Reporting almost live from the YY application line...

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'm not seeing what the issue is. You have kids and you stand in line with them. So what? Maybe they learn a valuable lesson about working towards getting things, not everything is easy, etc. It is equitable in that everyone has to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Smells like a troll to me too. Since the form doesn't ask if you speak Chinese and I didn't hear of the online app having the option of filling it out in Chinese, they are clearly not surveying for that info so doubtful it is being considered.

Not to mention it was raised I think by staff themselves at the Open House as one of the rumors or questions they get that wasn't true. (Maybe someone just asked, I can't remember but it did get raised and addressed very definitively).

People. I absolutely, positively know of an applicant who is part ethnic Chinese, part other things. Not bilingual. And his Chinese parent is working to game the system and assure admittance. That is, working connections, ingratiating the administration. Offering favors, which is very Chinese if you know how politics is played on the mainland.

Does this rankle you? It does me and I have no direct contact with dc schools.

[Anonymous]

Really?!? Why not just stand in line for a good waitlist number. If they want it that badly, they can camp out and be #1 in line. Much easier.

[Anonymous]

That's entirely different from alleging the school is weighing applicants who are Chinese over other applicants or even taking it into consideration. How is the parent you know any different from any other hyper-intense parent who tries to build relationships and work connections to get into a school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was told that Chinese families who apply the first day will also get a preference off the waitlist--just something to keep in mind y'all.

How are they allowed to do this, and what is the criteria? ie, if Eastern European Jews born in NYC adopt a baby from china, and raise her monolingual in woodley park, are they a Chinese family? How about the family where ds is 1/4 Chinese and nobody speaks the language or has set foot in china?

How is this any different than LAMB who places native Spanish speakers on their waitlist into open spots vacated by native Spanish speakers or English-dominant speakers vacated by English-dominant speakers? Don't you guys believe that there are Mandarin speaking kids in DC? Doesn't that minority deserve the same consideration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was told that Chinese families who apply the first day will also get a preference off the waitlist--just something to keep in mind y'all.

How are they allowed to do this, and what is the criteria? ie, if Eastern European Jews born in NYC adopt a baby from china, and raise her monolingual in woodley park, are they a Chinese family? How about the family where ds is 1/4 Chinese and nobody speaks the language or has set foot in china?

OMG! I don't know, but since you read it on the internet, IT MUST BE TRUE!! Instead of calling the school to have them put the rumor to rest, I think you should consider a lawsuit! There's no time to check the facts, you need to over-react as soon as possible! Hurry up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No the problem is that those of you who think it's not a huge hardship to be out there in line (and I would be in that camp for my personal life -- could totally do it if necessary), don't have jobs in which you would lose your job if you were at YY at 8 am rather than at work. Jobs at which you are not at a computer. So it automatically locks out a whole group of people in this city. People who don't work at a desk, cannot be sitting home in their jammies at 8 am, can't miss work to stand on line. People who don't have internet access and have to go to the library to use computers there. These people do not necessarily care any less about their kids' education than those who were on the line this am and online, but they simply cannot make what you all did happen. It's sad that so many of you don't seem to realize this. What kinds of jobs do you think the people on FARMS have? It doesn't even have to be people who make low salaries. How is the cashier at the grocery, the person at the counter at McD's, the garbage man, the nurse, the surgeon, the police officer, the TEACHER, etc. etc. going to do this. My DH is a teacher and he's in the classroom teaching by 8 am every day. With students in front of him. I have a serious problem with YY choosing this method and an even more serious problem with people implying that if you care about your child's education, you can figure out a way to get your application in during those first 10 minutes. Washington Latin seems to be doing away with the waited waitlist idea for this year and I think YY should as well.

I don't have any interest in the school and my kids are past the age anyway, but these kinds of things in public schools drive me crazy. They are supposed to be open to ALL, regardless of your work schedule.

Yawn.

Family care act (FMLA). Sick day. A "dentist appointment." A friend or family member who owes you a favor. A babysitter. Your faux indignation and outrage is not convincing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smells like a troll to me too. Since the form doesn't ask if you speak Chinese and I didn't hear of the online app having the option of filling it out in Chinese, they are clearly not surveying for that info so doubtful it is being considered.

Not to mention it was raised I think by staff themselves at the Open House as one of the rumors or questions they get that wasn't true. (Maybe someone just asked, I can't remember but it did get raised and addressed very definitively).

People. I absolutely, positively know of an applicant who is part ethnic Chinese, part other things. Not bilingual. And his Chinese parent is working to game the system and assure admittance. That is, working connections, ingratiating the administration. Offering favors, which is very Chinese if you know how politics is played on the mainland.

Does this rankle you? It does me and I have no direct contact with dc schools.

No, it doesn't "rankle" me at all.

Accusations are not the same thing as proof. Perhaps you are not familiar with the concepts of evidence and due process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smells like a troll to me too. Since the form doesn't ask if you speak Chinese and I didn't hear of the online app having the option of filling it out in Chinese, they are clearly not surveying for that info so doubtful it is being considered.

Not to mention it was raised I think by staff themselves at the Open House as one of the rumors or questions they get that wasn't true. (Maybe someone just asked, I can't remember but it did get raised and addressed very definitively).

I don't think that, the statement is true. However, the Yu Ying online app had the words in both English and Mandarin.

My God! If that is not guilty behavior, then I don't know what is! It is absolutely beyond the pale for a Chinese immersion school to post information and forms on its website in both English and Chinese! The next thing you know, they'll actually be encouraging their students to learn to read Chinese! Outrageous!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No the problem is that those of you who think it's not a huge hardship to be out there in line (and I would be in that camp for my personal life -- could totally do it if necessary), don't have jobs in which you would lose your job if you were at YY at 8 am rather than at work. Jobs at which you are not at a computer. So it automatically locks out a whole group of people in this city. People who don't work at a desk, cannot be sitting home in their jammies at 8 am, can't miss work to stand on line. People who don't have internet access and have to go to the library to use computers there. These people do not necessarily care any less about their kids' education than those who were on the line this am and online, but they simply cannot make what you all did happen. It's sad that so many of you don't seem to realize this. What kinds of jobs do you think the people on FARMS have? It doesn't even have to be people who make low salaries. How is the cashier at the grocery, the person at the counter at McD's, the garbage man, the nurse, the surgeon, the police officer, the TEACHER, etc. etc. going to do this. My DH is a teacher and he's in the classroom teaching by 8 am every day. With students in front of him. I have a serious problem with YY choosing this method and an even more serious problem with people implying that if you care about your child's education, you can figure out a way to get your application in during those first 10 minutes. Washington Latin seems to be doing away with the waited waitlist idea for this year and I think YY should as well.

I don't have any interest in the school and my kids are past the age anyway, but these kinds of things in public schools drive me crazy. They are supposed to be open to ALL, regardless of your work schedule.

Yawn.

Family care act (FMLA). Sick day. A "dentist appointment." A friend or family member who owes you a favor. A babysitter. Your faux indignation and outrage is not convincing.

Never mind, just never mind. And honestly (speaking just for myself, I don't know about the other couple of posters I agree with) my very real indignation is not at all about convincing someone like you who doesn't read the posts even half way before dismissing them. It's expressed for those who never considered that not everyone has jobs or family/support options like they do and for whom that might be a new consideration.

But your verite cluelessness is convincing...me to go to bed and leave this point alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No the problem is that those of you who think it's not a huge hardship to be out there in line (and I would be in that camp for my personal life -- could totally do it if necessary), don't have jobs in which you would lose your job if you were at YY at 8 am rather than at work. Jobs at which you are not at a computer. So it automatically locks out a whole group of people in this city. People who don't work at a desk, cannot be sitting home in their jammies at 8 am, can't miss work to stand on line. People who don't have internet access and have to go to the library to use computers there. These people do not necessarily care any less about their kids' education than those who were on the line this am and online, but they simply cannot make what you all did happen. It's sad that so many of you don't seem to realize this. What kinds of jobs do you think the people on FARMS have? It doesn't even have to be people who make low salaries. How is the cashier at the grocery, the person at the counter at McD's, the garbage man, the nurse, the surgeon, the police officer, the TEACHER, etc. etc. going to do this. My DH is a teacher and he's in the classroom teaching by 8 am every day. With students in front of him. I have a serious problem with YY choosing this method and an even more serious problem with people implying that if you care about your child's education, you can figure out a way to get your application in during those first 10 minutes. Washington Latin seems to be doing away with the waited waitlist idea for this year and I think YY should as well.

I don't have any interest in the school and my kids are past the age anyway, but these kinds of things in public schools drive me crazy. They are supposed to be open to ALL, regardless of your work schedule.

Yawn.

Family care act (FMLA). Sick day. A "dentist appointment." A friend or family member who owes you a favor. A babysitter. Your faux indignation and outrage is not convincing.

Never mind, just never mind. And honestly (speaking just for myself, I don't know about the other couple of posters I agree with) my very real indignation is not at all about convincing someone like you who doesn't read the posts even half way before dismissing them. It's expressed for those who never considered that not everyone has jobs or family/support options like they do and for whom that might be a new consideration.

But your verite cluelessness is convincing...me to go to bed and leave this point alone.

Thank you, most recent PP. I'm the one who wrote the longer post above. It's not even close to faux indignation. You just aren't clear on how the world works out of the middle and upper classes. DH is very fortunate in his position as a teacher, but still he only has 3 personal days/year. He has to think very carefully how he uses them. If he even just misses part of the day, that's the whole day. He has sick days, but he's not a huge fan of lying. Anyway, it's not for us, because we would have the resources, friends, whatever to figure it out. It's the idea that in a city in which many many children live in poverty, a school would come up with a plan that made it difficult, if not impossible, to have a certain segment of the population apply on time. Sure, there are people with such jobs who could figure out a way around it, but there are also people who MUST show up because they need that hour's work or that job period. Like PP, I feel you will never get it so it's pointless. Thank goodness most of the charter schools don't operate that way so there are plenty of choices. It just rankles me for any aspect of a public school to be inaccessible to a portion of the population. We will agree to disagree, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No the problem is that those of you who think it's not a huge hardship to be out there in line (and I would be in that camp for my personal life -- could totally do it if necessary), don't have jobs in which you would lose your job if you were at YY at 8 am rather than at work. Jobs at which you are not at a computer. So it automatically locks out a whole group of people in this city. People who don't work at a desk, cannot be sitting home in their jammies at 8 am, can't miss work to stand on line. People who don't have internet access and have to go to the library to use computers there. These people do not necessarily care any less about their kids' education than those who were on the line this am and online, but they simply cannot make what you all did happen. It's sad that so many of you don't seem to realize this. What kinds of jobs do you think the people on FARMS have? It doesn't even have to be people who make low salaries. How is the cashier at the grocery, the person at the counter at McD's, the garbage man, the nurse, the surgeon, the police officer, the TEACHER, etc. etc. going to do this. My DH is a teacher and he's in the classroom teaching by 8 am every day. With students in front of him. I have a serious problem with YY choosing this method and an even more serious problem with people implying that if you care about your child's education, you can figure out a way to get your application in during those first 10 minutes. Washington Latin seems to be doing away with the waited waitlist idea for this year and I think YY should as well.

I don't have any interest in the school and my kids are past the age anyway, but these kinds of things in public schools drive me crazy. They are supposed to be open to ALL, regardless of your work schedule.

Yawn.

Family care act (FMLA). Sick day. A "dentist appointment." A friend or family member who owes you a favor. A babysitter. Your faux indignation and outrage is not convincing.

Never mind, just never mind. And honestly (speaking just for myself, I don't know about the other couple of posters I agree with) my very real indignation is not at all about convincing someone like you who doesn't read the posts even half way before dismissing them. It's expressed for those who never considered that not everyone has jobs or family/support options like they do and for whom that might be a new consideration.

But your verite cluelessness is convincing...me to go to bed and leave this point alone.

If your child is having a medical emergency, can you get him to an ER or does he die in his bed?

If your answer is that you can get him to an ER, then you can use the same supports to get yourself into a line for a couple of hours for one day in your life.

If you can't, and you're going with the "die in bed" choice, then something tells me you've got bigger issues than how to inch up on some charter school waitlist line.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and I'm assuming you would have NO problem being late for work yourself because your nanny was standing on line or showing up at your kids' current school to find the teacher was out standing on line. DH is very committed to being in the classroom as much as possible; I hope your kids' teachers are as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No the problem is that those of you who think it's not a huge hardship to be out there in line (and I would be in that camp for my personal life -- could totally do it if necessary), don't have jobs in which you would lose your job if you were at YY at 8 am rather than at work. Jobs at which you are not at a computer. So it automatically locks out a whole group of people in this city. People who don't work at a desk, cannot be sitting home in their jammies at 8 am, can't miss work to stand on line. People who don't have internet access and have to go to the library to use computers there. These people do not necessarily care any less about their kids' education than those who were on the line this am and online, but they simply cannot make what you all did happen. It's sad that so many of you don't seem to realize this. What kinds of jobs do you think the people on FARMS have? It doesn't even have to be people who make low salaries. How is the cashier at the grocery, the person at the counter at McD's, the garbage man, the nurse, the surgeon, the police officer, the TEACHER, etc. etc. going to do this. My DH is a teacher and he's in the classroom teaching by 8 am every day. With students in front of him. I have a serious problem with YY choosing this method and an even more serious problem with people implying that if you care about your child's education, you can figure out a way to get your application in during those first 10 minutes. Washington Latin seems to be doing away with the waited waitlist idea for this year and I think YY should as well.

I don't have any interest in the school and my kids are past the age anyway, but these kinds of things in public schools drive me crazy. They are supposed to be open to ALL, regardless of your work schedule.

Yawn.

Family care act (FMLA). Sick day. A "dentist appointment." A friend or family member who owes you a favor. A babysitter. Your faux indignation and outrage is not convincing.

Never mind, just never mind. And honestly (speaking just for myself, I don't know about the other couple of posters I agree with) my very real indignation is not at all about convincing someone like you who doesn't read the posts even half way before dismissing them. It's expressed for those who never considered that not everyone has jobs or family/support options like they do and for whom that might be a new consideration.

But your verite cluelessness is convincing...me to go to bed and leave this point alone.

Thank you, most recent PP. I'm the one who wrote the longer post above. It's not even close to faux indignation. You just aren't clear on how the world works out of the middle and upper classes. DH is very fortunate in his position as a teacher, but still he only has 3 personal days/year. He has to think very carefully how he uses them. If he even just misses part of the day, that's the whole day. He has sick days, but he's not a huge fan of lying. Anyway, it's not for us, because we would have the resources, friends, whatever to figure it out. It's the idea that in a city in which many many children live in poverty, a school would come up with a plan that made it difficult, if not impossible, to have a certain segment of the population apply on time. Sure, there are people with such jobs who could figure out a way around it, but there are also people who MUST show up because they need that hour's work or that job period. Like PP, I feel you will never get it so it's pointless. Thank goodness most of the charter schools don't operate that way so there are plenty of choices. It just rankles me for any aspect of a public school to be inaccessible to a portion of the population. We will agree to disagree, I guess.

We are not talking about the lottery, which favors all applicants equally. We're talking about the waitlist. That makes your outrage over the "unfairness!" less compelling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No the problem is that those of you who think it's not a huge hardship to be out there in line (and I would be in that camp for my personal life -- could totally do it if necessary), don't have jobs in which you would lose your job if you were at YY at 8 am rather than at work. Jobs at which you are not at a computer. So it automatically locks out a whole group of people in this city. People who don't work at a desk, cannot be sitting home in their jammies at 8 am, can't miss work to stand on line. People who don't have internet access and have to go to the library to use computers there. These people do not necessarily care any less about their kids' education than those who were on the line this am and online, but they simply cannot make what you all did happen. It's sad that so many of you don't seem to realize this. What kinds of jobs do you think the people on FARMS have? It doesn't even have to be people who make low salaries. How is the cashier at the grocery, the person at the counter at McD's, the garbage man, the nurse, the surgeon, the police officer, the TEACHER, etc. etc. going to do this. My DH is a teacher and he's in the classroom teaching by 8 am every day. With students in front of him. I have a serious problem with YY choosing this method and an even more serious problem with people implying that if you care about your child's education, you can figure out a way to get your application in during those first 10 minutes. Washington Latin seems to be doing away with the waited waitlist idea for this year and I think YY should as well.

I don't have any interest in the school and my kids are past the age anyway, but these kinds of things in public schools drive me crazy. They are supposed to be open to ALL, regardless of your work schedule.

I understand that the very poor have more obstacles and fewer resources, but honestly we're talking about a couple of hours, mostly in the early morning, on one day out of the year. There is a bus that runs directly by YY and it runs all night. As for their jobs, there may well be nightmare bosses or jobs where you can't ever call in sick even for a couple of hours, but those can't be that common because that's completely unrealistic. Even if they were common, I'd wager they're probably less demanding than a biglaw job that might find you in the middle of a trial in Utah when you need to be submitting your application. The PPs above are right. If it matters enough, you find a way to do it.