I just got a recommendation for this school, which is a totally unique, New York-only type of school, that caters to the special needs of performing children.

Professional Children's School provides a challenging education for young people working or studying for careers in the performing and visual arts, modeling and competitive sports, and for students who desire the special environment of PCS or the flexibility and independence of the PCS program.

Here's the history of the school, which is very, very cool:

In October 1913, Jane Harris Hall and Jean Greer Robinson attended a Broadway performance of Daddy Long Legs. After the show, making their way backstage, they happened upon several children in the cast playing cards. Speaking with the youngsters, they learned that the children didn't attend school and that they could barely read and write.

Upon later investigation, Miss Hall and Mrs. Robinson learned that public and private schools could not or would not accommodate the schedules of stage children and that most children working on the stage were simply skipping school. Seeing the need, they decided to establish a school designed especially for New York's stage (or "professional") children. Both ladies were already deeply involved in efforts to improve the lot of New York's actors and actresses and together had already founded The Rehearsal Club, a non-profit residential club for young actresses.

The School admitted its first two students on January 6, 1914 in rented space at The Rehearsal Club. From the start, the School's approach was unique. "The Professional Children's School," Mrs. Robinson wrote in 1922, "gives the child of the stage and screen an opportunity for a thorough education and at the same time permits the young actor or actress to continue with his or her profession; for the school suits its hours to rehearsals and managers' appointments and the various interruptions which a life on the stage demands; at the same time it insists upon and achieves a very high standard of scholarship." An immediate success, the School was enrolling over 100 students within a year.

Rather than adapt the children to the school, our co-founders adapted the school to the children. The school day began at 10:00 a.m. and finished promptly at 2:00 p.m. Students were allowed to miss class for professional reasons and a "correspondence program" enabled students in touring shows to keep up with their school work while away. The curriculum concentrated on the "Three R's" in order to maximize students' time while meeting state requirements for graduation. Most early PCS students considered high school graduation the conclusion of their formal academic education.

I think I might know a little girl who will apply to PCS for Grade 7...

Professional Children's School
132 West 60th Street
New York, New York
10023
(212) 582-3116
pcs@pcs-nyc.org

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