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Schools and Education General Discussion
Moving to DC, and can't decide between Oyster and MoCo
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Anonymous
Yes, lots of thugs in Silver Spring. |
Anonymous
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i am familiar with both areas, as i live in adams morgan. yes, woodley park is urban. i know, because i can see it from my house....
kidding. but, yeah, WP is more urban that bethesda. it's definitely got surburban "feel" as you got away from CT ave, but that doesn't make it an actual suburb. further, WP is mere steps from those nabes with real urban bona fides, like dupont and adams morgan. t |
Anonymous
| I'm with 21:32 on Woodley Park being urban because I can see it from my Adams Morgan home! Also, WP is more dense than CC and Bethesda and residents depend less on their cars for travel outside their neighborhoods because they are physically closer and better connected by public transit to the rest of the city. |
Anonymous
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It's not a no-brainer for Bethesda. We could have bought in either place and chose Oyster too. Some people -- me and DH included-- absolutely hate commuting. We look at it as several hours per week that you spend in the car or on the metro rather than with our kids, working out, finishing a little work, or a million things that are more fulfilling to me than commuting. For those who say that Bethesda is "so close," maybe so if you're on the metro but it's still 15 minutes farther each way, and much farther if you need to drive.
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Anonymous
I think you're kidding yourself. I walk everywhere. That is an urban lifestyle. I live in Woodley Park. In just 2 miles I'm downtown. My child's school is 3 blocks away. We don't own or need a car. I also live in an apartment. Is that econ. diverse enough for you? |
Anonymous
| OP. Thanks for the responses. I'm twisted into a corkscrew over this decision. I want to live in the city. That's a no brainer for me. A pp said DCPS offers little for talented kids, which worries me. Why should my kids suffer because I want an urban lifestyle? They are already learning Spanish, so Oyster would be a good fit. And I'm hoping the Adams part is improved enough by the time they get there that they can skip Deal MS. High school would likely be private. The risk-averse part of me says go to MoCo, and I'm trying to override that. Hence the corkscrew. |
Anonymous
Well, I'm the PP who said that. We feel we're offering the child the stimulation of living in the city. She's surrounded by a more aesthetically satisfying built environment, walks everywhere (which I think is more stimulating for everyone, but especially for little children, than the back seat of a car), and enjoy cultural attractions at least twice a week under most circumstances. So much learning happens outside the classroom, but we also pay for private instrument lessons and that Hopkins gifted program. |
Anonymous
| OP Then live in the city. Oyster's great, with a great community, the Spanish will challenge your children, there's Levine School of Music and club soccer etc. |
Anonymous
| I chose Oyster when making the move, as I NEED to be urban to stay sane, and the commute is shorter for me (more time with DD). Oyster is a very diverse school (for a NW school) and it would provide more of the international flavor we seek for DD. Also, the education is great! |
Anonymous
| Oyster has its own MS, which should be pretty good in a few years (just started). HS, maybe go private... though can you really decide that far out? |
Anonymous
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Of course most of the urban moms I know who have gone that route spend as much time in their minivans shuttling kids from lesson to lesson as their suburban counterparts....
I've avoided that by refusing to learn to drive/buy a car and generally limiting extracurriculars to stuff that's in walking distance of home or is at school. Frankly, I don't think that the kids at Oyster are suffering compared to kids in MoCo schools. That said, we live in the city and send our kid to private school. In this post-NCLB era, I guess I just want a different kind of education than most of the rest of the public. |
Anonymous
| oops, PP here -- got interrupted. by "that route" I meant Levine School, club soccer, etc. |
Anonymous
PP, do you think the Hopkins gifted program makes up for the lack of a gifted program at Oyster? Does your child sit in class bored all day? We've been there, tried supplementing with an external gifted program, and it didn't work very well. DC was still bored all day and picked up some "I'm smart and don't have to work" attitude at school. BTW, who doesn't pay for private instrument lessons? School music lessons are worthless, in my experience. |
Anonymous
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Was your kid bored all day at Oyster?
Have you found a gifted program in MoCo where your kid isn't bored all day? If the answer to both questions is yes, then let the OP know -- that would be useful info. |
Anonymous
Good question. And, um, the answer is they should not. Right? MoCo is hardly rural West Virginia, so your lifestyle will likely be minimally impacted if you compare WP/CP/Oyster boundary to MoCo. And a caveat: "learning" Spanish is not the same as a bilingual immersion program, so depending on DC's age, Oyster may not be the good fit one might hope. So if it doesn't work for your kids, you're out a heck of a lot of rent. OTOH, we are a bilingual family and the Oyster program and the Adams Morgan area fit well with our multi-culti-not-super-wealthy lifestyle. And at the moment I couldn't imagine living in the 'burbs either. That said, if I knew my DCs were G&T, I'd rent in MoCo or put the money toward private tuition versus hope for the best in DCPS until high school. But my kids are average and typical for their ages, so I won't have that issue. 
Good luck OP. I am genuinely pleased for you that you have options. Honest. No snark. |