Decided to move before K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the original poster about parents actually seeking a majority-white environment, I agree with your post….I will grant that some parents (a) use FARMS as a proxy for race or (b) are choosing to be in a non-FARMS school district.

I also agree that neither is good reason for choosing a school and could be considered reprehensible. Particularly considering the school district is the same and, therefore, the range of classes is identical. You can get Math 7 in any school. Same with IM. That's the beauty (and some would say the curse) of a large school district such as MCPS.

One complaint I've heard from parents who attend very high farms schools is that there's little to no involvement in the PTA and social barriers exist for kids coming from english speaking households. You may think that the curriculum is delivered the same everywhere, but I imagine there are many parents out there - with plenty of experience under their belts - who would strongly disagree.

[Anonymous]

But when I look at the Whittman 9th grade English summer assignment and my own child's..Whittman's is a much higher level.

[Anonymous]

"Some of the schools in silver spring are >90% Farms, and I think that, as opposed to race, is the off-putting statistic. Whether high poverty is a valid reason to seek out another school is a question not everyone is going to answer the same. And it's a question some parent conveniently never face, because their schools have relatively balanced demographics."

+1 it is not about race - it is about SES. They happen to go hand in hand often in this area but that still does not mean that parents avoiding high FARMS schools are doing so primarily due to race.

So far at my SS school with a large percentage of FARM kids we have been happy but the social side of it is not to be ignored and is one we are watching closely.

[Anonymous]

Here is an interesting and related article.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/08/self-segregation-why-its-hard-for-whites-to-understand-ferguson/378928/

[Anonymous]

My child goes to a school with a very high FARMS rate because my child is in the HGC. We would not have chosen it as our home school. Our home school on the other hand, also in Silver Spring, is excellent.

[Anonymous]

So...did you move, OP? Or will you this weekend?

[Anonymous]

OP, you are not alone in this situation. We are doing the same thing. Before we had kids, we loved SS and we thought SS would give our kids more of a middle class upbringing, similar to ours. Now that our oldest is a year out from K, we just bought a house in Chevy Chase. This past school year, I toured several schools, including our local (Woodlin). While Woodlin generally seemed fine, when I compared to the resources and lessons I observed at other schools to the west, we decided that it was worth the switch.

Embrace it as one of the many decisions you will make as a parent where what you think is best for your kids might be at odds with what you otherwise would do. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Ba-ha-ha
We moved to a great BCC neighborhood before kindergarten and were chagrined to find our boy was a terrible fit for regular school. Eventually, we ended up with my wife quitting her job and we homeschool. We love our neighbors and are not planning to move but our confidence in our "life planning skills" as well as our general financial situation have taken a hit!

As said above - Good Luck! (really)