MoCo parents - Am I kidding myself?

[Anonymous]

A lot of us in MoCo -- particular my neighbors and me, here in Silver Spring -- moan and groan about MCPS. And there's a lot to be desired in the way things are done.

But it's so much better, even in the red zone schools, than most schools around the country. I wouldn't stress too much about it.

[Anonymous]

To 14:20, in your 2nd post you briefly mention the "downcounty consortium." This is the term to use. In your first post you used the phrase "feeder schools" which implies to many of us a straight line from a certain middle school or schools that prepare a kid for entrance to a target high school or schools (say, the Eastern humanities magnet into the CAP). Whereas the Down County Consortium much more fluid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our home elementary school in Silver Spring is, facility wise, beautiful and recently completely redone. One DC attends a Silver Spring magnet which is also very nice, facility-wise. The other DC attends a magnet ES in Chevy Chase where the building is falling down around the kids' ears -- it's awful.

And yet most parents will prefer the school in Chevy Chase. Perhaps that's because they know that the quality of the education and the educational preparedness of their children's peers are more important than a shiny new building where a high percentage of the students need remedial help.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't sound like the PP prefers Chevy Chase..

[Anonymous]

I imagine that the poster is referring to Rock Creek Forest. I prefer our SS school too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our home elementary school in Silver Spring is, facility wise, beautiful and recently completely redone. One DC attends a Silver Spring magnet which is also very nice, facility-wise. The other DC attends a magnet ES in Chevy Chase where the building is falling down around the kids' ears -- it's awful.

And yet most parents will prefer the school in Chevy Chase. Perhaps that's because they know that the quality of the education and the educational preparedness of their children's peers are more important than a shiny new building where a high percentage of the students need remedial help.

I don't know what your source for that statement is. Many of us in Silver Spring choose to live here, and indeed, chose it over Chevy Chase, Kensington, Bethesda. For what we paid for our house, we could easily have bought in any of those communities, but we wanted to live here, and we wanted to send our kids to school here.

I know you can't imagine that, but I assure you that it is true.

[Anonymous]

Thank you 10:02. I couldn't have said it better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I imagine that the poster is referring to Rock Creek Forest. I prefer our SS school too.

Rock Creek Forest draws many (most?) of its students from Silver Spring as it sits on the SS/CC line and most CC residents are districted to Rosemary Hills. And yes, the school needs to be rebuilt but that is scheduled to happen. Just not for another three years, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

About Rock Creek Forest: the condition of the school is absolutely shameful. I'm taking water coming in from the ceiling and puddling in closets, mice everywhere, horrible.

As for the kids, not true that most are from SS. Half are from all over the county because they are in the magnet program. The in-cluster kids come mostly from Chevy Chase, with a much smaller percentage coming from an area off Lyttonsville that is in Silver Spring. I really love it here.

And as for the person who can't imagine wanting to live in Silver Spring -- I could live anywhere I want right now, and I can't bring myself to leave Silver Spring. I go over to Bethesda and Chevy Chase and look around, and it's just so homogenous and there's a feeling of unfriendliness or maybe a lack of warmth that we have in Silver Spring.