Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
OP here ... so one of the things I define as "down to earth" is a community where parents don't feel that they have to "invest" in their school community unless something is really wrong (i.e., impose their somewhat arbitrary bugaboos on the school). Parents should be having better things to do, like planning neighborhood barbecues and working in their yards, or delivering research papers, or making oral arguments in court.
Yes, nothing says "down to earth" to me like delivering research papers or making oral arguments in court!
Fair enough! But I guess what I'm saying is that somehow my town growing up had plenty of very smart, accomplished folks who did not feel like they needed to overwhelmingly stress over the schools or their kids' academics. (With exceptions, of course.) Maybe that just does not exist anymore.
We live in Bethesda (although I think the cheaper part of Bethesda), and honestly I don't think the parents stress out about that stuff. The kids eat Cheetos at the park; they play video games on playdates; they watch PG-13 movies and listen to Katy Perry crap. I've only met one parent who was the crazy "After his piano lesson, my kid has to run to their Kumon class even though they are at the top of their class." A lot of scientists and economists in our neighborhood (although there are also the lobbyists and the lawyers and the real estate brokers). I'm confused by your comment about parents "investing." The fact is that the public schools are really under-funded now. The parents at our school chip in to buy stuff like computers, desks, classroom supplies, run the science fair, and fund a couple of assemblies a year (usually by performing arts folks). I don't know if that's what you're complaining about when you talk about "investing." There are parents who do that stuff for the school -- I don't and don't really know the ones that do, but I'm grateful that they do it, because my kids appreciate the assemblies and have fun doing the science fair (which is your basic "I built a volcano with baking soda" affair, not a "I mapped the human DNA at my dad's lab!" kind of thing). There are so many top tier privates in MoCo, I think it really pulls a lot of the "over-achievers" who are over-invested in their kids education out of public. I'd guess they are all at Landon, Bullis, etc.
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