Walter Johnson vs. Sherwood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, private schools are $20k per year. And many of us have a handful of kids. And not everyone has a rich husband or parents with tons of cash.

PS - Sherwood is sorta like private school without uniforms (or the $80k+ price tag for four years).

PPS - many people move out here precisely so they can send their kids to public school without worrying about them.

I am wondering specifically in what ways Sherwood is sorta like private school.

I am also wondering why people in some areas of the county seem to think that sending your child to high school in the other areas of the county is basically like sending your child to Thunderdome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, private schools are $20k per year. And many of us have a handful of kids. And not everyone has a rich husband or parents with tons of cash.

PS - Sherwood is sorta like private school without uniforms (or the $80k+ price tag for four years).

PPS - many people move out here precisely so they can send their kids to public school without worrying about them.

for your private school comment.

people move out there b/c that's just about the only high schools remaining in mcps with 1) reasonable housing and 2) without excessive minority populations. let's be honest with ourselves.

[Anonymous]

The thing that distinguishes WJ from the other W schools is the fact that there is more diversity of housing choices here than in other parts of the Bethesda area. Yes, there are quite a few miliion dollar plus homes in Luxmanor and Wyngate, however there are plenty of families living in apartments along Rockville Pike and in townhomes off Tuckerman near Grosvenor-Strathmore. Also, there are somewhat more affordable homes in Farmland and in Kensington Parkwood. This is how WJ ends up with greater economic diversity, which of course is why the test scores there aren't as high as they are at Whitman for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, private schools are $20k per year. And many of us have a handful of kids. And not everyone has a rich husband or parents with tons of cash.

PS - Sherwood is sorta like private school without uniforms (or the $80k+ price tag for four years).

PPS - many people move out here precisely so they can send their kids to public school without worrying about them.

for your private school comment.

people move out there b/c that's just about the only high schools remaining in mcps with 1) reasonable housing and 2) without excessive minority populations. let's be honest with ourselves.

Sherwood is 12% Asian, 16% Black and 13% Hispanic. Also the FARM rate for Black and Hispanic is very low. I like Sherwood because it is diverse but the diversity is not poor. I don't want to send a message to my kids that all the poor people have different skin color. The FARM is pretty much evenly distributed (except for Black). Most schools that have higher diversity also have an issue in that all the FARM kids are people of color, this indoctrinates our children to believe that poor = people of color. This is not a good message. Not one I want my children to learn.

So NO people do not move to Sherwood district to get away from minority. People move there when they don't want to live around snobby people. I know very few people that commute to DC for a job. Baltimore, sure... Columbia, definitely but not DC.

Walter Johnson also have a good amount of diversity and the FARM rate is evenly distributed over all the racial/ethnic backgrounds.

This is also true for QO and a few other mentioned in this thread.

It really comes down to does the OP like her neighbors (which she may not, since the nasty posters remind her of her neighbors). Many people can't afford to live in Bethesda. Many people can afford to live in Bethesda but don't ... I am sorry, buy the majority of moms in Bethesda are really immature, bitchy and uptight. Many dads are jerks.

Also, it is not the only school with reasonable housing. Clarksburg/Poolesville/Gaithersburg/Blake/Northwood/Einstein/etc

[Anonymous]

Precisely, pp! And since there aren't any apartment complexes or condos in Olney (well, there's one of each)...see?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Precisely, pp! And since there aren't any apartment complexes or condos in Olney (well, there's one of each)...see?

See what?

And it's admirable that PP (I'm assuming that PP is white) doesn't want PP's children to assume that non-white = poor, but my personal definition of diversity includes economic diversity as well as racial/cultural/ethnic diversity.

[Anonymous]

Seriously, what's so special about Sherwood? The avg SAT score of 1600 is not even enough for UMD.

[Anonymous]

http://connectedcommunities.us/showthread.php?p=66302

National Merit Semi-finalists for this year. Check out Sherwood's outstanding performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, private schools are $20k per year. And many of us have a handful of kids. And not everyone has a rich husband or parents with tons of cash.

PS - Sherwood is sorta like private school without uniforms (or the $80k+ price tag for four years).

PPS - many people move out here precisely so they can send their kids to public school without worrying about them.

for your private school comment.

people move out there b/c that's just about the only high schools remaining in mcps with 1) reasonable housing and 2) without excessive minority populations. let's be honest with ourselves.

Sherwood is 12% Asian, 16% Black and 13% Hispanic. Also the FARM rate for Black and Hispanic is very low. I like Sherwood because it is diverse but the diversity is not poor. I don't want to send a message to my kids that all the poor people have different skin color. The FARM is pretty much evenly distributed (except for Black). Most schools that have higher diversity also have an issue in that all the FARM kids are people of color, this indoctrinates our children to believe that poor = people of color. This is not a good message. Not one I want my children to learn.

So NO people do not move to Sherwood district to get away from minority. People move there when they don't want to live around snobby people. I know very few people that commute to DC for a job. Baltimore, sure... Columbia, definitely but not DC.

Walter Johnson also have a good amount of diversity and the FARM rate is evenly distributed over all the racial/ethnic backgrounds.

This is also true for QO and a few other mentioned in this thread.

It really comes down to does the OP like her neighbors (which she may not, since the nasty posters remind her of her neighbors). Many people can't afford to live in Bethesda. Many people can afford to live in Bethesda but don't ... I am sorry, buy the majority of moms in Bethesda are really immature, bitchy and uptight. Many dads are jerks.

Also, it is not the only school with reasonable housing. Clarksburg/Poolesville/Gaithersburg/Blake/Northwood/Einstein/etc

LOL! To paraphrase: "I prefer my diversity to be all high SES families." The "message" you're sending is that you don't want to mix with poor families. That's cool, just don't try to twist it into some kind of noble stance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://connectedcommunities.us/showthread.php?p=66302

National Merit Semi-finalists for this year. Check out Sherwood's outstanding performance.

You need to look at percentages, not numbers. Regardless, Sherwood is a fine school, and only improving.

Signed,
A brown-skinned family living in Olney

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://connectedcommunities.us/showthread.php?p=66302

National Merit Semi-finalists for this year. Check out Sherwood's outstanding performance.

You need to look at percentages, not numbers. Regardless, Sherwood is a fine school, and only improving.

Signed,
A brown-skinned family living in Olney

with only 1, % won't look any better. Sorry.

signed

A purple-skinned guy living in Mars.

[Anonymous]

Sherwood us good- we are happy there, but it isn't Great!! I have friends who live in Olney and 1 sends her kid to Blair's Magnet & a few to RM's magnet IB. They live in Olney yet still send their kids elsewhere. Most of those kids also left going to school in Olney when they started on the magnet path in 4th grade. There is a strong community sense here in Olney which is nice. And there are 3 smallish apartment/townhouse complexes in Olney. It's a great place to raise kids, but there are Many school options here, including privates (Good Counsel, Sandy Spring Friends, St. John's, St. Peter's)

[Anonymous]

Is good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, what's so special about Sherwood? The avg SAT score of 1600 is not even enough for UMD.

Well, one thing that is special about Sherwood is that children that don't get into UMD are not shamed by their community. Also the ones that go to UMD are not made to believe that UMD is the bottom of the barrel. Do you know that only 30% of the population go to college and 50% of those 30% do not graduate in 6 years. So only 15% of the population graduate from college within 6 years of graduation.

This attitude is precisely why parents do not want to raise their children in the W districts.

When my neighbor's daughter decided to start her own business, sure her mom was nervous that she was not going to college. But she was not shamed into trying to go to college even though she knew it was not her calling. 10 years later she has a very successful business.

Average SAT does not mean anything for my specific child. It only means that my child has friends that didn't get into the UMD. They go to Towson/Salisbury/WVU/UMBC. Oh the horror! She also has friends that went to Northwestern/Amherst/Boston University/Princeton/Duke.

The friend that went to UMBC, worked for Price Water House Coopers for a bit and is now working for a senator on the hill at the age of 25 and was just accepted to Dartmouth business school. FROM UMBC... OMG!

That is actually the definition of diversity. She has friends who will be the 1st person in their family to go to college and they live in a huge house. You do realize there are successful people that don't go to college, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, private schools are $20k per year. And many of us have a handful of kids. And not everyone has a rich husband or parents with tons of cash.

PS - Sherwood is sorta like private school without uniforms (or the $80k+ price tag for four years).

PPS - many people move out here precisely so they can send their kids to public school without worrying about them.

for your private school comment.

people move out there b/c that's just about the only high schools remaining in mcps with 1) reasonable housing and 2) without excessive minority populations. let's be honest with ourselves.

Sherwood is 12% Asian, 16% Black and 13% Hispanic. Also the FARM rate for Black and Hispanic is very low. I like Sherwood because it is diverse but the diversity is not poor. I don't want to send a message to my kids that all the poor people have different skin color. The FARM is pretty much evenly distributed (except for Black). Most schools that have higher diversity also have an issue in that all the FARM kids are people of color, this indoctrinates our children to believe that poor = people of color. This is not a good message. Not one I want my children to learn.

So NO people do not move to Sherwood district to get away from minority. People move there when they don't want to live around snobby people. I know very few people that commute to DC for a job. Baltimore, sure... Columbia, definitely but not DC.

Walter Johnson also have a good amount of diversity and the FARM rate is evenly distributed over all the racial/ethnic backgrounds.

This is also true for QO and a few other mentioned in this thread.

It really comes down to does the OP like her neighbors (which she may not, since the nasty posters remind her of her neighbors). Many people can't afford to live in Bethesda. Many people can afford to live in Bethesda but don't ... I am sorry, buy the majority of moms in Bethesda are really immature, bitchy and uptight. Many dads are jerks.

Also, it is not the only school with reasonable housing. Clarksburg/Poolesville/Gaithersburg/Blake/Northwood/Einstein/etc

LOL! To paraphrase: "I prefer my diversity to be all high SES families." The "message" you're sending is that you don't want to mix with poor families. That's cool, just don't try to twist it into some kind of noble stance.

You have reading comprehension issues. We have already established that this is where the poors move when they can't afford Bethesda. I would like my FARM and high SES to be evenly distributed across all ethnic groups. 1sts we are comparing Sherwood with WJ which has even less SES diversity than Sherwood. Sherwood has 15% FARM but the FARM kids are also white. When you pass the cafeteria and see all the kids getting free breakfast, they are not all people of color. They are all types of kids in the school. Yes there are poor white people... that is the "message". Whether you realize it or not. You are creating a conscious child and a child with a subconscious... having a negative image of people of color (all being poor) creates a subconscious that poor = people of color and it will affect the way they act for the rest of their lives towards people of color. Read about "think slicing" if you are unaware of this.