School Design and White Families

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I completely agree with #2 and my kids are Hispanic. The mix of the population at BASIS (child #1 started when it was still a Title 1 school, still does not have very many Hispanic kids) combined with book after book in grade after grade about the experience of black oppression from "To Kill a Mockingbird" (which I also read in school) to a book about a black boycott of a store that was owned by member of the KKK to "As I Lay Dying," not only precludes any reading of the classics but also makes every other minority invisible and creates a kind of hierarchy of victimization which in this house has resulted in extremely cynical children. When they hear kids play the race card (like when the applications for National Junior Honor Society were being handed out which require a certain GPA) they come home and tell us (in this case my child overheard two girls saying it was racist) and they now view it as a pitiful excuse whatever the circumstances - even when it might be valid - even when it does not come from the kids with $500 dollar Jordans or the girls who say "I'm so ghetto" who are usually gone after 6th grade. My son does not yet understand that the police may put him in the same category, that when he gets to college the shopkeepers may follow him around thinking he will shoplift (happened to my friends). My kids have yet to feel the sting of discrimination.

I was raised in a white family in Washington DC to believe that the only kind of elitism that was acceptable was intellectual and moral - not the color of someone's skin but the content of their character, and while my parents may have been shocked that I ended up coming home from my Ivy League University with a boyfriend who was definitely not white, and definitely could not pass, he was definitely smart, had with help pulled himself out of an inner city to an Ivy, and they never said anything even when we decided to marry. Compared to me and my parents my kids are racist and all of this has to do with their experience at BASIS, and I don't feel like I have anything to say about it because I went to private school here and by the time I met a poor non-white kid I was in college. And my kids feel this way even though the majority of their friends are black and two of their favorite teachers are black - cognitive dissonance anyone? Makes no sense to me except that some AA kids have learned to cry racism at every turn to blame teachers (the excellent new British Latin teacher got fired early in the term because of such unfounded accusations) and my kids are learning from them - and the books they are reading just make it worse because it sounds like yes there was a time..... but no longer. And they see what I saw in DC - only black and white. I don't think it has ever even occurred to them that they are a minority, or to think about where they fit in, because they are top of their class and that is the way they choose their friends - in THAT they are colorblind. But the troublemakers tend to be AA and someone has taught them to cry racism, which makes all claims sound false to them at least at school, and they are learning that the AA kids are the troublemakers. Every time they hear about the oppression of African Americans in church they squirm, and I squirm for them. The police are not going to be friendly to my son. Finally I am in absolute agreement with #3, no social promotion, but BASIS takes care of that starting in 6th.
</quote>

I think your kids are representative of how America has progressed. I think it's time for people to understand that we are always going to see color. It makes no sense to pretend to be colorblind. We see color and judge, the same way we see other features about people and judge (fat and skinny people for example). The fact that your kids recognize that most of the troublemakers in school are AA, yet they still have AA friends is how this society should be. People need to realize that its ok to say that a certain segment of a population is the problem, yet understand that the segment is not one monolithic group that all think and behave the same. If I watch the show "Cops" and see them cracking down on Meth heads in West Virginia, I'm not going to think that everybody in West Virginia is a Meth head. The same thing should be applied when you see ignorance on the streets of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white parent - and honestly, I don't care what white parents want.

I care what upper middle class parents want. I wish you could sort by SES of 150+

This. People use white as code for high SES, which is not always true. Lots of people of color for the bill too.

The reason for that "code" is because of the unusual fact that traditionally DC's white student population was almost exclusively high SES, so fwiw, if you sort test scores for white or ask "How are white students doing?" you can generalize "How would <<my child of any race or SES whose academic profile is the same as one generally/statistically seen in high SES kids>> do?" There are exceptions all over the place, obviously, but this comes up when people are trying to generalize and make choices from statistics. It is a quick way to get a snapshot that comes close to sorting for SES. How each parent uses those statistics to estimate how their own child might do depends on the child. And this general transference only works in DC due to its skewed white demographics. If there were a significant population of low SES white people in DC, it wouldn't work, and no one would be using this proxy. If/As the white population increases and becomes more economically diverse, this correlation will fade.

Here is economic demographic data from 2009 to illustrate the point: http://www.dcfpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/9-22-09ACSIncome.pdf

thanks for posting that link. Even though the data is 8 years old, I would assume that the gap is just as wide if not wider. I was surprised that even hispanic house house have higher median income than AA, by over 3k. Poverty leads to all kinds of learning and behavioral problems in classes and this is really what folks are avoiding. I work almost exclusively with high income, highly educated AA and once they had kids they all moved to PG. none of them ever would have considered a DCPS school unless it was maybe Shepard, Brent or West of the Park. they think I am a nuts white woman to even consider my shitty east of the park school. Rich black folks don't want the problems of high poverty DC black kids either.

[Anonymous]

I'm not white, but my husband is. Our kids go to a solidly black and Hispanic school with some white or other kids in the early PreK and kinder grades. It is a great school and academically rigorous, which I like. I would love to see more enrichment programs for all students: yoga, zumba, dance, art, etc. We do have some great specials teachers, but these would be huge bonuses in our eyes that might keep us at the school. I don't mind that the kids in our school are not the same racial or socioeconomic background. they are good kids, and they are trying hard. my kids are not at school to network -- they are there to learn. But I would like to introduce some fun -- more recess, more specials, more play -- and I think that is consistent with what higher income, white or whatever race parents want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are a few ideas:

1. Strong girls sports, such as soccer, swimming, softball, and volleyball, not just basketball and bowling (seriously, this is offered in DCPS)

2. English/literature classes that don't JUST focus on authors of color, which must be the new way to supposedly get students of color to read. However,an sole focus on this can become off-putting to white students, as they are always in a bad light. There should be a variety of books read and discussed.

3. No social promotion in any grade. Nothing like accountability to get all students up to speed.

4. Foreign language classes daily.

I wanted to speak a bit to your second point.

I agree that variety is the spice of life. However, please keep in mind that it is helpful for kids to read things that they relate to. As a white parent, I am glad to see brown faces in the books my white daughter brings home. I am glad that the books she is reading in class reflect her life experiences and those of her friends. There are are more than enough books about blonde haired blue eyed girls. What books, specifically, do you believe put white students "in a bad light"? By "in a bad light" do you mean that the books address racism (a historical and contemporary reality that many students from various ethnic backgrounds experience)?

pp here -- I didn't say that they should only rad a books about "blonde haired blue eyed girls" (and really, what work of literature has that in the first place?), but I don't think that a steady diet of of only authors of color is right, either. Of course racism is to be discussed and understood, but not necessarily in EVERY book read by the class.

I completely agree with #2 and my kids are Hispanic. The mix of the population at BASIS (child #1 started when it was still a Title 1 school, still does not have very many Hispanic kids) combined with book after book in grade after grade about the experience of black oppression from "To Kill a Mockingbird" (which I also read in school) to a book about a black boycott of a store that was owned by member of the KKK to "As I Lay Dying," not only precludes any reading of the classics but also makes every other minority invisible and creates a kind of hierarchy of victimization which in this house has resulted in extremely cynical children. When they hear kids play the race card (like when the applications for National Junior Honor Society were being handed out which require a certain GPA) they come home and tell us (in this case my child overheard two girls saying it was racist) and they now view it as a pitiful excuse whatever the circumstances - even when it might be valid - even when it does not come from the kids with $500 dollar Jordans or the girls who say "I'm so ghetto" who are usually gone after 6th grade. My son does not yet understand that the police may put him in the same category, that when he gets to college the shopkeepers may follow him around thinking he will shoplift (happened to my friends). My kids have yet to feel the sting of discrimination.

I was raised in a white family in Washington DC to believe that the only kind of elitism that was acceptable was intellectual and moral - not the color of someone's skin but the content of their character, and while my parents may have been shocked that I ended up coming home from my Ivy League University with a boyfriend who was definitely not white, and definitely could not pass, he was definitely smart, had with help pulled himself out of an inner city to an Ivy, and they never said anything even when we decided to marry. Compared to me and my parents my kids are racist and all of this has to do with their experience at BASIS, and I don't feel like I have anything to say about it because I went to private school here and by the time I met a poor non-white kid I was in college. And my kids feel this way even though the majority of their friends are black and two of their favorite teachers are black - cognitive dissonance anyone? Makes no sense to me except that some AA kids have learned to cry racism at every turn to blame teachers (the excellent new British Latin teacher got fired early in the term because of such unfounded accusations) and my kids are learning from them - and the books they are reading just make it worse because it sounds like yes there was a time..... but no longer. And they see what I saw in DC - only black and white. I don't think it has ever even occurred to them that they are a minority, or to think about where they fit in, because they are top of their class and that is the way they choose their friends - in THAT they are colorblind. But the troublemakers tend to be AA and someone has taught them to cry racism, which makes all claims sound false to them at least at school, and they are learning that the AA kids are the troublemakers. Every time they hear about the oppression of African Americans in church they squirm, and I squirm for them. The police are not going to be friendly to my son. Finally I am in absolute agreement with #3, no social promotion, but BASIS takes care of that starting in 6th.

Thanks PP. This is both scary and plain stupid. I wasn't aware that BASIS had descended into such myopic policies.

Not just BASIS -- check any public school in DC with a majority minority population.

My kids go to majority-Latino Oyster-Adams and (apart from a perfectly reasonable interest in MLK) I have not seen anything like this. They bring home all kinds of books, fortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white parent - and honestly, I don't care what white parents want.

I care what upper middle class parents want. I wish you could sort by SES of 150+

This. People use white as code for high SES, which is not always true. Lots of people of color for the bill too.

The reason for that "code" is because of the unusual fact that traditionally DC's white student population was almost exclusively high SES, so fwiw, if you sort test scores for white or ask "How are white students doing?" you can generalize "How would <<my child of any race or SES whose academic profile is the same as one generally/statistically seen in high SES kids>> do?" There are exceptions all over the place, obviously, but this comes up when people are trying to generalize and make choices from statistics. It is a quick way to get a snapshot that comes close to sorting for SES. How each parent uses those statistics to estimate how their own child might do depends on the child. And this general transference only works in DC due to its skewed white demographics. If there were a significant population of low SES white people in DC, it wouldn't work, and no one would be using this proxy. If/As the white population increases and becomes more economically diverse, this correlation will fade.

Here is economic demographic data from 2009 to illustrate the point: http://www.dcfpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/9-22-09ACSIncome.pdf

thanks for posting that link. Even though the data is 8 years old, I would assume that the gap is just as wide if not wider. I was surprised that even hispanic house house have higher median income than AA, by over 3k. Poverty leads to all kinds of learning and behavioral problems in classes and this is really what folks are avoiding. I work almost exclusively with high income, highly educated AA and once they had kids they all moved to PG. none of them ever would have considered a DCPS school unless it was maybe Shepard, Brent or West of the Park. they think I am a nuts white woman to even consider my shitty east of the park school. Rich black folks don't want the problems of high poverty DC black kids either.

Indeed. Where did the Obamas send their kids?

This thread should be retitled: School Design and Wealthy Families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It seems clear white families want other white families in their schools and are only willing to send their children so far from their segregated enclaves.
What can be done to design schools to bring in white families to schools that are not just "for" white families?

Lots of people besides whites live in "segregated enclaves" in this city. Most everyone would like to keep their kids as close to home, if possible, but black families or white families in mixed neighborhoods who value education are more willing to send their kids further away for school if that's where the good schools are. White families usually don't have to travel far to school, because the good schools are already in their neighborhoods. The schools are good, because they have more white kids than the other schools.

In the case of Duke Ellington, it's a majority black school in a majority white neighborhood and when given the chance to build a new school in a more central location, they preferred to stay in Georgetown. making it easier for the lower percentage of white kids who go there, who tend to live nearby.

That's not what I heard from the Georgetown residents, who wanted a "neighborhood general high school" to be developed there. For the record, the location across from Union Station that DE rejected is now occupied by a Montessori DCPS school with a diverse population:

http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Capitol+Hill+Montessori+%40+Logan

Your comment does not contradict the one above it. Yes, Georgetown and other nearby residents would have liked to have a high school in their neighborhood, closer than Wilson, but DE community also wanted to stay in Georgetown. I don't think they're against another general high school nearby, as long as they were not kicked off their territory --no matter than DE draws from the whole city -- they insisted on staying in Georgetown. They claimed the high school when whites were fleeing from it and they were not going to give it up decades later, even if it meant a lot less commuting time for their kids. Now only the DE students already living in upper NW will benefit from DE's G-town location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are a few ideas:

1. Strong girls sports, such as soccer, swimming, softball, and volleyball, not just basketball and bowling (seriously, this is offered in DCPS)

2. English/literature classes that don't JUST focus on authors of color, which must be the new way to supposedly get students of color to read. However,an sole focus on this can become off-putting to white students, as they are always in a bad light. There should be a variety of books read and discussed.

3. No social promotion in any grade. Nothing like accountability to get all students up to speed.

4. Foreign language classes daily.

I wanted to speak a bit to your second point.

I agree that variety is the spice of life. However, please keep in mind that it is helpful for kids to read things that they relate to. As a white parent, I am glad to see brown faces in the books my white daughter brings home. I am glad that the books she is reading in class reflect her life experiences and those of her friends. There are are more than enough books about blonde haired blue eyed girls. What books, specifically, do you believe put white students "in a bad light"? By "in a bad light" do you mean that the books address racism (a historical and contemporary reality that many students from various ethnic backgrounds experience)?

pp here -- I didn't say that they should only rad a books about "blonde haired blue eyed girls" (and really, what work of literature has that in the first place?), but I don't think that a steady diet of of only authors of color is right, either. Of course racism is to be discussed and understood, but not necessarily in EVERY book read by the class.

I completely agree with #2 and my kids are Hispanic. The mix of the population at BASIS (child #1 started when it was still a Title 1 school, still does not have very many Hispanic kids) combined with book after book in grade after grade about the experience of black oppression from "To Kill a Mockingbird" (which I also read in school) to a book about a black boycott of a store that was owned by member of the KKK to "As I Lay Dying," not only precludes any reading of the classics but also makes every other minority invisible and creates a kind of hierarchy of victimization which in this house has resulted in extremely cynical children. When they hear kids play the race card (like when the applications for National Junior Honor Society were being handed out which require a certain GPA) they come home and tell us (in this case my child overheard two girls saying it was racist) and they now view it as a pitiful excuse whatever the circumstances - even when it might be valid - even when it does not come from the kids with $500 dollar Jordans or the girls who say "I'm so ghetto" who are usually gone after 6th grade. My son does not yet understand that the police may put him in the same category, that when he gets to college the shopkeepers may follow him around thinking he will shoplift (happened to my friends). My kids have yet to feel the sting of discrimination.

I was raised in a white family in Washington DC to believe that the only kind of elitism that was acceptable was intellectual and moral - not the color of someone's skin but the content of their character, and while my parents may have been shocked that I ended up coming home from my Ivy League University with a boyfriend who was definitely not white, and definitely could not pass, he was definitely smart, had with help pulled himself out of an inner city to an Ivy, and they never said anything even when we decided to marry. Compared to me and my parents my kids are racist and all of this has to do with their experience at BASIS, and I don't feel like I have anything to say about it because I went to private school here and by the time I met a poor non-white kid I was in college. And my kids feel this way even though the majority of their friends are black and two of their favorite teachers are black - cognitive dissonance anyone? Makes no sense to me except that some AA kids have learned to cry racism at every turn to blame teachers (the excellent new British Latin teacher got fired early in the term because of such unfounded accusations) and my kids are learning from them - and the books they are reading just make it worse because it sounds like yes there was a time..... but no longer. And they see what I saw in DC - only black and white. I don't think it has ever even occurred to them that they are a minority, or to think about where they fit in, because they are top of their class and that is the way they choose their friends - in THAT they are colorblind. But the troublemakers tend to be AA and someone has taught them to cry racism, which makes all claims sound false to them at least at school, and they are learning that the AA kids are the troublemakers. Every time they hear about the oppression of African Americans in church they squirm, and I squirm for them. The police are not going to be friendly to my son. Finally I am in absolute agreement with #3, no social promotion, but BASIS takes care of that starting in 6th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We want a private school education for a public school price. We want EFFECTIVE TEACHERS and administrators that support them. We want rich academic offerings including foreign language, science, history, English, advanced math, extra help in literacy and math for those who need it - because it's not just minority kids that need help sometimes! We want our kids to look forward to school, to have friends of all races that strive toward a similar goal - success and happiness in whatever form that takes. We want rich extracurriculars on campus including but not limited to sports. We want an up-to-date, inspiring facility that makes students feel cherished, not neglected. We want aftercare run by professionals with competence and love. We want a school culture that rejects violence and honors learning, encourages the students and enforces safety in school. We do NOT want teens or grown people smoking blunts, discarding liquor bottles and using the N-word, even affectionately, as our preschoolers (or any other age student) walk past them on or near school grounds. And parents that aren't screaming profanities into their cellphone or at their kids at school pickup. We want the administration to understand that if there is a shooting next door to campus and the school goes into lockdown, we want to be notified, not have the incident dismissed because the attitude is that these things happen around here all too frequently. We want to smile and feel pride and satisfaction with what our kids are getting out of the school they attend.
Would be awesome if all DC neighborhood schools offered all that, but they don't.

Very succinct and accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are a few ideas:

1. Strong girls sports, such as soccer, swimming, softball, and volleyball, not just basketball and bowling (seriously, this is offered in DCPS)

2. English/literature classes that don't JUST focus on authors of color, which must be the new way to supposedly get students of color to read. However,an sole focus on this can become off-putting to white students, as they are always in a bad light. There should be a variety of books read and discussed.

3. No social promotion in any grade. Nothing like accountability to get all students up to speed.

4. Foreign language classes daily.

I wanted to speak a bit to your second point.

I agree that variety is the spice of life. However, please keep in mind that it is helpful for kids to read things that they relate to. As a white parent, I am glad to see brown faces in the books my white daughter brings home. I am glad that the books she is reading in class reflect her life experiences and those of her friends. There are are more than enough books about blonde haired blue eyed girls. What books, specifically, do you believe put white students "in a bad light"? By "in a bad light" do you mean that the books address racism (a historical and contemporary reality that many students from various ethnic backgrounds experience)?

pp here -- I didn't say that they should only rad a books about "blonde haired blue eyed girls" (and really, what work of literature has that in the first place?), but I don't think that a steady diet of of only authors of color is right, either. Of course racism is to be discussed and understood, but not necessarily in EVERY book read by the class.

I completely agree with #2 and my kids are Hispanic. The mix of the population at BASIS (child #1 started when it was still a Title 1 school, still does not have very many Hispanic kids) combined with book after book in grade after grade about the experience of black oppression from "To Kill a Mockingbird" (which I also read in school) to a book about a black boycott of a store that was owned by member of the KKK to "As I Lay Dying," not only precludes any reading of the classics but also makes every other minority invisible and creates a kind of hierarchy of victimization which in this house has resulted in extremely cynical children. When they hear kids play the race card (like when the applications for National Junior Honor Society were being handed out which require a certain GPA) they come home and tell us (in this case my child overheard two girls saying it was racist) and they now view it as a pitiful excuse whatever the circumstances - even when it might be valid - even when it does not come from the kids with $500 dollar Jordans or the girls who say "I'm so ghetto" who are usually gone after 6th grade. My son does not yet understand that the police may put him in the same category, that when he gets to college the shopkeepers may follow him around thinking he will shoplift (happened to my friends). My kids have yet to feel the sting of discrimination.

I was raised in a white family in Washington DC to believe that the only kind of elitism that was acceptable was intellectual and moral - not the color of someone's skin but the content of their character, and while my parents may have been shocked that I ended up coming home from my Ivy League University with a boyfriend who was definitely not white, and definitely could not pass, he was definitely smart, had with help pulled himself out of an inner city to an Ivy, and they never said anything even when we decided to marry. Compared to me and my parents my kids are racist and all of this has to do with their experience at BASIS, and I don't feel like I have anything to say about it because I went to private school here and by the time I met a poor non-white kid I was in college. And my kids feel this way even though the majority of their friends are black and two of their favorite teachers are black - cognitive dissonance anyone? Makes no sense to me except that some AA kids have learned to cry racism at every turn to blame teachers (the excellent new British Latin teacher got fired early in the term because of such unfounded accusations) and my kids are learning from them - and the books they are reading just make it worse because it sounds like yes there was a time..... but no longer. And they see what I saw in DC - only black and white. I don't think it has ever even occurred to them that they are a minority, or to think about where they fit in, because they are top of their class and that is the way they choose their friends - in THAT they are colorblind. But the troublemakers tend to be AA and someone has taught them to cry racism, which makes all claims sound false to them at least at school, and they are learning that the AA kids are the troublemakers. Every time they hear about the oppression of African Americans in church they squirm, and I squirm for them. The police are not going to be friendly to my son. Finally I am in absolute agreement with #3, no social promotion, but BASIS takes care of that starting in 6th.

Thanks PP. This is both scary and plain stupid. I wasn't aware that BASIS had descended into such myopic policies.

Not just BASIS -- check any public school in DC with a majority minority population.

This is not true at Washington Latin. In fact, my kid has yet to bring home a book about Blacks. He has read two books about three little white boys, an Afghan kid, and an Indian kid. Maybe, the school will get around to the Black experience that speak of in the new year. You can only speak of your own experiences. So stop attempting to speak about others.

[Anonymous]

This is not true at Washington Latin. In fact, my kid has yet to bring home a book about Blacks. He has read two books about three little white boys, an Afghan kid, and an Indian kid. Maybe, the school will get around to the Black experience that speak of in the new year. You can only speak of your own experiences. So stop attempting to speak about others.

Of course Washington Latin MS is now 54% white and 37% black.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are a few ideas:

1. Strong girls sports, such as soccer, swimming, softball, and volleyball, not just basketball and bowling (seriously, this is offered in DCPS)

2. English/literature classes that don't JUST focus on authors of color, which must be the new way to supposedly get students of color to read. However,an sole focus on this can become off-putting to white students, as they are always in a bad light. There should be a variety of books read and discussed.

3. No social promotion in any grade. Nothing like accountability to get all students up to speed.

4. Foreign language classes daily.

I wanted to speak a bit to your second point.

I agree that variety is the spice of life. However, please keep in mind that it is helpful for kids to read things that they relate to. As a white parent, I am glad to see brown faces in the books my white daughter brings home. I am glad that the books she is reading in class reflect her life experiences and those of her friends. There are are more than enough books about blonde haired blue eyed girls. What books, specifically, do you believe put white students "in a bad light"? By "in a bad light" do you mean that the books address racism (a historical and contemporary reality that many students from various ethnic backgrounds experience)?

pp here -- I didn't say that they should only rad a books about "blonde haired blue eyed girls" (and really, what work of literature has that in the first place?), but I don't think that a steady diet of of only authors of color is right, either. Of course racism is to be discussed and understood, but not necessarily in EVERY book read by the class.

I completely agree with #2 and my kids are Hispanic. The mix of the population at BASIS (child #1 started when it was still a Title 1 school, still does not have very many Hispanic kids) combined with book after book in grade after grade about the experience of black oppression from "To Kill a Mockingbird" (which I also read in school) to a book about a black boycott of a store that was owned by member of the KKK to "As I Lay Dying," not only precludes any reading of the classics but also makes every other minority invisible and creates a kind of hierarchy of victimization which in this house has resulted in extremely cynical children. When they hear kids play the race card (like when the applications for National Junior Honor Society were being handed out which require a certain GPA) they come home and tell us (in this case my child overheard two girls saying it was racist) and they now view it as a pitiful excuse whatever the circumstances - even when it might be valid - even when it does not come from the kids with $500 dollar Jordans or the girls who say "I'm so ghetto" who are usually gone after 6th grade. My son does not yet understand that the police may put him in the same category, that when he gets to college the shopkeepers may follow him around thinking he will shoplift (happened to my friends). My kids have yet to feel the sting of discrimination.

I was raised in a white family in Washington DC to believe that the only kind of elitism that was acceptable was intellectual and moral - not the color of someone's skin but the content of their character, and while my parents may have been shocked that I ended up coming home from my Ivy League University with a boyfriend who was definitely not white, and definitely could not pass, he was definitely smart, had with help pulled himself out of an inner city to an Ivy, and they never said anything even when we decided to marry. Compared to me and my parents my kids are racist and all of this has to do with their experience at BASIS, and I don't feel like I have anything to say about it because I went to private school here and by the time I met a poor non-white kid I was in college. And my kids feel this way even though the majority of their friends are black and two of their favorite teachers are black - cognitive dissonance anyone? Makes no sense to me except that some AA kids have learned to cry racism at every turn to blame teachers (the excellent new British Latin teacher got fired early in the term because of such unfounded accusations) and my kids are learning from them - and the books they are reading just make it worse because it sounds like yes there was a time..... but no longer. And they see what I saw in DC - only black and white. I don't think it has ever even occurred to them that they are a minority, or to think about where they fit in, because they are top of their class and that is the way they choose their friends - in THAT they are colorblind. But the troublemakers tend to be AA and someone has taught them to cry racism, which makes all claims sound false to them at least at school, and they are learning that the AA kids are the troublemakers. Every time they hear about the oppression of African Americans in church they squirm, and I squirm for them. The police are not going to be friendly to my son. Finally I am in absolute agreement with #3, no social promotion, but BASIS takes care of that starting in 6th.

Thanks PP. This is both scary and plain stupid. I wasn't aware that BASIS had descended into such myopic policies.

BASIS parent here. AFAIK, the books are the teacher's discretion. Any blame for the terrible books picked is the fault of the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:tl;dr

Dafuq, do you want to hear?

+1! But for some unbelievable reason I read the entire thread anyway. Here's my pitch: it's still monochrome. Only the color has changed. Temporarily. Everyone will get tired of it. It'll become passe while something else comes into vogue.

How about this instead: take a World Literature point of view. Represent everybody: Langston Hughes, T.S. Elliot, Margaret Atwood, Erich Maria Remarque, Milton, Danai Gurira (a great modern playwright as well as a kick ass TV star), Nikki Giovanni, J.M. Barrie, Robert Frost, Camus, Calvino, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Emily Dickinson, Twain, Frederick Douglass, etc. and of course Shakespeare and samples of religious literature.

See my pattern here? A thorough literature course should represent all demographics, nationalities, gender/orientation situations, not for any socio-political agenda, but to give students a full glimpse of life in the world, both yesterday and today.

If you want to give kids a well-rounded education, you have to give them a little bit of everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are a few ideas:

1. Strong girls sports, such as soccer, swimming, softball, and volleyball, not just basketball and bowling (seriously, this is offered in DCPS)

2. English/literature classes that don't JUST focus on authors of color, which must be the new way to supposedly get students of color to read. However,an sole focus on this can become off-putting to white students, as they are always in a bad light. There should be a variety of books read and discussed.

3. No social promotion in any grade. Nothing like accountability to get all students up to speed.

4. Foreign language classes daily.

I wanted to speak a bit to your second point.

I agree that variety is the spice of life. However, please keep in mind that it is helpful for kids to read things that they relate to. As a white parent, I am glad to see brown faces in the books my white daughter brings home. I am glad that the books she is reading in class reflect her life experiences and those of her friends. There are are more than enough books about blonde haired blue eyed girls. What books, specifically, do you believe put white students "in a bad light"? By "in a bad light" do you mean that the books address racism (a historical and contemporary reality that many students from various ethnic backgrounds experience)?

pp here -- I didn't say that they should only rad a books about "blonde haired blue eyed girls" (and really, what work of literature has that in the first place?), but I don't think that a steady diet of of only authors of color is right, either. Of course racism is to be discussed and understood, but not necessarily in EVERY book read by the class.

I completely agree with #2 and my kids are Hispanic. The mix of the population at BASIS (child #1 started when it was still a Title 1 school, still does not have very many Hispanic kids) combined with book after book in grade after grade about the experience of black oppression from "To Kill a Mockingbird" (which I also read in school) to a book about a black boycott of a store that was owned by member of the KKK to "As I Lay Dying," not only precludes any reading of the classics but also makes every other minority invisible and creates a kind of hierarchy of victimization which in this house has resulted in extremely cynical children. When they hear kids play the race card (like when the applications for National Junior Honor Society were being handed out which require a certain GPA) they come home and tell us (in this case my child overheard two girls saying it was racist) and they now view it as a pitiful excuse whatever the circumstances - even when it might be valid - even when it does not come from the kids with $500 dollar Jordans or the girls who say "I'm so ghetto" who are usually gone after 6th grade. My son does not yet understand that the police may put him in the same category, that when he gets to college the shopkeepers may follow him around thinking he will shoplift (happened to my friends). My kids have yet to feel the sting of discrimination.

I was raised in a white family in Washington DC to believe that the only kind of elitism that was acceptable was intellectual and moral - not the color of someone's skin but the content of their character, and while my parents may have been shocked that I ended up coming home from my Ivy League University with a boyfriend who was definitely not white, and definitely could not pass, he was definitely smart, had with help pulled himself out of an inner city to an Ivy, and they never said anything even when we decided to marry. Compared to me and my parents my kids are racist and all of this has to do with their experience at BASIS, and I don't feel like I have anything to say about it because I went to private school here and by the time I met a poor non-white kid I was in college. And my kids feel this way even though the majority of their friends are black and two of their favorite teachers are black - cognitive dissonance anyone? Makes no sense to me except that some AA kids have learned to cry racism at every turn to blame teachers (the excellent new British Latin teacher got fired early in the term because of such unfounded accusations) and my kids are learning from them - and the books they are reading just make it worse because it sounds like yes there was a time..... but no longer. And they see what I saw in DC - only black and white. I don't think it has ever even occurred to them that they are a minority, or to think about where they fit in, because they are top of their class and that is the way they choose their friends - in THAT they are colorblind. But the troublemakers tend to be AA and someone has taught them to cry racism, which makes all claims sound false to them at least at school, and they are learning that the AA kids are the troublemakers. Every time they hear about the oppression of African Americans in church they squirm, and I squirm for them. The police are not going to be friendly to my son. Finally I am in absolute agreement with #3, no social promotion, but BASIS takes care of that starting in 6th.

Thanks PP. This is both scary and plain stupid. I wasn't aware that BASIS had descended into such myopic policies.

BASIS parent here. AFAIK, the books are the teacher's discretion. Any blame for the terrible books picked is the fault of the teachers.

Thanks for the clarification (but, of course, it is the school that hires and retains teachers)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are a few ideas:

1. Strong girls sports, such as soccer, swimming, softball, and volleyball, not just basketball and bowling (seriously, this is offered in DCPS)

2. English/literature classes that don't JUST focus on authors of color, which must be the new way to supposedly get students of color to read. However,an sole focus on this can become off-putting to white students, as they are always in a bad light. There should be a variety of books read and discussed.

3. No social promotion in any grade. Nothing like accountability to get all students up to speed.

4. Foreign language classes daily.

I wanted to speak a bit to your second point.

I agree that variety is the spice of life. However, please keep in mind that it is helpful for kids to read things that they relate to. As a white parent, I am glad to see brown faces in the books my white daughter brings home. I am glad that the books she is reading in class reflect her life experiences and those of her friends. There are are more than enough books about blonde haired blue eyed girls. What books, specifically, do you believe put white students "in a bad light"? By "in a bad light" do you mean that the books address racism (a historical and contemporary reality that many students from various ethnic backgrounds experience)?

pp here -- I didn't say that they should only rad a books about "blonde haired blue eyed girls" (and really, what work of literature has that in the first place?), but I don't think that a steady diet of of only authors of color is right, either. Of course racism is to be discussed and understood, but not necessarily in EVERY book read by the class.

I completely agree with #2 and my kids are Hispanic. The mix of the population at BASIS (child #1 started when it was still a Title 1 school, still does not have very many Hispanic kids) combined with book after book in grade after grade about the experience of black oppression from "To Kill a Mockingbird" (which I also read in school) to a book about a black boycott of a store that was owned by member of the KKK to "As I Lay Dying," not only precludes any reading of the classics but also makes every other minority invisible and creates a kind of hierarchy of victimization which in this house has resulted in extremely cynical children. When they hear kids play the race card (like when the applications for National Junior Honor Society were being handed out which require a certain GPA) they come home and tell us (in this case my child overheard two girls saying it was racist) and they now view it as a pitiful excuse whatever the circumstances - even when it might be valid - even when it does not come from the kids with $500 dollar Jordans or the girls who say "I'm so ghetto" who are usually gone after 6th grade. My son does not yet understand that the police may put him in the same category, that when he gets to college the shopkeepers may follow him around thinking he will shoplift (happened to my friends). My kids have yet to feel the sting of discrimination.

I was raised in a white family in Washington DC to believe that the only kind of elitism that was acceptable was intellectual and moral - not the color of someone's skin but the content of their character, and while my parents may have been shocked that I ended up coming home from my Ivy League University with a boyfriend who was definitely not white, and definitely could not pass, he was definitely smart, had with help pulled himself out of an inner city to an Ivy, and they never said anything even when we decided to marry. Compared to me and my parents my kids are racist and all of this has to do with their experience at BASIS, and I don't feel like I have anything to say about it because I went to private school here and by the time I met a poor non-white kid I was in college. And my kids feel this way even though the majority of their friends are black and two of their favorite teachers are black - cognitive dissonance anyone? Makes no sense to me except that some AA kids have learned to cry racism at every turn to blame teachers (the excellent new British Latin teacher got fired early in the term because of such unfounded accusations) and my kids are learning from them - and the books they are reading just make it worse because it sounds like yes there was a time..... but no longer. And they see what I saw in DC - only black and white. I don't think it has ever even occurred to them that they are a minority, or to think about where they fit in, because they are top of their class and that is the way they choose their friends - in THAT they are colorblind. But the troublemakers tend to be AA and someone has taught them to cry racism, which makes all claims sound false to them at least at school, and they are learning that the AA kids are the troublemakers. Every time they hear about the oppression of African Americans in church they squirm, and I squirm for them. The police are not going to be friendly to my son. Finally I am in absolute agreement with #3, no social promotion, but BASIS takes care of that starting in 6th.

Thanks PP. This is both scary and plain stupid. I wasn't aware that BASIS had descended into such myopic policies.

BASIS parent here. AFAIK, the books are the teacher's discretion. Any blame for the terrible books picked is the fault of the teachers.

Thanks for the clarification (but, of course, it is the school that hires and retains teachers)

They don't retain those teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is not true at Washington Latin. In fact, my kid has yet to bring home a book about Blacks. He has read two books about three little white boys, an Afghan kid, and an Indian kid. Maybe, the school will get around to the Black experience that speak of in the new year. You can only speak of your own experiences. So stop attempting to speak about others.

Of course Washington Latin MS is now 54% white and 37% black.

Well then, I guess the kids at Latin will not get the Black authors an earlier poster complained about.