Diversity of schools - can this work both ways? Am I being unreasonable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would you know? Are you Asian? Are you fluent in an Asian language?

PP pointed out that Asians in DC public middle and high schools are mostly forced to study Spanish, Latin or beginning Chinese (even if they're fluent). That doesn't exactly sound like rolling out the welcome mat to me. Iffy STEM and unserious music instruction can't help either.

In the burbs, students who can test out of languages generally don't have to study them in schools at all. DC wouldn't dream of giving bilingual/biliterate families that kind of recognition or flexibility. Not equitable.

Wow..stereotype much? I'd imagine this is important to all parents, yikes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are ZERO schools that are more than 80% white.

The idea that sending your kid to a school of 70% white kids is somehow racist makes me chortle. Meanwhile, good luck finding a school with a decent cohort of Asian students. But of course, Asians don’t count.

I’m the OP. My (public) high school was about 90% white. About 10% Asian, less than 1% black, less than 1% Latino. This was in a wealthy suburb of a major US city (not DC).

I do it want that for my children.

Literally every school in DC is more diverse than that.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I am from ex USSR and I find obsession with diversity quite ridiculous. Unless of course it’s a misnomer for a school that’s not completely non white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are ZERO schools that are more than 80% white.

The idea that sending your kid to a school of 70% white kids is somehow racist makes me chortle. Meanwhile, good luck finding a school with a decent cohort of Asian students. But of course, Asians don’t count.

I’m the OP. My (public) high school was about 90% white. About 10% Asian, less than 1% black, less than 1% Latino. This was in a wealthy suburb of a major US city (not DC).

I do it want that for my children.

Literally every school in DC is more diverse than that.

A number of DCPS schools have higher percentages of a single race than 90%.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, this post got ugly fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would you know? Are you Asian? Are you fluent in an Asian language?

PP pointed out that Asians in DC public middle and high schools are mostly forced to study Spanish, Latin or beginning Chinese (even if they're fluent). That doesn't exactly sound like rolling out the welcome mat to me. Iffy STEM and unserious music instruction can't help either.

In the burbs, students who can test out of languages generally don't have to study them in schools at all. DC wouldn't dream of giving bilingual/biliterate families that kind of recognition or flexibility. Not equitable.

Wow..stereotype much? I'd imagine this is important to all parents, yikes.

Ever been to the Kumon Center in Georgetown? Most of the the kids in there after school are Asian, in a city where 2% of school-age kids are Asian. Kumon isn't even very expensive, $200/month. Ever been to a youth orchestra performance at Strathmore? At least three quarters of the kid and teen musicians there are Asian. The problem with stereotypes, is that sometimes the shoe fits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, this post got ugly fast.

Ugh from Capitol Hill.

Jefferson Academy: 0% Asian
Eliot-Hine: 0% Asian
Stuart Hobson: 0% Asian

The above is what's ugly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, this post got ugly fast.

Ugh from Capitol Hill.

Jefferson Academy: 0% Asian
Eliot-Hine: 0% Asian
Stuart Hobson: 0% Asian

The above is what's ugly.

Ok, but … we know a bunch of IB Asian families who could enroll tomorrow and none of them choose DCPS. Just like I don’t have sympathy for the folks who complain that SWS isn’t “welcoming” to Black people (which is a total lie) so they choose to go elsewhere, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for folks who could enroll in their DCPS but choose not to.

[Anonymous]

The issue isn't who qualifies for sympathy, it's what DCPS could do to incentivize far more in-boundary families to enroll in their by-right neighborhood middle schools.

If most local taxpayers/stakeholders want better discipline, a full complement of academically tracked subjects, advanced language offerings and flexibility on language learning etc. that's what they should get, if just because these are standard offerings in neighboring jurisdictions with similar demographics.

It's great for neighborhoods to have public middle schools that are popular with in-boundary parents. You disagree?

DCPS could always start by asking local families why they do or don't enroll in neighborhood middle schools. I've been on Capitol Hill for more than 20 years, we have several teenagers, and I've never been asked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The issue isn't who qualifies for sympathy, it's what DCPS could do to incentivize far more in-boundary families to enroll in their by-right neighborhood middle schools.

If most local taxpayers/stakeholders want better discipline, a full complement of academically tracked subjects, advanced language offerings and flexibility on language learning etc. that's what they should get, if just because these are standard offerings in neighboring jurisdictions with similar demographics.

It's great for neighborhoods to have public middle schools that are popular with in-boundary parents. You disagree?

DCPS could always start by asking local families why they do or don't enroll in neighborhood middle schools. I've been on Capitol Hill for more than 20 years, we have several teenagers, and I've never been asked.

You've never been asked because DCPS doesn't actually care. Attracting UMC (and white) families to schools is not a priority for them, and it never has been. If you want it to be a priority, you'll need to run for office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The issue isn't who qualifies for sympathy, it's what DCPS could do to incentivize far more in-boundary families to enroll in their by-right neighborhood middle schools.

If most local taxpayers/stakeholders want better discipline, a full complement of academically tracked subjects, advanced language offerings and flexibility on language learning etc. that's what they should get, if just because these are standard offerings in neighboring jurisdictions with similar demographics.

It's great for neighborhoods to have public middle schools that are popular with in-boundary parents. You disagree?

DCPS could always start by asking local families why they do or don't enroll in neighborhood middle schools. I've been on Capitol Hill for more than 20 years, we have several teenagers, and I've never been asked.


You've never been asked because DCPS doesn't actually care. Attracting UMC (and white) families to schools is not a priority for them, and it never has been. If you want it to be a priority, you'll need to run for office.
[Report Post]

This is unfortunately very true. Shut up and pay your high income and property taxes, but how dare you ask that the public schools you help fund actually serve the city's entire population.

[Anonymous]

I haven't read all the replies and I'm sure there's interesting stuff in there.

But I'll say that there's actual research about this, a "tipping point" at which white parents feel comfortable sending their child to a school. It's 26% or so.

We were in one of the only majority white elementary schools in our city and then there was a rezoning which sent my white dominant neighborhood to a school that was over 90% Black. Oh boy, the weeping, the gnashing of teeth. You can't tell me subconscious (or conscious) bias isn't real when you see how people reacted to the news they might have to move from one highly regarded school one mile away to another highly regarded school one mile away. On the flip side, there were many people who said, look guys, let's not be ridiculous, this is the right thing to do . . . but I'd say about half of those people quietly slipped away to majority white spaces after talking the good talk. So in my daughter's class she was the only white girl (plus one white boy) that first year. This wasn't our first time in a scenario like this . . . she'd been to a birthday party where she was the only white child before. So my concern was minimal.

And at the end of the day I shouldn't have had any concern at all. We're now in year 3 and my kid is thriving and says it's even better than the old school. Of course there are all sorts of issues to grapple with like the role of the PTA (which is super white compared to the makeup of the school), how to become part of an established community without trying to change it, how to facilitate friendships outside of school, and how kindergarten and first grade are much whiter than the upper grades (about 35%) and we could eventually become like the school we left.

When we went to that birthday party when our kids were young where we were the only people who weren't Black, I had to really sit with myself and admit that I wasn't some unbiased exception to the rule. I had to recognize that people of color experience that dynamic all the time. And when you hear white people talk about sending their kids to a school where they'll possibly be the only white child and saying, "I don't want them to be a guinea pig," you have to be disgusted at the racism inherent in that statement. Something is only tried and true if white people have been there? WTAF?

I'm sure someone has recommended already, but I highly recommend the Nice White Parents podcast. Don't be those folks. But also, don't avoid a community that would welcome you out of fear. Just commit yourself to humility and an open heart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all the replies and I'm sure there's interesting stuff in there.

But I'll say that there's actual research about this, a "tipping point" at which white parents feel comfortable sending their child to a school. It's 26% or so.

We were in one of the only majority white elementary schools in our city and then there was a rezoning which sent my white dominant neighborhood to a school that was over 90% Black. Oh boy, the weeping, the gnashing of teeth. You can't tell me subconscious (or conscious) bias isn't real when you see how people reacted to the news they might have to move from one highly regarded school one mile away to another highly regarded school one mile away. On the flip side, there were many people who said, look guys, let's not be ridiculous, this is the right thing to do . . . but I'd say about half of those people quietly slipped away to majority white spaces after talking the good talk. So in my daughter's class she was the only white girl (plus one white boy) that first year. This wasn't our first time in a scenario like this . . . she'd been to a birthday party where she was the only white child before. So my concern was minimal.

And at the end of the day I shouldn't have had any concern at all. We're now in year 3 and my kid is thriving and says it's even better than the old school. Of course there are all sorts of issues to grapple with like the role of the PTA (which is super white compared to the makeup of the school), how to become part of an established community without trying to change it, how to facilitate friendships outside of school, and how kindergarten and first grade are much whiter than the upper grades (about 35%) and we could eventually become like the school we left.

When we went to that birthday party when our kids were young where we were the only people who weren't Black, I had to really sit with myself and admit that I wasn't some unbiased exception to the rule. I had to recognize that people of color experience that dynamic all the time. And when you hear white people talk about sending their kids to a school where they'll possibly be the only white child and saying, "I don't want them to be a guinea pig," you have to be disgusted at the racism inherent in that statement. Something is only tried and true if white people have been there? WTAF?

I'm sure someone has recommended already, but I highly recommend the Nice White Parents podcast. Don't be those folks. But also, don't avoid a community that would welcome you out of fear. Just commit yourself to humility and an open heart.

Thank you so much for this perspective! If everyone shared it, our country and communities would be much healthier.

I too send my half-white kids to a majority minority school where they are thriving, and everything you say rings true (including the changing demographics in the younger years.) But my older sons class is 10 percent white, and he is happy at school, learning, has academic peers, has friends, feels known and liked by the staff, etc etc. He loves it there. And I think going to an elementary school that is not a majority white space is going to help counter the false feeling of white supremacy that is rotting away in our society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all the replies and I'm sure there's interesting stuff in there.

But I'll say that there's actual research about this, a "tipping point" at which white parents feel comfortable sending their child to a school. It's 26% or so.

We were in one of the only majority white elementary schools in our city and then there was a rezoning which sent my white dominant neighborhood to a school that was over 90% Black. Oh boy, the weeping, the gnashing of teeth. You can't tell me subconscious (or conscious) bias isn't real when you see how people reacted to the news they might have to move from one highly regarded school one mile away to another highly regarded school one mile away. On the flip side, there were many people who said, look guys, let's not be ridiculous, this is the right thing to do . . . but I'd say about half of those people quietly slipped away to majority white spaces after talking the good talk. So in my daughter's class she was the only white girl (plus one white boy) that first year. This wasn't our first time in a scenario like this . . . she'd been to a birthday party where she was the only white child before. So my concern was minimal.

And at the end of the day I shouldn't have had any concern at all. We're now in year 3 and my kid is thriving and says it's even better than the old school. Of course there are all sorts of issues to grapple with like the role of the PTA (which is super white compared to the makeup of the school), how to become part of an established community without trying to change it, how to facilitate friendships outside of school, and how kindergarten and first grade are much whiter than the upper grades (about 35%) and we could eventually become like the school we left.

When we went to that birthday party when our kids were young where we were the only people who weren't Black, I had to really sit with myself and admit that I wasn't some unbiased exception to the rule. I had to recognize that people of color experience that dynamic all the time. And when you hear white people talk about sending their kids to a school where they'll possibly be the only white child and saying, "I don't want them to be a guinea pig," you have to be disgusted at the racism inherent in that statement. Something is only tried and true if white people have been there? WTAF?

I'm sure someone has recommended already, but I highly recommend the Nice White Parents podcast. Don't be those folks. But also, don't avoid a community that would welcome you out of fear. Just commit yourself to humility and an open heart.

I get what you're saying, and it's unquestionably helpful to experience that if you've not had to before, but black people in the DC metro area aren't exactly few and far between. It's not like you're a black kid in Vermont or something. How often is a black person totally surrounded by whites in DC? Sure, it happens, but it's not like it's universal. Again, this isn't about being in the minority at a particular school, it's about being the only one of your group at that school. That's an important distinction.

That being said, anyone who treats another person in that circumstance badly is clearly not a good person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all the replies and I'm sure there's interesting stuff in there.

But I'll say that there's actual research about this, a "tipping point" at which white parents feel comfortable sending their child to a school. It's 26% or so.

We were in one of the only majority white elementary schools in our city and then there was a rezoning which sent my white dominant neighborhood to a school that was over 90% Black. Oh boy, the weeping, the gnashing of teeth. You can't tell me subconscious (or conscious) bias isn't real when you see how people reacted to the news they might have to move from one highly regarded school one mile away to another highly regarded school one mile away. On the flip side, there were many people who said, look guys, let's not be ridiculous, this is the right thing to do . . . but I'd say about half of those people quietly slipped away to majority white spaces after talking the good talk. So in my daughter's class she was the only white girl (plus one white boy) that first year. This wasn't our first time in a scenario like this . . . she'd been to a birthday party where she was the only white child before. So my concern was minimal.

And at the end of the day I shouldn't have had any concern at all. We're now in year 3 and my kid is thriving and says it's even better than the old school. Of course there are all sorts of issues to grapple with like the role of the PTA (which is super white compared to the makeup of the school), how to become part of an established community without trying to change it, how to facilitate friendships outside of school, and how kindergarten and first grade are much whiter than the upper grades (about 35%) and we could eventually become like the school we left.

When we went to that birthday party when our kids were young where we were the only people who weren't Black, I had to really sit with myself and admit that I wasn't some unbiased exception to the rule. I had to recognize that people of color experience that dynamic all the time. And when you hear white people talk about sending their kids to a school where they'll possibly be the only white child and saying, "I don't want them to be a guinea pig," you have to be disgusted at the racism inherent in that statement. Something is only tried and true if white people have been there? WTAF?

I'm sure someone has recommended already, but I highly recommend the Nice White Parents podcast. Don't be those folks. But also, don't avoid a community that would welcome you out of fear. Just commit yourself to humility and an open heart.

Thank you so much for this perspective! If everyone shared it, our country and communities would be much healthier.

I too send my half-white kids to a majority minority school where they are thriving, and everything you say rings true (including the changing demographics in the younger years.) But my older sons class is 10 percent white, and he is happy at school, learning, has academic peers, has friends, feels known and liked by the staff, etc etc. He loves it there. And I think going to an elementary school that is not a majority white space is going to help counter the false feeling of white supremacy that is rotting away in our society.

Let me guess, your kids aren't half or full Asian. I was about the only Asian student in my majority minority, predominantly low SES ES in another city, where I was often called "chink." Kids would routinely pull on the corner of their eyes when I walked by, taunting me with the question "How can you see out of those little slit eyes?" I didn't love it there. When my parents finally complained to admins that I was being bullied, my tormentors upped their game. Every so often, they'd trip me in a hallway, shouting "Chink down!" This was the signal to form a circle around me to kick me as I struggled to get up. Things improved once I reached middle school, a majority white school. I thought the days of beating up East Asians were mostly behind us as a society until the pandemic came along.

DCPS schools without Asians? We certainly won't be the first to enroll and don't know other Asian immigrant families who would.