New Jackson-Reed HS (Wilson HS) School Principal - Sah Brown from Eastern High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of you guys have been hammering at a random neighborhood mom who bothered to look into the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program for pages now. The exercise is as pointless as it is nuts.

Suggestion: look at the development trajectory of Blair Montgomery HS in MoCo in the last 40 years rather than taking pot shots at moms.

Blair wasn't all that different from Eastern when I was a little kid living in Silver Spring. The school was dramatically under-enrolled, under-performing and filled with low SES minority students. Then, in the early 80s, MoCo started up two, large, super-duper test-in magnet programs at Blair, each with a county-wide draw, one program for STEM, the other for humanities. The magnets have always offered preferential treatment in admissions to in-boundary applicants. Almost since their inception, these programs have admitted a fraction of 8th grade applicants, roughly 10% in this century.

With the magnets in place, Blair began to attract top administrators, resources to renovate and better teachers. These days, Blair is a thriving by-right HS with double the enrollment it had in my day, and a highly diverse student body, attracting sizeable cohorts of black, white, Asian and Latino students, low and high SES.

Our ed leaders in the District would much rather see Eastern languish endlessly as a hopeless case under middling leadership than take a page from the MoCo Blair story. Go at them, please.

This is a good model. Blair is the largest MCPS high school now. And non-magnet students are allowed to register for magnet classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what is the PTO argument about? If people think Eastern deserves PTO money, then they need to get the PTO fundraising parents to send their kids to Eastern.

Seem like you think "reading words" is hard? The PTSO fundraising was introduced in response to someone arguing with a straight face that the financial situations of JR and Eastern were identical.

Eastern can get more PTSO $$ if the principal tries to attract in-boundary students. But people here think it is outrageous for any in boundary family to question or try to learn more about the academic performance of the school. Not sure what some of you want. Keep chasing unicorns I guess

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of you guys have been hammering at a random neighborhood mom who bothered to look into the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program for pages now. The exercise is as pointless as it is nuts.

Suggestion: look at the development trajectory of Blair Montgomery HS in MoCo in the last 40 years rather than taking pot shots at moms.

Blair wasn't all that different from Eastern when I was a little kid living in Silver Spring. The school was dramatically under-enrolled, under-performing and filled with low SES minority students. Then, in the early 80s, MoCo started up two, large, super-duper test-in magnet programs at Blair, each with a county-wide draw, one program for STEM, the other for humanities. The magnets have always offered preferential treatment in admissions to in-boundary applicants. Almost since their inception, these programs have admitted a fraction of 8th grade applicants, roughly 10% in this century.

With the magnets in place, Blair began to attract top administrators, resources to renovate and better teachers. These days, Blair is a thriving by-right HS with double the enrollment it had in my day, and a highly diverse student body, attracting sizeable cohorts of black, white, Asian and Latino students, low and high SES.

Our ed leaders in the District would much rather see Eastern languish endlessly as a hopeless case under middling leadership than take a page from the MoCo Blair story. Go at them, please.

I haven't the time to tear down something that exhibits such a glaring misunderstanding of demographics. Suffice it to say the demographics of MoCo and DC are not similar, and that is even more so when one compares the IB population of Blair and Eastern. Your nice little story doesn't address the role of wealth, poverty and education gaps. It also ignores the brain drain of congressionally mandated charters (which I support, BTW) which don't exist in MoCo. Oh, and picking 30 40 years ago as a point of reference to compare the two while DC was gripped with the worst crack epidemic in the US and MoCo was not kind of encapsulates how little you understand the similarities and differences between the jurisdictions. .

TLR This isn't nearly as simple as you want to pretend it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you guys have been hammering at a random neighborhood mom who bothered to look into the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program for pages now. The exercise is as pointless as it is nuts.

Suggestion: look at the development trajectory of Blair Montgomery HS in MoCo in the last 40 years rather than taking pot shots at moms.

Blair wasn't all that different from Eastern when I was a little kid living in Silver Spring. The school was dramatically under-enrolled, under-performing and filled with low SES minority students. Then, in the early 80s, MoCo started up two, large, super-duper test-in magnet programs at Blair, each with a county-wide draw, one program for STEM, the other for humanities. The magnets have always offered preferential treatment in admissions to in-boundary applicants. Almost since their inception, these programs have admitted a fraction of 8th grade applicants, roughly 10% in this century.

With the magnets in place, Blair began to attract top administrators, resources to renovate and better teachers. These days, Blair is a thriving by-right HS with double the enrollment it had in my day, and a highly diverse student body, attracting sizeable cohorts of black, white, Asian and Latino students, low and high SES.

Our ed leaders in the District would much rather see Eastern languish endlessly as a hopeless case under middling leadership than take a page from the MoCo Blair story. Go at them, please.

I haven't the time to tear down something that exhibits such a glaring misunderstanding of demographics. Suffice it to say the demographics of MoCo and DC are not similar, and that is even more so when one compares the IB population of Blair and Eastern. Your nice little story doesn't address the role of wealth, poverty and education gaps. It also ignores the brain drain of congressionally mandated charters (which I support, BTW) which don't exist in MoCo. Oh, and picking 30 40 years ago as a point of reference to compare the two while DC was gripped with the worst crack epidemic in the US and MoCo was not kind of encapsulates how little you understand the similarities and differences between the jurisdictions. .

TLR This isn't nearly as simple as you want to pretend it is.

DP: Do you have any ideas of what would help make more DCPS schools strong schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what is the PTO argument about? If people think Eastern deserves PTO money, then they need to get the PTO fundraising parents to send their kids to Eastern.

Seem like you think "reading words" is hard? The PTSO fundraising was introduced in response to someone arguing with a straight face that the financial situations of JR and Eastern were identical.

It’s not but Eastern isn’t going to raise any significant money from any PTO if it’s not interested in also meeting the needs of the families who have the time and resources to raise money. Enough said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


I’m very surprised that a parent wouldn’t expect the principal of a schools to focus on the students AT THE SCHOOL rather than trying to replace those students with different ones. What a bizarre expectation.


A principal should do both! If the IB students avoid the school, then the system—DCPS in this case—is not serving those students well. Same for all the schools that the OOB come from. It’s great that the system lets people lottery for different schools, but IB should be the default, or else the system has given up trying to make it’s schools not suck.

THIS. DCPS could put the effort in to create a high performing gen ed MS/HS in Capitol Hill but it hasn't. And it is always DCPS circular logic: Why should DCPS care about what IB families want when it's not the IB families at the school. Well, the IB families aren't at the school because the school doesn't care about what IB families want . . . .

I wish NPR or the NYT would do a series about this catch-22 and be able to source actual data and experiences and results. I mean, I guess it is possible that it is just this easy, but, hmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh wait. Never mind. Nice White Parents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html

Could you say more about how you think the lessons of NWP applies in this circumstance?

I know there is the basic idea of a UMC parent wanting something more from the school, but beyond that I don’t see similarities. Eastern is not under-resourced. OP is not white, is neither attracted nor put-off by Eastern’s racial composition, is not wanting new programs. OP was concerned about the lack of achievement in a program the school already has and wanted reassurance that her kid could get a good education and successfully qualify for an IB diploma. She found the principal underwhelming and unable to give her that reassurance.

So what’s the answer? OP deciding not to worry about whether her child would actually end up with an IB diploma?

The answer the NWP poster alludes to is OP not having the gall to ask questions relating to the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program of Mr. Brown in the first place. Subsequently, she should have avoided briefly reporting on the nature of her interaction with, and professional impressions of, him so as not to open herself up to attack.

Let's say she'd stuck to a script governed by avoidance, a failure to engage. In that case, what would have been achieved?

meh. Nice White Parents *actually attend* the school and annoy people with their anti-bologna sandwich campaigns. That is much different (and better) than OP, who just wants to publicly criticize a black principal at a school she doesn’t attend, based on a single conversation.

I was there for that incident and it made me cringe… 😬

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you guys have been hammering at a random neighborhood mom who bothered to look into the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program for pages now. The exercise is as pointless as it is nuts.

Suggestion: look at the development trajectory of Blair Montgomery HS in MoCo in the last 40 years rather than taking pot shots at moms.

Blair wasn't all that different from Eastern when I was a little kid living in Silver Spring. The school was dramatically under-enrolled, under-performing and filled with low SES minority students. Then, in the early 80s, MoCo started up two, large, super-duper test-in magnet programs at Blair, each with a county-wide draw, one program for STEM, the other for humanities. The magnets have always offered preferential treatment in admissions to in-boundary applicants. Almost since their inception, these programs have admitted a fraction of 8th grade applicants, roughly 10% in this century.

With the magnets in place, Blair began to attract top administrators, resources to renovate and better teachers. These days, Blair is a thriving by-right HS with double the enrollment it had in my day, and a highly diverse student body, attracting sizeable cohorts of black, white, Asian and Latino students, low and high SES.

Our ed leaders in the District would much rather see Eastern languish endlessly as a hopeless case under middling leadership than take a page from the MoCo Blair story. Go at them, please.

I haven't the time to tear down something that exhibits such a glaring misunderstanding of demographics. Suffice it to say the demographics of MoCo and DC are not similar, and that is even more so when one compares the IB population of Blair and Eastern. Your nice little story doesn't address the role of wealth, poverty and education gaps. It also ignores the brain drain of congressionally mandated charters (which I support, BTW) which don't exist in MoCo. Oh, and picking 30 40 years ago as a point of reference to compare the two while DC was gripped with the worst crack epidemic in the US and MoCo was not kind of encapsulates how little you understand the similarities and differences between the jurisdictions. .

TLR This isn't nearly as simple as you want to pretend it is.

I don’t think you know the Blair demographics.
It is an extremely diverse school. Lot of poor recent immigrants, poor Asians, middle class whites and some poor AA students. Capitol Hill whites are a lot wealthier than Silver Spring white families. Don’t confuse Bethesda with some other parts of MC

[Anonymous]

OK, so let's write off Eastern as the academic and social disaster that is it forevermore.

No test-in magnets for Eastern, no real improvement, effectively no UMC neighborhood families enrolling, ever. Simply let Eastern rot under none-too-clever heads like Brown. There's your solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


I’m very surprised that a parent wouldn’t expect the principal of a schools to focus on the students AT THE SCHOOL rather than trying to replace those students with different ones. What a bizarre expectation.


A principal should do both! If the IB students avoid the school, then the system—DCPS in this case—is not serving those students well. Same for all the schools that the OOB come from. It’s great that the system lets people lottery for different schools, but IB should be the default, or else the system has given up trying to make it’s schools not suck.

THIS. DCPS could put the effort in to create a high performing gen ed MS/HS in Capitol Hill but it hasn't. And it is always DCPS circular logic: Why should DCPS care about what IB families want when it's not the IB families at the school. Well, the IB families aren't at the school because the school doesn't care about what IB families want . . . .

I wish NPR or the NYT would do a series about this catch-22 and be able to source actual data and experiences and results. I mean, I guess it is possible that it is just this easy, but, hmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh wait. Never mind. Nice White Parents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html

Could you say more about how you think the lessons of NWP applies in this circumstance?

I know there is the basic idea of a UMC parent wanting something more from the school, but beyond that I don’t see similarities. Eastern is not under-resourced. OP is not white, is neither attracted nor put-off by Eastern’s racial composition, is not wanting new programs. OP was concerned about the lack of achievement in a program the school already has and wanted reassurance that her kid could get a good education and successfully qualify for an IB diploma. She found the principal underwhelming and unable to give her that reassurance.

So what’s the answer? OP deciding not to worry about whether her child would actually end up with an IB diploma?

The answer the NWP poster alludes to is OP not having the gall to ask questions relating to the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program of Mr. Brown in the first place. Subsequently, she should have avoided briefly reporting on the nature of her interaction with, and professional impressions of, him so as not to open herself up to attack.

Let's say she'd stuck to a script governed by avoidance, a failure to engage. In that case, what would have been achieved?

meh. Nice White Parents *actually attend* the school and annoy people with their anti-bologna sandwich campaigns. That is much different (and better) than OP, who just wants to publicly criticize a black principal at a school she doesn’t attend, based on a single conversation.

So higher income parents get bashed if they attend their low performing school and they get bashed if they decide not to attend. What exactly would make you happy. Would you prefer they just leave DCPS and go private? It does seem like no one here has an issue with private school parents but watch out if you are high income and highly educated and want to attend your local DCPS high school.

PP here. I think the parents attending schools have every right to organize however they want.

LOL. That was the main problem in “Nice White Parents” — new families showing up and the leading change according to their interests.

I guess you are not very familiar with the series you referenced?

Just because I can summarize the argument doesn’t mean I agree with it. I think “NWP” is an illegitimate and bad-faith racialized attack on parents sending their kids to the local schools. OP deciding to put a principal on blast (when she never went to the school) due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation is annoying and exhausting.

I guess you’re kinda hoping that no one listened to the series so you can try to get away with your absurd characterization of Nice White Parents, huh? Of course, those of us who actually listened to the show know that it had absolutely nothing to do with an attack on parents sending their kids to local schools, but was rather a critique of generations of white parents whose kids didn’t attend the school organizing to push for changes to a local school that the people actually attending the school didn’t need or want, changes which the school board prioritized over the actual well being of the kids attending the school. Repeatedly.

[Anonymous]

The Hill has similar demographics to Ward 3. Nobody sends their kids to eastern and this principal doesn’t seem to give those folks the time of day. The question will be whether he’ll give them the time of day at Jackson, or if he’ll continue to cater to the bottom. My guess is the latter, as this is also a DCPS priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Hill has similar demographics to Ward 3. Nobody sends their kids to eastern and this principal doesn’t seem to give those folks the time of day. The question will be whether he’ll give them the time of day at Jackson, or if he’ll continue to cater to the bottom. My guess is the latter, as this is also a DCPS priority.

This. I agree with PP, it’s likely going to be the latter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Hill has similar demographics to Ward 3. Nobody sends their kids to eastern and this principal doesn’t seem to give those folks the time of day. The question will be whether he’ll give them the time of day at Jackson, or if he’ll continue to cater to the bottom. My guess is the latter, as this is also a DCPS priority.

THIS. Worse still, Brown doesn't seem to make the connection between catering to the bottom and taking the needs of high SES families seriously to help all boats ride with the tide. My guess is also the worrying latter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


I’m very surprised that a parent wouldn’t expect the principal of a schools to focus on the students AT THE SCHOOL rather than trying to replace those students with different ones. What a bizarre expectation.


A principal should do both! If the IB students avoid the school, then the system—DCPS in this case—is not serving those students well. Same for all the schools that the OOB come from. It’s great that the system lets people lottery for different schools, but IB should be the default, or else the system has given up trying to make it’s schools not suck.

THIS. DCPS could put the effort in to create a high performing gen ed MS/HS in Capitol Hill but it hasn't. And it is always DCPS circular logic: Why should DCPS care about what IB families want when it's not the IB families at the school. Well, the IB families aren't at the school because the school doesn't care about what IB families want . . . .

I wish NPR or the NYT would do a series about this catch-22 and be able to source actual data and experiences and results. I mean, I guess it is possible that it is just this easy, but, hmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh wait. Never mind. Nice White Parents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html

Could you say more about how you think the lessons of NWP applies in this circumstance?

I know there is the basic idea of a UMC parent wanting something more from the school, but beyond that I don’t see similarities. Eastern is not under-resourced. OP is not white, is neither attracted nor put-off by Eastern’s racial composition, is not wanting new programs. OP was concerned about the lack of achievement in a program the school already has and wanted reassurance that her kid could get a good education and successfully qualify for an IB diploma. She found the principal underwhelming and unable to give her that reassurance.

So what’s the answer? OP deciding not to worry about whether her child would actually end up with an IB diploma?

The answer the NWP poster alludes to is OP not having the gall to ask questions relating to the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program of Mr. Brown in the first place. Subsequently, she should have avoided briefly reporting on the nature of her interaction with, and professional impressions of, him so as not to open herself up to attack.

Let's say she'd stuck to a script governed by avoidance, a failure to engage. In that case, what would have been achieved?

meh. Nice White Parents *actually attend* the school and annoy people with their anti-bologna sandwich campaigns. That is much different (and better) than OP, who just wants to publicly criticize a black principal at a school she doesn’t attend, based on a single conversation.

So higher income parents get bashed if they attend their low performing school and they get bashed if they decide not to attend. What exactly would make you happy. Would you prefer they just leave DCPS and go private? It does seem like no one here has an issue with private school parents but watch out if you are high income and highly educated and want to attend your local DCPS high school.

PP here. I think the parents attending schools have every right to organize however they want.

LOL. That was the main problem in “Nice White Parents” — new families showing up and the leading change according to their interests.

I guess you are not very familiar with the series you referenced?

Just because I can summarize the argument doesn’t mean I agree with it. I think “NWP” is an illegitimate and bad-faith racialized attack on parents sending their kids to the local schools. OP deciding to put a principal on blast (when she never went to the school) due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation is annoying and exhausting.

I guess you’re kinda hoping that no one listened to the series so you can try to get away with your absurd characterization of Nice White Parents, huh? Of course, those of us who actually listened to the show know that it had absolutely nothing to do with an attack on parents sending their kids to local schools, but was rather a critique of generations of white parents whose kids didn’t attend the school organizing to push for changes to a local school that the people actually attending the school didn’t need or want, changes which the school board prioritized over the actual well being of the kids attending the school. Repeatedly.

DP here. I did not agree with the NWP podcast. The changes they documented are most likely real but it is divisive and disingenuous to blame the parents. Parents will always do what is best for their own kids. That is why it is stupid and ineffective for posters on here railing that wealthy parents should just enroll at Eastern for the greater good. The school board and central administration should be focused on trying to provide what all students need including upper income students. If new parents were advocating for changes that did not serve the majority of students well, then the school board should push back. I don’t blame the parents in this case. If a parent wants French at the school, they should advocate for it. However the principal and school district should be firm about not granting the request if it is not beneficial to the school as a whole or if it takes resources away from a more popular offering like Spanish

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Hill has similar demographics to Ward 3. Nobody sends their kids to eastern and this principal doesn’t seem to give those folks the time of day. The question will be whether he’ll give them the time of day at Jackson, or if he’ll continue to cater to the bottom. My guess is the latter, as this is also a DCPS priority.

This is an absurd construct. You have isolated one small neighborhood in Eastern's catchment area and claimed it is similar in demographics to all of Ward 3. Assuming you were correct on the facts...and? How is that relevant? Do you not see that you illustrate part of the inherent conflict here; CH is one small neighborhood and Eastern's IB population is much broader and more varied with many more diverse needs than Ward 3s somewhat homogeneous population? Take a look at the catchment for Eastern and then look at Wilson's. Even ignoring OB kids, the IB constituencies are not similar or nearly as homogeneous. Those of you with too much free time or an ax to grind have created this BS construct that that Eastern and Wilson and their respective IB populations are somehow similar and that the only thing holding Eastern back is a principal. Laughable.

[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:


I’m very surprised that a parent wouldn’t expect the principal of a schools to focus on the students AT THE SCHOOL rather than trying to replace those students with different ones. What a bizarre expectation.


A principal should do both! If the IB students avoid the school, then the system—DCPS in this case—is not serving those students well. Same for all the schools that the OOB come from. It’s great that the system lets people lottery for different schools, but IB should be the default, or else the system has given up trying to make it’s schools not suck.

THIS. DCPS could put the effort in to create a high performing gen ed MS/HS in Capitol Hill but it hasn't. And it is always DCPS circular logic: Why should DCPS care about what IB families want when it's not the IB families at the school. Well, the IB families aren't at the school because the school doesn't care about what IB families want . . . .

I wish NPR or the NYT would do a series about this catch-22 and be able to source actual data and experiences and results. I mean, I guess it is possible that it is just this easy, but, hmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh wait. Never mind. Nice White Parents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html

Could you say more about how you think the lessons of NWP applies in this circumstance?

I know there is the basic idea of a UMC parent wanting something more from the school, but beyond that I don’t see similarities. Eastern is not under-resourced. OP is not white, is neither attracted nor put-off by Eastern’s racial composition, is not wanting new programs. OP was concerned about the lack of achievement in a program the school already has and wanted reassurance that her kid could get a good education and successfully qualify for an IB diploma. She found the principal underwhelming and unable to give her that reassurance.

So what’s the answer? OP deciding not to worry about whether her child would actually end up with an IB diploma?

The answer the NWP poster alludes to is OP not having the gall to ask questions relating to the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program of Mr. Brown in the first place. Subsequently, she should have avoided briefly reporting on the nature of her interaction with, and professional impressions of, him so as not to open herself up to attack.

Let's say she'd stuck to a script governed by avoidance, a failure to engage. In that case, what would have been achieved?

meh. Nice White Parents *actually attend* the school and annoy people with their anti-bologna sandwich campaigns. That is much different (and better) than OP, who just wants to publicly criticize a black principal at a school she doesn’t attend, based on a single conversation.

So higher income parents get bashed if they attend their low performing school and they get bashed if they decide not to attend. What exactly would make you happy. Would you prefer they just leave DCPS and go private? It does seem like no one here has an issue with private school parents but watch out if you are high income and highly educated and want to attend your local DCPS high school.

PP here. I think the parents attending schools have every right to organize however they want.

LOL. That was the main problem in “Nice White Parents” — new families showing up and the leading change according to their interests.

I guess you are not very familiar with the series you referenced?

Just because I can summarize the argument doesn’t mean I agree with it. I think “NWP” is an illegitimate and bad-faith racialized attack on parents sending their kids to the local schools. OP deciding to put a principal on blast (when she never went to the school) due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation is annoying and exhausting.

I guess you’re kinda hoping that no one listened to the series so you can try to get away with your absurd characterization of Nice White Parents, huh? Of course, those of us who actually listened to the show know that it had absolutely nothing to do with an attack on parents sending their kids to local schools, but was rather a critique of generations of white parents whose kids didn’t attend the school organizing to push for changes to a local school that the people actually attending the school didn’t need or want, changes which the school board prioritized over the actual well being of the kids attending the school. Repeatedly.

DP here. I did not agree with the NWP podcast. The changes they documented are most likely real but it is divisive and disingenuous to blame the parents. Parents will always do what is best for their own kids. That is why it is stupid and ineffective for posters on here railing that wealthy parents should just enroll at Eastern for the greater good. The school board and central administration should be focused on trying to provide what all students need including upper income students. If new parents were advocating for changes that did not serve the majority of students well, then the school board should push back. I don’t blame the parents in this case. If a parent wants French at the school, they should advocate for it. However the principal and school district should be firm about not granting the request if it is not beneficial to the school as a whole or if it takes resources away from a more popular offering like Spanish

I think there is a nuanced view of NWP that needn't subscribe to PP or PPP's binary view on the podcast. Let me start by calling BS on claiming that documenting the changes was "divisive". That's rhetorical device designed to prevent discussion of actions and consequences; meaningless drivel designed to shield. I guess you agree that prosecuting Jan 6 protesters who breached the capitol, destroyed property and assaulted police is "divisive"? You are using the phrase to mean "a discussion or topic that makes me uncomfortable." Just because something makes you uncomfortable doesn't make it divisive.

Moving past that, I still agree with PP that there seemed to be in NWP an outsized blame on parents for advocating and an underrepresented focus on administrators and school officials who allowed those requests to morph into the executables. The parents were within their rights to make requests and the school agency was within theirs to say "no".

I also agree with PPP that a lot of the narrative of NWP involved parents of kids who demanded changes and in the end didn't enroll. Yes, there were elements of the PTO being whiter and more affluent but so too were there elements of parents who said they'd buy in if changes were made and then sent kids to a different school (BTW, not sure why that outcome surprised anyone).

There were elements of NWP that were cringeworthy, and others where I was like, "And? So parents of kids who attended the school were active in the PTO and wanted to raise funds through their work and social contacts. That's not inherently bad or racist and if their kid is at the school they have a right to use their voice to advocate. This idea of liberal guilt meaning I shouldn't advocate for my kid because I might be accused of racism is utter BS."

Part of why DCUM is so often a cesspool is because people say things they don't intend as racist or demeaning and when called on it they double down or act like they are victims and black people should be more sensitive to their needs. Similarly, people reflexively scream "RACIST BIGOT" and seem to come to the discussion with a sense of entitlement that the worm has turned and if they declare something offensive or objectionable then anyone who doesn't immediately apologize or yield is further illustrating their racism. Nothing is accomplished when we can't have discussions.