Nursery University

Recently, Mom in the City reviewer Jennifer Lehner attended a private screening of the upcoming movie Nursery University, a film which exposes the comedic aspects of the cut-throat world of pre-school admissions.

Jennifer’s thoughts…

Gone are the days when preschool meant plunking down $35.00 for annual tuition and dropping your kid off in the church basement at the top of your street with a bunch of other four year olds. Applying to preschool for one’s toddler in 21st century Manhattan, as “Nursery University,” the new documentary film by Marc H. Simon and Matthew Maker makes clear, is a veritable blood sport.

“Nursery University”, in a refreshingly balanced and non-sensationalistic way, chronicles the preschool rite of passage for five diverse families during the 2006 admissions year, interspersing footage of their journey through the process with interviews with those on the other side—preschool admissions consultants and preschool directors.

If you’ve already had the pleasure of chaperoning your child through the preschool admissions process in New York City or if you are a New Yorker with a child who is nearing preschool eligibility age, you should go see this movie. It will be interesting to see if the film, though, has already passed its sell-by date and now just seems a quaint relic of what over-privileged New Yorkers did during the not-so-long-ago go-go years of the early 21st century.

The movie starts Friday, April 24th in NYC at Phoenix Adlabs ImaginAsian Theatre, 239 E. 59th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues).

THE END