If you're in Takoma Park schools...

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I live in TP and love it, but someone here is really trying to put the hate on!

Diversity does not necessarily mean perfectly blended, but we're working on it! The "Maple apts" the hate-poster mentions are all over TP, and in the more expensive areas. There is a mix of kids in the schools and the parks and the shops. My kids have had a good experience in the schools. They have been in all the magnets, so their classes have been largely great, but the non-magnet classes have been good for the most part too. Not every teacher is terrific, but there are some really outstanding teachers in all 3 TP schools. My math magnet kid has terrific English and History teachers this year. I have 2 at TPMS & love the principal, Ms Deeny (she's been there way more than 2 years). Kids can get rowdy, but I don't have a real sense of any "bad group." I have 6th and 8th grader. There are definitely some lippy kids, though.

You do see some racial grouping -- Asian kids from Potomac hang together, kids who go to Rec center hang, kids who do E-motion dancers & basketball are largely AA or African immigrant, kids in drama club & softball are mostly white, Mathcounts is mostly Asian, but there is some blending across the board. Soccer is a total blend (looking through my kid's yearbook)! And there is certainly a mix in the classrooms.

I think one of the best things about TP is that we recognize that people aren't perfectly blended, we keep making the effort to embrace diversity and get to know our neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More tiresome Takoma Park hype -- and self congratulation -- about how their kids "are thriving in this diverse environment."

Truth is, what little racial interaction there is -- and there's not all that much -- for the most part is all done and dusted by middle school.

Take a walk around Takoma Park Middle School or Blair High School on a typical day, and peer into the classrooms. You'll find one classroom of kids who are predominantly (as in almost 100 percent save one or two) kids of color, and another next door that's nearly all white. And yes, I'm a member of the community, and know whereof I speak.

Just walk along the streets in downtown Takoma, Old Town Takoma -- for that matter, anywhere except the outer fringes of Takoma, and you'll see block after block where no people of color reside. The pattern is duplicated in the schools, where kids of color and kids who are white are educated separately for the most part.

Whether it's sports teams, recreation league activities, housing patterns within Takoma Park, social interaction within the school or after school, it's hard to imagine a more segregated set-up.
Yet, parents in Takoma Park continue to talk as if they're part of some sort of Rainbow Nation. The fact is their kids are educated in classrooms that are very nearly as homogeneous as those in Potomac or Bethesda.

Not that I begrudge them that. I suspect that had there been true diversity -- with people of color living as their next door neighbors and not in Langley Park or the apartment complexes of Maple Avenue -- many would never have been tempted to buy homes in Takoma Park.

My guess is that its the same with the schools: Create true integration of the classroom and see how long it takes for white flight to commence.
I tire of the readiness of folks in Takoma Park to try to have it both ways, giving lip service to the virtues of diversity, even while most -- with the exception of people they hire to watch their kids and clean their homes -- seem to have precious little interaction with people who don't look just like them.

So folks who have chosen to send their kids to private schools or to public ones in McLean -- don't let the TP folks guilt-trip you. They've made very much the same choices about whom their kids will be educated alongside. They've just disguised it in such a way as to be able to hang on to their "diversity" bragging rights.

I don't want to agree with this. I've lived in diverse places where it wasn't true.

But it is in Takoma Park. I didn't realize that until we started living here, sending kids to TPMS.

The kids segregate. And I get that. I grew up in a neighborhood that was much the same. But I started out raising my children in a different place, that wasn't like this, a place where recent immigrants and kids with family summer houses in Maine mixed easily.

I blame the smugness factor. I once thought Takoma Park was too much like Park Slope, but seeing the rest of DC made that seem appealing.

It's not. I've tried to make friends outside of my class, or station, or what have you. It's just "not done" here.

You still couldn't pay me to live in McLean, or Potomoc. I'd rather our family be shunned by crunchy granola types and Somali immigrants than nouveau riche mcmansion people, but TP. is not quite a paradise. It's just the best of a bunch of craptastic options.

Yes, it is. I know, I live here and have friends outside my class or "station." Keep trying. The thing that is the most craptastic is your attitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More tiresome Takoma Park hype -- and self congratulation -- about how their kids "are thriving in this diverse environment."

Truth is, what little racial interaction there is -- and there's not all that much -- for the most part is all done and dusted by middle school.

Take a walk around Takoma Park Middle School or Blair High School on a typical day, and peer into the classrooms. You'll find one classroom of kids who are predominantly (as in almost 100 percent save one or two) kids of color, and another next door that's nearly all white. And yes, I'm a member of the community, and know whereof I speak.

Just walk along the streets in downtown Takoma, Old Town Takoma -- for that matter, anywhere except the outer fringes of Takoma, and you'll see block after block where no people of color reside. The pattern is duplicated in the schools, where kids of color and kids who are white are educated separately for the most part.

Whether it's sports teams, recreation league activities, housing patterns within Takoma Park, social interaction within the school or after school, it's hard to imagine a more segregated set-up.
Yet, parents in Takoma Park continue to talk as if they're part of some sort of Rainbow Nation. The fact is their kids are educated in classrooms that are very nearly as homogeneous as those in Potomac or Bethesda.

Not that I begrudge them that. I suspect that had there been true diversity -- with people of color living as their next door neighbors and not in Langley Park or the apartment complexes of Maple Avenue -- many would never have been tempted to buy homes in Takoma Park.

My guess is that its the same with the schools: Create true integration of the classroom and see how long it takes for white flight to commence.
I tire of the readiness of folks in Takoma Park to try to have it both ways, giving lip service to the virtues of diversity, even while most -- with the exception of people they hire to watch their kids and clean their homes -- seem to have precious little interaction with people who don't look just like them.

So folks who have chosen to send their kids to private schools or to public ones in McLean -- don't let the TP folks guilt-trip you. They've made very much the same choices about whom their kids will be educated alongside. They've just disguised it in such a way as to be able to hang on to their "diversity" bragging rights.

I don't want to agree with this. I've lived in diverse places where it wasn't true.

But it is in Takoma Park. I didn't realize that until we started living here, sending kids to TPMS.

The kids segregate. And I get that. I grew up in a neighborhood that was much the same. But I started out raising my children in a different place, that wasn't like this, a place where recent immigrants and kids with family summer houses in Maine mixed easily.

I blame the smugness factor. I once thought Takoma Park was too much like Park Slope, but seeing the rest of DC made that seem appealing.

It's not. I've tried to make friends outside of my class, or station, or what have you. It's just "not done" here.

You still couldn't pay me to live in McLean, or Potomoc. I'd rather our family be shunned by crunchy granola types and Somali immigrants than nouveau riche mcmansion people, but TP. is not quite a paradise. It's just the best of a bunch of craptastic options.

Yes, it is. I know, I live here and have friends outside my class or "station." Keep trying. The thing that is the most craptastic is your attitude.

Nope - agree with PP, it is just not done. Even here, people tend to stick with their own. It is just the way it is.

[Anonymous]

We moved to TKPK from NWDC. We're really happy with the schools. Our oldest is in the middle school magnet and youngest is at CES @Piney Branch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More tiresome Takoma Park hype -- and self congratulation -- about how their kids "are thriving in this diverse environment."

Truth is, what little racial interaction there is -- and there's not all that much -- for the most part is all done and dusted by middle school.

Take a walk around Takoma Park Middle School or Blair High School on a typical day, and peer into the classrooms. You'll find one classroom of kids who are predominantly (as in almost 100 percent save one or two) kids of color, and another next door that's nearly all white. And yes, I'm a member of the community, and know whereof I speak.

Just walk along the streets in downtown Takoma, Old Town Takoma -- for that matter, anywhere except the outer fringes of Takoma, and you'll see block after block where no people of color reside. The pattern is duplicated in the schools, where kids of color and kids who are white are educated separately for the most part.

Whether it's sports teams, recreation league activities, housing patterns within Takoma Park, social interaction within the school or after school, it's hard to imagine a more segregated set-up.
Yet, parents in Takoma Park continue to talk as if they're part of some sort of Rainbow Nation. The fact is their kids are educated in classrooms that are very nearly as homogeneous as those in Potomac or Bethesda.

Not that I begrudge them that. I suspect that had there been true diversity -- with people of color living as their next door neighbors and not in Langley Park or the apartment complexes of Maple Avenue -- many would never have been tempted to buy homes in Takoma Park.

My guess is that its the same with the schools: Create true integration of the classroom and see how long it takes for white flight to commence.
I tire of the readiness of folks in Takoma Park to try to have it both ways, giving lip service to the virtues of diversity, even while most -- with the exception of people they hire to watch their kids and clean their homes -- seem to have precious little interaction with people who don't look just like them.

So folks who have chosen to send their kids to private schools or to public ones in McLean -- don't let the TP folks guilt-trip you. They've made very much the same choices about whom their kids will be educated alongside. They've just disguised it in such a way as to be able to hang on to their "diversity" bragging rights.

I don't want to agree with this. I've lived in diverse places where it wasn't true.

But it is in Takoma Park. I didn't realize that until we started living here, sending kids to TPMS.

The kids segregate. And I get that. I grew up in a neighborhood that was much the same. But I started out raising my children in a different place, that wasn't like this, a place where recent immigrants and kids with family summer houses in Maine mixed easily.

I blame the smugness factor. I once thought Takoma Park was too much like Park Slope, but seeing the rest of DC made that seem appealing.

It's not. I've tried to make friends outside of my class, or station, or what have you. It's just "not done" here.

You still couldn't pay me to live in McLean, or Potomoc. I'd rather our family be shunned by crunchy granola types and Somali immigrants than nouveau riche mcmansion people, but TP. is not quite a paradise. It's just the best of a bunch of craptastic options.

Yes, it is. I know, I live here and have friends outside my class or "station." Keep trying. The thing that is the most craptastic is your attitude.

Nope - agree with PP, it is just not done. Even here, people tend to stick with their own. It is just the way it is.

I wanted to be the first to welcome the refugee from an episode of Upstairs Downstairs to the 21st century.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
More tiresome Takoma Park hype -- and self congratulation -- about how their kids "are thriving in this diverse environment."

Truth is, what little racial interaction there is -- and there's not all that much -- for the most part is all done and dusted by middle school.

Take a walk around Takoma Park Middle School or Blair High School on a typical day, and peer into the classrooms. You'll find one classroom of kids who are predominantly (as in almost 100 percent save one or two) kids of color, and another next door that's nearly all white. And yes, I'm a member of the community, and know whereof I speak.

Just walk along the streets in downtown Takoma, Old Town Takoma -- for that matter, anywhere except the outer fringes of Takoma, and you'll see block after block where no people of color reside. The pattern is duplicated in the schools, where kids of color and kids who are white are educated separately for the most part.

Whether it's sports teams, recreation league activities, housing patterns within Takoma Park, social interaction within the school or after school, it's hard to imagine a more segregated set-up.
Yet, parents in Takoma Park continue to talk as if they're part of some sort of Rainbow Nation. The fact is their kids are educated in classrooms that are very nearly as homogeneous as those in Potomac or Bethesda.

Not that I begrudge them that. I suspect that had there been true diversity -- with people of color living as their next door neighbors and not in Langley Park or the apartment complexes of Maple Avenue -- many would never have been tempted to buy homes in Takoma Park.

My guess is that its the same with the schools: Create true integration of the classroom and see how long it takes for white flight to commence.
I tire of the readiness of folks in Takoma Park to try to have it both ways, giving lip service to the virtues of diversity, even while most -- with the exception of people they hire to watch their kids and clean their homes -- seem to have precious little interaction with people who don't look just like them.

So folks who have chosen to send their kids to private schools or to public ones in McLean -- don't let the TP folks guilt-trip you. They've made very much the same choices about whom their kids will be educated alongside. They've just disguised it in such a way as to be able to hang on to their "diversity" bragging rights.

I don't want to agree with this. I've lived in diverse places where it wasn't true.

But it is in Takoma Park. I didn't realize that until we started living here, sending kids to TPMS.

The kids segregate. And I get that. I grew up in a neighborhood that was much the same. But I started out raising my children in a different place, that wasn't like this, a place where recent immigrants and kids with family summer houses in Maine mixed easily.

I blame the smugness factor. I once thought Takoma Park was too much like Park Slope, but seeing the rest of DC made that seem appealing.

We lived in Silver Spring and had the EXACT same experience. The lack of real integration combined with self congratulatory were diverse comments was startling. While people sound smug, I don't think its smugness but a combination of being unaware and insecurity about being in lower performing school system in an area that is just over the top crazy about education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
More tiresome Takoma Park hype -- and self congratulation -- about how their kids "are thriving in this diverse environment."

Truth is, what little racial interaction there is -- and there's not all that much -- for the most part is all done and dusted by middle school.

Take a walk around Takoma Park Middle School or Blair High School on a typical day, and peer into the classrooms. You'll find one classroom of kids who are predominantly (as in almost 100 percent save one or two) kids of color, and another next door that's nearly all white. And yes, I'm a member of the community, and know whereof I speak.

Just walk along the streets in downtown Takoma, Old Town Takoma -- for that matter, anywhere except the outer fringes of Takoma, and you'll see block after block where no people of color reside. The pattern is duplicated in the schools, where kids of color and kids who are white are educated separately for the most part.

Whether it's sports teams, recreation league activities, housing patterns within Takoma Park, social interaction within the school or after school, it's hard to imagine a more segregated set-up.
Yet, parents in Takoma Park continue to talk as if they're part of some sort of Rainbow Nation. The fact is their kids are educated in classrooms that are very nearly as homogeneous as those in Potomac or Bethesda.

Not that I begrudge them that. I suspect that had there been true diversity -- with people of color living as their next door neighbors and not in Langley Park or the apartment complexes of Maple Avenue -- many would never have been tempted to buy homes in Takoma Park.

My guess is that its the same with the schools: Create true integration of the classroom and see how long it takes for white flight to commence.
I tire of the readiness of folks in Takoma Park to try to have it both ways, giving lip service to the virtues of diversity, even while most -- with the exception of people they hire to watch their kids and clean their homes -- seem to have precious little interaction with people who don't look just like them.

So folks who have chosen to send their kids to private schools or to public ones in McLean -- don't let the TP folks guilt-trip you. They've made very much the same choices about whom their kids will be educated alongside. They've just disguised it in such a way as to be able to hang on to their "diversity" bragging rights.

I don't want to agree with this. I've lived in diverse places where it wasn't true.

But it is in Takoma Park. I didn't realize that until we started living here, sending kids to TPMS.

The kids segregate. And I get that. I grew up in a neighborhood that was much the same. But I started out raising my children in a different place, that wasn't like this, a place where recent immigrants and kids with family summer houses in Maine mixed easily.

I blame the smugness factor. I once thought Takoma Park was too much like Park Slope, but seeing the rest of DC made that seem appealing.

We lived in Silver Spring and had the EXACT same experience. The lack of real integration combined with self congratulatory were diverse comments was startling. While people sound smug, I don't think its smugness but a combination of being unaware and insecurity about being in lower performing school system in an area that is just over the top crazy about education.

It's pathetic reading these posts from W parents sockpuppetting their earlier posts and claiming to be from SS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I live in TP and love it, but someone here is really trying to put the hate on!

Diversity does not necessarily mean perfectly blended, but we're working on it! The "Maple apts" the hate-poster mentions are all over TP, and in the more expensive areas. There is a mix of kids in the schools and the parks and the shops. My kids have had a good experience in the schools. They have been in all the magnets, so their classes have been largely great, but the non-magnet classes have been good for the most part too. Not every teacher is terrific, but there are some really outstanding teachers in all 3 TP schools. My math magnet kid has terrific English and History teachers this year. I have 2 at TPMS & love the principal, Ms Deeny (she's been there way more than 2 years). Kids can get rowdy, but I don't have a real sense of any "bad group." I have 6th and 8th grader. There are definitely some lippy kids, though.

You do see some racial grouping -- Asian kids from Potomac hang together, kids who go to Rec center hang, kids who do E-motion dancers & basketball are largely AA or African immigrant, kids in drama club & softball are mostly white, Mathcounts is mostly Asian, but there is some blending across the board. Soccer is a total blend (looking through my kid's yearbook)! And there is certainly a mix in the classrooms.

I think one of the best things about TP is that we recognize that people aren't perfectly blended, we keep making the effort to embrace diversity and get to know our neighbors.

+100 so true!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if OP is our friend the Tea Bag Troll ("TBT"), a frequent guest on other school forums and the College forum. One marker is that special combination of ignorance and bluster.

seems likely

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
More tiresome Takoma Park hype -- and self congratulation -- about how their kids "are thriving in this diverse environment."

Truth is, what little racial interaction there is -- and there's not all that much -- for the most part is all done and dusted by middle school.

Take a walk around Takoma Park Middle School or Blair High School on a typical day, and peer into the classrooms. You'll find one classroom of kids who are predominantly (as in almost 100 percent save one or two) kids of color, and another next door that's nearly all white. And yes, I'm a member of the community, and know whereof I speak.

Just walk along the streets in downtown Takoma, Old Town Takoma -- for that matter, anywhere except the outer fringes of Takoma, and you'll see block after block where no people of color reside. The pattern is duplicated in the schools, where kids of color and kids who are white are educated separately for the most part.

Whether it's sports teams, recreation league activities, housing patterns within Takoma Park, social interaction within the school or after school, it's hard to imagine a more segregated set-up.
Yet, parents in Takoma Park continue to talk as if they're part of some sort of Rainbow Nation. The fact is their kids are educated in classrooms that are very nearly as homogeneous as those in Potomac or Bethesda.

Not that I begrudge them that. I suspect that had there been true diversity -- with people of color living as their next door neighbors and not in Langley Park or the apartment complexes of Maple Avenue -- many would never have been tempted to buy homes in Takoma Park.

My guess is that its the same with the schools: Create true integration of the classroom and see how long it takes for white flight to commence.
I tire of the readiness of folks in Takoma Park to try to have it both ways, giving lip service to the virtues of diversity, even while most -- with the exception of people they hire to watch their kids and clean their homes -- seem to have precious little interaction with people who don't look just like them.

So folks who have chosen to send their kids to private schools or to public ones in McLean -- don't let the TP folks guilt-trip you. They've made very much the same choices about whom their kids will be educated alongside. They've just disguised it in such a way as to be able to hang on to their "diversity" bragging rights.

I don't want to agree with this. I've lived in diverse places where it wasn't true.

But it is in Takoma Park. I didn't realize that until we started living here, sending kids to TPMS.

The kids segregate. And I get that. I grew up in a neighborhood that was much the same. But I started out raising my children in a different place, that wasn't like this, a place where recent immigrants and kids with family summer houses in Maine mixed easily.

I blame the smugness factor. I once thought Takoma Park was too much like Park Slope, but seeing the rest of DC made that seem appealing.

We lived in Silver Spring and had the EXACT same experience. The lack of real integration combined with self congratulatory were diverse comments was startling. While people sound smug, I don't think its smugness but a combination of being unaware and insecurity about being in lower performing school system in an area that is just over the top crazy about education.

It's pathetic reading these posts from W parents sockpuppetting their earlier posts and claiming to be from SS.

They were already obsessed with Blair and with MS cohort changes are green with envy over the TPMS set aside.

[Anonymous]

I'm 14:34 and we lived in Silver Spring. We've lived in many places except never Maine like one of the previous posters. I have lived in other cities in a neighborhood that was described as transitional or gentrifying and it was far more integrated. Like the Maine poster, I've lived in racially diverse communities where recent not wealthy immigrants, highly paid professionals, retired firemen and teachers, and parents working two jobs each at minimum wage all hung together. Sports teams were integrated etc. Everyone went to the same parks. Some of the kids friends were in low income housing and some of them were in 2M houses.

Perhaps its that MD is so closed to the south but the racial segregation within Silver Spring is not a good vibe. Getting a classroom together for a group PR shot is not my idea of integration. The school system were kids were integrated was not test obsessed so maybe MCPS itself unintentionally drives a wedge in the racial issues. Whatever it is, the poster that the TP people are defensively attacking described what we observed while we were in Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 14:34 and we lived in Silver Spring. We've lived in many places except never Maine like one of the previous posters. I have lived in other cities in a neighborhood that was described as transitional or gentrifying and it was far more integrated. Like the Maine poster, I've lived in racially diverse communities where recent not wealthy immigrants, highly paid professionals, retired firemen and teachers, and parents working two jobs each at minimum wage all hung together. Sports teams were integrated etc. Everyone went to the same parks. Some of the kids friends were in low income housing and some of them were in 2M houses.

Perhaps its that MD is so closed to the south but the racial segregation within Silver Spring is not a good vibe. Getting a classroom together for a group PR shot is not my idea of integration. The school system were kids were integrated was not test obsessed so maybe MCPS itself unintentionally drives a wedge in the racial issues. Whatever it is, the poster that the TP people are defensively attacking described what we observed while we were in Silver Spring.

I also live in Silver Spring and my experience is the opposite. It's a diverse and welcoming place that among the most diverse and integrated suburbs in the entire region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Takoma Park has a huge number of interracial families. Ho do they fit into this supposed uber segregated society you are claiming, PP.

Anecdotal at best, the historic part is mostly white. Rationalize how you wish. Now the Jackson road area and New Hampshire are quite diverse but they aren’t the nice part people talk about. Flower and university aren’t talked about only because they go to eastern and people think they are Langley Park.

I was at the co-op today and the only minorities were the staff, it was crowded.

[Anonymous]

I live in TP, my pre-elementary kids are at one of the local children’s centers and the families are almost all white.

I can’t speak to the public schools yet but I find downtown Silver Spring to be 5000x more diverse from downtown TP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
More tiresome Takoma Park hype -- and self congratulation -- about how their kids "are thriving in this diverse environment."

Truth is, what little racial interaction there is -- and there's not all that much -- for the most part is all done and dusted by middle school.

Take a walk around Takoma Park Middle School or Blair High School on a typical day, and peer into the classrooms. You'll find one classroom of kids who are predominantly (as in almost 100 percent save one or two) kids of color, and another next door that's nearly all white. And yes, I'm a member of the community, and know whereof I speak.

Just walk along the streets in downtown Takoma, Old Town Takoma -- for that matter, anywhere except the outer fringes of Takoma, and you'll see block after block where no people of color reside. The pattern is duplicated in the schools, where kids of color and kids who are white are educated separately for the most part.

Whether it's sports teams, recreation league activities, housing patterns within Takoma Park, social interaction within the school or after school, it's hard to imagine a more segregated set-up.
Yet, parents in Takoma Park continue to talk as if they're part of some sort of Rainbow Nation. The fact is their kids are educated in classrooms that are very nearly as homogeneous as those in Potomac or Bethesda.

Not that I begrudge them that. I suspect that had there been true diversity -- with people of color living as their next door neighbors and not in Langley Park or the apartment complexes of Maple Avenue -- many would never have been tempted to buy homes in Takoma Park.

My guess is that its the same with the schools: Create true integration of the classroom and see how long it takes for white flight to commence.
I tire of the readiness of folks in Takoma Park to try to have it both ways, giving lip service to the virtues of diversity, even while most -- with the exception of people they hire to watch their kids and clean their homes -- seem to have precious little interaction with people who don't look just like them.

So folks who have chosen to send their kids to private schools or to public ones in McLean -- don't let the TP folks guilt-trip you. They've made very much the same choices about whom their kids will be educated alongside. They've just disguised it in such a way as to be able to hang on to their "diversity" bragging rights.

I don't want to agree with this. I've lived in diverse places where it wasn't true.

But it is in Takoma Park. I didn't realize that until we started living here, sending kids to TPMS.

The kids segregate. And I get that. I grew up in a neighborhood that was much the same. But I started out raising my children in a different place, that wasn't like this, a place where recent immigrants and kids with family summer houses in Maine mixed easily.

I blame the smugness factor. I once thought Takoma Park was too much like Park Slope, but seeing the rest of DC made that seem appealing.

We lived in Silver Spring and had the EXACT same experience. The lack of real integration combined with self congratulatory were diverse comments was startling. While people sound smug, I don't think its smugness but a combination of being unaware and insecurity about being in lower performing school system in an area that is just over the top crazy about education.

There is some of that but it is still about as integrated as the suburbs come. Even if it is street by street, it is better than not at all like Potomac. I will admit that the rush towards “enrichment” has its origin in “peer group”. Me thinks they protest too much