Reply to Racism / Classism on DCurbanmom trolls or true?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Racism / Classism on DCurbanmom trolls or true?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you want to claim that "unprepared students" is really some code word for poor and brown children, then please provide me the correct words to describe students who are unprepared. [/quote]

I think you should just go ahead and use the term unprepared in any way you see fit, but then be prepared for the response it receives.

Maybe as a quid pro quo, you can share how you know that kids in a given school or classroom are unprepared and how you find schools where the kids are all prepared.

A lot of DC parents would be grateful if you could make the distinction discernible.  [/quote]

I am a NP.  I lived for many years EOTP, have now moved to dark side.  In my children's new school versus our old neighborhood, I can tell children are "prepared" in the following ways : they got enough sleep.  They were not kept up by a party, or just not great parenting, or (in the case of my next door neighbor) what I was pretty sure was prostitution.  They have enough to eat, so that they can concentrate and learn.  They've been read to at some point in their lives.  No one today has screamed obscenities at them.  My heart absolutely breaks for so many of the kids I used to see on a daily basis.  I don't want my kids away from them, or not to associate with them.  None of this is their fault.  But you are blind if you think it doesn't have an effect on schools and classrooms and peers.  And it doesn't make those of us who admit that bad people, racist or classist, to worry about it.  Navigating DC schools is hard.  But I really think the vast majority of us are good people with good intentions, both for our kids and their classmates.[/quote]

PP here.  We're all anonymous so you have no way of knowing that I've posted several times in this thread that I don't judge other parents for the decisions they make for their families.  My eyes are wide open and I can plainly see what an unprepared student looks like and the effect that can have on a classroom.

My response is unchanged.  Say you don't want a school with unprepared students, but be prepared for the response.  Everyone reading the word knows precisely what you mean, without your explanation about sleep and food.  You really can't do anything about how others feel about that, just as I can't do anything about you possibly, maybe, [i]probably [/i]assuming that my brown kid is unprepared if he shows up in your school over on the dark side.  Judging from a lot of other anonymous posts in the DC schools forum over many years, it's a worthwhile concern.

My concern as a parent is that it's not the students who are unprepared, it's the schools.  Unprepared to handle kids who's parents are unprepared to handle kids.  For my tax dollars, I'd like to see schools better prepared to counteract the effects of unprepared parents.  Safe spaces where kids get their needs met for six or nine hours every day.  But we don't live in a culture that values kids in a way that makes them productive, self-sustaining adults.

That's not a judgment on you and the choices you've made for your family.  But I can understand your defensiveness, because judgement of each other is definitely something we value.  Especially in DC.

It's interesting someone posted about Coolidge.  I went to the parents forum there a couple of years to discuss boundary changes and I think 4/5ths of the 400 or so parents who showed up were outraged - [i]OUTRAGED [/i]- ward 3 residents.  I couldn't stop staring at the ceiling and walls that were literally crumbling all around us.  That's what outraged me.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics