School Boundaries- how poor is too poor?

[Anonymous]

And Rock Creek Forest is also about 20% FARMS...

[Anonymous]

Rock Creek Forest is only 20% FARMS if you add in the lottery winning immersion kids (same with Takoma Park and the magnet). The general ed, you get in by moving in bounds is 35% FARMS.

Rosemary Hills is in the Bethesda cluster, not Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are Jewish. Our 2 kids are in an elementary public school that is extremely diverse from all walks of life. We are ABSOLUTELY THRILLED about it. Could not be happier. Our kids are making friends with children of every possible race, creed, religion, origin, etc,.... We love our elementary school. This is the primary reason we did not send them to a Jewish day school.

Are your kids making friends with the FARMS kids? I notice you don't mention class. I'm asking because I attended an incredibly racially diverse school too, but the FARMS kids were not socially integrated with the non-farms kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are Jewish. Our 2 kids are in an elementary public school that is extremely diverse from all walks of life. We are ABSOLUTELY THRILLED about it. Could not be happier. Our kids are making friends with children of every possible race, creed, religion, origin, etc,.... We love our elementary school. This is the primary reason we did not send them to a Jewish day school.

Are your kids making friends with the FARMS kids? I notice you don't mention class. I'm asking because I attended an incredibly racially diverse school too, but the FARMS kids were not socially integrated with the non-farms kids.

Not the PP you are referring to, but that is a fact of life, at "diverse" schools (in terms of economic class for lack of better word.)

It is one thing to have poor kids in your kids' class at school, but it is another thing to send your child on a sleepover, or even a playdate, to an apartment complex in a less desireable neighborhood. Kids who recieve Free and reduced meals (FARMS) are from exztremely poor families, in most cases. Social integration outside of the school setting is very difficult.

[Anonymous]

I agree PP, and I would take it a step further. I think the "diverse" public schools can sometimes foster racism and classism because of the social patterns and cliqueness of children.

We basically have totally segregated schools within a single school. Chris Van Hollen's daughter did a great story about this on NPR.

[Anonymous]

"I agree PP, and I would take it a step further. I think the "diverse" public schools can sometimes foster racism and classism because of the social patterns and cliqueness of children."

Agreed. From experience. No one wants to talk about what really happens because it is not PC. [Although I do expect those inexperienced to chime in rather loudly.]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I agree PP, and I would take it a step further. I think the "diverse" public schools can sometimes foster racism and classism because of the social patterns and cliqueness of children."

Agreed. From experience. No one wants to talk about what really happens because it is not PC. [Although I do expect those inexperienced to chime in rather loudly.]

Well, I'll chime in again (PG public). At one point I lived in a very small apartment with ds. There was one family who had a little girl who really, really wanted a playdate with my son, and I was all for it, and I secretly think we were politely ignored owing to our housing situation. It sucked (though I'm relatively sure that ds was not hip to this dynamic at all at the time). This was the exception, though, and not the rule.

[Anonymous]

22:29 here again. I will also posit that I'm not exactly sure what folks are afraid will happen on a playdate with "poor" people in a "less than desireable neighborhood" (which I often get the sense means all of PG county to a lot of folks on this board). It is perhaps worth it to move outside of our comfort zones instead of just accepting the stratification as a fact of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22:29 here again. I will also posit that I'm not exactly sure what folks are afraid will happen on a playdate with "poor" people in a "less than desireable neighborhood" (which I often get the sense means all of PG county to a lot of folks on this board). It is perhaps worth it to move outside of our comfort zones instead of just accepting the stratification as a fact of life.

FWIW PP, I am the one who posted that "less than desireable neighborhood" thing. And I do live in Prince George's County, so I hear you!

I'm not saying this attidtude is right or fair, and am not defending it.

But parents are parents. And in my experience, they will not send their children on a playdate outside of their comfort zone. Due to ignorance or whatever. They just don't do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rock Creek Forest is only 20% FARMS if you add in the lottery winning immersion kids (same with Takoma Park and the magnet). The general ed, you get in by moving in bounds is 35% FARMS.

Rosemary Hills is in the Bethesda cluster, not Silver Spring.

Takoma Park Elementary School (K-2) and Piney Branch Elementary School (3-5) have few children bussed in for their magnet programs, PP. The FARMS rates (21% TPES, 35% PBES) are largely due to the odd racial and social stratification of Takoma Park: High-income white families and lower income black and Latino families. At grade 3, when kids go to Piney Branch, some higher-income parents appear to pull out their children for private and the TPES kids are joined by kids from East Silver Spring, which has fewer high-income families. But there are few magnet spots for out-of-boundary kids in either school. These are primarily neighborhood schools, and they reflect the nature of their neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22:29 here again. I will also posit that I'm not exactly sure what folks are afraid will happen on a playdate with "poor" people in a "less than desireable neighborhood" (which I often get the sense means all of PG county to a lot of folks on this board). It is perhaps worth it to move outside of our comfort zones instead of just accepting the stratification as a fact of life.

I am not so concerned with poor people but the Less than Desirable nieghborhood part. I have a friend who lives in one and the problems are I don't trust the neighbors (she doesn't either and doens't let her child play alone outside), the yards to the homes are not well kept up - lots of debris and items that I wouldn't want my child playing near or with, the fact that the house is very small so they don't have much room to actually play in the house and the kids can't play by themselves outside and end up watching a lot of TV indoors. It just doesn't seem to be an attractive playdate option.

[Anonymous]

11:07, I live in Sligo Creek district, and I can name at least 8 kids on my street and one street over who go out of district to TPES or PBES magnets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:07, I live in Sligo Creek district, and I can name at least 8 kids on my street and one street over who go out of district to TPES or PBES magnets.

Yes, but are they bussed? They're very close by, right? I guess my point is that I'm aware of very few kids from the more homogeneous parts of MoCo who attend these magnet programs. They're mostly from our immediate area and they're not doing much to change the demographics of the schools.

[Anonymous]

That's not really true. All the rich white kids from my neighborhood go to the TPES magnet. But none of the "apartment" kids. So it makes the TPES school richer and whiter than it would normally be.