Help me convince my parents to let me go to Walls

[Anonymous]

Student here- I applied to SWW and just got accepted! I'm really jazzed and want to enroll in the fall. I'm a very quick learner and I'm really burning out at my current school- Walls would be a dream come true for me. My parents, while they think highly of SWW, are not entirely sold. The commute would likely take an hour or more, which they're afraid will "place a big strain on our family life" (what about dad's commute? anyway...) I also have a pretty serious immune condition that causes me to miss a considerable amount of school each year (annually, around 45 absences, 80 doctor's visits during and after school, 10 hospital days, and 3 or more medically-related overnight trips). I'm committed to making it work, both by working extra hard to accommodate for missed school and by keeping in constant communication with my teachers. My parents just don't seem to think it's worth doing. I know myself well enough to know that I really need to have academic challenge and to actually be learning things in school in order to feel like I have purpose or meaning, or even that I am a somewhat productive member of society. I have tremendous respect and appreciation for my parents, but I'm not able to convey to them how much I need to go to this school.

*exhales*

So... I need your help finding information and evidence to support my case. Everything I've heard about SWW is overwhelmingly positive, but I need something more concrete to tell them than "everyone says it's fantastic". Anything you can offer, from interesting/positive facts about the school, personal stories, etc., especially regarding academic/intellectual engagement and learning, the school's environment, the students, the teachers, or anything, really. Anything you share is appreciated greatly.


Thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

I would post this on the DC Public Schools Forum - you will get more people who know the school there. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

oh my dear, if this is a real person, please know your parents are very proud of you and your future is so so bright regardless of where you attend High School. That being said, I think your health comes before anything, and I do mean anything, so I can understand your parents not being sold on this. They are good parents who want to set you up for success. A long commute is a real toll on parents, not to mention a HS kid who will I'm sure be staying up late studying and if you are like most teenagers, are going to be sleep deprived. Here is my 2 cents. Keep a spreadsheet with the Pros and Cons of attending SWW, and let your parents know you need their support in making this decision. Of course at the end of the day, your parents would have the final say but based on your post here, it sounds like your parents did something right and would hopefully support a dialogue. Now is the time to speak to current and former SWW students, parents, teachers.. you get the idea, right? You need to get info from real people, not an anonymous forum, and not just 1-2 people, but as many people as you can. Talk to them on the phone, over coffee, meet up at a coffee shop, meet up at the school, whatever it takes to get info from the admission office, staff and administration. Take all advice with a grain of salt, and document the Pros and Cons. Some of this will be very personal, so you would need to write pros and cons with regards to your health care, how you will manage that. Talk to your pediatrician about the commute and the impact it would have on your health. Know that where every you go, you will go far. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

You don't need to go to school to learn things. You can learn anywhere. And here's a tip: if you learn to learn outside of school you'll be a more valuable member of society.

[Anonymous]

Before anyone with your health condition should transfer schools, you should be damned sure that the new school can and will work with you.

Why don't you make an appointment with one of the vice principals there and see how they handle someone like you.

Also, an hour on the metro with a compromised immune condition doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:oh my dear, if this is a real person, please know your parents are very proud of you and your future is so so bright regardless of where you attend High School. That being said, I think your health comes before anything, and I do mean anything, so I can understand your parents not being sold on this. They are good parents who want to set you up for success. A long commute is a real toll on parents, not to mention a HS kid who will I'm sure be staying up late studying and if you are like most teenagers, are going to be sleep deprived. Here is my 2 cents. Keep a spreadsheet with the Pros and Cons of attending SWW, and let your parents know you need their support in making this decision. Of course at the end of the day, your parents would have the final say but based on your post here, it sounds like your parents did something right and would hopefully support a dialogue. Now is the time to speak to current and former SWW students, parents, teachers.. you get the idea, right? You need to get info from real people, not an anonymous forum, and not just 1-2 people, but as many people as you can. Talk to them on the phone, over coffee, meet up at a coffee shop, meet up at the school, whatever it takes to get info from the admission office, staff and administration. Take all advice with a grain of salt, and document the Pros and Cons. Some of this will be very personal, so you would need to write pros and cons with regards to your health care, how you will manage that. Talk to your pediatrician about the commute and the impact it would have on your health. Know that where every you go, you will go far. Good luck!

Wow. Thank you.

I'll make sure and do that. I am copying and pasting this into a Word document.

Again, thank you so much.

[Anonymous]

What are your other school options besides Walls? That is pretty important to know before we can offer advice.

[Anonymous]

No 8th grader would write or say 'I'm copying and pasting this into a Word document.'

May be a real situation. But this is not a child's post.

I would not count on the admin at Walls to respect the kind of 504 that would be needed. Yes they are legally required to. But that doesn't mean a lot. If you proceed be ready to file OCR complaints on the regular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No 8th grader would write or say 'I'm copying and pasting this into a Word document.'

May be a real situation. But this is not a child's post.

I would not count on the admin at Walls to respect the kind of 504 that would be needed. Yes they are legally required to. But that doesn't mean a lot. If you proceed be ready to file OCR complaints on the regular.

The original post also reads like an adult's post, definitely not an 8th grader's. Anyway, given the health issues, I wouldn't allow my child to do this unless they had a program like the robots they have in FCPS that allows kids with special needs to participate remotely in class by a computer allowing the student to see the class and interact in real time from home (or maybe even hospital--don't know enough about the program).