The kids are all right. Avoid the parents.

It seems Americans like to have some sort of constant crisis in education, the only change being what form this dire emergency takes. The crisis de jour is not so much failing schools, burned out teachers or the appalling disparity in quality in public schools between low- and high-income areas--these problems have been with us for so long as to have practically expected. No, the major issue now is far more serious: the possibility that some children will be rejected at elite, private schools, and just may--gasp!- be forced to attend public school.

The topic of overachieving children and the race to get into the 'right' college has been a hot topic as of late. Alan Eisenstock joins the fray with his expose on the private, elite kindergartens that are the first step towards the Ivies. The Kindergarten Wars: The Battle to Get into America's Best Private Schools charts the process of several families as they attempt to get their four-year-olds into elementary schools that cost where a year's tuition rivals that of many private colleges. Eisenstock is himself a former board member for a private, independent school in California, so he knows this ground well. In addition to following the parents through the process (and I stress that it is the parents that are worked up into a lather over these schools; the kids are off blithely enjoying what's left of their childhood), Eisenstock looks in on the almost entirely subjective admissions process with the people that are paid to determine what tot to take and which to reject.*

The results are fairly predictable. Focusing on the mothers (fathers tend to be absent in the pursuit of the thick admissions envelope), Eisenstock portrays women growing increasingly desperate to get their child into the 'right' school, their interviews punctuated with 'I's and 'we's, and strategizing over interview tactics. Admissions officers aren't much better, scorning the sense of entitlement and elitism displayed by some parents, but never entirely addressing the role money and social connections play in selection. The interactions between parents, school directors and other interested parties (educational consultants and directors of so-called 'feeder nursery schools') comes off as a battle of nerves, with parents freaking out over the perceived high stakes.

Eisenstock observes all of this with as objective an eye as could be expected, given his background. His Amazon book description states he was a former screenwriter, and this shows in his recreation of dialogue and plotting. If anything else, Kindergarten Wars is compusively readable, for its cast of 'good' and 'bad' parents and nerve-wracking questions of who will get in where. But Kindergarten Wars' major failing is that it presents the insanity of the race to get into these elite enclaves as a major problem in education. Focusing so much on the problems of these bright, well-cared for kids is interesting, and it is a pity that they can't get into the school of choice, but if they don't they still have a high chance of succeeding in society. Other than a brief discussion of the problems with the No Child Left Behind law, Eisenstock focuses entirely on how people get into the elite schools, and gives almost no attention to why the parents see these schools as so much better than local public ones. By concentrating solely on the upper escelons of education, Eisenstock misses the real story.

*I should mention that Eisenstock disguises the names and, with the exception of New York City, the location of the elite schools he writes about. He instead (to this reader's great annoyance) substitutes aliases based on names and places mentioned in Pride and Prejudice.