Did our parents focus on school choices

[Anonymous]

Absolutely. My mother pulled us all into private when my sister was sleeping through classes and still getting straight A's in the early '70s in Masssachusetts. Education was just about the biggest thing she sweated with us, mostly b/c she didn't go to college and she fully expected all of us to. And if any teacher said one of her high-performing kids (not all of us were) didn't belong in an honors class, she fought to keep us there.

[Anonymous]

My parents bought a smaller home in a more expensive suburb in order to get good public schools. The equivalent of selecting a Montgomery Co neighborhood and only buying homes within selected school boundaries. I live in DC, near public transportation, and spend my free time reading chat boards and obsessing about where my kids go to school. Three years at an out of boundary DCPS elementary, next fall starting at a charter. . . . stay tuned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely. My mother pulled us all into private when my sister was sleeping through classes and still getting straight A's in the early '70s in Masssachusetts. Education was just about the biggest thing she sweated with us, mostly b/c she didn't go to college and she fully expected all of us to. And if any teacher said one of her high-performing kids (not all of us were) didn't belong in an honors class, she fought to keep us there.

Your mom sounds like my kind of gal.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they worried. My dad was a 6-9th grade teacher in a district that began court-ordered busing in the early 70s. He hated what he saw in his own school (which was set on fire twice, by "students") and elsewhere in the district.

They moved to a different small town in the same metro area so we kids would avoid being bused. I attended lily white, literally 99.5% white, schools from 4th - 12th.

[Anonymous]

Nope. My parents picked a neighborhood they liked and could afford. My school would be considered a piece of crap by most DCUM standards. Yet I, and many of my classmates went on to great colleges and successful careers. My classmates who wanted to succeed did and those that didn't usually dropped or flunked out.

Still, I'm afraid to take the same for my own child.

[Anonymous]

Mine did focus on school choices, but they did not know how to do the research.

[Anonymous]

No, I don't think my parents focused much on it at all. My parents were Catholic, and we went to the parish grade school and then on to the Catholic high school. Also, though both my brothers had summer birthdays, there was no agonizing over whether to send them at 5 or at 6. It seems like everyone just went when they were age-eligible to go at 5, and that was that! I don't remember anyone "redshirting."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely. My mother pulled us all into private when my sister was sleeping through classes and still getting straight A's in the early '70s in Masssachusetts. Education was just about the biggest thing she sweated with us, mostly b/c she didn't go to college and she fully expected all of us to. And if any teacher said one of her high-performing kids (not all of us were) didn't belong in an honors class, she fought to keep us there.

Your mom sounds like my kind of gal.

Your mom and my grandma would get along like two peas in a pod. My grandmother came to the US and was big on schools She didn't have a lot of money and didn't go to college but made sure her kids got into the magnet schools in NYC and had college as an option. My mom had some of that in her. She didn't do all the research and obessing I do - BUT she looked at the schools where they were moving and tried to make sure we had the opportunity to get a good education. Once we were at school - she was more hands off - the "you don't want me to have to come up to the school" if there was some sort of story of back talking to the teacher etc. She didn't micromanage and was automatically on the teacher's side unless it was truly a situation where she needed to step in - and then as kids we were out of the loop on those.

[Anonymous]

Mine bought a house in one of the "better" school districts in the area, but didn't focus down to the elementary level. There were 8 elementary schools in the district, and supposedly we went to the one that was considered the "worst" of the bunch. My dad was on the school board late,r but otherwise my parents weren't very involved in our schooling beyond attending parent teacher conferences.

There was only one nursery school in town and it was just for 2 hours twice a week -- so not much to obsess over there!

[Anonymous]

My parents did. We lived in the Philippines till I was 8 and they put me in private school the entire time we were there. This school was pretty far from where we lived and I recall having to wake up super early in the morning to get ready. When we moved to the states, my mom made sure that we would end up in MOCO because of the schools.

[Anonymous]

My parents moved out of NYC to a suburb that was selected b/c of the schools even though it was more expensive and the house was smaller then they may have had somewhere else and my father had a long commute back into the city every day. Then they sent us to private pre-school - Montessori - so we'd have the best start possible. Then they chose the best elementary district within that suburb. Then they educated themselves about the differences between teachers within our schools and tried to guide us towards the best educators. They cared about our college choices. Absolutely they worried about school choices, always.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a town with good schools, and my parents certainly cared about education. But they didn't have a choice of which school we went to; it was all based on zoning. And if we didn't get into honors classes on our own steam, that was it.