I Left My Homework in the Hamptons

What I Learned Teaching the Children of the One Percent

De: Blythe Grossberg

Narrado por: Ann Marie Gideon

A captivating memoir about tutoring for Manhattan's elite, revealing how a life of extreme wealth both helps and harms the children of the one percent.

Ben orders daily room service while living in a five-star hotel. Olivia collects luxury brand sneakers worn by celebrities. Dakota jets off to Rome when she needs to avoid drama at school.

Welcome to the inner circle of New York's richest families, where academia is an obsession, wealth does nothing to soothe status anxiety and parents will try just about anything to gain a competitive edge in the college admissions rat race.

When Blythe Grossberg first started as a tutor and learning specialist, she had no idea what awaited her inside the high-end apartments of Fifth Avenue. Children are expected to be as efficient and driven as CEOs, starting their days with 5:00 a.m. squash practice and ending them with late-night tutoring sessions. Meanwhile, their powerful parents will do anything to secure one of the precious few spots at the Ivy Leagues, whatever the cost to them or their kids.

Through stories of the children she tutors that are both funny and shocking, Grossberg shows us the privileged world of America's wealthiest families and the systems in place that help them stay on top.

©2021 Blythe Grossberg (P)2021 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

very Well Done

I loved the book. It was informative with great insight on how the .01% are preparing their children to be just as successful as them.

Very entertaining and informative!

Should be read by every NYer who has or had a child in private school. It was a fast fun listen and very revealing.

Interesting read— especially the first and last two chapters

A little fun, a little thought provoking…looking forward to seeing what other books she’s written.

Why such bad reviews?

The title is, in many ways, misleading. I thought it was going to be a critique of the monied class of Fifth Ave, but it is more like a must-read for parents who hope to help their children get into college. This is an expert’s look into the complicated process that it is, especially if one resides in NYC, and whose children attend private school. Lesson learned: avoid having wealthy, successful, competitive parents, read The Great Gatsby and play competitive squash.
The author does not suffer from envy, but more like, pity. Pity for the lives her students must live to survive in the highly competitive universe into which they have been born.
I recommend this to anyone who is in the process of helping a child find their way through the maze of college admission. The author has written a guide of exactly what to do, and not do, keeping in mind your child’s personality, and helping them to find the right fit.

Sobering

Beautifully written, artfully read. A sobering look at the 1% as they quest for college: the struggles of the students, travails of the tutors, and the sweat equity and dollars of the parents. But before the schadenfreude sets in, there is a subtext that asks us to be more human, especially when it comes to those we brought into the world.

I'm a Tutor. This was Meh.

I just could not get my interest up and maintained. I'm a Professional Tutor and could not for the life of me fathom why she would stay in such an advanced state of poverty by choice. Yes, the dichotomy of the ultra-rich and ordinary people is interesting but after a while......................snooze. Just not compelling.

Very interesting

Blythe Grossberg is a Harvard educated psychologist, education expert and tutor of the very rich in New York City.

In I LEFT MY HOMEWORK IN THE HAMPTONS, Grossberg describes her work with wealthy, private school children and their very demanding parents. She’s an obviously brilliant woman, adept at tutoring in subjects prep school teens were taking than I never studied although I have a doctorate. I LEFT MY HOMEWORK IN THE HAMPTONS made me feel like a slacker, sorely undereducated. I always wanted to go to private school, like Grossberg’s tutees, but this memoir cured me of that.

Grossberg shows tremendous empathy toward her students, so much so she enabled bad behavior from both the students and their parents. She allowed herself to be manipulated by parents while using her psychology training to help her overstressed students. I get wanting to do this. Kids’ circumstances will break your heart and they’re so easy to love and befriend. As therapists we have codes of ethics and protocols when to inform parents. As a tutor and teacher Grossberg was a mandated reported. I couldn’t believe she didn’t report the parents of a sixteen year old living on his own in a hotel. Even though he had a “babysitter” also living in the hotel, he was abandoned, barely seeing his mother. I sometimes wondered if she was afraid to lose lucrative clients by standing up to abusive or neglectful parents. One client lost so much weight she became skeletal, yet Grossberg never confronted the mother about the girl’s health (she was overmedicating with ADHD meds to lose weight). Some things are worth losing your job over.

Still, I enjoyed Grossberg’s storytelling and the solutions she suggested for different problems. I enjoyed following the students to see how the education unfolded. If you’re interested in the pressures the 1% place on their children regarding education, you’ll enjoy I LEFT MY HOMEWORK IN THE HAMPTONS. I’m sure a lot of the 1% are fine parents and nothing like the extremes Grossberg writes about, but my friends who are teachers tell similar stories about monster parents in public school.

Stunningly beautiful, thoughtful, and insightful memoir.

Not one I expected to be entranced by, but delighted by the pleasantly refreshing surprise! Highly recommend this book.

It’s okay

The author repeats herself and waxes political at times. It is her story, but there’s an air of knowing better along with an under current of envy weighed with assessment of each family.
The families and the privilege is interesting and a bit sad.

I wish…

I wish I had read this when my children were young. You strive to give your children everything you did not have and later realize you had it ALL!