Middle middle class & lower middle class: What Middle Schools do we end up in?

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is $140k, three kids. Oldest is at BASIS, younger ones at another Charter. We don't live extravagantly, but we have a very nice life. Honestly, the only time I feel like we are lower middle class is when I read DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:off topic a bit, but I think when people hear "middle class," they imagine something like: a family that can pay for the basics--decent, safe housing, medical care, insurance, food, clothing--and enough 'extras' (a car, new shoes for the kids, ballet classes)and even save for retirement and college without going into debt. That magic 'middle class' number is going to be very different in different places. And, of course, the idea of what 'basics' and 'extras' are depends on how you were raised and your expectations and peers.

I think by those norms you can definitely find areas here where $150K does not feel like it meets those standards, especially if you are paying for medical expenses like therapy, braces, etc., and need summer camp / care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're considering HU Math and Science you must be AA or AW (adventurous white) who's willing to be the first and only.

What's your point?

I believe her/his point is that no way would s/he ever do this themself. Basically it's the view of the blogger discussed in the Washington Post thread about the lotteries.

Me, I've been a first and only, and even though there were rough spots, I wouldn't trade it for anything. That said, I don't even know if it's true that HU Math and Science is all AA. A lot of people on DCUM post out of their armpits, and are wrong about several things. I don't know this school myself, so don't know if this poster is correct or incorrect on that detail.

She could be AA and trying to be smug. That being said it is true that if it were not an outgrowth of an HBCU, DCUMers would be banging down its doors.

Sad, because that HBCU is a great school.

Well very few DCUM-ers are interested in Mckinley Tech even though it blows Wilson's test scores out of the water.

[Anonymous]

True about not being interested in McKinley Tech. Having riden the red line with the racist, profanity spewing students of McKinley I just laugh and laugh about the notion that this is a high performing school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:True about not being interested in McKinley Tech. Having riden the red line with the racist, profanity spewing students of McKinley I just laugh and laugh about the notion that this is a high performing school.

What specifically have you hearx tbem say that makes you say they're racist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:off topic a bit, but I think when people hear "middle class," they imagine something like: a family that can pay for the basics--decent, safe housing, medical care, insurance, food, clothing--and enough 'extras' (a car, new shoes for the kids, ballet classes)and even save for retirement and college without going into debt. That magic 'middle class' number is going to be very different in different places. And, of course, the idea of what 'basics' and 'extras' are depends on how you were raised and your expectations and peers.

I think by those norms you can definitely find areas here where $150K does not feel like it meets those standards, especially if you are paying for medical expenses like therapy, braces, etc., and need summer camp / care.

I think that you're right about what middle class means, but to be clear a safe "middle class" neighborhood might mean a modest apartment building in DC, or a small, not updated 2.5 bedroom 1 bath cape cod in Forest Glen with a 45 minute metro commute, and the college savings are maybe $50 to 100 a month, enough to make Montgomery College affordable, or a state school with some merit aid and maximum student loans. For most middle class families when things like medical expenses come up, that college savings and those ballet classes go on hold.

$150K can get you that lifestyle in DC, and maybe a little more depending on how many kids you have and whether there are daycare costs in the mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True about not being interested in McKinley Tech. Having riden the red line with the racist, profanity spewing students of McKinley I just laugh and laugh about the notion that this is a high performing school.

What specifically have you hearx tbem say that makes you say they're racist?

Gee, I dunno. When a pack of teens get on a metro train in the afternoon and discuss loudly about all the white bitches and hos on the train, I tend to believe these children don't much care for white folks. I'm sure Word Salad will swoop in and tell me how I'm all wrong though. Either way, the student body at MT does not impress me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True about not being interested in McKinley Tech. Having riden the red line with the racist, profanity spewing students of McKinley I just laugh and laugh about the notion that this is a high performing school.

What specifically have you hearx tbem say that makes you say they're racist?

Gee, I dunno. When a pack of teens get on a metro train in the afternoon and discuss loudly about all the white bitches and hos on the train, I tend to believe these children don't much care for white folks. I'm sure Word Salad will swoop in and tell me how I'm all wrong though. Either way, the student body at MT does not impress me.

I'm not Word Salad, and I've never met an MT student (that I know of), but if they speak like that on the metro but are still getting impressive test scores, I have the opposite impression from you: I'm super impressed with McKinley Tech. Because it's likely they're advamcing students further ahead from a less advantageous starting place, and that's more than impressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True about not being interested in McKinley Tech. Having riden the red line with the racist, profanity spewing students of McKinley I just laugh and laugh about the notion that this is a high performing school.

What specifically have you hearx tbem say that makes you say they're racist?

Gee, I dunno. When a pack of teens get on a metro train in the afternoon and discuss loudly about all the white bitches and hos on the train, I tend to believe these children don't much care for white folks. I'm sure Word Salad will swoop in and tell me how I'm all wrong though. Either way, the student body at MT does not impress me.

I'm not Word Salad, and I've never met an MT student (that I know of), but if they speak like that on the metro but are still getting impressive test scores, I have the opposite impression from you: I'm super impressed with McKinley Tech. Because it's likely they're advamcing students further ahead from a less advantageous starting place, and that's more than impressive.

From what I'm reading here, it sounds like MT is a high performing school with at least a vocal minority of students who like to call out white bitches and hos on the train. Having grown up here and been that "white bitch" (actually it was usually "honkey bitch") on more than one occasion as a girl, I gotta say that sending my own kid to a school where that is likely to happen is not my first choice. IDK. There are going to be assholes who try to intimidate you everywhere, I guess, but...