SELA PICKS WARD 4 - Takoma, DC

[Anonymous]

Does the whole idea damage, not a damage. Haven't had coffee yet.

[Anonymous]

To the poster questioning the usefulness of a Hebrew immersion school: I also don't find modern Hebrew to be a useful language. Bur it seems that Sela is offering a useful "product" in other areas. Their plan was good enough to get Board approval (even as a plan for an Arabic school--a far more useful language, in my opinion--was rejected). The school's administration has secured long-term space before classes have begun, which I've never seen before (the charters I know start in "incubator space" for the first year or more).

The market will determine whether Sela succeeds or fails. However, despite the Hebrew focus, it's off to an impressive start.

[Anonymous]

Shalom, Besede, Manishma....excuse the spelling. As an African American women who visited Israel I think the school is a great idea.

[Anonymous]

It bears noting that Israel has more companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange than any country outside the United States, save China.

Similarly, In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

Israel has also developed numerous technologies that we use every day: the cellular phone, voice mail, the USB drive, instant messaging, etc.

Is it necessary that our kids learn Hebrew? No. Could it help? Possibly.

Does it hurt them in any way? No. Obama studied Urdu. He primarily uses it to read poetry. Does that mean it isn't useful to him to have studied to have studied a second language? There is something useful in the process of language learning. Not every school is going to work for every kid.

I have a very competitive youngster who thrives within structure. I tried Montessori for him and he hated it. I'm sure that Sela will find a group of students who will be very happy there. The organizing concept doesn't matter too much - it's the actual organization of the school that matters, and Sela is impressing me on that front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's pretty depressing that most of the posts celebrating the location are only concerned with the commute.

It's a definite minority, and I'm being generous here, who are celebrating the Hebrew language immersion quality of the school.

So, let's be honest. No one is interested is in Hebrew language immersion. You're just hoping the lottery rescues you from your home school, and, that your commute is short.

Kind of ugly when spelled out that way, isn't it?



Totally ignorant, and also, not accurate. It's a new school - might not have a lottery, if they fill up first come, first serve. Most parents in D.C. are just looking for a quality charter school near their house, because they don't have a quality DCPS school near their house. The foreign language is just the cherry on the sundae! Go Hebrew, go Swahili, go Uzbek, I don't care. Just give me a quality school. Teaching my kid a language is a bonus.


PP #2, you and 17:26 make PP#1s point for her. You and 17:26 basically say, yeah! I don't really give a crap about the mission of this school, all I know is that I might get a seat and it's close! And by the way, you're ignorant for suggesting that I don't really give a crap about the mission of this school! Ignorant!

Exactly. You all make her point. You care about your commute and you think it's going to be a quality charter school, based on...nothing to do with believing that Hebrew immersion is important to a quality education. In order to call the PP ignorant, you'd have to show that Hebrew immersion is necessary and important to a quality education. Not one of you has done that. You rely on on your commute and on the assumption, based on nothing, that this is a quality school simply because it is a charter school.

I agree, that is the truly sad and pathetic thing.

There is a raft of data supporting immersion education. Even if the student never actually uses the language outside of school, he(she) receive an enormous cognitive benefit from being bilingual. The educational benefit generally shows up around 4th grade (up until then, they may or may not lag behind their monolingual peers). Once they do, they outperform in every subject, including those you might not expect such as math, and even (yes) English.

Monolingual is truly the new stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did Sela get this space? IT families would have liked it.

Not all IT families. There are quite a few of us who live in Logan Circle/U Street and want to remain centrally located.

Well, I have to say living in U Street - I'm actually happy about Sela's location. It's just a few metro stops away, and we did not have a great reaction when we visited some of the schools in our neighborhood, e.g., Meridian, IT. So, from a location perspective - I think they did a good job in finding such a large space.

But how can you compare existing charters with a new charter that hasn't yet started? How do you know whether Sela will get great teachers, or just any old teacher they can get who speaks Hebrew? After all, the pool of native Hebrew-speaking teachers can't be that big, can it? I want to be able to meet the teachers before my DD starts school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did Sela get this space? IT families would have liked it.

Not all IT families. There are quite a few of us who live in Logan Circle/U Street and want to remain centrally located.

Well, I have to say living in U Street - I'm actually happy about Sela's location. It's just a few metro stops away, and we did not have a great reaction when we visited some of the schools in our neighborhood, e.g., Meridian, IT. So, from a location perspective - I think they did a good job in finding such a large space.

But how can you compare existing charters with a new charter that hasn't yet started? How do you know whether Sela will get great teachers, or just any old teacher they can get who speaks Hebrew? After all, the pool of native Hebrew-speaking teachers can't be that big, can it? I want to be able to meet the teachers before my DD starts school.

Well, it seems like Sela isn't the right school for your family. I've never met my child's teachers before moving into a new school; I've been content with other sourves of information. To each family its own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did Sela get this space? IT families would have liked it.

Not all IT families. There are quite a few of us who live in Logan Circle/U Street and want to remain centrally located.

Well, I have to say living in U Street - I'm actually happy about Sela's location. It's just a few metro stops away, and we did not have a great reaction when we visited some of the schools in our neighborhood, e.g., Meridian, IT. So, from a location perspective - I think they did a good job in finding such a large space.

But how can you compare existing charters with a new charter that hasn't yet started? How do you know whether Sela will get great teachers, or just any old teacher they can get who speaks Hebrew? After all, the pool of native Hebrew-speaking teachers can't be that big, can it? I want to be able to meet the teachers before my DD starts school.

Well, all charters schools have to start at some point, and then people have to give it a go, without meeting all of the teachers ahead of time. Sela seems to be starting with preK, K, and 1, so with younger kids, and the teachers will be half English speakers and half Hebrew speakers. I don't know how many native Hebrew speakers there are in DC proper, but there are plenty in MoCo, and if Sela looks nationally, it doesn't seem like a stretch to think they would find three good Hebrew speaking teachers. Meridian has been in existence for several years - and I wouldn't send my kids there, pretty new building or no pretty new building. Also was not impressed with IT. Got shut out of many of the top charters, so I'm willing to give Sela the benefit of the doubt for pre-K4. People forget, but there was similar trash-talking on YY, MV, even Two Rivers....and now people would kill to get into those schools.

[Anonymous]

There's definitely at least one, maybe two serious anti-charter operative on this board, someone with an agenda and a shoulder bearing a chip, who comes on every couple of days with a cluster of astro-turfing posts, usually late at night or in other distinct patterns, with a group of posts coming in from some angle purporting to have inside knowledge or purporting to have some opinionated idea of what might happen at charter X, all followed by a slew of sock-puppeting posts all agreeing with the first, all composed and posted within minutes of each other. And if anyone points out facts to the contrary, they are yelled at for daring to tamp down agenda-driven opinions with actual facts, accused of boosterism and so on, even to the point of obscenities so foul they get deleted. Just be aware of that, pay it no mind.

This sounds kind of paranoid. And wrong. I think there are many parents expressing their legitimate concerns about schools, including charter schools, and they are adding important points to the conversation. It's YOU who are trying to turn the conversation into some US vs THEM anti-charter inflammatory fight when, honestly, it isn't.

It's completely legitimate and important to question whether Hebrew immersion is a good idea. It's a very difficult language and used by a relatively small number of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There's definitely at least one, maybe two serious anti-charter operative on this board, someone with an agenda and a shoulder bearing a chip, who comes on every couple of days with a cluster of astro-turfing posts, usually late at night or in other distinct patterns, with a group of posts coming in from some angle purporting to have inside knowledge or purporting to have some opinionated idea of what might happen at charter X, all followed by a slew of sock-puppeting posts all agreeing with the first, all composed and posted within minutes of each other. And if anyone points out facts to the contrary, they are yelled at for daring to tamp down agenda-driven opinions with actual facts, accused of boosterism and so on, even to the point of obscenities so foul they get deleted. Just be aware of that, pay it no mind.

This sounds kind of paranoid. And wrong. I think there are many parents expressing their legitimate concerns about schools, including charter schools, and they are adding important points to the conversation. It's YOU who are trying to turn the conversation into some US vs THEM anti-charter inflammatory fight when, honestly, it isn't.

It's completely legitimate and important to question whether Hebrew immersion is a good idea. It's a very difficult language and used by a relatively small number of people.

I made the same argument to my parents about Greek school - and now I am very happy they made me go! People need to stop with all of the negativity. The whole reason we have a charter school board is to check these schools out. My taxpayer dollars pay for a whole bunch of things I don't personally use or support. If you were to lazy to oppose Sela during the application process, you should leave them alone now and create your own charter school with a different approach - and then we can all tear you down over and over in the the true DCUM fashion! Honestly, this string was about a location, not about what you as an individual person feel is useful or not useful. I would never send my kid to KIPP and its route-learning culture. Different strokes for different folks. Congrats to Sela on finding a great building! Charter school families are proud of you.

[Anonymous]

Yay Sela! Way to go on finding such a great location. For people worried about traffic - I commute through there, but I avoid Blair and cut over from 3rd St., NE (coming from near Fort Totten). Very excited about the free before and after care, which should also help with commuting. I wonder what an indoor playground means - is that what we used to call a gym

[Anonymous]

Case in point. We care about the commute above all else.

[Anonymous]

I decided against DC Bilingual because of the commute - it's always about the commute, but Sela - bilingual - near my house - happy camper

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I decided against DC Bilingual because of the commute - it's always about the commute, but Sela - bilingual - near my house - happy camper

Ward 4 folks are just sick of traipsing all over town to drop off kids and happy to have new options closer to home - the foreign language aspect is still a plus.

[Anonymous]

Awesome. Just make sure you aren't pretending to care about Hebrew immersion.