Ashlawn/Kenmore vs. Long Branch/Jefferson

[Anonymous]

I’ve heard more “horror” stories for girls at kenmore and Swanson than boys.

We have boys in kenmore with no issues (so far) but there are fights. They do not have any recess outside time unless it is an all hands on deck of staff event.
Most fights are in the Hispanic part of the school or “tough” guys from ashlawn who seemed to have gotten pummeled several times by south Arlington kids. Keep
In mind many 8th graders there are 16 already and no “tough” 12 or 13 year old will last long against them.

Half their friends (boys and girls at Swanson) seem to have similar issues of middle school. The girls we know (twins) have seen the mean girl thing for a few years and it was especially hard on one of the two who was a target/bullied; while the other seemed to skate through.
The boys at Swanson still hang out with their kenmore friends and our kids and seem to relate it is very clique oriented but they all are athletic so no major issues.
They did get banned as a school from the shops in westover due to behavior issues after school a year or two ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard more “horror” stories for girls at kenmore and Swanson than boys.

We have boys in kenmore with no issues (so far) but there are fights. They do not have any recess outside time unless it is an all hands on deck of staff event.
Most fights are in the Hispanic part of the school or “tough” guys from ashlawn who seemed to have gotten pummeled several times by south Arlington kids. Keep
In mind many 8th graders there are 16 already and no “tough” 12 or 13 year old will last long against them.

Half their friends (boys and girls at Swanson) seem to have similar issues of middle school. The girls we know (twins) have seen the mean girl thing for a few years and it was especially hard on one of the two who was a target/bullied; while the other seemed to skate through.
The boys at Swanson still hang out with their kenmore friends and our kids and seem to relate it is very clique oriented but they all are athletic so no major issues.
They did get banned as a school from the shops in westover due to behavior issues after school a year or two ago.

DS went to Ashlawn/Swanson, and his friends who went to Kenmore had uniformly terrible experiences that were nothing like what he experienced. Swanson is mediocre, but Kenmore is another world that is jolting for kids who went to a nurturing elementary school.

[Anonymous]

re above post, as far as I know Swanson kids are not banned from the Westover shops. The stores there often have specials for students. There were however incidents of students throwing food at patrons a few months ago. I believe that has all been worked out. Thanks to the pandemic, many kids don’t have a clear understanding of what constitutes acceptable behavior in public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard more “horror” stories for girls at kenmore and Swanson than boys.

We have boys in kenmore with no issues (so far) but there are fights. They do not have any recess outside time unless it is an all hands on deck of staff event.
Most fights are in the Hispanic part of the school or “tough” guys from ashlawn who seemed to have gotten pummeled several times by south Arlington kids. Keep
In mind many 8th graders there are 16 already and no “tough” 12 or 13 year old will last long against them.

Half their friends (boys and girls at Swanson) seem to have similar issues of middle school. The girls we know (twins) have seen the mean girl thing for a few years and it was especially hard on one of the two who was a target/bullied; while the other seemed to skate through.
The boys at Swanson still hang out with their kenmore friends and our kids and seem to relate it is very clique oriented but they all are athletic so no major issues.
They did get banned as a school from the shops in westover due to behavior issues after school a year or two ago.

DS went to Ashlawn/Swanson, and his friends who went to Kenmore had uniformly terrible experiences that were nothing like what he experienced. Swanson is mediocre, but Kenmore is another world that is jolting for kids who went to a nurturing elementary school.

You're saying that south arlington ES feeding into Kenmore are not "nurturing?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard more “horror” stories for girls at kenmore and Swanson than boys.

We have boys in kenmore with no issues (so far) but there are fights. They do not have any recess outside time unless it is an all hands on deck of staff event.
Most fights are in the Hispanic part of the school or “tough” guys from ashlawn who seemed to have gotten pummeled several times by south Arlington kids. Keep
In mind many 8th graders there are 16 already and no “tough” 12 or 13 year old will last long against them.

Half their friends (boys and girls at Swanson) seem to have similar issues of middle school. The girls we know (twins) have seen the mean girl thing for a few years and it was especially hard on one of the two who was a target/bullied; while the other seemed to skate through.
The boys at Swanson still hang out with their kenmore friends and our kids and seem to relate it is very clique oriented but they all are athletic so no major issues.
They did get banned as a school from the shops in westover due to behavior issues after school a year or two ago.

DS went to Ashlawn/Swanson, and his friends who went to Kenmore had uniformly terrible experiences that were nothing like what he experienced. Swanson is mediocre, but Kenmore is another world that is jolting for kids who went to a nurturing elementary school.

You're saying that south arlington ES feeding into Kenmore are not "nurturing?"

Many of the sixth graders coming from those schools certainly are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard more “horror” stories for girls at kenmore and Swanson than boys.

We have boys in kenmore with no issues (so far) but there are fights. They do not have any recess outside time unless it is an all hands on deck of staff event.
Most fights are in the Hispanic part of the school or “tough” guys from ashlawn who seemed to have gotten pummeled several times by south Arlington kids. Keep
In mind many 8th graders there are 16 already and no “tough” 12 or 13 year old will last long against them.

Half their friends (boys and girls at Swanson) seem to have similar issues of middle school. The girls we know (twins) have seen the mean girl thing for a few years and it was especially hard on one of the two who was a target/bullied; while the other seemed to skate through.
The boys at Swanson still hang out with their kenmore friends and our kids and seem to relate it is very clique oriented but they all are athletic so no major issues.
They did get banned as a school from the shops in westover due to behavior issues after school a year or two ago.

DS went to Ashlawn/Swanson, and his friends who went to Kenmore had uniformly terrible experiences that were nothing like what he experienced. Swanson is mediocre, but Kenmore is another world that is jolting for kids who went to a nurturing elementary school.

You're saying that south arlington ES feeding into Kenmore are not "nurturing?"

Many of the sixth graders coming from those schools certainly are not.

Ever consider it might be the home life and not the schools?
My children were sufficiently nurtured in their south arlington elementary school feeding into Kenmore. Perhaps it's the north arlington feeder schools that don't sufficiently prepare students for the real world - ie, life outside the bubble their parents and schools create for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard more “horror” stories for girls at kenmore and Swanson than boys.

We have boys in kenmore with no issues (so far) but there are fights. They do not have any recess outside time unless it is an all hands on deck of staff event.
Most fights are in the Hispanic part of the school or “tough” guys from ashlawn who seemed to have gotten pummeled several times by south Arlington kids. Keep
In mind many 8th graders there are 16 already and no “tough” 12 or 13 year old will last long against them.

Half their friends (boys and girls at Swanson) seem to have similar issues of middle school. The girls we know (twins) have seen the mean girl thing for a few years and it was especially hard on one of the two who was a target/bullied; while the other seemed to skate through.
The boys at Swanson still hang out with their kenmore friends and our kids and seem to relate it is very clique oriented but they all are athletic so no major issues.
They did get banned as a school from the shops in westover due to behavior issues after school a year or two ago.

DS went to Ashlawn/Swanson, and his friends who went to Kenmore had uniformly terrible experiences that were nothing like what he experienced. Swanson is mediocre, but Kenmore is another world that is jolting for kids who went to a nurturing elementary school.

You're saying that south arlington ES feeding into Kenmore are not "nurturing?"

Many of the sixth graders coming from those schools certainly are not.

I posted above that it was an “eye opener,” however that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Nothing has actually happened to my kid directly, so it’s really just being a witness to what the lives of others may look like and how that may present at school. And now with the intensified courses, the amount of mixing of students from really different backgrounds is much, much less. So kids like ours aren’t actually unsafe and their learning isn’t affected. It’s just whether or not you want them to even see or know that there exist kids who “aren’t nurturing.” Got it.

It’s not the schools that are the problem, it’s our society and sure, if you prefer to live in a bubble and for your kids to never have to confront the reality of the world, you can find that in Arlington. But if you’re a Swanson parent there’s a good chance your kids will eventually go to W-L with these same kids, so you’re just delaying that inevitable bubble popping. For what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard more “horror” stories for girls at kenmore and Swanson than boys.

We have boys in kenmore with no issues (so far) but there are fights. They do not have any recess outside time unless it is an all hands on deck of staff event.
Most fights are in the Hispanic part of the school or “tough” guys from ashlawn who seemed to have gotten pummeled several times by south Arlington kids. Keep
In mind many 8th graders there are 16 already and no “tough” 12 or 13 year old will last long against them.

Half their friends (boys and girls at Swanson) seem to have similar issues of middle school. The girls we know (twins) have seen the mean girl thing for a few years and it was especially hard on one of the two who was a target/bullied; while the other seemed to skate through.
The boys at Swanson still hang out with their kenmore friends and our kids and seem to relate it is very clique oriented but they all are athletic so no major issues.
They did get banned as a school from the shops in westover due to behavior issues after school a year or two ago.

DS went to Ashlawn/Swanson, and his friends who went to Kenmore had uniformly terrible experiences that were nothing like what he experienced. Swanson is mediocre, but Kenmore is another world that is jolting for kids who went to a nurturing elementary school.

You're saying that south arlington ES feeding into Kenmore are not "nurturing?"

Many of the sixth graders coming from those schools certainly are not.

Ever consider it might be the home life and not the schools?
My children were sufficiently nurtured in their south arlington elementary school feeding into Kenmore. Perhaps it's the north arlington feeder schools that don't sufficiently prepare students for the real world - ie, life outside the bubble their parents and schools create for them.

I don't really understand the claims that N Arl is a bubble compared to S Arl. The truth is that N Arl is wealthier than most of the country, and S Arl has a higher concentration of people who are poorer than most of the country. They are 2 extreme examples and neither is really indicative of the real world (at least not the real world in the United States).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard more “horror” stories for girls at kenmore and Swanson than boys.

We have boys in kenmore with no issues (so far) but there are fights. They do not have any recess outside time unless it is an all hands on deck of staff event.
Most fights are in the Hispanic part of the school or “tough” guys from ashlawn who seemed to have gotten pummeled several times by south Arlington kids. Keep
In mind many 8th graders there are 16 already and no “tough” 12 or 13 year old will last long against them.

Half their friends (boys and girls at Swanson) seem to have similar issues of middle school. The girls we know (twins) have seen the mean girl thing for a few years and it was especially hard on one of the two who was a target/bullied; while the other seemed to skate through.
The boys at Swanson still hang out with their kenmore friends and our kids and seem to relate it is very clique oriented but they all are athletic so no major issues.
They did get banned as a school from the shops in westover due to behavior issues after school a year or two ago.

DS went to Ashlawn/Swanson, and his friends who went to Kenmore had uniformly terrible experiences that were nothing like what he experienced. Swanson is mediocre, but Kenmore is another world that is jolting for kids who went to a nurturing elementary school.

You're saying that south arlington ES feeding into Kenmore are not "nurturing?"

Many of the sixth graders coming from those schools certainly are not.

Ever consider it might be the home life and not the schools?
My children were sufficiently nurtured in their south arlington elementary school feeding into Kenmore. Perhaps it's the north arlington feeder schools that don't sufficiently prepare students for the real world - ie, life outside the bubble their parents and schools create for them.

I don't really understand the claims that N Arl is a bubble compared to S Arl. The truth is that N Arl is wealthier than most of the country, and S Arl has a higher concentration of people who are poorer than most of the country. They are 2 extreme examples and neither is really indicative of the real world (at least not the real world in the United States).

True - it is also eye-opening for south Arlington students to experience north Arlington schools. But I'd say south is still closer to "real world," especially since "Arlington poor" is still better off than "poor" elsewhere across the USA.

[Anonymous]

So odd that there are fights at Kenmore. They are extremely uncommon at Jefferson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So odd that there are fights at Kenmore. They are extremely uncommon at Jefferson.

Honest question: is that sarcasm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So odd that there are fights at Kenmore. They are extremely uncommon at Jefferson.

Honest question: is that sarcasm?

DP. LOL of course it is! My kid sees multiple fights every day at TJ!

[Anonymous]

One of my kids just finished at Kenmore and I couldn’t be happier or more relieved. I did like the faculty - who mostly seemed to care deeply about what goes on there. However it’s chaotic and unsafe. They need more support and resources to keep some control.
My other kid is at Ashlawn. I’ve been impressed for the most part but surprised at the poor behavior of some of the students there in terms of bullying.