Reply to Lottery season reminder: your kids don't need to hear about DCUM stuff

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I never talk about any school being bad or good, and we have always emphasized to our kids that we seek to have them in schools that are a good fit above all else, and that we factor in things like commute and extra curricular options. There are ways to discuss it that don't put down schools their friends attend.

But I actually think it's important to inform your kids about the lottery, how public school in DC works with DCPS and charters and IB and OOB situations, as well as the existence of private schools and what that means. In some ways it's a bummer for kids to have to learn about all this as early as they do in DC, but it's the reality and it's better for the kids to know what is actually going on. Like my kids understand what the lottery is, know it's arbitrary who gets a good number in the lottery, and that entry into some schools is based on luck. That's a hard thing for a 10 or 11 year old to understand, especially if they are learning about it when their friend had "good luck" and they did not. But it's reality and they have to learn.

You can't shield your kids from this stuff. You have to figure out how to talk about it in a way that doesn't put down other families or schools, but it will reveal your values to your kids and could prompt some tough questions like "so do you think Joey is going to a bad school, since you went out of your way to lottery me out of that school?" or "if Marcus got into that school and I didn't, does that mean Marcus is going to get a better education than me?" [b]You have to learn how to answer these questions. It's hard[/b].[/quote]

This is so true and I think gets to the heart of this post, which is that you will eventually have to explain your school choice decisions to your kids. why you chose the school you did, what options you had, and why you thought this school would lead to them thriving.

That is hard stuff (especially if the school is not that great) but it's real. [/quote]

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