Anybody listening to NPR?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a Centrist Dem- So let's just take all the high achieving minorities from all the other schools and put them into one school ? In an effort to solve one problem, you just created multiple new ones. How about this? Let's put in the effort of making each school as strong as possible by having theme- based schools (like the DCC) and allow kids to go to whatever school they want to based on their interest, as long as it doesn't cause overcrowding at that school. Look at Wheaton. Wheaton HS used to be the school that no one wanted to go to; and now it's quickly turning its reputation around since the implementation of it's Engineering program.

No one wants to go to Wheaton. The DCC is a failure from an integration standpoint. Look at the over selection of Blair and the demographics of Kennedy. Even the Metis report identified the DCC as a failure for its original intent.

You don't sound like a centrist Dem.

So let's put BCC into the DCC. Also why not WJ and Whitman. They're all "down county" by the map.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honestly, I take all these witness accounts with a grain of salt. We live in a very "poor me" society today, and it's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between painful, traumatizing discrimination and just dealing with being different, through no fault of anyone's.

I was educated in different countries because of my father's job. During one 4 year stretch, I was not only the sole foreigner, but also the sole mixed-ethnicity student of the entire school. I was bullied and teased for a little while, but I dealt with it and made good friends. It felt absolutely no different than later on, when I went to an international, diverse school full of kids of mixed ethnicity.

So suck it up, kiddos. We all have to deal with things.

I'm assuming you didn't hear the NPR discussion. This child sounded visibly upset as she talked about how she would have given up the equity and resources associated with her Whitman experience if she wouldn't known then what she knows now. She talked about how some student were called the "n" word, and how the vast majority of students didn't care about discrimination because they never had to think about it themselves. And that her experience in the Minority Scholars Program was a saving grace.

But good for you, I guess? You assume your experience was similar to hers, and that therefore she should just suck it up. Nice going.

If anyone wants to listen, it's around the 49:00 mark.

https://thekojonnamdishow.org/audio/#/shows/2019-02-28/kojo-roadshow-a-town-hall-on-school-diversity-in-montgomery-county/113756/@00:00

I feel bad for her. Really I do, but unfortunately this can happen at any school where a student is really just one of the few who are like them. I'm Asian and when we first moved to this country, I attended a school where it was predominantly Blacks and Latinos. I was literally one of maybe 3-4 Asian kids (if that) in my grade. I got teased a lot and it was tough. This is why TRULY diverse schools are important.

The two experiences are not completely analogous. I believe you that your experience was tough as an Asian kid in a black/Latino school. However, it likely includes different dynamics than the experience of an AA girl in an all-white, affluent school. It's different for those who experienced a long history of oppression in this country.

-black and Asian PP, and 1st-gen American

It is waaaaaaaay easier to be an AA girl in an all-white, affluent school than being an Asian kid in a black/ Latino, non-affluent school.

If you don't get that...

How can you say that with such authority and conviction when you don't know what she experienced? How can you be 100% her experience was "waaaaaaay easier?"

I'm not the PP.

Her individual experience may be an exception - I don't know. But in general I think the PP's statement is very true.

Why? I want to respond with "citation needed" but I truly and non sarcastically don't understand why you believe that. What goes into that belief?

Let me put it this way:
if you as AA parents, whether they would be willing to put their kids in an all-white, affluent school; or if you ask Asian parent, whether they want to put their kids in a black/ Latino, non-affluent school,
do you think there would be a difference in the answers you get, statistically?

Apparently I do.

That is one way to look at this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honestly, I take all these witness accounts with a grain of salt. We live in a very "poor me" society today, and it's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between painful, traumatizing discrimination and just dealing with being different, through no fault of anyone's.

I was educated in different countries because of my father's job. During one 4 year stretch, I was not only the sole foreigner, but also the sole mixed-ethnicity student of the entire school. I was bullied and teased for a little while, but I dealt with it and made good friends. It felt absolutely no different than later on, when I went to an international, diverse school full of kids of mixed ethnicity.

So suck it up, kiddos. We all have to deal with things.

I'm assuming you didn't hear the NPR discussion. This child sounded visibly upset as she talked about how she would have given up the equity and resources associated with her Whitman experience if she wouldn't known then what she knows now. She talked about how some student were called the "n" word, and how the vast majority of students didn't care about discrimination because they never had to think about it themselves. And that her experience in the Minority Scholars Program was a saving grace.

But good for you, I guess? You assume your experience was similar to hers, and that therefore she should just suck it up. Nice going.

If anyone wants to listen, it's around the 49:00 mark.

https://thekojonnamdishow.org/audio/#/shows/2019-02-28/kojo-roadshow-a-town-hall-on-school-diversity-in-montgomery-county/113756/@00:00

I feel bad for her. Really I do, but unfortunately this can happen at any school where a student is really just one of the few who are like them. I'm Asian and when we first moved to this country, I attended a school where it was predominantly Blacks and Latinos. I was literally one of maybe 3-4 Asian kids (if that) in my grade. I got teased a lot and it was tough. This is why TRULY diverse schools are important.

The two experiences are not completely analogous. I believe you that your experience was tough as an Asian kid in a black/Latino school. However, it likely includes different dynamics than the experience of an AA girl in an all-white, affluent school. It's different for those who experienced a long history of oppression in this country.

-black and Asian PP, and 1st-gen American

It is waaaaaaaay easier to be an AA girl in an all-white, affluent school than being an Asian kid in a black/ Latino, non-affluent school.

If you don't get that...

How can you say that with such authority and conviction when you don't know what she experienced? How can you be 100% her experience was "waaaaaaay easier?"

I'm not the PP.

Her individual experience may be an exception - I don't know. But in general I think the PP's statement is very true.

Why? I want to respond with "citation needed" but I truly and non sarcastically don't understand why you believe that. What goes into that belief?

Let me put it this way:
if you as AA parents, whether they would be willing to put their kids in an all-white, affluent school; or if you ask Asian parent, whether they want to put their kids in a black/ Latino, non-affluent school,
do you think there would be a difference in the answers you get, statistically?

Apparently I do.

That is one way to look at this.

The difference is obvious to anyone who lives in the real world.

But apparently some have been so privileged in a little insular bubble that they can't process it (or, more likely, prefer not to)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honestly, I take all these witness accounts with a grain of salt. We live in a very "poor me" society today, and it's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between painful, traumatizing discrimination and just dealing with being different, through no fault of anyone's.

I was educated in different countries because of my father's job. During one 4 year stretch, I was not only the sole foreigner, but also the sole mixed-ethnicity student of the entire school. I was bullied and teased for a little while, but I dealt with it and made good friends. It felt absolutely no different than later on, when I went to an international, diverse school full of kids of mixed ethnicity.

So suck it up, kiddos. We all have to deal with things.

I'm assuming you didn't hear the NPR discussion. This child sounded visibly upset as she talked about how she would have given up the equity and resources associated with her Whitman experience if she wouldn't known then what she knows now. She talked about how some student were called the "n" word, and how the vast majority of students didn't care about discrimination because they never had to think about it themselves. And that her experience in the Minority Scholars Program was a saving grace.

But good for you, I guess? You assume your experience was similar to hers, and that therefore she should just suck it up. Nice going.

If anyone wants to listen, it's around the 49:00 mark.

https://thekojonnamdishow.org/audio/#/shows/2019-02-28/kojo-roadshow-a-town-hall-on-school-diversity-in-montgomery-county/113756/@00:00

Can your repeat any concrete examples of what she didn’t like about her high school experience?
Was she called names? Made fun of? Grade more easily or more harshly? Not allowed on teams or clubs? Made no friends?

She got her 20 minutes of victim fame. She said what NPR needed to create their narrative. My money is that this is just another hoax to grab attention - we see it all the time these days.

Chances are high.

Not a hoax per se, but sentimentaloid exaggeration for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you are referring to the MCPS "Bridge" program, Churchill has one also. It's a special education program and pulls kids from multiple schools.

It sounds like you may be commenting without having heard the radio program. The teacher said there are approximately 5 students in the Bridge/special ed program at non-title 1 schools versus 100 at a title 1 school.

I don’t think this is what they were talking about. They were saying that if kids don’t pass the HS tests required for graduation (which are hard for ELLs to pass) then they have to do a “bridge project” instead, and teachers have to supervise the bridge project but don’t get any additional planning time to do so. He said at WJ they had 5 students who had to do the bridge project and at Kennedy they had 110. That means a lot more work for the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard this program live. One of the teachers did mention that at title 1 high school he has to spend a lot of time on the “bridge” program which means he’s spending a lot of time working on helping remedial students and that he can’t spend his time working on material for the rest of the class. He pointed out that colleagues at non-title 1 schoools don’t have to deal with this and that is why teachers gravitate towards those schools.

How do you go about fixing that?

It seems the board of education is putting a lot of dollars towards addressing the needs of those children but no amount of money can replace parental support or interest in education.

Is redistricting really going to solve the problem? The people who are invested in their children’s education will leave MCPS and move to other counties if they think they can get a better education elsewhere. Then our community will lose its luster and prominence and there will be no additional tax dollars left to address even the title 1 schools.

If you are referring to the MCPS "Bridge" program, Churchill has one also. It's a special education program and pulls kids from multiple schools.

Two different programs.

The one mentioned on the NPR show was called bridge projects which is required for students who don't pass the state mandated high school assessments. WJ has a handful of students who need bridge projects. Kennedy has over 100.

[Anonymous]

Let me put it this way:
if you as AA parents, whether they would be willing to put their kids in an all-white, affluent school; or if you ask Asian parent, whether they want to put their kids in a black/ Latino, non-affluent school,
do you think there would be a difference in the answers you get, statistically?

Apparently I do.

That is one way to look at this.

In this thought experiement, are the schools equally resourced? Or has systematic inequality and racist policy resulted in the white/Asian school having worse facilities, amenities, and resources?

[Anonymous]

OK, I just listened to the podcast and the first blatant observation to me was that students were by and large more articulate than the MCPS and BOE people. Hmmm...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Honestly, I take all these witness accounts with a grain of salt. We live in a very "poor me" society today, and it's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between painful, traumatizing discrimination and just dealing with being different, through no fault of anyone's.

I was educated in different countries because of my father's job. During one 4 year stretch, I was not only the sole foreigner, but also the sole mixed-ethnicity student of the entire school. I was bullied and teased for a little while, but I dealt with it and made good friends. It felt absolutely no different than later on, when I went to an international, diverse school full of kids of mixed ethnicity.

So suck it up, kiddos. We all have to deal with things.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a Centrist Dem- So let's just take all the high achieving minorities from all the other schools and put them into one school ? In an effort to solve one problem, you just created multiple new ones. How about this? Let's put in the effort of making each school as strong as possible by having theme- based schools (like the DCC) and allow kids to go to whatever school they want to based on their interest, as long as it doesn't cause overcrowding at that school. Look at Wheaton. Wheaton HS used to be the school that no one wanted to go to; and now it's quickly turning its reputation around since the implementation of it's Engineering program.

No one wants to go to Wheaton. The DCC is a failure from an integration standpoint. Look at the over selection of Blair and the demographics of Kennedy. Even the Metis report identified the DCC as a failure for its original intent.

You don't sound like a centrist Dem.

So let's put BCC into the DCC. Also why not WJ and Whitman. They're all "down county" by the map.

How would Whitman’s successes help the failing schools in the east? It is full anyway so the likelyhood any Blair or Einstein kids being able to jump ship is slim. And their would never be any kids apart from the magnet kids who would opt out for those schools.

Honestly the only people who would benifit would be silver spring home owners who could pull one over on parent home buyers who didn’t do their homework and underestimate the odds of opting out of their local school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

2. Centrist Dem/ Moderate Liberal Republican - Realize that Whitman is already established to support high performing students but needs more minority representation. Also realize that bussing poor and low performing minorities from far away into Whitman is going to leave them stranded on an island and not be popular with the minorities you are trying to bus in either. Instead expand the minority scholars program and offer COSAs into Whitman to any minorities who are scoring in the upper 90s and at a lower performing school. Increase minority representation without creating stereotypes that minorities underperform. Give the equity opportunity to minority students who have the capability and desire to take advantage of the opportunity.

Hold up, record-scratch here. What are you talking about on Whitman? It's not "established to support high performing students." It's not a merit-based magnet program. It has boundaries that include a lot of well-off to very well-off to out and out rich families who have a ton of money to pour into the school, but it's a public school like any other. Many of the kids may be very smart because they come from very smart parents who are educated and privileged enough to have the resources to support their kids' educations, but there's nothing inherently special about the school that means it should only accept out-of-bounds students who are super-high achievers. If you live in-bounds, you get to go there. Why on earth would you assume that minority kids would have to test in if there were some deliberate desegregation efforts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

2. Centrist Dem/ Moderate Liberal Republican - Realize that Whitman is already established to support high performing students but needs more minority representation. Also realize that bussing poor and low performing minorities from far away into Whitman is going to leave them stranded on an island and not be popular with the minorities you are trying to bus in either. Instead expand the minority scholars program and offer COSAs into Whitman to any minorities who are scoring in the upper 90s and at a lower performing school. Increase minority representation without creating stereotypes that minorities underperform. Give the equity opportunity to minority students who have the capability and desire to take advantage of the opportunity.

Hold up, record-scratch here. What are you talking about on Whitman? It's not "established to support high performing students." It's not a merit-based magnet program. It has boundaries that include a lot of well-off to very well-off to out and out rich families who have a ton of money to pour into the school, but it's a public school like any other. Many of the kids may be very smart because they come from very smart parents who are educated and privileged enough to have the resources to support their kids' educations, but there's nothing inherently special about the school that means it should only accept out-of-bounds students who are super-high achievers. If you live in-bounds, you get to go there. Why on earth would you assume that minority kids would have to test in if there were some deliberate desegregation efforts?

Seems we are getting rid of all the actual test in programs...now we are going to make Whittman test in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

2. Centrist Dem/ Moderate Liberal Republican - Realize that Whitman is already established to support high performing students but needs more minority representation. Also realize that bussing poor and low performing minorities from far away into Whitman is going to leave them stranded on an island and not be popular with the minorities you are trying to bus in either. Instead expand the minority scholars program and offer COSAs into Whitman to any minorities who are scoring in the upper 90s and at a lower performing school. Increase minority representation without creating stereotypes that minorities underperform. Give the equity opportunity to minority students who have the capability and desire to take advantage of the opportunity.

Hold up, record-scratch here. What are you talking about on Whitman? It's not "established to support high performing students." It's not a merit-based magnet program. It has boundaries that include a lot of well-off to very well-off to out and out rich families who have a ton of money to pour into the school, but it's a public school like any other. Many of the kids may be very smart because they come from very smart parents who are educated and privileged enough to have the resources to support their kids' educations, but there's nothing inherently special about the school that means it should only accept out-of-bounds students who are super-high achievers. If you live in-bounds, you get to go there. Why on earth would you assume that minority kids would have to test in if there were some deliberate desegregation efforts?

Seems we are getting rid of all the actual test in programs...now we are going to make Whittman test in?

Only for deserving minority students (so as not to create stereotypes). People with enough money to live in areas zoned for Whitman still get to send their kids there like normal. I guess? It's definitely one of the eye-rollier posts on this forum today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

2. Centrist Dem/ Moderate Liberal Republican - Realize that Whitman is already established to support high performing students but needs more minority representation. Also realize that bussing poor and low performing minorities from far away into Whitman is going to leave them stranded on an island and not be popular with the minorities you are trying to bus in either. Instead expand the minority scholars program and offer COSAs into Whitman to any minorities who are scoring in the upper 90s and at a lower performing school. Increase minority representation without creating stereotypes that minorities underperform. Give the equity opportunity to minority students who have the capability and desire to take advantage of the opportunity.

Hold up, record-scratch here. What are you talking about on Whitman? It's not "established to support high performing students." It's not a merit-based magnet program. It has boundaries that include a lot of well-off to very well-off to out and out rich families who have a ton of money to pour into the school, but it's a public school like any other. Many of the kids may be very smart because they come from very smart parents who are educated and privileged enough to have the resources to support their kids' educations, but there's nothing inherently special about the school that means it should only accept out-of-bounds students who are super-high achievers. If you live in-bounds, you get to go there. Why on earth would you assume that minority kids would have to test in if there were some deliberate desegregation efforts?

Seems we are getting rid of all the actual test in programs...now we are going to make Whittman test in?

Only for deserving minority students (so as not to create stereotypes). People with enough money to live in areas zoned for Whitman still get to send their kids there like normal. I guess? It's definitely one of the eye-rollier posts on this forum today.

Totally the wrong approach. We need to focus on improving all schools and not limit students to their neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honestly, I take all these witness accounts with a grain of salt. We live in a very "poor me" society today, and it's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between painful, traumatizing discrimination and just dealing with being different, through no fault of anyone's.

I was educated in different countries because of my father's job. During one 4 year stretch, I was not only the sole foreigner, but also the sole mixed-ethnicity student of the entire school. I was bullied and teased for a little while, but I dealt with it and made good friends. It felt absolutely no different than later on, when I went to an international, diverse school full of kids of mixed ethnicity.

So suck it up, kiddos. We all have to deal with things.

This.

+1

I am not White and grew up in a White area. Then went to an incredibly diverse college. Both had their issues.

People of all races, religions, skin color, etc face issues. Kids face issues due to their height or their weight. You just have to deal with it. Quit with the victimization. It helps nobody.