Keys to Thriving or Just Surviving in NW ES--Parents, I need your insights!
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Anonymous
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DCU parents with kids in NW DC elementary schools, I'm prepping for our elementary school lottery selections, and I need your honest insights on how your school's culture and norms affected your children's experience. If you'd be willing to share your experiences with any of the topics below, I would be grateful.
1. Bullying: In your view, is bullying a significant problem at your kid's school (even if it's not specifically an issue for your child)? Do you believe that teachers and admins take action to effectively address bullying? 2. Homework: By your standards, is there too much or too little of it? Does it give your kid homework anxiety? Does the homework seem effective in helping your kid master course material and skills? 3. Academic Self-Efficacy: Does the school (culture, teachers, etc.) foster kids' confidence in their ability to master course material and new skills? 4. Desire to Learn: That you've observed, has your kid's experiences at school fostered their self-directed curiosity and love of learning? 5. Perseverance: Does the school seem to positively affect your child's willingness to try new things and work hard at new challenges (even ones that don't align with their strengths)? For context, my son is a rising PK4, and we'd ideally like to stay at the same elementary school through 5th grade. To the best of my knowledge, I've already thoroughly evaluated our options based on the usual criteria (e.g., location, test scores, size, class and extracurricular offerings, OOB lottery chances, etc.), but these 5 considerations are a priority for us. |
Anonymous
| Do you mean technically NW? Or do you mean Ward 3? |
Anonymous
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Your kid is THREE. I can tell you with great certainty that what is actually going to impact him is your intense anxiety and achievement focus.
Meanwhile I can tell you that about the only factor that I think actually matters for elementary school selection is location. A neighborhood school that kids can walk to will make it easier to make friends and will reduce time stress on the family. |
Anonymous
| North Capitol Street corridor, come in! |
Anonymous
+1. At three, and really through most of elementary school, your child’s experience with all the points you’ve listed will be largely driven by your attitude towards all of them. People usually will tell you to focus on commute because having an easy one helps to keep you zen enough to calmly handle all of the rest of the points you have raised. |
Anonymous
| Hire this guy for next head of GAO |
Anonymous
This times X100. What you forgot to think about is independence and social/community life. Starting in 3rd grade it's typical for kids to start walking by themselves to school with friends, and some even begin to self-dismiss. Having 20 other parents that live walking distance to you is important for "village" aspect - playdates, emergencies if you can't make the pick up, etc. |
Anonymous
| OP you are in for a long and rough ride if this is how intensely you plan on approaching parenting. |
Anonymous
+1. Does anyone else get the sense that OP used AI to help create this list/draft the post? While they maybe cleaned it up a bit, the foundation doesn't seem like a human wrote it. |
Anonymous
100 percent. OP, go to some open houses. |
Anonymous
| I’m in the AI camp, but I think it’s funny we’ve all concluded that it must be either AI or a man, both apparently equally out of touch with the experience of parenting a preschool/early elementary student. |
Anonymous
I think it's a man for sure, but likely he used AI to compose because of the formatting. Also would be in keeping with the "I'm being EFFICIENT and GOAL-ORIENTED" vibe of the post. I think the funniest thing about it is that it's clear he has not actually done almost ANY real research into elementary school -- either actual schools in DC or even just generally what it's like to raise an elementary kid these days and the issues that come up. Like no mention of screens, EdTech, or technology use in the school or within the school community. As a parent of a 3rd grader, this is rapidly becoming one of the most critical education issues we have because it touches on everything -- academics, mental health, social issues, etc. Also they seem to be missing that a lot of what they are worried about are things that they, as the parent, are going to have to stay on top of all the time. There is no school in DC (public or private) that can ensure your kid has perseverance or a desire to learn, especially if certain parenting is not going on (no school is going to be able to overcome a parent who lets their kid watch YouTube videos and play video games all the time, for instance). And actually good parenting can overcome a sub-standard school where a lot of kids don't have perseverance or a desire to learn -- we muscled our way through four years at a school with a lot of apathetic kids and parents by just never giving up on our kid, and then were able to get into a better situation where the school isn't actively working against our goals. But at the end of the day, this stuff is on the parents. Sure, at the ECE level, a really nurturing teacher is so valuable, because kids are so impressionable. But you will find that at the vast majority of schools in DC for ECE. Even our school with the very apathetic parent community had great ECE teachers who were incredibly caring and cultivated perseverance, curiosity, etc. But if the parents aren't doing this at home, it won't matter. |
Anonymous
YES hahahahahaaaaa (sobsobsobsobbbbb...) |
Anonymous
| The most important thing you can do is become friends with other families in your neighborhood. Nurture relationships. Give your kids friends. Then once you have friends, talk in person about these questions. |
Anonymous
| Visit schools and see how they feel. Just like you would a house or apartment. |