Latin Cooper

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my family's experience (at the 2nd street campus), Latin is a pretty racist and exclusionary place.

The honors classes were almost entirely White; the on-track classes were almost entirely Black. All the attention was given to the honors classes. When White affluent kids made flip anti-immigrant, sexist, anti-Black, or anti-semitic comments (yup my DD heard it all on a regular basis) they were "just being kids" and there was no consequence or deterrence for next time. Once, relatively recently, a White kid did get in trouble for saying derogatory anti-Black comments and boy did the administrators feel great about their show of equity. But it was one of the very few times I heard of any effort made at shutting down snide, casual racism by White students.

Have they starting offering Spanish yet? When my DD went there (she graduated recently) it wasn't offered. They told us it wasn't "classical" enough and wasn't in the school's original charter, which of course didn't stop them from offering Arabic, which also wasn't in the school's original charter. Not offering Spanish in today's America? Message received.

The school is what it is. Lots of (White) kids seem to enjoy it. Lots of (White) honors kids go to good colleges. But in my family's experience it's a passively toxic. We made it through the place. We only added up the issues over time and by then our DD was nearly done and had close friends there so we didn't want to uproot her. But I personally advise friends to keep their kids away from there. It's left a bad feeling in our family.

How do they determine who takes honors classes? Is it "we think you'd be a good fit" or do they use placement tests or performance in the previous class?

[Anonymous]

Not surprised to hear about endemic racism at Latin in a city where the residential housing stock never desegregated and DCPS is a mess. This Asian mom is sorry for your pain, PP.

[Anonymous]

Has. Latin Cooper confirmed if the Edgewood location is permanent. Or is there still talk of taking over the former Kirov ballet location?

[Anonymous]

Our two kids graduated from Latin. There were a lot of different types of families at Latin---mixed race families, families where one or both parents were foreign-born, LGBTQ families. Everyone has their own experience, and I realize that the PP above did not seem to have a good one, but lots of AA kids also go to good colleges from Latin. I know many AA families who have had very good experiences at Latin. I wish Latin offered Spanish as well, but the fact that the school does not isn't de facto racist. It just isn't true that all the attention goes to the honors classes. Some of the strongest teachers regularly teach the gen-ed classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has. Latin Cooper confirmed if the Edgewood location is permanent. Or is there still talk of taking over the former Kirov ballet location?

The Kirov location has been confirmed many many times by Latin leadership. Call the school, go to the open house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our two kids graduated from Latin. There were a lot of different types of families at Latin---mixed race families, families where one or both parents were foreign-born, LGBTQ families. Everyone has their own experience, and I realize that the PP above did not seem to have a good one, but lots of AA kids also go to good colleges from Latin. I know many AA families who have had very good experiences at Latin. I wish Latin offered Spanish as well, but the fact that the school does not isn't de facto racist. It just isn't true that all the attention goes to the honors classes. Some of the strongest teachers regularly teach the gen-ed classes.

Totally. And I am so over the complaining about Spanish. Don't apply if Spanish is your priority. or supplement. It's not like it's a surprise!

[Anonymous]

Didn’t Latin pledge to start teaching Spanish at one point to help them attract more Latino students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my family's experience (at the 2nd street campus), Latin is a pretty racist and exclusionary place.

The honors classes were almost entirely White; the on-track classes were almost entirely Black. All the attention was given to the honors classes. When White affluent kids made flip anti-immigrant, sexist, anti-Black, or anti-semitic comments (yup my DD heard it all on a regular basis) they were "just being kids" and there was no consequence or deterrence for next time. Once, relatively recently, a White kid did get in trouble for saying derogatory anti-Black comments and boy did the administrators feel great about their show of equity. But it was one of the very few times I heard of any effort made at shutting down snide, casual racism by White students.

Have they starting offering Spanish yet? When my DD went there (she graduated recently) it wasn't offered. They told us it wasn't "classical" enough and wasn't in the school's original charter, which of course didn't stop them from offering Arabic, which also wasn't in the school's original charter. Not offering Spanish in today's America? Message received.

The school is what it is. Lots of (White) kids seem to enjoy it. Lots of (White) honors kids go to good colleges. But in my family's experience it's a passively toxic. We made it through the place. We only added up the issues over time and by then our DD was nearly done and had close friends there so we didn't want to uproot her. But I personally advise friends to keep their kids away from there. It's left a bad feeling in our family.

You sound rather racist to me- Arabic is one of the classical languages of the ancient world, just like greek and latin. Sanskrit is also. maybe you are just ignorant about the classics and the curriculum which is classics based? OTH, not offering a common language like spanish is crazy if you want to be a good school.. Americans should have exposure to Spanish, the more the better- it is basically the 2nd language of the country. I am continuously astounded by how public education has declined in the past 30 years- we all received a much better education than our kids do. Not having Spanish available as a foreign language in middle school was unheard of pre-2000s in the Washington area.

[Anonymous]

PP, the issue re:Spanish from what I got from the post is that the school claimed it wasn’t in their Charter but the in fact added Arabic which wasn’t in the Charter. Get it? It amazes me what people tend to focus on from a post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, the issue re:Spanish from what I got from the post is that the school claimed it wasn’t in their Charter but the in fact added Arabic which wasn’t in the Charter. Get it? It amazes me what people tend to focus on from a post.

So neither Spanish or Arabic was in the charter and they decided to add Arabic. Pretty stupid in my book. How useful is Arabic going to be for you when in DC, you walk out on the street and Spanish is heard everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, the issue re:Spanish from what I got from the post is that the school claimed it wasn’t in their Charter but the in fact added Arabic which wasn’t in the Charter. Get it? It amazes me what people tend to focus on from a post.

So neither Spanish or Arabic was in the charter and they decided to add Arabic. Pretty stupid in my book. How useful is Arabic going to be for you when in DC, you walk out on the street and Spanish is heard everywhere.

Pretty useful if you want to be in the CIA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, the issue re:Spanish from what I got from the post is that the school claimed it wasn’t in their Charter but the in fact added Arabic which wasn’t in the Charter. Get it? It amazes me what people tend to focus on from a post.

So neither Spanish or Arabic was in the charter and they decided to add Arabic. Pretty stupid in my book. How useful is Arabic going to be for you when in DC, you walk out on the street and Spanish is heard everywhere.

Pretty useful if you want to be in the CIA.

OK sure but what is the chance that your kid is going to be in the CIA? One in a million?

What is the chance that Spanish would be more practical and helpful to know? A hell of a lot less than that. I’m in healthcare and have lost count of how many times I needed a phone interpreter. Any service industry and it’s an asset and advantage. I took French in school and it was useless. In retrospect, I should have taken Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, the issue re:Spanish from what I got from the post is that the school claimed it wasn’t in their Charter but the in fact added Arabic which wasn’t in the Charter. Get it? It amazes me what people tend to focus on from a post.

So neither Spanish or Arabic was in the charter and they decided to add Arabic. Pretty stupid in my book. How useful is Arabic going to be for you when in DC, you walk out on the street and Spanish is heard everywhere.

Pretty useful if you want to be in the CIA.

No kid is going to learn Arabic as an elective. You would need to start it in PK3 full immersion.

[Anonymous]

Taking Arabic helps for college admissions, that's for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, the issue re:Spanish from what I got from the post is that the school claimed it wasn’t in their Charter but the in fact added Arabic which wasn’t in the Charter. Get it? It amazes me what people tend to focus on from a post.

So neither Spanish or Arabic was in the charter and they decided to add Arabic. Pretty stupid in my book. How useful is Arabic going to be for you when in DC, you walk out on the street and Spanish is heard everywhere.

Pretty useful if you want to be in the CIA.

No kid is going to learn Arabic as an elective. You would need to start it in PK3 full immersion.

I'll point out that Arabic isn't an elective at Latin. Language study is a requirement. It starts at 8th grade for some, so they can take up to 5 years. Definitely not immersion, but there have been students who get very accomplished in Arabic if they also do one of the NSLI study abroad programs. We've got acquaintances whose kid studied Arabic like this at Latin, went to Harvard and, after taking a placement test, skipped several levels higher than freshmen who studied in high school are generally placed.