Discrimination against Asians

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is hilarious. I know plenty of unsuccessful over educated people from very impressive schools. You can't buy it with a label for your kid.

There are unsuccessful people from all different backgrounds. My point was just that many well educated elite families send their children to private schools. I’m sure many of these kids could get into TJ and do well there. These families just choose private. It is just an observation.

Do Asians face discrimination in entry into private schools? Or are the low percentages reflective of something else?

Wealth. Many URMs can get financial aid. Asians are not too rich, nor too poor.

Again, Asians are at the sweet spot. Nothing to gain by privilege and nothing to gain by affirmative action. I would work like crazy. Wait - they don't want you to work too hard, either.

I’m the pp from upthread who said that in our circles, the elite white tend to send their kids to private. We also know plenty of Asians who also send their kids to private school. DH and I were children of poor immigrants. We now have a seven figure income that we worked very hard to earn. We don’t want our kids to be surrounded by only rich kids. That is just us and our preference. Pretty much all our professional colleagues are white and send their kids to private. They wonder and have straight up asked us why we send our kids to public schools. Guess it seems odd to them since they know that we are their equals and they can’t understand why we wouldn’t send kids to private when we can obviously afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is hilarious. I know plenty of unsuccessful over educated people from very impressive schools. You can't buy it with a label for your kid.

There are unsuccessful people from all different backgrounds. My point was just that many well educated elite families send their children to private schools. I’m sure many of these kids could get into TJ and do well there. These families just choose private. It is just an observation.

Do Asians face discrimination in entry into private schools? Or are the low percentages reflective of something else?

Wealth. Many URMs can get financial aid. Asians are not too rich, nor too poor.

Again, Asians are at the sweet spot. Nothing to gain by privilege and nothing to gain by affirmative action. I would work like crazy. Wait - they don't want you to work too hard, either.

Plus Bamboo Ceiling.

[Anonymous]

The incredible stereotyping going on in this thread is pretty alarming.

Break up TJ's 70% into actually different ethnicities. Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc., including mixed (many children are mixed Whites-Asian). Then you will see the rich diversity reflected in the student population of different races and religions, and way of life. Far more diverse than many of the high schools in this area (including Arlington).

Cheating is looked down upon in any society, even in TJ. The kids know a mile away who are dicey and the dicey ones (and families) get slammed for it. Not everyone spends boatloads of money at prep schools. In addition, even if some do, they sacrifice a lot to do so.

Finally, TJ kids work hard and are generally happy. They feel lucky to be there. Perhaps, our job is to make the kids and families realize that giving opportunities to the less fortunate is something they can work on more given that they had so much support from the community in pursuing STEM at TJ.

A lottery is a blanket policy that rewards the less fortunate AND the fortunate. Guess who populate Fairfax county more? By definition, it rewards the fortunate more than the less fortunate, including the fortunate Asians.

Devise a system that rewards hard work and, at the same time, supports the truly unfortunate. That should be the goal. Giftedness comes in many guises; performance in tests, perhaps slightly worse performance, but despite the odds, etc. Find a better way to identify the latter. I want TJ to have more of those people, not just a random influx of fortunate people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The incredible stereotyping going on in this thread is pretty alarming.

Break up TJ's 70% into actually different ethnicities. Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc., including mixed (many children are mixed Whites-Asian). Then you will see the rich diversity reflected in the student population of different races and religions, and way of life. Far more diverse than many of the high schools in this area (including Arlington).

Cheating is looked down upon in any society, even in TJ. The kids know a mile away who are dicey and the dicey ones (and families) get slammed for it. Not everyone spends boatloads of money at prep schools. In addition, even if some do, they sacrifice a lot to do so.

Finally, TJ kids work hard and are generally happy. They feel lucky to be there. Perhaps, our job is to make the kids and families realize that giving opportunities to the less fortunate is something they can work on more given that they had so much support from the community in pursuing STEM at TJ.

A lottery is a blanket policy that rewards the less fortunate AND the fortunate. Guess who populate Fairfax county more? By definition, it rewards the fortunate more than the less fortunate, including the fortunate Asians.

Devise a system that rewards hard work and, at the same time, supports the truly unfortunate. That should be the goal. Giftedness comes in many guises; performance in tests, perhaps slightly worse performance, but despite the odds, etc. Find a better way to identify the latter. I want TJ to have more of those people, not just a random influx of fortunate people.

I agree. If we don't make decisions that favor giftedness hard work and advanced learning, we will have neither diversity nor excellence, because the school will be just like Honors classes at the base school... at which point, why would someone want to deal with not having a neighborhood bus, a long commute, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The incredible stereotyping going on in this thread is pretty alarming.

Break up TJ's 70% into actually different ethnicities. Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc., including mixed (many children are mixed Whites-Asian). Then you will see the rich diversity reflected in the student population of different races and religions, and way of life. Far more diverse than many of the high schools in this area (including Arlington).

Cheating is looked down upon in any society, even in TJ. The kids know a mile away who are dicey and the dicey ones (and families) get slammed for it. Not everyone spends boatloads of money at prep schools. In addition, even if some do, they sacrifice a lot to do so.

Finally, TJ kids work hard and are generally happy. They feel lucky to be there. Perhaps, our job is to make the kids and families realize that giving opportunities to the less fortunate is something they can work on more given that they had so much support from the community in pursuing STEM at TJ.

A lottery is a blanket policy that rewards the less fortunate AND the fortunate. Guess who populate Fairfax county more? By definition, it rewards the fortunate more than the less fortunate, including the fortunate Asians.

Devise a system that rewards hard work and, at the same time, supports the truly unfortunate. That should be the goal. Giftedness comes in many guises; performance in tests, perhaps slightly worse performance, but despite the odds, etc. Find a better way to identify the latter. I want TJ to have more of those people, not just a random influx of fortunate people.

This was lovely to read thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The incredible stereotyping going on in this thread is pretty alarming.

Break up TJ's 70% into actually different ethnicities. Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc., including mixed (many children are mixed Whites-Asian). Then you will see the rich diversity reflected in the student population of different races and religions, and way of life. Far more diverse than many of the high schools in this area (including Arlington).

Cheating is looked down upon in any society, even in TJ. The kids know a mile away who are dicey and the dicey ones (and families) get slammed for it. Not everyone spends boatloads of money at prep schools. In addition, even if some do, they sacrifice a lot to do so.

Finally, TJ kids work hard and are generally happy. They feel lucky to be there. Perhaps, our job is to make the kids and families realize that giving opportunities to the less fortunate is something they can work on more given that they had so much support from the community in pursuing STEM at TJ.

A lottery is a blanket policy that rewards the less fortunate AND the fortunate. Guess who populate Fairfax county more? By definition, it rewards the fortunate more than the less fortunate, including the fortunate Asians.

Devise a system that rewards hard work and, at the same time, supports the truly unfortunate. That should be the goal. Giftedness comes in many guises; performance in tests, perhaps slightly worse performance, but despite the odds, etc. Find a better way to identify the latter. I want TJ to have more of those people, not just a random influx of fortunate people.

I agree. If we don't make decisions that favor giftedness hard work and advanced learning, we will have neither diversity nor excellence, because the school will be just like Honors classes at the base school... at which point, why would someone want to deal with not having a neighborhood bus, a long commute, etc?

Agreed. How is this not obvious?

[Anonymous]

Because Arlington has a lottery school that is highly regarded and functions quite well with about 10% of the drama of TJ.

I am sick of watching TJ suck up all the oxygen in FCPS in terms of attention, accolades, controversy, and half-baked plans to restructure. Nothing else gets done and we’re supposed to believe the future of the Republic rises or falls with the fate of one school and whether it ends up 35% or 75% Asian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because Arlington has a lottery school that is highly regarded and functions quite well with about 10% of the drama of TJ.

I am sick of watching TJ suck up all the oxygen in FCPS in terms of attention, accolades, controversy, and half-baked plans to restructure. Nothing else gets done and we’re supposed to believe the future of the Republic rises or falls with the fate of one school and whether it ends up 35% or 75% Asian.

I didn’t even know TJ had a magnet high school. That’s how not highly regarded it is.

I do know there are lotteries for some of the elementary schools. Fcps has that for language immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because Arlington has a lottery school that is highly regarded and functions quite well with about 10% of the drama of TJ.

I am sick of watching TJ suck up all the oxygen in FCPS in terms of attention, accolades, controversy, and half-baked plans to restructure. Nothing else gets done and we’re supposed to believe the future of the Republic rises or falls with the fate of one school and whether it ends up 35% or 75% Asian.

Some differences: HB Woodlawn starts in middle school and is not STEM-focused. Also Whites make up 61% of student body compared to 47% in Arlington County even though it is a lottery. That should give you a glimpse of what will happen if you implement a lottery for TJ.

[Anonymous]

The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is fear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because Arlington has a lottery school that is highly regarded and functions quite well with about 10% of the drama of TJ.

I am sick of watching TJ suck up all the oxygen in FCPS in terms of attention, accolades, controversy, and half-baked plans to restructure. Nothing else gets done and we’re supposed to believe the future of the Republic rises or falls with the fate of one school and whether it ends up 35% or 75% Asian.

Some differences: HB Woodlawn starts in middle school and is not STEM-focused. Also Whites make up 61% of student body compared to 47% in Arlington County even though it is a lottery. That should give you a glimpse of what will happen if you implement a lottery for TJ.

Or, perhaps the over-representation of whites at HB reflects the fact that it's not STEM-focused.

Either way the obsession with TJ on the part of both the School Board and a large segment of the Asian community is tiresome. It's like nothing else and no one else matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The incredible stereotyping going on in this thread is pretty alarming.

Break up TJ's 70% into actually different ethnicities. Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc., including mixed (many children are mixed Whites-Asian). Then you will see the rich diversity reflected in the student population of different races and religions, and way of life. Far more diverse than many of the high schools in this area (including Arlington).

Cheating is looked down upon in any society, even in TJ. The kids know a mile away who are dicey and the dicey ones (and families) get slammed for it. Not everyone spends boatloads of money at prep schools. In addition, even if some do, they sacrifice a lot to do so.

Finally, TJ kids work hard and are generally happy. They feel lucky to be there. Perhaps, our job is to make the kids and families realize that giving opportunities to the less fortunate is something they can work on more given that they had so much support from the community in pursuing STEM at TJ.

A lottery is a blanket policy that rewards the less fortunate AND the fortunate. Guess who populate Fairfax county more? By definition, it rewards the fortunate more than the less fortunate, including the fortunate Asians.

Devise a system that rewards hard work and, at the same time, supports the truly unfortunate. That should be the goal. Giftedness comes in many guises; performance in tests, perhaps slightly worse performance, but despite the odds, etc. Find a better way to identify the latter. I want TJ to have more of those people, not just a random influx of fortunate people.

This was lovely to read thank you!

OP here. Thanks for sympathizing with this view. I understand others have other strong views. At the very least, whether the lottery happens or not, people understand that there are gross generalizations out there that can be far from the truth. I encourage surveying students, teachers, families (those who also applied and decided not to come, or even random surveys in the County), and alumni. Only with a better understanding of what is really going on, we can better assess if the reasons for the lottery proposal are valid and also better assess whether the goal itself will be achieved and a more precise idea of winners and losers - not just in terms of the student profile, but also local economies. I am also thinking that if the lottery were not to be adopted, many in the TJ community have realized that this is a social issue and will develop better ways to identify the gifted who may not have accomplished a lot, but still accomplished plenty despite the odds.

[Anonymous]

The lottery proposal has provoked a lot of name calling, but it has also helped clarify many underlying issues.

I personally, learned a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is hilarious. I know plenty of unsuccessful over educated people from very impressive schools. You can't buy it with a label for your kid.

There are unsuccessful people from all different backgrounds. My point was just that many well educated elite families send their children to private schools. I’m sure many of these kids could get into TJ and do well there. These families just choose private. It is just an observation.

Do Asians face discrimination in entry into private schools? Or are the low percentages reflective of something else?

Wealth. Many URMs can get financial aid. Asians are not too rich, nor too poor.

Again, Asians are at the sweet spot. Nothing to gain by privilege and nothing to gain by affirmative action. I would work like crazy. Wait - they don't want you to work too hard, either.

I’m the pp from upthread who said that in our circles, the elite white tend to send their kids to private. We also know plenty of Asians who also send their kids to private school. DH and I were children of poor immigrants. We now have a seven figure income that we worked very hard to earn. We don’t want our kids to be surrounded by only rich kids. That is just us and our preference. Pretty much all our professional colleagues are white and send their kids to private. They wonder and have straight up asked us why we send our kids to public schools. Guess it seems odd to them since they know that we are their equals and they can’t understand why we wouldn’t send kids to private when we can obviously afford it.

DP but our experience has been the same. We are second generation immigrants and deemed financially successful (took a lot of hard work, luck, going to good colleges, getting post-graduate degrees and being in lucrative professions). Most of our white friends and colleagues send their kids to private. We also felt that we wanted our kids to be surrounded by kids from diverse backgrounds (although that in itself is a bit of a misnomer given the area we are in) so we decided to send our kids to public schools. My sense is that our friends who send their kids to private do so not only for the academics but also for relationship-building, which is really important (for parents and kids as they grow up) if you are in fields like banking, politics, law and even in medicine. We go back-and-forth about private vs public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because Arlington has a lottery school that is highly regarded and functions quite well with about 10% of the drama of TJ.

I am sick of watching TJ suck up all the oxygen in FCPS in terms of attention, accolades, controversy, and half-baked plans to restructure. Nothing else gets done and we’re supposed to believe the future of the Republic rises or falls with the fate of one school and whether it ends up 35% or 75% Asian.

Some differences: HB Woodlawn starts in middle school and is not STEM-focused. Also Whites make up 61% of student body compared to 47% in Arlington County even though it is a lottery. That should give you a glimpse of what will happen if you implement a lottery for TJ.

Or, perhaps the over-representation of whites at HB reflects the fact that it's not STEM-focused.

Either way the obsession with TJ on the part of both the School Board and a large segment of the Asian community is tiresome. It's like nothing else and no one else matters.

It is because it has a lot of symbolism. Meritocracy vs. not. Asian vs. White. It is actually a hotter topic at Stuyvesant, which garners national attention.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-asian-americans-feel-powerless-in-the-battle-over-new-yorks-elite-high-schools