Anonymous wrote:I know families who moved away from Tacoma park to Bethesda because the schools in TP were bad.
I call BS on this post.
DP. I call BS on this BS. The other poster bragged how the 97th percentile didn't get into the program, so that should tell you something. I'm familiar with the PBES program. I don't think it's any different than the W feeders. The main difference is TPMS, but now that it's a lottery, the program is not what it was. There's also an issue with the RLA program at PBES that was never fixed, imho. Both the P and teachers involved are still there. Not saying it's a bad program by any means, but the combination of lottery and a few bad apples dragged down the stature of the program overall.
This is very different than my experience. Both my kids loved TPES and PBES. They had no trouble making friends despite 10 classes. Both were consistently in the 96%-99% on both MAPs and so were many of their friends. Excellent schools. I could imagine better.
Well my kids hated them and found them very unfriendly. There is no “community” at the schools either among the kids or the families. We joined in 2nd and 4th grade and there is absolutely no welcome to new families, no effort from the PTA and no attempt to be inclusive. No efforts to involve anyone other than white upper class families as volunteers.
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience but the dozens of families I know who live within walking distance all disagree. In fact, it's a really tight knit community where everyone knows each other. Sure, kids may not all be in the same class each year but there are so many opportunities to interact with others that it hardly matters. Also, many great organizations like Takoma Soccer, D&D at the community center, or scouts that I can't help but think you weren't trying that hard.
They were mostly closed for a year due to the pandemic. The year that my kids aged out. And some longer, like D and D which still hasn’t started again in person. But thanks for being so welcoming and understanding. You pretty much proved my point.
My kids did it with Dave from the library and their regular group over zoom during the height of covid.
My kids had no interest in more Zoom time. I’d also challenged the suggestion that zoom dungeons and dragons would actually easily lead to friendships.
My kids also loved it. Thought it was great to play D&D and enjoyed seeing their many neighborhood friends which otherwise rarely happened during the pandemic.
Ugh. You’re missing the whole point here. If you join the TKPK schools after kindergarten and don’t do after care or apparently go to scouts, and then a freaking pandemic hits YOU DON’T HAVE neighborhood friends to see in Zoom dungeons and dragons. It’s been incredibly difficult to make friends here ( and I’m speaking for myself as a well as my kids) and to be frank there are some mean kids at PBES. But that said, I haven’t seen anything like what PP claims happened to her kid. There’s just a lack of community feel and limited kindness going on at PBES which I think of mostly due to the large size and the lack of younger kids at the school.
I don't do anything about that but my kids also thought it was wonderful. I guess it is difficult to make friends especially when you don't try and are angry at everyone.
Youre proving the point here. An insular community where certain white upper middle class families insist everyone knows everyone without actually trying to reach out to newcomers. It’sa shame it’s not a more inclusive community. If the schools were smaller (and if fewer people had the attitude you do, PP) I’m sure it would be easier.
I think this is right. Even the PP above talked about paying for aftercare she didn't actually need in order to help her child meet friends. The other suggestions were tennis lessons and Brazilian martial arts, not exactly accessible to every family in the city.
I think that both things can be true - Takoma Park can be a family-oriented place if you have the money to spend on extracurriculars with the other UMC white families. But the schools themselves are too large to facilitate those friendships or sense of community.
There are SO many low or no cost activities as well for kids and adults to meet people! A well used community center, basketball court by the library where there are always kids, Takoma soccer ($50 or free with scholarship), low cost city classes for kids and adults, touch football, organized street hockey and on and on.
Can you please just stop. This thread is about Takoma park schools, not Takoma Park extra curriculars activities. The fact is that the schools are too big to easily facilitate friendships, especially for those in PBES. You might make friends with one or two kids but then you start again the next year when your friends are all in a different pod. This isn’t a thread about all the cliquey extra curricular activities you can join if you’re the right demographic. If you don’t have friends from soccer or if you haven’t got neighborhood friends you aren’t going to easily make friends at PBES because it’s too big. No one has disagreed with this, but many of you repeatedly say what about soccer and dungeons and dragons (still not in person) and the pool (which has been closed for more than two years).
While I agree big schools have their issues, it's not accurate to say it's a fact the school is too big to facilitate friendships and that your kids won't make friends. That's absurd. While there are definitely kids who have trouble making friends, kids who get overwhelmed and benefit from smaller schools there are tons of kids who do just fine and are unphased. The reality is a class is a pretty insular unit, and spending day after day with the same 25 kids means most kids WILL find friends each year. And that when they go to recess (with half their class, so about 125 kids) they will see MORE kids they know, not fewer.
I actually think which neighborhood you live in in TkPk shapes the social fabric more. My kid never did Takoma soccer (did other clubs without Takoma kids) and never did aftercare or extra curriculars at school and isn't the most social kid, but has done totally fine.
If you're talking about finding your parent tribe and equating that with kid groups, that's not the same thing.
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