Brooklyn’s International High School

Brooklyn has created a brilliant answer for student immigrants. The Brooklyn International High School is a public school that has been set up specifically for recent immigrants. A new book by Journalist Brooke Hauser called The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens highlights the unique goals of the school.

Diverse Student Body

The student body at the school hails from 45 countries and speaks more than 28 languages. Many of the students have faced incredibly intense challenges on their journey to New York, and these challenges can have an impact on their learning and their needs.

With their incredibly comprehensive guidance program and their counselors and psychologists they work with the immigrant children to integrate them into American life and culture.

Hauser’s View

When asked by NPR’s Neal Conan how the students feel about being in a separate school, Hauser said, “I think the kids have an easier time at an international high school like this than they would at a more mainstream public school, because everybody’s in the same boat. They’re all new to the country. To qualify to get into the school, you have to have been in the country for fewer than four years. And you also have to be learning English. So I think there’s less teasing and taunting that happens at this school than at others.”

Just one more example of some of the amazing things that are happening in Brooklyn — and in the New York school system as well.