Resentful and annoyed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I guess you are right.

She kind of resents everyone. Sorta sad.

Not really, she is being honest that there are trade offs. What is dishonest is to say that you have no choices when if fact you do not want to make the trade offs she did. Many people actually have no choices, but it is not usually the DCUM posters.

Right but what is she trading off for. Apparently she could have a really great life going to her awesome charter and living in a hip neighborhood and trying for kid #2 but instead plays the martyr about her cramped quarters and tight finances. I'm just saying she could have everything she wants.

It sounds like she just wants her cake and eat it too. This is a completely manufactured problem.

[Anonymous]

I think the choices PP just got into the charter, no? Maybe she will move now. I think her point was a good one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi there from Ward 3 -

We are some of the people that live in apartments on Connecticut Avenue and drag down the test scores, 'SES', English speaking abilities, and overall environment of the little snowflakes down the street in their million dollar homes.

I understand why OP is resentful and annoyed at those who win the lottery. And she would hate our family as well because we got into a highly sought after charter school in the lottery and we are zoned for a JKLM. However, I want to note that we also pay taxes in this city and we are also interested in bilingual education for our child. So, I do feel that we should have as much right to lottery for a charter school as anyone else in the city. Just because we have a decently good IB school does not mean that we should be shut out of all of the charter schools in the city. Plus, our JKLM is SO over-crowded that I am not very optimistic about its state right now.....

I agree with some of the previous posters that in an ideal world, you should not be resentful of other people for having made different life choices. But at the same time, I too am resentful and annoyed at some people for making - or having the option to make - different choices than ours. We have chosen to prioritize schools over neighborhood, space, and number of children. For a good IB school, we have chosen to live in a fairly small apartment. For a good IB school, we have chosen to have one child (b/c we need to live in a small apartment to do so!). For a good IB school, we have chosen to live in a part of the city that would not be my ideal choice - it's a bit too ritzy and pasty white for my taste.
So, I don't think you should resent me. I gave up those other things in order to have more education-oriented choices, which we now have. That makes me very happy. However, because of the tradeoffs of life, I am resentful of other things. I resent my neighbors and friends for having bigger homes. I resent OP and others for having two children or more versus my one. I resent my colleagues and friends that live in cooler, more fun parts of the city that are closer to metro or downtown.

But that resentment leaves me nowhere. In the end, we cannot have it all. Too many of us were taught to dream that we could have it all, which I think is a failure of our generation. We just have to decide what is most important to us and make choices based on those values. For OP, if you continue to be unlucky in the lotteries and if education is very important to you, join us in a small apartment in Ward 3 - or even in MoCO or VA if Ward 3 is too expensive for the size you want. Living in a small apartment is honestly not so bad. The proximity of wonderful neighbors in our building makes the loss of space a joy.

Signed,
Don't Resent Me b/c I Won the Lottery

Why are you suffering in your cramped space to have a great IB option if you just said that you DON'T want to go to your IB school and you lotteried in. Your post makes no sense.

Agree. If you moved so that you have a good school for your kids then SEND YOUR KIDS TO THAT DAMN SCHOOL AND STOP TAKING LOTTERY PLACES AWAY FROM THOSE OF US WHO NEED THEM.

[Anonymous]

1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

I completely disagree. Ward 3 parents have a right to charters as well. Do parents at Ross not have a right to charters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SILVER SPRING

Oh come on. OP may be desperate, but she's not dying.

[Anonymous]

that is so rude, there are real people who live in silver spring. why is this board so rude.

[Anonymous]

Charter schools are for everyone. For people who gave not choices and people who have lots of options. Maybe that Ward 3 parent wants Chinese immersion, or maybe that Ward 8 parent wants Spanish immersion. Point is, we all have a right to access these programs and come together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

That is absolutely ridiculous. Why should a Ward 3 parent not have the same opportunity to send their child to a charter school that any other parent has?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

You have a right to a free public education. A good education is a privilege that many parents make sacrifices for so they can provide it for their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Why are you suffering in your cramped space to have a great IB option if you just said that you DON'T want to go to your IB school and you lotteried in. Your post makes no sense.

Agree. If you moved so that you have a good school for your kids then SEND YOUR KIDS TO THAT DAMN SCHOOL AND STOP TAKING LOTTERY PLACES AWAY FROM THOSE OF US WHO NEED THEM.

PP here. It should be obvious by now that we are not super rich despite living in Ward 3. So, I would also like to point out that PK3 slots are not available at a single JKLM school. And for PK4, only about 50% of the kids in bounds at our JKLM get a slot. So, we would likely have to pay two more years of childcare until our child can get into the 'damn school' that you are referring to. We cannot afford to do so. Why shouldn't our family have at least an equal chance at the high quality public preschool programs available in this city? Also, as I noted, we highly value bilingual education and our JKLM cannot provide that. Just because we have a decent neighborhood school doesn't mean we shouldn't be able to access the specialized programs offered by charter schools in the city.

And to all of the posters who say that my post doesn't make sense......here is what I mean. We are thrilled about the charter school that we have been accepted to. We think it seems really great and we are super excited. But if it doesn't work out there, we will bail for our JKLM and we like the idea of having that option available to us. People with lots of money think this way all the time about schools. They figure they will try public school and if that doesn't work out, they will go to a private school. Or they will try the catholic parochial school and if that doesn't work out, they will go to a more expensive private school. In our case, we don't have tons of money but we have tried to create some options for our child's education by living in a smaller space AND trying our luck in the lottery. If we lived in a bigger space EotP, we would have only the lottery. If we lived here but didn't try the lottery, we would have only the JKLM.

I know that you all hate me b/c yes, we have an embarrassment of riches with such good options for schools. But I am trying to make the point that we created those options ourselves by taking the tradeoff. Smaller living space, one kid, less hip part of the city. For those trade offs, we get better school options.

It works for us. I am happy with our choice.

Nonetheless, it can still bug me just a little when I see what others have by not making those choices b/c I imagine having those things AND what I have now. But that's impossible and I recognize that. Don't we all feel that way about trade offs? annoying sometimes even though we decided the ones we would take? Isn't that why those of you that are angry about winning the lottery are so bitter? You made your choice to stay in a part of the city with lower housing costs and poor educational options - and now you are mad at me for winning the lottery and you think you should have a preference for the charter schools b/c you chose to have a bigger house in a hipper part of the city. That is not my fault. But I do understand you for resenting me a little for it.....

[Anonymous]

When I bought into my "hip" part of the city. It wasn't...we got our place for a steal with warnings about living in this horrible area. We were young and never even thought about having kids. Flash forward, and we now love our neighborhood, love the hipsters that grew around us and don't want to sacrifice.

Lucky for us, we are in a great charter, but why should my neighbors have to sacrifice because they didn't win the lottery? We should ALL have great schools. Until the time we stop fighting with each other and start asking our political "leaders" to prioritize that we are nothing more then children complaining about something they want, but won't work to get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I bought into my "hip" part of the city. It wasn't...we got our place for a steal with warnings about living in this horrible area. We were young and never even thought about having kids. Flash forward, and we now love our neighborhood, love the hipsters that grew around us and don't want to sacrifice.

Lucky for us, we are in a great charter, but why should my neighbors have to sacrifice because they didn't win the lottery? We should ALL have great schools. Until the time we stop fighting with each other and start asking our political "leaders" to prioritize that we are nothing more then children complaining about something they want, but won't work to get.

Why don't people get that the great schools are already there. It's the students that make the schools great. It's the parent involvement. If the kids in your neighborhood school aren't prepared and their parents don't care nothing can be done to make that school great.

-EOTP mom

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

We are IB for JKLM. Several years ago, we made a leap of faith and moved our child to a brand new charter school. It was very rough going, but our family, as well as others, hung in there. There was no wait list and everyone that applied was accepted. I volunteered A LOT (as in using my vacation days and nights) at the school and I still do. Within our budget, we also donated money and brought in the bare essentials. Our first child basically missed the 5th and 6th grades because things were so unorganized. The school was constantly criticized on DCUM. Now, the school (Washington Latin)is highly sought after. So...if I understand what is being said here, because I live in ward 3, it's unfair that my child is at Latin?