Reply to Ludlow-Taylor getting a new a new Principal

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

It's not as simple as "It's also interesting how on this thread people are genuinely expressing there desire for more white kids at this school, when I think what people really want is more kids at the school that come from higher SES.  If not, then would the people on this thread, who claim to want more white families at the school, welcome a more white kids from families like "Honey Boo Boo"?  I think not.  Alternatively, what if the school was majority black, but the black kids came from families like the Obamas (Ivy league educated lawyers)?  Would this not be Ok?
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I once lived in baltimore in an area where white urban pioneers were steadily replacing ethnic and appalachian low SES whites.  Many similar issues. I never had to deal with the schools, but I probably would not have wanted my kid to attend a neighborhood school there.    There really weren't any high SES school age kids in the area - commutes from close in high SES parts of Baltimore COunty were quite reasonable.

But DC is not Baltimore, it has not had any significant number of low SES whites in a generation (they are mostly gone from the inner suburbs now as well) it has a long history of bitter racial rhetoric, and its really hard to seperate the race and class issues.

While I am unsympathetic to the folks  talking about wanting a white principal, I am not sure I am unsympathetic to those expressing some degree of entitlement to a school that focuses on the needs of the high achieving kids  (of whatever race or SES) who also just happen to be the kids the school is zoned for.  Resentment by the principal toward such parents, while perhaps understandable given the history of the school, and the real needs of lower achieving children, still seems quite inappropriate to me, and guaranteed to worsen the situation.  [/quote]

You're right, it's not Baltimore. At all.  Be grateful for that, but come on.  This thread is just so . . . I can't even find a word for it.

The line that really takes the cake is the one about parents calling the shots.  I don't care what race or class make-up a school has, it's entirely inappropriate to take this stance at a public school.  The challenge to principals in this town is not the students, it's their parents!  No wonder there's so much turnover.  What leader wants to be led around by a nose ring yanked on by people with no education experience and no regard whatsoever for the majority of the school's population?

And to the AA parent wondering if your kids will be stigmatized by color, regardless of your income or education level - the answer is yes, it will happen.  Not always and not in obvious ways.  But it doesn't take much for people to reveal their biases, so you can steer clear of them.

HOWEVER.  I have to wonder how this group prejudice will play out in a school where the parents are "calling the shots."  If they're exerting pressure on a principal to change the demographics of the school (or to show whites more preference) as a benchmark of success, I think you would have real reason for concern.  Indeed.

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