Does anyone on Capitol Hill send their kid to an elementary in upper NW?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some inbound kids in Upper NW aren’t always so nice and can be mean. Some of those kids have behavior problems, too.

Commutes can be a pain but certainly your child is worth it. Some kids take long commutes to prestigious private schools in D.C. and the suburbs. No different with public schools. Some parents take long commutes to work. You get used to it and do what you have to do. There’s public transportation throughout D.C. if you don’t want to drive.

This is hard to believe!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

This. Some areas there is much more certainty and guarantee for a good school feed. Also, frankly it’s a pain in the ass to take your kid to far extracurriculars because no really good offerings or demand far exceeds supply and you can’t get what you want.

Everyone has to roll with it but life is just much easier in some places than others. And it’s a pain in the neck applying to privates or playing the lottery for middle and high school. It’s not just simply ranking schools in the lottery, you need plan A, B, and C. The private school application is a whole other bear from parents who went thru it.

I won’t even touch on the supplementing which is another huge bear.

It’s not as easy or simple as the Swarthmore PP makes it seem. It’s a lot of time, energy, resources, and money.

NP. You are projecting. They in no way said it was "easy or simple". They explained their process and reasoning and said for them it wasn't a big deal. Why is it that people like you think it is fine to impose your value system on others but anyone who even explains what they do or why, without judging what you do, is somehow attacking you or encroaching on your freedoms?

They didn't judge you or suggest your choices were wrong. You and a bunch of other DCUM fragiles told her that her choices were wrong and that she should be making teh same choice you made. Fragile white people.

This is the problem that I see all of the Hill discourse about schools/kids. People give you a carefully curated explanation about why "XYZ is really no big deal, it's great for our family!" while they leave out TONS of relevant information. It's all fine and well for different people to do different things, but there is a (seemingly calculated at times) effort to paint a rosy picturel. If you don't start to learn how to interpret these statements, then you can make the wrong decisions for yourself. It don't really care about PP's choice to schlep to MoCo for orchestra; I do care about the misrepresentation about it being no big deal, as well as the failure to understand how much easier it can be if you actually just live closer to where the amenities for kids exist. Like, public middle schools where the orchestra is so good your kid doesn't need it to be an extracurricular!

Yes, life closer where amenities for kids exist, like the public library one block from our house on Capitol Hill and the swim center that's half a mile away. How about the 2 Metro stations (serving 4 lines between them) within a 15-min walk, and the National Mall, where one of my kids volunteers at a museum he reaches on his bike. My kids mostly get to their own extra curriculars by Metro, along with their orthodontist in VA. We have beloved neighbors of 20 years (their houses are attached to ours) with keys to our place in case kids get locked out or need help. Any wonder that some of us choose to stay put in our pretty walkable historic neighborhood?

It's great for you that your kids don't have any needs or preferences that can't be served on the Hill, and that you have kids who you trust on Metro. Let's not even talk about the atmosphere in the public libraries ...

I'm at the SE library on a regular basis and it's fine?

Would you let your 10 year old walk alone to the SE library and hang out there?

I did do exactly that. He used take the metro home from BASIS by himself and do homework at the SE library until I got off work to pick him up. We never had any problems? What are you worried about exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have ideas on how to actually fix these issues? We are zoned for Watkins. There are a few great elementary schools on the Hill, but we can all agree that the middle school and high school options need help. What is the solve? We love the Hill. How do we raise our kids here? Who can actually help? Why isn’t this the issue that Charles Allen is working on the most?

I think you can commit to SH and then hope HS works. Or move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

This. Some areas there is much more certainty and guarantee for a good school feed. Also, frankly it’s a pain in the ass to take your kid to far extracurriculars because no really good offerings or demand far exceeds supply and you can’t get what you want.

Everyone has to roll with it but life is just much easier in some places than others. And it’s a pain in the neck applying to privates or playing the lottery for middle and high school. It’s not just simply ranking schools in the lottery, you need plan A, B, and C. The private school application is a whole other bear from parents who went thru it.

I won’t even touch on the supplementing which is another huge bear.

It’s not as easy or simple as the Swarthmore PP makes it seem. It’s a lot of time, energy, resources, and money.

NP. You are projecting. They in no way said it was "easy or simple". They explained their process and reasoning and said for them it wasn't a big deal. Why is it that people like you think it is fine to impose your value system on others but anyone who even explains what they do or why, without judging what you do, is somehow attacking you or encroaching on your freedoms?

They didn't judge you or suggest your choices were wrong. You and a bunch of other DCUM fragiles told her that her choices were wrong and that she should be making teh same choice you made. Fragile white people.

This is the problem that I see all of the Hill discourse about schools/kids. People give you a carefully curated explanation about why "XYZ is really no big deal, it's great for our family!" while they leave out TONS of relevant information. It's all fine and well for different people to do different things, but there is a (seemingly calculated at times) effort to paint a rosy picturel. If you don't start to learn how to interpret these statements, then you can make the wrong decisions for yourself. It don't really care about PP's choice to schlep to MoCo for orchestra; I do care about the misrepresentation about it being no big deal, as well as the failure to understand how much easier it can be if you actually just live closer to where the amenities for kids exist. Like, public middle schools where the orchestra is so good your kid doesn't need it to be an extracurricular!

Yes, life closer where amenities for kids exist, like the public library one block from our house on Capitol Hill and the swim center that's half a mile away. How about the 2 Metro stations (serving 4 lines between them) within a 15-min walk, and the National Mall, where one of my kids volunteers at a museum he reaches on his bike. My kids mostly get to their own extra curriculars by Metro, along with their orthodontist in VA. We have beloved neighbors of 20 years (their houses are attached to ours) with keys to our place in case kids get locked out or need help. Any wonder that some of us choose to stay put in our pretty walkable historic neighborhood?

It's great for you that your kids don't have any needs or preferences that can't be served on the Hill, and that you have kids who you trust on Metro. Let's not even talk about the atmosphere in the public libraries ...

I'm at the SE library on a regular basis and it's fine?

Would you let your 10 year old walk alone to the SE library and hang out there?

I did do exactly that. He used take the metro home from BASIS by himself and do homework at the SE library until I got off work to pick him up. We never had any problems? What are you worried about exactly?

PP thinks the SE libary is sketchy. We live 3 blocks from that library and hang out there regularly, but I guess we don't see the issue either, probably because we live in a "sketchy" area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

This. Some areas there is much more certainty and guarantee for a good school feed. Also, frankly it’s a pain in the ass to take your kid to far extracurriculars because no really good offerings or demand far exceeds supply and you can’t get what you want.

Everyone has to roll with it but life is just much easier in some places than others. And it’s a pain in the neck applying to privates or playing the lottery for middle and high school. It’s not just simply ranking schools in the lottery, you need plan A, B, and C. The private school application is a whole other bear from parents who went thru it.

I won’t even touch on the supplementing which is another huge bear.

It’s not as easy or simple as the Swarthmore PP makes it seem. It’s a lot of time, energy, resources, and money.

NP. You are projecting. They in no way said it was "easy or simple". They explained their process and reasoning and said for them it wasn't a big deal. Why is it that people like you think it is fine to impose your value system on others but anyone who even explains what they do or why, without judging what you do, is somehow attacking you or encroaching on your freedoms?

They didn't judge you or suggest your choices were wrong. You and a bunch of other DCUM fragiles told her that her choices were wrong and that she should be making teh same choice you made. Fragile white people.

This is the problem that I see all of the Hill discourse about schools/kids. People give you a carefully curated explanation about why "XYZ is really no big deal, it's great for our family!" while they leave out TONS of relevant information. It's all fine and well for different people to do different things, but there is a (seemingly calculated at times) effort to paint a rosy picturel. If you don't start to learn how to interpret these statements, then you can make the wrong decisions for yourself. It don't really care about PP's choice to schlep to MoCo for orchestra; I do care about the misrepresentation about it being no big deal, as well as the failure to understand how much easier it can be if you actually just live closer to where the amenities for kids exist. Like, public middle schools where the orchestra is so good your kid doesn't need it to be an extracurricular!

Yes, life closer where amenities for kids exist, like the public library one block from our house on Capitol Hill and the swim center that's half a mile away. How about the 2 Metro stations (serving 4 lines between them) within a 15-min walk, and the National Mall, where one of my kids volunteers at a museum he reaches on his bike. My kids mostly get to their own extra curriculars by Metro, along with their orthodontist in VA. We have beloved neighbors of 20 years (their houses are attached to ours) with keys to our place in case kids get locked out or need help. Any wonder that some of us choose to stay put in our pretty walkable historic neighborhood?

It's great for you that your kids don't have any needs or preferences that can't be served on the Hill, and that you have kids who you trust on Metro. Let's not even talk about the atmosphere in the public libraries ...

I'm at the SE library on a regular basis and it's fine?

Would you let your 10 year old walk alone to the SE library and hang out there?

I did do exactly that. He used take the metro home from BASIS by himself and do homework at the SE library until I got off work to pick him up. We never had any problems? What are you worried about exactly?

PP thinks the SE libary is sketchy. We live 3 blocks from that library and hang out there regularly, but I guess we don't see the issue either, probably because we live in a "sketchy" area.

Yeah you don’t see it because you don’t want to, just like the dad whose kids witnessed that murder in the Petworth library. The SE library and Eastern Market Plaza and 700 block of Pennsylvania Ave are not safe. They just are not. You can chose to ignore it and allow your kids to take that risk, but you don’t get to pretend that the facts are different from what they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

This. Some areas there is much more certainty and guarantee for a good school feed. Also, frankly it’s a pain in the ass to take your kid to far extracurriculars because no really good offerings or demand far exceeds supply and you can’t get what you want.

Everyone has to roll with it but life is just much easier in some places than others. And it’s a pain in the neck applying to privates or playing the lottery for middle and high school. It’s not just simply ranking schools in the lottery, you need plan A, B, and C. The private school application is a whole other bear from parents who went thru it.

I won’t even touch on the supplementing which is another huge bear.

It’s not as easy or simple as the Swarthmore PP makes it seem. It’s a lot of time, energy, resources, and money.

NP. You are projecting. They in no way said it was "easy or simple". They explained their process and reasoning and said for them it wasn't a big deal. Why is it that people like you think it is fine to impose your value system on others but anyone who even explains what they do or why, without judging what you do, is somehow attacking you or encroaching on your freedoms?

They didn't judge you or suggest your choices were wrong. You and a bunch of other DCUM fragiles told her that her choices were wrong and that she should be making teh same choice you made. Fragile white people.

This is the problem that I see all of the Hill discourse about schools/kids. People give you a carefully curated explanation about why "XYZ is really no big deal, it's great for our family!" while they leave out TONS of relevant information. It's all fine and well for different people to do different things, but there is a (seemingly calculated at times) effort to paint a rosy picturel. If you don't start to learn how to interpret these statements, then you can make the wrong decisions for yourself. It don't really care about PP's choice to schlep to MoCo for orchestra; I do care about the misrepresentation about it being no big deal, as well as the failure to understand how much easier it can be if you actually just live closer to where the amenities for kids exist. Like, public middle schools where the orchestra is so good your kid doesn't need it to be an extracurricular!

Yes, life closer where amenities for kids exist, like the public library one block from our house on Capitol Hill and the swim center that's half a mile away. How about the 2 Metro stations (serving 4 lines between them) within a 15-min walk, and the National Mall, where one of my kids volunteers at a museum he reaches on his bike. My kids mostly get to their own extra curriculars by Metro, along with their orthodontist in VA. We have beloved neighbors of 20 years (their houses are attached to ours) with keys to our place in case kids get locked out or need help. Any wonder that some of us choose to stay put in our pretty walkable historic neighborhood?

It's great for you that your kids don't have any needs or preferences that can't be served on the Hill, and that you have kids who you trust on Metro. Let's not even talk about the atmosphere in the public libraries ...

I'm at the SE library on a regular basis and it's fine?

Would you let your 10 year old walk alone to the SE library and hang out there?

I did do exactly that. He used take the metro home from BASIS by himself and do homework at the SE library until I got off work to pick him up. We never had any problems? What are you worried about exactly?

PP thinks the SE libary is sketchy. We live 3 blocks from that library and hang out there regularly, but I guess we don't see the issue either, probably because we live in a "sketchy" area.

Yeah you don’t see it because you don’t want to, just like the dad whose kids witnessed that murder in the Petworth library. The SE library and Eastern Market Plaza and 700 block of Pennsylvania Ave are not safe. They just are not. You can chose to ignore it and allow your kids to take that risk, but you don’t get to pretend that the facts are different from what they are.

I've lived on the 800 block of D street for 13 years. I think I know what the "facts" are pretty well. That entire area is fine, especially now that the park area has been renovated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

This. Some areas there is much more certainty and guarantee for a good school feed. Also, frankly it’s a pain in the ass to take your kid to far extracurriculars because no really good offerings or demand far exceeds supply and you can’t get what you want.

Everyone has to roll with it but life is just much easier in some places than others. And it’s a pain in the neck applying to privates or playing the lottery for middle and high school. It’s not just simply ranking schools in the lottery, you need plan A, B, and C. The private school application is a whole other bear from parents who went thru it.

I won’t even touch on the supplementing which is another huge bear.

It’s not as easy or simple as the Swarthmore PP makes it seem. It’s a lot of time, energy, resources, and money.

NP. You are projecting. They in no way said it was "easy or simple". They explained their process and reasoning and said for them it wasn't a big deal. Why is it that people like you think it is fine to impose your value system on others but anyone who even explains what they do or why, without judging what you do, is somehow attacking you or encroaching on your freedoms?

They didn't judge you or suggest your choices were wrong. You and a bunch of other DCUM fragiles told her that her choices were wrong and that she should be making teh same choice you made. Fragile white people.

This is the problem that I see all of the Hill discourse about schools/kids. People give you a carefully curated explanation about why "XYZ is really no big deal, it's great for our family!" while they leave out TONS of relevant information. It's all fine and well for different people to do different things, but there is a (seemingly calculated at times) effort to paint a rosy picturel. If you don't start to learn how to interpret these statements, then you can make the wrong decisions for yourself. It don't really care about PP's choice to schlep to MoCo for orchestra; I do care about the misrepresentation about it being no big deal, as well as the failure to understand how much easier it can be if you actually just live closer to where the amenities for kids exist. Like, public middle schools where the orchestra is so good your kid doesn't need it to be an extracurricular!

Yes, life closer where amenities for kids exist, like the public library one block from our house on Capitol Hill and the swim center that's half a mile away. How about the 2 Metro stations (serving 4 lines between them) within a 15-min walk, and the National Mall, where one of my kids volunteers at a museum he reaches on his bike. My kids mostly get to their own extra curriculars by Metro, along with their orthodontist in VA. We have beloved neighbors of 20 years (their houses are attached to ours) with keys to our place in case kids get locked out or need help. Any wonder that some of us choose to stay put in our pretty walkable historic neighborhood?

It's great for you that your kids don't have any needs or preferences that can't be served on the Hill, and that you have kids who you trust on Metro. Let's not even talk about the atmosphere in the public libraries ...

I'm at the SE library on a regular basis and it's fine?

Would you let your 10 year old walk alone to the SE library and hang out there?

I did do exactly that. He used take the metro home from BASIS by himself and do homework at the SE library until I got off work to pick him up. We never had any problems? What are you worried about exactly?

PP thinks the SE libary is sketchy. We live 3 blocks from that library and hang out there regularly, but I guess we don't see the issue either, probably because we live in a "sketchy" area.

Yeah you don’t see it because you don’t want to, just like the dad whose kids witnessed that murder in the Petworth library. The SE library and Eastern Market Plaza and 700 block of Pennsylvania Ave are not safe. They just are not. You can chose to ignore it and allow your kids to take that risk, but you don’t get to pretend that the facts are different from what they are.

I've lived on the 800 block of D street for 13 years. I think I know what the "facts" are pretty well. That entire area is fine, especially now that the park area has been renovated.

lol! have you not been in that park?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

This. Some areas there is much more certainty and guarantee for a good school feed. Also, frankly it’s a pain in the ass to take your kid to far extracurriculars because no really good offerings or demand far exceeds supply and you can’t get what you want.

Everyone has to roll with it but life is just much easier in some places than others. And it’s a pain in the neck applying to privates or playing the lottery for middle and high school. It’s not just simply ranking schools in the lottery, you need plan A, B, and C. The private school application is a whole other bear from parents who went thru it.

I won’t even touch on the supplementing which is another huge bear.

It’s not as easy or simple as the Swarthmore PP makes it seem. It’s a lot of time, energy, resources, and money.

NP. You are projecting. They in no way said it was "easy or simple". They explained their process and reasoning and said for them it wasn't a big deal. Why is it that people like you think it is fine to impose your value system on others but anyone who even explains what they do or why, without judging what you do, is somehow attacking you or encroaching on your freedoms?

They didn't judge you or suggest your choices were wrong. You and a bunch of other DCUM fragiles told her that her choices were wrong and that she should be making teh same choice you made. Fragile white people.

This is the problem that I see all of the Hill discourse about schools/kids. People give you a carefully curated explanation about why "XYZ is really no big deal, it's great for our family!" while they leave out TONS of relevant information. It's all fine and well for different people to do different things, but there is a (seemingly calculated at times) effort to paint a rosy picturel. If you don't start to learn how to interpret these statements, then you can make the wrong decisions for yourself. It don't really care about PP's choice to schlep to MoCo for orchestra; I do care about the misrepresentation about it being no big deal, as well as the failure to understand how much easier it can be if you actually just live closer to where the amenities for kids exist. Like, public middle schools where the orchestra is so good your kid doesn't need it to be an extracurricular!

Yes, life closer where amenities for kids exist, like the public library one block from our house on Capitol Hill and the swim center that's half a mile away. How about the 2 Metro stations (serving 4 lines between them) within a 15-min walk, and the National Mall, where one of my kids volunteers at a museum he reaches on his bike. My kids mostly get to their own extra curriculars by Metro, along with their orthodontist in VA. We have beloved neighbors of 20 years (their houses are attached to ours) with keys to our place in case kids get locked out or need help. Any wonder that some of us choose to stay put in our pretty walkable historic neighborhood?

It's great for you that your kids don't have any needs or preferences that can't be served on the Hill, and that you have kids who you trust on Metro. Let's not even talk about the atmosphere in the public libraries ...

I'm at the SE library on a regular basis and it's fine?

Would you let your 10 year old walk alone to the SE library and hang out there?

I did do exactly that. He used take the metro home from BASIS by himself and do homework at the SE library until I got off work to pick him up. We never had any problems? What are you worried about exactly?

PP thinks the SE libary is sketchy. We live 3 blocks from that library and hang out there regularly, but I guess we don't see the issue either, probably because we live in a "sketchy" area.

Yeah you don’t see it because you don’t want to, just like the dad whose kids witnessed that murder in the Petworth library. The SE library and Eastern Market Plaza and 700 block of Pennsylvania Ave are not safe. They just are not. You can chose to ignore it and allow your kids to take that risk, but you don’t get to pretend that the facts are different from what they are.

I've lived on the 800 block of D street for 13 years. I think I know what the "facts" are pretty well. That entire area is fine, especially now that the park area has been renovated.

lol! have you not been in that park?

NP but I have been in the park hundreds of time.

You don’t have a clue. Where do you live?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

This. Some areas there is much more certainty and guarantee for a good school feed. Also, frankly it’s a pain in the ass to take your kid to far extracurriculars because no really good offerings or demand far exceeds supply and you can’t get what you want.

Everyone has to roll with it but life is just much easier in some places than others. And it’s a pain in the neck applying to privates or playing the lottery for middle and high school. It’s not just simply ranking schools in the lottery, you need plan A, B, and C. The private school application is a whole other bear from parents who went thru it.

I won’t even touch on the supplementing which is another huge bear.

It’s not as easy or simple as the Swarthmore PP makes it seem. It’s a lot of time, energy, resources, and money.

NP. You are projecting. They in no way said it was "easy or simple". They explained their process and reasoning and said for them it wasn't a big deal. Why is it that people like you think it is fine to impose your value system on others but anyone who even explains what they do or why, without judging what you do, is somehow attacking you or encroaching on your freedoms?

They didn't judge you or suggest your choices were wrong. You and a bunch of other DCUM fragiles told her that her choices were wrong and that she should be making teh same choice you made. Fragile white people.

This is the problem that I see all of the Hill discourse about schools/kids. People give you a carefully curated explanation about why "XYZ is really no big deal, it's great for our family!" while they leave out TONS of relevant information. It's all fine and well for different people to do different things, but there is a (seemingly calculated at times) effort to paint a rosy picturel. If you don't start to learn how to interpret these statements, then you can make the wrong decisions for yourself. It don't really care about PP's choice to schlep to MoCo for orchestra; I do care about the misrepresentation about it being no big deal, as well as the failure to understand how much easier it can be if you actually just live closer to where the amenities for kids exist. Like, public middle schools where the orchestra is so good your kid doesn't need it to be an extracurricular!

Yes, life closer where amenities for kids exist, like the public library one block from our house on Capitol Hill and the swim center that's half a mile away. How about the 2 Metro stations (serving 4 lines between them) within a 15-min walk, and the National Mall, where one of my kids volunteers at a museum he reaches on his bike. My kids mostly get to their own extra curriculars by Metro, along with their orthodontist in VA. We have beloved neighbors of 20 years (their houses are attached to ours) with keys to our place in case kids get locked out or need help. Any wonder that some of us choose to stay put in our pretty walkable historic neighborhood?

It's great for you that your kids don't have any needs or preferences that can't be served on the Hill, and that you have kids who you trust on Metro. Let's not even talk about the atmosphere in the public libraries ...

I'm at the SE library on a regular basis and it's fine?

Would you let your 10 year old walk alone to the SE library and hang out there?

I did do exactly that. He used take the metro home from BASIS by himself and do homework at the SE library until I got off work to pick him up. We never had any problems? What are you worried about exactly?

PP thinks the SE libary is sketchy. We live 3 blocks from that library and hang out there regularly, but I guess we don't see the issue either, probably because we live in a "sketchy" area.

Yeah you don’t see it because you don’t want to, just like the dad whose kids witnessed that murder in the Petworth library. The SE library and Eastern Market Plaza and 700 block of Pennsylvania Ave are not safe. They just are not. You can chose to ignore it and allow your kids to take that risk, but you don’t get to pretend that the facts are different from what they are.

I've lived on the 800 block of D street for 13 years. I think I know what the "facts" are pretty well. That entire area is fine, especially now that the park area has been renovated.

lol! have you not been in that park?

NP but I have been in the park hundreds of time.

You don’t have a clue. Where do you live?

I am in Eastern Market many times a week. The playground side is nice. The metro side is full of sketchy loiterers. All up the 700 block of Penn Ave is sketchy loiterers. Granted it is actually better since the methadone clinic closed. Fewer ODs & extremely high folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

This. Some areas there is much more certainty and guarantee for a good school feed. Also, frankly it’s a pain in the ass to take your kid to far extracurriculars because no really good offerings or demand far exceeds supply and you can’t get what you want.

Everyone has to roll with it but life is just much easier in some places than others. And it’s a pain in the neck applying to privates or playing the lottery for middle and high school. It’s not just simply ranking schools in the lottery, you need plan A, B, and C. The private school application is a whole other bear from parents who went thru it.

I won’t even touch on the supplementing which is another huge bear.

It’s not as easy or simple as the Swarthmore PP makes it seem. It’s a lot of time, energy, resources, and money.

NP. You are projecting. They in no way said it was "easy or simple". They explained their process and reasoning and said for them it wasn't a big deal. Why is it that people like you think it is fine to impose your value system on others but anyone who even explains what they do or why, without judging what you do, is somehow attacking you or encroaching on your freedoms?

They didn't judge you or suggest your choices were wrong. You and a bunch of other DCUM fragiles told her that her choices were wrong and that she should be making teh same choice you made. Fragile white people.

This is the problem that I see all of the Hill discourse about schools/kids. People give you a carefully curated explanation about why "XYZ is really no big deal, it's great for our family!" while they leave out TONS of relevant information. It's all fine and well for different people to do different things, but there is a (seemingly calculated at times) effort to paint a rosy picturel. If you don't start to learn how to interpret these statements, then you can make the wrong decisions for yourself. It don't really care about PP's choice to schlep to MoCo for orchestra; I do care about the misrepresentation about it being no big deal, as well as the failure to understand how much easier it can be if you actually just live closer to where the amenities for kids exist. Like, public middle schools where the orchestra is so good your kid doesn't need it to be an extracurricular!

Yes, life closer where amenities for kids exist, like the public library one block from our house on Capitol Hill and the swim center that's half a mile away. How about the 2 Metro stations (serving 4 lines between them) within a 15-min walk, and the National Mall, where one of my kids volunteers at a museum he reaches on his bike. My kids mostly get to their own extra curriculars by Metro, along with their orthodontist in VA. We have beloved neighbors of 20 years (their houses are attached to ours) with keys to our place in case kids get locked out or need help. Any wonder that some of us choose to stay put in our pretty walkable historic neighborhood?

It's great for you that your kids don't have any needs or preferences that can't be served on the Hill, and that you have kids who you trust on Metro. Let's not even talk about the atmosphere in the public libraries ...

I'm at the SE library on a regular basis and it's fine?

Would you let your 10 year old walk alone to the SE library and hang out there?

I did do exactly that. He used take the metro home from BASIS by himself and do homework at the SE library until I got off work to pick him up. We never had any problems? What are you worried about exactly?

PP thinks the SE libary is sketchy. We live 3 blocks from that library and hang out there regularly, but I guess we don't see the issue either, probably because we live in a "sketchy" area.

Yeah you don’t see it because you don’t want to, just like the dad whose kids witnessed that murder in the Petworth library. The SE library and Eastern Market Plaza and 700 block of Pennsylvania Ave are not safe. They just are not. You can chose to ignore it and allow your kids to take that risk, but you don’t get to pretend that the facts are different from what they are.

I've lived on the 800 block of D street for 13 years. I think I know what the "facts" are pretty well. That entire area is fine, especially now that the park area has been renovated.

lol! have you not been in that park?

NP but I have been in the park hundreds of time.

You don’t have a clue. Where do you live?

I am in Eastern Market many times a week. The playground side is nice. The metro side is full of sketchy loiterers. All up the 700 block of Penn Ave is sketchy loiterers. Granted it is actually better since the methadone clinic closed. Fewer ODs & extremely high folks.

You didn’t answer the question: where do you live?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound new. Charles Allen is just one council member among 18 and has never shown much interest in ed reform (though he certainly talks the talk).

In your shoes, I'd try to lottery into Brent, Maury and Ludlow every year until I succeeded with one of them. I'd try for Latin 1, Latin Cooper, BASIS and Inspired Teaching for middle school.

I wouldn't bother lobbying Charles Allen or lobbying pols. We did that for years with fellow Brent parents and achieved nothing, other than launching an 60 million $ renovation of not-so-great Jefferson Academy (5 years later, still half empty).

Charles Allen is sending his kid to SH next year. Having spoken to him at length on this topic, I honestly think he doesn't think there's an issue with Hill MS options. (He intentionally lotteried his kids out of Miner and into JOW/LT before moving IB for LT, so I don't think he's a IB-only true believer. But I assume he will try to get his kids into a selective DCPS HS.)

Charles Allen will do anything to further his mediocre career, even at the expense of his children. Don’t look to him for help or advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You “roll with it” no matter where you live. It’s just that in some areas, more things will roll the way you like it than in other areas. It’s up to you to figure out which area fits you best. If you are wanting to send your kid to an elementary in NW, my guess is that you probably should be living there in the first place.

This. Some areas there is much more certainty and guarantee for a good school feed. Also, frankly it’s a pain in the ass to take your kid to far extracurriculars because no really good offerings or demand far exceeds supply and you can’t get what you want.

Everyone has to roll with it but life is just much easier in some places than others. And it’s a pain in the neck applying to privates or playing the lottery for middle and high school. It’s not just simply ranking schools in the lottery, you need plan A, B, and C. The private school application is a whole other bear from parents who went thru it.

I won’t even touch on the supplementing which is another huge bear.

It’s not as easy or simple as the Swarthmore PP makes it seem. It’s a lot of time, energy, resources, and money.

NP. You are projecting. They in no way said it was "easy or simple". They explained their process and reasoning and said for them it wasn't a big deal. Why is it that people like you think it is fine to impose your value system on others but anyone who even explains what they do or why, without judging what you do, is somehow attacking you or encroaching on your freedoms?

They didn't judge you or suggest your choices were wrong. You and a bunch of other DCUM fragiles told her that her choices were wrong and that she should be making teh same choice you made. Fragile white people.

This is the problem that I see all of the Hill discourse about schools/kids. People give you a carefully curated explanation about why "XYZ is really no big deal, it's great for our family!" while they leave out TONS of relevant information. It's all fine and well for different people to do different things, but there is a (seemingly calculated at times) effort to paint a rosy picturel. If you don't start to learn how to interpret these statements, then you can make the wrong decisions for yourself. It don't really care about PP's choice to schlep to MoCo for orchestra; I do care about the misrepresentation about it being no big deal, as well as the failure to understand how much easier it can be if you actually just live closer to where the amenities for kids exist. Like, public middle schools where the orchestra is so good your kid doesn't need it to be an extracurricular!

Yes, life closer where amenities for kids exist, like the public library one block from our house on Capitol Hill and the swim center that's half a mile away. How about the 2 Metro stations (serving 4 lines between them) within a 15-min walk, and the National Mall, where one of my kids volunteers at a museum he reaches on his bike. My kids mostly get to their own extra curriculars by Metro, along with their orthodontist in VA. We have beloved neighbors of 20 years (their houses are attached to ours) with keys to our place in case kids get locked out or need help. Any wonder that some of us choose to stay put in our pretty walkable historic neighborhood?

It's great for you that your kids don't have any needs or preferences that can't be served on the Hill, and that you have kids who you trust on Metro. Let's not even talk about the atmosphere in the public libraries ...

I'm at the SE library on a regular basis and it's fine?

Would you let your 10 year old walk alone to the SE library and hang out there?

I did do exactly that. He used take the metro home from BASIS by himself and do homework at the SE library until I got off work to pick him up. We never had any problems? What are you worried about exactly?

PP thinks the SE libary is sketchy. We live 3 blocks from that library and hang out there regularly, but I guess we don't see the issue either, probably because we live in a "sketchy" area.

Yeah you don’t see it because you don’t want to, just like the dad whose kids witnessed that murder in the Petworth library. The SE library and Eastern Market Plaza and 700 block of Pennsylvania Ave are not safe. They just are not. You can chose to ignore it and allow your kids to take that risk, but you don’t get to pretend that the facts are different from what they are.

I've lived on the 800 block of D street for 13 years. I think I know what the "facts" are pretty well. That entire area is fine, especially now that the park area has been renovated.

lol! have you not been in that park?

NP but I have been in the park hundreds of time.

You don’t have a clue. Where do you live?

I am in Eastern Market many times a week. The playground side is nice. The metro side is full of sketchy loiterers. All up the 700 block of Penn Ave is sketchy loiterers. Granted it is actually better since the methadone clinic closed. Fewer ODs & extremely high folks.

You didn’t answer the question: where do you live?

I live on the Hill and go to Eastern Market all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound new. Charles Allen is just one council member among 18 and has never shown much interest in ed reform (though he certainly talks the talk).

In your shoes, I'd try to lottery into Brent, Maury and Ludlow every year until I succeeded with one of them. I'd try for Latin 1, Latin Cooper, BASIS and Inspired Teaching for middle school.

I wouldn't bother lobbying Charles Allen or lobbying pols. We did that for years with fellow Brent parents and achieved nothing, other than launching an 60 million $ renovation of not-so-great Jefferson Academy (5 years later, still half empty).

Charles Allen is sending his kid to SH next year. Having spoken to him at length on this topic, I honestly think he doesn't think there's an issue with Hill MS options. (He intentionally lotteried his kids out of Miner and into JOW/LT before moving IB for LT, so I don't think he's a IB-only true believer. But I assume he will try to get his kids into a selective DCPS HS.)

His oldest kid is 10 years old. No 5th grade parents have any earthly idea where or what their kids will be doing in or at HS. You are simply adorable for not only knowing what a 10 year old will do in 9th grade, but 10 year old that isn't yours!!!

He’s the Ward 6 Councilman, so I don’t think he’s going to leave the city or move IB for JR. He didn’t try to lottery for Latin or Basis, so a preference for DCPS seems clear. Do you think he’s going to send his daughter to Eastern? It doesn’t take a genius to guess that Walls/Banneker/etc is the most likely route for his kids.

[Anonymous]

Exactly. We lived on the hill for years and adapted our lives to avoiding all the safety risks to the point that it seemed normal. A couple of years away, after a move, we are shaking our heads that we ever put up with that BS as “normal”. It is just dumb. There are plenty of places to live where on a dcps day off - like tomorrow- you can let your kids roam free in the neighborhood with nothing more than instructions to be home for dinner. And the neighborhood has all the same amenities within walking distance- parks, ice cream shops, bagels, etc. Plus yea- Charles Allen thinks the schools are fine and buys into the trope that if a kid comes from a nice family they will be fine. Perhaps, but some of us hope for more than fine, which apparently is a racist thing to say. So you will get nowhere with you our rep on council or f you actually want safety or schools where kids are challenged academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly. We lived on the hill for years and adapted our lives to avoiding all the safety risks to the point that it seemed normal. A couple of years away, after a move, we are shaking our heads that we ever put up with that BS as “normal”. It is just dumb. There are plenty of places to live where on a dcps day off - like tomorrow- you can let your kids roam free in the neighborhood with nothing more than instructions to be home for dinner. And the neighborhood has all the same amenities within walking distance- parks, ice cream shops, bagels, etc. Plus yea- Charles Allen thinks the schools are fine and buys into the trope that if a kid comes from a nice family they will be fine. Perhaps, but some of us hope for more than fine, which apparently is a racist thing to say. So you will get nowhere with you our rep on council or f you actually want safety or schools where kids are challenged academically.

where did you go?