Is caring deeply about the quality of school a new construct?
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Anonymous
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Eh, I grew up in a rural area with shitty schools, although my folks were relatively high SES. My parents briefly toyed with the idea of local private schools, when my older siblings hit middle and high school, but ultimately decided it wasn't much increase in quality (if any). These were the sort of private schools that were founded primarily for wealthy white parents to avoid integrated schools. And we were doing pretty well in our shitty schools. No one seriously considered uprooting and moving the whole family just to be in a better school district; we would have had to move at least a hundred miles. We gave serious side-eye to another wealthy family, that had their kids commute to fancy private school an hour and a half each way everyday in a nearby "city".
My impression is that the calculus has always been a bit different in urban areas, where lots of high SES folks have lots of choices and segregation/desegregation/resegregation and disparities in opportunity in relatively close-by areas have been hot button issues for decades now. When you can dramatically improve your kids education by moving 5 miles, this is something more parents are likely to obsess over. |
Anonymous
+1. And Andrea Zuckerman used her Grandma's address so she could go to West Beverly High instead of her shitty high school. This was back in the early 90's. |
Anonymous
When "diversity" on a show took the form of a nerdy Jewish girl. |
Anonymous
Why is that a given? I mean, what if Trump wins?? |
Anonymous
| I grew up in the 70s and my dad had a super long commute into LA because my parents wanted to live in a new community on the edge of LA county that was not in the LA school district. |
Anonymous
| It's a complicated dance brought about in large parts by busing and the virulently racist reactions against it in some parts of the East Coast and Midwest. White people hop from burb to burb in search of the American Dream, but when push comes to shove, will tolerate living among model minoritied only. Tipping points. Redlining. Location, location, location. O what a tangled web we weave when quiet racists try to deceive. |
Anonymous
Maybe some people obsessed with school choices are racists, but I really don't think it's as much about racism as your post implies. I'm a minority and my kids attend Title I schools. Many whites avoid the schools my kids attend, but it would be disingenuous of me to say it's all about racism when I'm seriously considering moving. Unfortunately, race and SES still have a strong correlation, so it's easy to attribute things to race/racism when they may not be the issue. In Title one schools the kids as a whole come in much less prepared, and continue to be less prepared, than kids from higher SES backgrounds. This happens for various reasons like non-English speaking parents, parents who are undereducated and don't know how to help, parents working multiple jobs and don't have time to help, a misguided expectation that schools, without parental involvement, can fully educate a child....That takes a toll on the education received by kids who come in prepared and have academic support at home. This places those kids at a disadvantage when they get to college and are being compared to peers who went to schools with a majority of highly prepared student who have been challenged academically throughout their academic careers. My kids are a minority minority at their Title I schoos and that doesn't bother me at all. The lack of academic challenge does, however. Am I racist or classist? No, I'm just realistic about the realities that are present in many lower SES schools. We bought our house pre-kids based on location, and, not being afraid of "diversity," stayed after having kids. After experiencing the challenges in the schools, we now have to assess the impact on our kids. So far we've chosen to stay and supplement at home. It's possible we will decide that moving is a better option as they get older. |
Anonymous
Similar story here. My immigrant parents who didn't go to high school bought the cheapest house in a really good school district, away from their friends and my dad's job, so we could get a good education. Also in NY in the 70's. Many of my schoolmates' parents did the same thing. |
Anonymous
| I think it's silly to think this is a new construct. People have been worried about getting the best education for hundreds of years. Post WW2, when urbanization started occurring more quickly, people began to have more choices and so they exercised those choices. It's just a natural consequence of having a middle class, higher population, and more schools around. But even in earlier times, a good education was prized. |
Anonymous
Nothing about post WW2 urbanization was "natural." All man-made inequality. |
Anonymous
| Not new at all. I was born in 76, and we moved every couple years. The specifics of every move was based on the quality of the schools, and I switched back and forth between private and public based on which was better in each location. |
Anonymous
| It's not new. I moved every three years and if we lived off post, schools were the number one priority. Living in DC makes things complicated. You deal with issues that most of the rest of the country doesn't. Everywhere else we have lived has been simple - neighborhood schools. No lottery. No charter. You just go to the school you are assigned to. We always buy homes in great school districts. School and community overlap with everyone taking interest and pride in their neighborhood schools. When my DH is assigned to DC, we live in NoVA to avoid the school nonsense. If schools were not an issue, we would live closer in like we did before we had kids. We have done privates in other parts of the country, but the DC private school world is something I want no part of. |
Anonymous
| I do think that standing up at the new parent meeting and inquiring about gifted programs and assuming that your kindergartener will get in is a new thing peculiar to this area. By the time we went to the one for our third child, my husband and I were laughing when the questions started up. No one ever asks "What will you do if my child is delayed? If he has problems with reading? Math?" No, everybody assumes their kid will need high end, super advanced academic services because the kid is a genius. Thirteen years later, the situation for those same kids may look a little different. |
Anonymous
Do you mean Asians when you refer to model minorities? It certainly isn't racism to want to avoid students of any race known to be ill-behaved, low-achieving. |
Anonymous
| Dad grew up in the 50s and his parents moved out of the inner city into the suburbs for better schools. "White flight" wasn't just about racism (although dad's city and suburbs were both white), it had a school component too. |