Reply to Reporting almost live from the YY application line...

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No the problem is that those of you who think it's not a huge hardship to be out there in line (and I would be in that camp for my personal life -- could totally do it if necessary), don't have jobs in which you would lose your job if you were at YY at 8 am rather than at work.  Jobs at which you are not at a computer.  So it automatically locks out a whole group of people in this city.  People who don't work at a desk, cannot be sitting home in their jammies at 8 am, can't miss work to stand on line.  People who don't have internet access and have to go to the library to use computers there.  These people do not necessarily care any less about their kids' education than those who were on the line this am and online, but they simply cannot make what you all did happen.  It's sad that so many of you don't seem to realize this.  What kinds of jobs do you think the people on FARMS have?  It doesn't even have to be people who make low salaries.  How is the cashier at the grocery, the person at the counter at McD's, the garbage man, the nurse, the surgeon, the police officer, the TEACHER, etc. etc. going to do this.  My DH is a teacher and he's in the classroom teaching by 8 am every day.  With students in front of him.  I have a serious problem with YY choosing this method and an even more serious problem with people implying that if you care about your child's education, you can figure out a way to get your application in during those first 10 minutes.  Washington Latin seems to be doing away with the waited waitlist idea for this year and I think YY should as well.

I don't have any interest in the school and my kids are past the age anyway, but these kinds of things in public schools drive me crazy.  They are supposed to be open to ALL, regardless of your work schedule.[/quote]

Yawn.

Family care act (FMLA).  Sick day.  A "dentist appointment."  A friend or family member who owes you a favor.  A babysitter.  Your faux indignation and outrage is not convincing.

[/quote]

Never mind, just never mind. And honestly (speaking just for myself, I don't know about the other couple of posters I agree with) my very real indignation is not at all about convincing someone like you who doesn't read the posts even half way before dismissing them.  It's expressed for those who never considered that not everyone has jobs or family/support options like they do and for whom that might be a new consideration.

But your verite cluelessness is convincing...me to go to bed and leave this point alone.[/quote]

If your child is having a medical emergency, can you get him to an ER or does he die in his bed?

If your answer is that you can get him to an ER, then you can use the same supports to get yourself into a line for a couple of hours for one day in your life.

If you can't, and you're going with the "die in bed" choice, then something tells me you've got bigger issues than how to inch up on some charter school waitlist line.  [/quote]

Y'all are too funny! Talk about issues... I never realized there are so many reading-challenged posters here.

It was interesting, [b]when I spoke to the Enrollment staff at a few other charters (including EL Haynes) [/b]while trying to figure out for myself which schools had which processes, they really sounded like they didn't know some schools did this with the wait list because they told me they weren't aware of any schools doing it and launched into why that would be unfair and defeat some of the whole accessibility point.  (& yes they were clear we were talking about wait list and not lottery).  I found it nice how doubtful they truly sounded that anyone would actually weight the waitlist like YY and Stokes.  i never named schools (@the time I didnt know they were allowed to choose this option and was just trying to get school-specific app info, not get anyone in trouble) but I liked how indignant some of the other popular charters got at this idea.
[/quote]

Perhaps you don't understand that even though EL Haynes, Stokes, and Yu Ying are very popular on DCUM, they have significantly different missions?

EL Haynes is a great school.  It's not shy about its desire to educate lower SES students and get them to college.  This is a terrific goal, and who would dispute it?

Stokes has a different mission: "prepares 350 culturally diverse elementary school students in the District of Columbia to be leaders, scholars and responsible citizens who are committed to social justice. Stokes teaches children to think, speak, read, write and learn in two languages: English and French or English and Spanish."  (from the website).

As for Yu Ying: "Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School aims to spark the fire of lifelong learning by providing a world class education for students in our nation's capital. The first public school in Washington, DC, to offer Chinese language immersion, Yu Ying combines language immersion with the inquiry-based curricula of the International Baccalaureate Organization." (website)

None of these schools are shy about presenting their differing missions; missions which were perfectly acceptable to the PCSB to get their charters.  Missions which have won each of them at least a million dollars in grants.  In other words, they have been thoroughly vetted.  Perhaps you don't understand that the purpose of the charter experiment is to try many different models "let a thousand flowers bloom" and then learn from the best?  In light of that, it's difficult to feel outrage over parents actively seeking language immersion opportunities for their children, and language immersion schools accommodating them according to the law.  All prospects have equal opportunity to be accepted to these schools through the lottery process.

If you find this outrageous, then you probably don't belong at either Stokes or Yu Ying.  Similarly you don't belong at any of the high-performing DCPS (JKLM) because after all, that's not even a lottery - it's pure high-SES status to get in, not even a pretense of egalitarianism.  You should also avoid the high-performing schools in Fairfax County and Montgomery County - they are all hideously tainted by socio-economic advantage.  Hmm, now that we consider all these alternatives, the pure lotteries at Stokes and Yu Ying are looking extremely friendly to all comers.

But let's keep bashing them anyway.  Bitching on the internet is fun!

[/quote]

That's a lot of writing effort to not get the main point.  Actually to miss a variety of the points in this specific conversation.  But you've Gita lot of time that you'd rather spend writing than considering what this fuss is about, so have at it.  You're clearly having fun too...[/quote]

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