Most down-to-earth schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree with many of these sentiments, but parents who complain to administration about the sugar content of the yogurt are barking up the wrong tree. MCPS administrators have nothing to do with the food served in the building. If parents want to fight that fight, take it to the county and out of the schools.

I'm the PP for whom the yogurt isn't a huge issue (since we pack lunches), but I do know what happened there and the folks who cared about this did take it to the county level. I believe they had a meeting with some muckity-muck in the nutrition department at MCPS, and then invited the biggest muckity-muck to the school for an event. It was actually totally appropriate advocacy, working up the chain of command.

I would also note that the same folks who worked on the Great Yogurt Debacle organized the school community to come shovel the blacktop after Snowmageddon so the kids could have outdoor recess as soon as MCPS went back to school since the district prioritized snow removal in parking lots but not playgrounds. These are parents who care a lot about nutrition and also making sure kids get outdoor activity as often as possible.

We all have things we are passionate about, and I'm pretty much happy any time parents invest in their local public school community.

OP here ... so one of the things I define as "down to earth" is a community where parents don't feel that they have to "invest" in their school community unless something is really wrong (i.e., impose their somewhat arbitrary bugaboos on the school). Parents should be having better things to do, like planning neighborhood barbecues and working in their yards, or delivering research papers, or making oral arguments in court.

How is that down to earth?

A down-to-earth parent in a down-to-earth school doesn't have to worry about the yogurt or making sure everything about the school is perfect, basically. School is not a foci for perfection or exercising your advocacy skills.

Then MCPS is not right for you.

Sigh.

[Anonymous]

OP here ... so one of the things I define as "down to earth" is a community where parents don't feel that they have to "invest" in their school community unless something is really wrong (i.e., impose their somewhat arbitrary bugaboos on the school). Parents should be having better things to do, like planning neighborhood barbecues and working in their yards, or delivering research papers, or making oral arguments in court.

So, you want a school where everything is just fine, nothing to improve, and parents are too busy making oral arguments in court to be involved in the school? Private school it is!

The truth is that you are not going to find a school in the DC area where parents aren't getting involved. Part of that is because people who come to DC from other places are often "joiners" and take basically every opportunity to get involved. Part of it is because there is no perfect school, and certainly not someplace where the parents are doing their own yard work. You want a unicorn, or a time machine.

[Anonymous]

OP is an MCPS principal I gather, at a close-in school that doesn't want parental involvement unless it's stuffing folders alone in a back room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A down-to-earth parent in a down-to-earth school doesn't have to worry about the yogurt or making sure everything about the school is perfect, basically. School is not a foci for perfection or exercising your advocacy skills.

Although there are certainly people who expect perfection in the public schools, I think it's an overgeneralization to say that everybody who is active about the food in MCPS breakfasts and lunches expects such perfection or is practicing their advocacy skills. If that's not your issue, that's fine. It doesn't mean it shouldn't be somebody else's issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is an MCPS principal I gather, at a close-in school that doesn't want parental involvement unless it's stuffing folders alone in a back room.

Nah. I think OP tells us the truth from her first post. She grew up in a college town where everyone was middle class and well educated, and where people weren't freaking out about education because they had the privilege of knowing that their kids were likely to be just fine, as the kids of college professors and instructors.

She's trying to recreate that, but in a very different city.

The thing she is looking for doesn't really exist here. Maybe Takoma Park 15 years ago. If she doesn't care about racial or socioeconomic diversity and has $1 million to throw at the problem, maybe AU Park.

But the exact thing she is looking for (Madison in the mid-80s) isn't found here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP here ... so one of the things I define as "down to earth" is a community where parents don't feel that they have to "invest" in their school community unless something is really wrong (i.e., impose their somewhat arbitrary bugaboos on the school). Parents should be having better things to do, like planning neighborhood barbecues and working in their yards, or delivering research papers, or making oral arguments in court.

Yes, nothing says "down to earth" to me like delivering research papers or making oral arguments in court!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP is an MCPS principal I gather, at a close-in school that doesn't want parental involvement unless it's stuffing folders alone in a back room.

Nah. I think OP tells us the truth from her first post. She grew up in a college town where everyone was middle class and well educated, and where people weren't freaking out about education because they had the privilege of knowing that their kids were likely to be just fine, as the kids of college professors and instructors.

She's trying to recreate that, but in a very different city.

The thing she is looking for doesn't really exist here. Maybe Takoma Park 15 years ago. If she doesn't care about racial or socioeconomic diversity and has $1 million to throw at the problem, maybe AU Park.

But the exact thing she is looking for (Madison in the mid-80s) isn't found here.

I grew in a different Midwestern college town in the 70s and mid-80s, and really, it wasn't found there then either, although some people liked to believe at the time (and now) that it was.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the op
I think its a system of the freaks that post and congregate on DCUM. OP remember that the people that are here are not the majority of people in existence thank God
Send your precious snowflakes to school they will be fine and find something else to worry about freakazoids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP here ... so one of the things I define as "down to earth" is a community where parents don't feel that they have to "invest" in their school community unless something is really wrong (i.e., impose their somewhat arbitrary bugaboos on the school). Parents should be having better things to do, like planning neighborhood barbecues and working in their yards, or delivering research papers, or making oral arguments in court.

Yes, nothing says "down to earth" to me like delivering research papers or making oral arguments in court!

I presented arguments in front of the Supreme Court wearing patchouli oil and birkenstocks, thank you very much. Didn't win for some reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP here ... so one of the things I define as "down to earth" is a community where parents don't feel that they have to "invest" in their school community unless something is really wrong (i.e., impose their somewhat arbitrary bugaboos on the school). Parents should be having better things to do, like planning neighborhood barbecues and working in their yards, or delivering research papers, or making oral arguments in court.

Yes, nothing says "down to earth" to me like delivering research papers or making oral arguments in court!

I presented arguments in front of the Supreme Court wearing patchouli oil and birkenstocks, thank you very much. Didn't win for some reason.

because you argued against ME.

- np

[Anonymous]

OP, I think I know where you are coming from on this, and in an ideal world, I'd like to find a school like you grew up in too. Sadly, however, I don't think they exist anymore. Or very few and far between. And not just few and far between in the DC metro, but across the US. I think the growing income disparity over the last few decades has really changed this country (and not for the better).

That said, I live in Chevy Chase, and my kids are in the BCC cluster schools. I do not pretend to describe this environment as "down-to-earth" BUT I do feel like there is functional diversity in the schools (functional meaning kids are really mixing it up in their classes/activities/etc with kids from different backgrounds, including those who don't have law firm partners as parents). Truth be told, there are some aspects to living in a bubble that I'm in favor of (quality of education and education expectations). I am struggling with how to bring up my kids so that they are down-to-earth (which is how people describe me). In general we're pretty frugal but we enjoy extras that are totally beyond the reach of a family on an average income (our home, vacations, travel, sheer comfort of not living paycheck to paycheck).

We do talk about what it means to have more and less money. I want my kids eyes opened. Although I grew up in an equally affluent community, my parents finances were a disaster due to pretty traumatic job loss (meaning: losing everything including family home). I always "passed" for UMC and hid the financial troubles from others. In college (SLAC) I remember many very insensitive comments about people who didn't pay on time or weren't pulling their weight or so on - no one realized that my family fell in that bucket. I don't want my kids to be so oblivious that they're the ones making these insensitive comments. These college aquaintances weren't bad people. In fact, they were really smart achievers who just had no clue of life outside of the bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP is an MCPS principal I gather, at a close-in school that doesn't want parental involvement unless it's stuffing folders alone in a back room.

Nah. I think OP tells us the truth from her first post. She grew up in a college town where everyone was middle class and well educated, and where people weren't freaking out about education because they had the privilege of knowing that their kids were likely to be just fine, as the kids of college professors and instructors.

She's trying to recreate that, but in a very different city.

The thing she is looking for doesn't really exist here. Maybe Takoma Park 15 years ago. If she doesn't care about racial or socioeconomic diversity and has $1 million to throw at the problem, maybe AU Park.

But the exact thing she is looking for (Madison in the mid-80s) isn't found here.

Ha ha, not Madison, but good guess. The thing is the schools actually did have social & economic diversity - rural & migrant farmworker kids. It wasn't some kind of bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP here ... so one of the things I define as "down to earth" is a community where parents don't feel that they have to "invest" in their school community unless something is really wrong (i.e., impose their somewhat arbitrary bugaboos on the school). Parents should be having better things to do, like planning neighborhood barbecues and working in their yards, or delivering research papers, or making oral arguments in court.

Yes, nothing says "down to earth" to me like delivering research papers or making oral arguments in court!

I presented arguments in front of the Supreme Court wearing patchouli oil and birkenstocks, thank you very much. Didn't win for some reason.

Because you have to go inside.

I have also presented arguments in front of the Supreme Court wearing Birkenstocks, but not patchouli oil. For example, "Yes, we are now going to walk to Union Station, and no, I am not going to buy you a cookie when we get there."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP here ... so one of the things I define as "down to earth" is a community where parents don't feel that they have to "invest" in their school community unless something is really wrong (i.e., impose their somewhat arbitrary bugaboos on the school). Parents should be having better things to do, like planning neighborhood barbecues and working in their yards, or delivering research papers, or making oral arguments in court.

Yes, nothing says "down to earth" to me like delivering research papers or making oral arguments in court!

Fair enough! But I guess what I'm saying is that somehow my town growing up had plenty of very smart, accomplished folks who did not feel like they needed to overwhelmingly stress over the schools or their kids' academics. (With exceptions, of course.) Maybe that just does not exist anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP here ... so one of the things I define as "down to earth" is a community where parents don't feel that they have to "invest" in their school community unless something is really wrong (i.e., impose their somewhat arbitrary bugaboos on the school). Parents should be having better things to do, like planning neighborhood barbecues and working in their yards, or delivering research papers, or making oral arguments in court.

Yes, nothing says "down to earth" to me like delivering research papers or making oral arguments in court!

I presented arguments in front of the Supreme Court wearing patchouli oil and birkenstocks, thank you very much. Didn't win for some reason.

Because you have to go inside.

I have also presented arguments in front of the Supreme Court wearing Birkenstocks, but not patchouli oil. For example, "Yes, we are now going to walk to Union Station, and no, I am not going to buy you a cookie when we get there."

LOL! Best post of the thread.