TJ admissions now verifying free and reduced price meal status for successful 2026 applicants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The toxic exists in everybody’s mind, if there is any of them.
You can enjoy study without considering winning competition.
Some other kids enjoys competition and decide to work hard. There is nothing wrong with it. No toxic.
Toxic comes when you think those diligent kids takes your opportunities away. Toxic is in your mind.

Go ahead and tell yourself that, but one day you may be honest with yourself.

PP was right that there’s a lot of projection. Resentful parents call other parents/kids “toxic” because they want their own kids to be on top without working as hard.

Or they fear for our (collective) children’s mental health. I’m perfectly fine with my kid not being at the top because they are older now and I’ve seen the toll this sort of approach has on many kids. My own kid has gotten therapy and is in a much better place (although admittedly, we recently got a crisis phone call about a B+ in a college class). Take whatever approach you want, but do it at your peril. My kid is out of high school now and not competing with yours so it does not impact me except in the sense of watching the collective mental health decline.

When you think you've projected as much as possible, be sure and project some more. It can't be your parenting or your kid's particular mental attitude that is at issue; it has to be a "collective" issue that can only be addressed by discriminating against Asian families while invoking the "greater good."

Ok. Seriously? Let’s talk about projecting!! You have got to be kidding me. I’m not talking about only my kid. I’ve seen this with many kids and I think there are plenty Of articles and stats that bear it out. The perfectionism, nothing is good enough thing hurts most kids. Including the kid (non-Asian, if that matters to you) that killed herself at my kid’s school this year. This is a huge problem that transcends TJ and race.

I get it. You are narrow minded and your way is the only way. If anyone questions you, it must be fear and discrimination. All you care about is your kid and TJ. Mental health be damned. Go for it. Maybe ask yourself why this is so important to you. Could it also be fear?

It’s entitlement. No one else’s opinion matters. Only a small subset of parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were multiple studies conducted and the result concluded that on average, Asians had the higher IQ. The IQ of white people tend to have more outliers(up and down), while the Asian IQ seems to be more consistent.

Is that based on (sometimes prepped) cogat scores?

It certainly isn't based on the privilege that got George Bush into Yale and Donald Trump into Penn. When you have privilege, you dont even test scores or academic performance to back it up.

That was about 50 years ago. Why are we taking about that? It’s irrelevant to the TJ conversation as TJ hs no development cases. Yes, definitely relevant to the Ivies, but that is a totally different conversation.

IQ tests are preppable and are based on exposure. Real question my 8 year old got: what is the capital of Greece. How would an 8 year old know that? Exposure. It’s not innate intelligence. I would argue it’s a bias that works in favor of people with the resources to facilitate that exposure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The toxic exists in everybody’s mind, if there is any of them.
You can enjoy study without considering winning competition.
Some other kids enjoys competition and decide to work hard. There is nothing wrong with it. No toxic.
Toxic comes when you think those diligent kids takes your opportunities away. Toxic is in your mind.

Go ahead and tell yourself that, but one day you may be honest with yourself.

PP was right that there’s a lot of projection. Resentful parents call other parents/kids “toxic” because they want their own kids to be on top without working as hard.

Or they fear for our (collective) children’s mental health. I’m perfectly fine with my kid not being at the top because they are older now and I’ve seen the toll this sort of approach has on many kids. My own kid has gotten therapy and is in a much better place (although admittedly, we recently got a crisis phone call about a B+ in a college class). Take whatever approach you want, but do it at your peril. My kid is out of high school now and not competing with yours so it does not impact me except in the sense of watching the collective mental health decline.

When you think you've projected as much as possible, be sure and project some more. It can't be your parenting or your kid's particular mental attitude that is at issue; it has to be a "collective" issue that can only be addressed by discriminating against Asian families while invoking the "greater good."

Ok. Seriously? Let’s talk about projecting!! You have got to be kidding me. I’m not talking about only my kid. I’ve seen this with many kids and I think there are plenty Of articles and stats that bear it out. The perfectionism, nothing is good enough thing hurts most kids. Including the kid (non-Asian, if that matters to you) that killed herself at my kid’s school this year. This is a huge problem that transcends TJ and race.

I get it. You are narrow minded and your way is the only way. If anyone questions you, it must be fear and discrimination. All you care about is your kid and TJ. Mental health be damned. Go for it. Maybe ask yourself why this is so important to you. Could it also be fear?

Whitesaviourism#

Not racist - that implies overt discrimination. White saviors truly believe they are doing what they are doing because they mean well for the kids. In other words, they know better than the parents how to raise healthy children. The same attitude was why many indigenous children were removed from their parents’ care.

Lots of literature on the topic. Google is your friend.

So white people should do nothing to help further URM? Just shut up and resource hoard their slots at TJ? Got it.

I think white saviorism comes in when you don’t ask for input from the people you are trying to help, which is why I agree that FCPS should have had a diverse panel. I think white folks should advocate for URM, but let the URM take the lead.

I also think the whole #whitesavior bit is somewhat of a dog whistle for folks who want to keep URM down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see much evidence that Asian kids flooded into "under-represented" middle schools like Whitman and Holmes this past year to "game" the new process.

It seems more likely to me that Asian families will just anchor in the top pyramids so they can hedge their bets (still have their kids apply to TJ, but rest assured that the alternative is Langley/McLean/Oakton/Chantilly/Woodson). And, as TJ becomes seen primarily as an alternative to lower-performing high schools, fewer of their kids will apply, just like Asian families in MoCo send their kids to Wootton with only some considering the Blair magnet.

Correct. Asian will stay in top school zones.

Some will have a small house in a lower ranked area and a larger house in the top zone.

Seems so overkill for high school. TJ is just a high school in the end. No one cares if you went to TJ later in life and college outcomes aren’t really better because it’s so competitive. If you read their confessional page, cheating is rampant and kids are totally unhappy. It’s crazy to me that folks are this desperate for TJ. Get a life.

TJ is soooo shiny.

This thread is intended for people interested in TJ. This is not a place to bash TJ as that point is going to fall on deaf ears. What is your purpose except maybe as someone embittered that TJ is unattainable?

I’m not bashing TJ. I’m bashing the parents who have been plotting their child’s path for TJ admissions since 2nd grade because they are obsessed with the prestige.

Why would you bash parents who want their kids to be successful? You seem to be obsessed with perpetuating a particular stereotype of a TJ applicant in the past in order to justify a new process that, as this thread indicates, has been anything but smooth. You've offered next to nothing to suggest that the new process is better at identifying students who may have an actual interest in, or aptitude for, STEM.

I'm bashing parents fostering an unhealthy, toxic environment for our kids.

You could always raise your kids as you see fit, and stop interfering with how other parents raise theirs.

It reeks of privilege for people like you to assert that other parents are somehow fostering an "unhealthy, toxic environment" for your kids. It's like you think you're the ones who should always decide the rules and the appropriate cultural norms.

Hmm. I wonder why teen suicides are out of control. Don’t get me wrong, I blame the sports parents, too. It’s all too much! I feel horrible for these kids who have been robbed of their childhood and expected to plan for a career (or to be an Olympian, get a scholarship, etc) from early childhood. It’s so messed up.

You could just as readily ascribe blame to FCPS officials for keeping schools closed so long, with the resultant isolation, lack of social interaction with peers, and loss of learning. That seems to have much more of an impact on students' mental health than parents encouraging their kids to participate in a Science Olympiad or to apply to TJ.

But, again, if you think it's up to FCPS to counter parents who "rob kids of their childhood," then the logical inference is that you should be advocating for the elimination of the STEM magnet at TJ, and not tinkering with the admissions process to admit more kids who may not be up to the school's challenges.

See, if is all very obvious. The white parents have a playbook which kept them on top. And which they think is the right thing to do. The Asians have a different playbook that they saw. Now that the Asian playbook is winning, whites want to say it is a bad toxi playbook. For a while, whites were embarassed that a minority was doing well. And grudgingly let it go. Then the envy got too much and they started saying you are no longer a minority - let's use the URM weapon to bash them. And here we are. Whatever argument you have - there is a counter. You Asians are just privileged, overworking, cheating, unidimensina, toxic people who need to be replaced. Never mind what your background/income levels are. This is a moment in time to vilify you. There is an absolute problem with the black community which needs to be addressed, but we just have some immigrant kids with motivated patents from Africa and South America being accidental winners here. All power to them. No real impact in areas where there should be. Of course as long as the end result is less Asians. whites are heaving a sigh of temporary relief. There!

Nope.

Whites DGAF. When we looked at the application data on an earlier thread, only 50% of eligible white kids even bothered to apply compared to 90%+ black and Asian kids. White families aren’t “envious” at all.

The community looked at how this valuable resource was being utilized and it was monopolized by a small group of wealthy middle schools. And there were embarrassingly few URMs or ED kids. 0.6% ED in 2024.

Maybe it’s white guilt for building such an unfair system. But it’s certainly not “envy”. You are totally off base.

I disagree. I'm white, and for the most part, white people love the prestige. They just don't want to put in the work like Asian kids do. In this forum alone, there have been numerous threads with parents complaining that their white kids are behind the Asian kids, despite their white kids' superior "natural aptitude." White people want to disincentivize anyone getting rewarded for working harder than they're willing to work. Even in this thread, there are suggestions that the Asian work ethic is toxic, the kids are suffering due to the high expectations, and Asians are doing things wrong because no one is supposed to work that hard in America.

The TJ reform is all about taking away any and all incentives for Asian kids to dominate in academics. If Asian kids are knocked down a few pegs or stop trying so hard, it flows that white kids will look better in comparison. White kids weren't especially interested in TJ because it required too much work for too little gain. If TJ gets watered down and no longer has so many strong Asian students at the top of the class, white kids will flock back.

I have never seen that on here. Examples?

And TJ reform isn’t about knocking down Asian students; it’s an attempt to lift others up by leveling the playing field. This admissions process isn’t perfect but it’s a step in the right direction.

And the civil war was about states’ rights - really it was. It so happened that some citizens of a certain race were impacted. I was not about them. It was all about preserving the federal nature of the union. Just ask the African Americans how they felt.

P.S. ~ don’t be tone deaf. Listen to your Asian neighbors. If they feel wronged then maybe this reform had something to do with it? See what happened in San Francisco with the school board.

Have your listening years on and you will be a more effective and impactful reformer.

What about the Asians who support reform?
https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/press-release/civil-rights-groups-submit-amicus-brief-support-race-neutral-admissions-policy-thomas

Why is it that you think only one subset of the population should have a voice? What about everyone else?

Still waiting on the answer to this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The toxic exists in everybody’s mind, if there is any of them.
You can enjoy study without considering winning competition.
Some other kids enjoys competition and decide to work hard. There is nothing wrong with it. No toxic.
Toxic comes when you think those diligent kids takes your opportunities away. Toxic is in your mind.

Go ahead and tell yourself that, but one day you may be honest with yourself.

PP was right that there’s a lot of projection. Resentful parents call other parents/kids “toxic” because they want their own kids to be on top without working as hard.

Or they fear for our (collective) children’s mental health. I’m perfectly fine with my kid not being at the top because they are older now and I’ve seen the toll this sort of approach has on many kids. My own kid has gotten therapy and is in a much better place (although admittedly, we recently got a crisis phone call about a B+ in a college class). Take whatever approach you want, but do it at your peril. My kid is out of high school now and not competing with yours so it does not impact me except in the sense of watching the collective mental health decline.

Exactly.

I was top in my class. Top schools for undergrad and grad. Prestigious grants, internships, and job offers. Years later, I’m working with an amazing group of people from extremely diverse backgrounds. “Prestige” isn’t all that.

And I’m not pushing my kids to be at the top. I do push them to work hard and do their best but not at the cost of a social life, athletics, hobbies, etc. Or risk of anxiety/extreme stress.

My 8th grader is at the top of his HS class and he didn’t get into TJ. We are completely fine with that. He will have a great outcome at his base school.

And somehow you assume other (asian) parents are. They are not stupid and do care about their kids. You know that, right?

haha. are you kidding? everyone knows that asians parents hate their kids and work them to death.

true. more importantly, they are making white parents work harder and they resent that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The toxic exists in everybody’s mind, if there is any of them.
You can enjoy study without considering winning competition.
Some other kids enjoys competition and decide to work hard. There is nothing wrong with it. No toxic.
Toxic comes when you think those diligent kids takes your opportunities away. Toxic is in your mind.

Go ahead and tell yourself that, but one day you may be honest with yourself.

PP was right that there’s a lot of projection. Resentful parents call other parents/kids “toxic” because they want their own kids to be on top without working as hard.

Or they fear for our (collective) children’s mental health. I’m perfectly fine with my kid not being at the top because they are older now and I’ve seen the toll this sort of approach has on many kids. My own kid has gotten therapy and is in a much better place (although admittedly, we recently got a crisis phone call about a B+ in a college class). Take whatever approach you want, but do it at your peril. My kid is out of high school now and not competing with yours so it does not impact me except in the sense of watching the collective mental health decline.

When you think you've projected as much as possible, be sure and project some more. It can't be your parenting or your kid's particular mental attitude that is at issue; it has to be a "collective" issue that can only be addressed by discriminating against Asian families while invoking the "greater good."

Ok. Seriously? Let’s talk about projecting!! You have got to be kidding me. I’m not talking about only my kid. I’ve seen this with many kids and I think there are plenty Of articles and stats that bear it out. The perfectionism, nothing is good enough thing hurts most kids. Including the kid (non-Asian, if that matters to you) that killed herself at my kid’s school this year. This is a huge problem that transcends TJ and race.

I get it. You are narrow minded and your way is the only way. If anyone questions you, it must be fear and discrimination. All you care about is your kid and TJ. Mental health be damned. Go for it. Maybe ask yourself why this is so important to you. Could it also be fear?

Whitesaviourism#

Not racist - that implies overt discrimination. White saviors truly believe they are doing what they are doing because they mean well for the kids. In other words, they know better than the parents how to raise healthy children. The same attitude was why many indigenous children were removed from their parents’ care.

Lots of literature on the topic. Google is your friend.

So white people should do nothing to help further URM? Just shut up and resource hoard their slots at TJ? Got it.

I think white saviorism comes in when you don’t ask for input from the people you are trying to help, which is why I agree that FCPS should have had a diverse panel. I think white folks should advocate for URM, but let the URM take the lead.

I also think the whole #whitesavior bit is somewhat of a dog whistle for folks who want to keep URM down.

That may lead to very different outcomes that white folks may not like. #whitesavior is just a euphemism for whites seeking to keep control. make no mistake.

[Anonymous]

There's a big disconnect between the people who try to correlate TJ admissions reforms with improvements in students' mental health.

The Asian kids whom they implicitly suggest are hyper-competitive and toxic will not have different parents or abandon their ambitions if they are attending Langley or Chantilly rather than TJ.

URMs who end up in the rigorous, demanding environment of TJ may be particularly prone to self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy if they can't keep up with the curriculum (see "imposter syndrome").

If you think TJHSST is problematic, then you should be advocating for the winding-down of the competitive magnet program. And if you think it's up to the system to take actions to reduce the pressure on students county-wide, get rid of the IB Diploma program and cap the number of AP courses kids can take.

Instead, you've somehow convinced yourself that implementing a more random admissions system at TJ will make the school a kinder and gentler place and have big ripple effects throughout FCPS. Most of us aren't buying it. The changes were a crude way to do anything other than just provide a small number of kids who'd otherwise attend low-performing schools with somewhat higher odds of attending a better school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the long excerpt:
“ She loved racial diversity and the prospect of a “flat world,” but when these things threatened her son’s academic position, that love seemed to sour.”

If 18 out of 21 kids in the class are one group then it’s not very diverse.

18 out of 21 kids in the honors math class are one group. This is a perfect example of the thought process of a lot of white people. Diversity is great when the URMs are in the regular class or occupying a small handful of seats in the honors class. It's concerning when a non-white racial group starts dominating the highest level class and ousting white people from their rightful place at the top.

Cram schools for everyone who wants to be on the top track, sounds like a great idea.

Ugh. Supplemental classes are not the same as cram school. There's nothing wrong with doing an AoPS or RSM class, especially considering how poorly public schools teach math. Also, you don't get to control other people. Asian kids want to be on top and put in work to make it happen. White kids want to be on top, but the only work they want to do is complain about Asian strivers.

The lady in the article places a lot of value on having her kid in the top group and feels that her kid deserves to be there even when outperformed by a lot of other kids. For the lady in the article, there are two obvious solutions: Put your kid in supplemental math, or accept that your kid might not be in the top group. Unfortunately, there's also the 3rd solution: Leverage your white privilege to eliminate the top group altogether, so your less qualified white kid looks no worse than the more qualified Asian kids. This is happening across the country. It is not a good thing.

I'll go with option 3. Placement in public school classes shouldn't depend on the ability to supplement after school.

Why are you placing so much importance on having your kid in the top class? It shouldn't matter which class is the "top" one. The only thing that should matter is that every kid is learning new material at a level appropriate to that kid's current achievement level. If some kids are ready for Algebra I earlier than your kid is, how is that really hurting your child? They will take the class when they're ready. Your kid will take it when he's ready. Everyone wins.

Not every kid has the opportunity to supplement. Not every kid has the money to supplement. And they might not know about scholarships. Or they might not have the time because they are needed to help the family in some way. Not every kid knows that these programs exist and their parents might not know that these programs exist.

Why do you have such a problem with the idea that a Public School should be looking to serve the entire population and not just the population that has the ability/interest/knowledge to supplement so that a child has the chance to participate.

I am assuming that the kids who are attending these extra programs enjoy them and want to be there. They should continue to enjoy those programs and classes even if they are not attending TJ. They will help on college applications and they do help to improve grades and school performance. They are important educational programs and life skills programs regardless of going to TJ or not.

Acceptance into a public school should be based on opportunities that all kids have.

If you want the extra curriculars and supplementation to influence your child's acceptance then apply to Private Schools where they are able to look at those for acceptance because their schools can look however they want them to look. Public Schools are different.

Supplement is absolutely not necessary, especially in Northern Virginia where middle schools are great. You get out of middle school what you put in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see much evidence that Asian kids flooded into "under-represented" middle schools like Whitman and Holmes this past year to "game" the new process.

It seems more likely to me that Asian families will just anchor in the top pyramids so they can hedge their bets (still have their kids apply to TJ, but rest assured that the alternative is Langley/McLean/Oakton/Chantilly/Woodson). And, as TJ becomes seen primarily as an alternative to lower-performing high schools, fewer of their kids will apply, just like Asian families in MoCo send their kids to Wootton with only some considering the Blair magnet.

Correct. Asian will stay in top school zones.

Some will have a small house in a lower ranked area and a larger house in the top zone.

Seems so overkill for high school. TJ is just a high school in the end. No one cares if you went to TJ later in life and college outcomes aren’t really better because it’s so competitive. If you read their confessional page, cheating is rampant and kids are totally unhappy. It’s crazy to me that folks are this desperate for TJ. Get a life.

TJ is soooo shiny.

This thread is intended for people interested in TJ. This is not a place to bash TJ as that point is going to fall on deaf ears. What is your purpose except maybe as someone embittered that TJ is unattainable?

I’m not bashing TJ. I’m bashing the parents who have been plotting their child’s path for TJ admissions since 2nd grade because they are obsessed with the prestige.

Why would you bash parents who want their kids to be successful? You seem to be obsessed with perpetuating a particular stereotype of a TJ applicant in the past in order to justify a new process that, as this thread indicates, has been anything but smooth. You've offered next to nothing to suggest that the new process is better at identifying students who may have an actual interest in, or aptitude for, STEM.

I'm bashing parents fostering an unhealthy, toxic environment for our kids.

You could always raise your kids as you see fit, and stop interfering with how other parents raise theirs.

It reeks of privilege for people like you to assert that other parents are somehow fostering an "unhealthy, toxic environment" for your kids. It's like you think you're the ones who should always decide the rules and the appropriate cultural norms.

Hmm. I wonder why teen suicides are out of control. Don’t get me wrong, I blame the sports parents, too. It’s all too much! I feel horrible for these kids who have been robbed of their childhood and expected to plan for a career (or to be an Olympian, get a scholarship, etc) from early childhood. It’s so messed up.

You could just as readily ascribe blame to FCPS officials for keeping schools closed so long, with the resultant isolation, lack of social interaction with peers, and loss of learning. That seems to have much more of an impact on students' mental health than parents encouraging their kids to participate in a Science Olympiad or to apply to TJ.

But, again, if you think it's up to FCPS to counter parents who "rob kids of their childhood," then the logical inference is that you should be advocating for the elimination of the STEM magnet at TJ, and not tinkering with the admissions process to admit more kids who may not be up to the school's challenges.

See, if is all very obvious. The white parents have a playbook which kept them on top. And which they think is the right thing to do. The Asians have a different playbook that they saw. Now that the Asian playbook is winning, whites want to say it is a bad toxi playbook. For a while, whites were embarassed that a minority was doing well. And grudgingly let it go. Then the envy got too much and they started saying you are no longer a minority - let's use the URM weapon to bash them. And here we are. Whatever argument you have - there is a counter. You Asians are just privileged, overworking, cheating, unidimensina, toxic people who need to be replaced. Never mind what your background/income levels are. This is a moment in time to vilify you. There is an absolute problem with the black community which needs to be addressed, but we just have some immigrant kids with motivated patents from Africa and South America being accidental winners here. All power to them. No real impact in areas where there should be. Of course as long as the end result is less Asians. whites are heaving a sigh of temporary relief. There!

Nope.

Whites DGAF. When we looked at the application data on an earlier thread, only 50% of eligible white kids even bothered to apply compared to 90%+ black and Asian kids. White families aren’t “envious” at all.

The community looked at how this valuable resource was being utilized and it was monopolized by a small group of wealthy middle schools. And there were embarrassingly few URMs or ED kids. 0.6% ED in 2024.

Maybe it’s white guilt for building such an unfair system. But it’s certainly not “envy”. You are totally off base.

I disagree. I'm white, and for the most part, white people love the prestige. They just don't want to put in the work like Asian kids do. In this forum alone, there have been numerous threads with parents complaining that their white kids are behind the Asian kids, despite their white kids' superior "natural aptitude." White people want to disincentivize anyone getting rewarded for working harder than they're willing to work. Even in this thread, there are suggestions that the Asian work ethic is toxic, the kids are suffering due to the high expectations, and Asians are doing things wrong because no one is supposed to work that hard in America.

The TJ reform is all about taking away any and all incentives for Asian kids to dominate in academics. If Asian kids are knocked down a few pegs or stop trying so hard, it flows that white kids will look better in comparison. White kids weren't especially interested in TJ because it required too much work for too little gain. If TJ gets watered down and no longer has so many strong Asian students at the top of the class, white kids will flock back.

I have never seen that on here. Examples?

And TJ reform isn’t about knocking down Asian students; it’s an attempt to lift others up by leveling the playing field. This admissions process isn’t perfect but it’s a step in the right direction.

And the civil war was about states’ rights - really it was. It so happened that some citizens of a certain race were impacted. I was not about them. It was all about preserving the federal nature of the union. Just ask the African Americans how they felt.

P.S. ~ don’t be tone deaf. Listen to your Asian neighbors. If they feel wronged then maybe this reform had something to do with it? See what happened in San Francisco with the school board.

Have your listening years on and you will be a more effective and impactful reformer.

What about the Asians who support reform?
https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/press-release/civil-rights-groups-submit-amicus-brief-support-race-neutral-admissions-policy-thomas

Why is it that you think only one subset of the population should have a voice? What about everyone else?

Still waiting on the answer to this.

Do you seek out Clarence Thomas and Herschel Walker when you need input on African American issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a big disconnect between the people who try to correlate TJ admissions reforms with improvements in students' mental health.

The Asian kids whom they implicitly suggest are hyper-competitive and toxic will not have different parents or abandon their ambitions if they are attending Langley or Chantilly rather than TJ.

URMs who end up in the rigorous, demanding environment of TJ may be particularly prone to self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy if they can't keep up with the curriculum (see "imposter syndrome").

If you think TJHSST is problematic, then you should be advocating for the winding-down of the competitive magnet program. And if you think it's up to the system to take actions to reduce the pressure on students county-wide, get rid of the IB Diploma program and cap the number of AP courses kids can take.

Instead, you've somehow convinced yourself that implementing a more random admissions system at TJ will make the school a kinder and gentler place and have big ripple effects throughout FCPS. Most of us aren't buying it. The changes were a crude way to do anything other than just provide a small number of kids who'd otherwise attend low-performing schools with somewhat higher odds of attending a better school.

I absolutely think we should wind down TJ! And scale AAP way back, if not eliminate it. Most kids do not “need” these programs and we spend a ton of money on a very few kids. I’d rather see us spread the money around and raise the bar for everyone.

I want to point out that it is a racists assumption that an URM will be overwhelmed and cannot survive at TJ. If that is true, what is the answer? Let them whither on the vine and not reach their potential? How do URMs ever get ahead then? How do we ever level the playing field and keep TJ? It is an argument in favor of getting rid of TJ and sending the money to the schools where kids have lower resources. Why should a bunch of relatively high income kids get all the benefits? Find a way to make it accessible to all without extensive prep and courses that sell the answers or get rid of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big disconnect between the people who try to correlate TJ admissions reforms with improvements in students' mental health.

The Asian kids whom they implicitly suggest are hyper-competitive and toxic will not have different parents or abandon their ambitions if they are attending Langley or Chantilly rather than TJ.

URMs who end up in the rigorous, demanding environment of TJ may be particularly prone to self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy if they can't keep up with the curriculum (see "imposter syndrome").

If you think TJHSST is problematic, then you should be advocating for the winding-down of the competitive magnet program. And if you think it's up to the system to take actions to reduce the pressure on students county-wide, get rid of the IB Diploma program and cap the number of AP courses kids can take.

Instead, you've somehow convinced yourself that implementing a more random admissions system at TJ will make the school a kinder and gentler place and have big ripple effects throughout FCPS. Most of us aren't buying it. The changes were a crude way to do anything other than just provide a small number of kids who'd otherwise attend low-performing schools with somewhat higher odds of attending a better school.

I absolutely think we should wind down TJ! And scale AAP way back, if not eliminate it. Most kids do not “need” these programs and we spend a ton of money on a very few kids. I’d rather see us spread the money around and raise the bar for everyone.

I want to point out that it is a racists assumption that an URM will be overwhelmed and cannot survive at TJ. If that is true, what is the answer? Let them whither on the vine and not reach their potential? How do URMs ever get ahead then? How do we ever level the playing field and keep TJ? It is an argument in favor of getting rid of TJ and sending the money to the schools where kids have lower resources. Why should a bunch of relatively high income kids get all the benefits? Find a way to make it accessible to all without extensive prep and courses that sell the answers or get rid of it.

This argument can stop once we agree on an admissions test. Absurd to not have one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big disconnect between the people who try to correlate TJ admissions reforms with improvements in students' mental health.

The Asian kids whom they implicitly suggest are hyper-competitive and toxic will not have different parents or abandon their ambitions if they are attending Langley or Chantilly rather than TJ.

URMs who end up in the rigorous, demanding environment of TJ may be particularly prone to self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy if they can't keep up with the curriculum (see "imposter syndrome").

If you think TJHSST is problematic, then you should be advocating for the winding-down of the competitive magnet program. And if you think it's up to the system to take actions to reduce the pressure on students county-wide, get rid of the IB Diploma program and cap the number of AP courses kids can take.

Instead, you've somehow convinced yourself that implementing a more random admissions system at TJ will make the school a kinder and gentler place and have big ripple effects throughout FCPS. Most of us aren't buying it. The changes were a crude way to do anything other than just provide a small number of kids who'd otherwise attend low-performing schools with somewhat higher odds of attending a better school.

I absolutely think we should wind down TJ! And scale AAP way back, if not eliminate it. Most kids do not “need” these programs and we spend a ton of money on a very few kids. I’d rather see us spread the money around and raise the bar for everyone.

I want to point out that it is a racists assumption that an URM will be overwhelmed and cannot survive at TJ. If that is true, what is the answer? Let them whither on the vine and not reach their potential? How do URMs ever get ahead then? How do we ever level the playing field and keep TJ? It is an argument in favor of getting rid of TJ and sending the money to the schools where kids have lower resources. Why should a bunch of relatively high income kids get all the benefits? Find a way to make it accessible to all without extensive prep and courses that sell the answers or get rid of it.

I will add that one of my kids has an IEP. I was told that they are only entitled to a base level education, not specialized education to help them meet their potential. The school only is to get them to the bottom of average, despite their IQ. I would argue the TJ kids can get a base level education at their school. They are not entitled to more than that according to FCPS. So I guess you can enroll them in private to get them to their potential. That’s what I had to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting article about the “model minority” with data that may explain why Asian students perform so well:

https://www.brookings.edu/research/asian-american-success-and-the-pitfalls-of-generalization/?amp

This is a really good article! Thanks for sharing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big disconnect between the people who try to correlate TJ admissions reforms with improvements in students' mental health.

The Asian kids whom they implicitly suggest are hyper-competitive and toxic will not have different parents or abandon their ambitions if they are attending Langley or Chantilly rather than TJ.

URMs who end up in the rigorous, demanding environment of TJ may be particularly prone to self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy if they can't keep up with the curriculum (see "imposter syndrome").

If you think TJHSST is problematic, then you should be advocating for the winding-down of the competitive magnet program. And if you think it's up to the system to take actions to reduce the pressure on students county-wide, get rid of the IB Diploma program and cap the number of AP courses kids can take.

Instead, you've somehow convinced yourself that implementing a more random admissions system at TJ will make the school a kinder and gentler place and have big ripple effects throughout FCPS. Most of us aren't buying it. The changes were a crude way to do anything other than just provide a small number of kids who'd otherwise attend low-performing schools with somewhat higher odds of attending a better school.

I absolutely think we should wind down TJ! And scale AAP way back, if not eliminate it. Most kids do not “need” these programs and we spend a ton of money on a very few kids. I’d rather see us spread the money around and raise the bar for everyone.

I want to point out that it is a racists assumption that an URM will be overwhelmed and cannot survive at TJ. If that is true, what is the answer? Let them whither on the vine and not reach their potential? How do URMs ever get ahead then? How do we ever level the playing field and keep TJ? It is an argument in favor of getting rid of TJ and sending the money to the schools where kids have lower resources. Why should a bunch of relatively high income kids get all the benefits? Find a way to make it accessible to all without extensive prep and courses that sell the answers or get rid of it.

It's not a racist assumption. It's a reality because FCPS isn't necessarily doing the leg work to make sure a kid who attended low-performing ES and MS and wasn't in AAP will have the tools to thrive at TJ. They are just assuming the kids will adjust or the school will adjust. Read "A Hope in the Unseen." The author got through Brown eventually but it wasn't easy and many in similar positions dropped out of elite schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The toxic exists in everybody’s mind, if there is any of them.
You can enjoy study without considering winning competition.
Some other kids enjoys competition and decide to work hard. There is nothing wrong with it. No toxic.
Toxic comes when you think those diligent kids takes your opportunities away. Toxic is in your mind.

Go ahead and tell yourself that, but one day you may be honest with yourself.

PP was right that there’s a lot of projection. Resentful parents call other parents/kids “toxic” because they want their own kids to be on top without working as hard.

Or they fear for our (collective) children’s mental health. I’m perfectly fine with my kid not being at the top because they are older now and I’ve seen the toll this sort of approach has on many kids. My own kid has gotten therapy and is in a much better place (although admittedly, we recently got a crisis phone call about a B+ in a college class). Take whatever approach you want, but do it at your peril. My kid is out of high school now and not competing with yours so it does not impact me except in the sense of watching the collective mental health decline.

Exactly.

I was top in my class. Top schools for undergrad and grad. Prestigious grants, internships, and job offers. Years later, I’m working with an amazing group of people from extremely diverse backgrounds. “Prestige” isn’t all that.

And I’m not pushing my kids to be at the top. I do push them to work hard and do their best but not at the cost of a social life, athletics, hobbies, etc. Or risk of anxiety/extreme stress.

My 8th grader is at the top of his HS class and he didn’t get into TJ. We are completely fine with that. He will have a great outcome at his base school.

And somehow you assume other (asian) parents are. They are not stupid and do care about their kids. You know that, right?

haha. are you kidding? everyone knows that asians parents hate their kids and work them to death.

No, it’s not true. Asians are smart. Smart people won’t treat things in the stupid way.