivy League.

“Academy X” is hitting bookstores this week and some parents are calling its author, Andrew Trees, a regular Benedict Arnold.

“I think this is the biggest self-righteous, arrogant traitor walking the face of the earth,” a member of the board of trustees at the nearby Riverdale Country School, Victoria Goldman, said. “He’s sending up the entire community that he works with, and that takes nerve.”

Joy, Dashed Hopes At Harlem Lottery For Charter School March 23, 2006

THE NEW YORK SUN—March 23, 2006

When Fatou Gueye and her husband arrived in New York from their native Senegal, they possessed little education and big hopes for their children.
Yesterday, those hopes were somewhat dashed when their 6-year-old son, Abdoulaye, was shut out of a lottery for the new Harlem Success Charter School to open in the fall.
“This is the new generation, we want him to have a better life, but he has to go to a good school,” Ms. Gueye, whose husband drives a yellow taxi, said.
She was among the hundreds of hopeful parents who packed into the basement of the Salem United Methodist Church last night, where children’s names were pulled from a box to determine who would win slots for the kindergarten and first-grade classes.

New York Parents Sending Children Back to China November 18, 2005

THE NEW YORK SUN — November 18, 2005

Rachel Papo

Americans have already outsourced manufacturing of garments and electronics to China, but the latest trend in overseas labor is more personal – a new study of Chinese immigrants in New York shows that 57% of the mothers surveyed are sending their babies back to China for the infants’ early years.

Facing enormous debt and six-day workweeks, the majority of mothers said the lack of affordable child care in the city forced them to send their babies to relatives in China. Parents typically bring their children back when they are old enough for school.