Reply to Can we spreadload FRL% across APS? Arlington / Education Newbie here

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The community idea is so overblown by so many. The public school “community” is laughable for our family who came from private. I am sorry but no the public schools have neighbors who know each other but sense of community nope. So if your child is bussed to a different school the school your child attends will have a “community” and you become part of it if you want.

White parents just don’t want to have to say out loud that they don’t want their kids going to school with poor non white kids. [/quote]

This is not true at the "poor" school in S. Arlington where I live.  [b]There are many immigrant communities (Ethiopians, Mongolians, etc) who are very tight, many living in the same apartment complexes.[/b]  They walk home together, care for each others' kids after school, go shopping and share food, etc.  There are a very few who are doing option schools but most don't want to move schools - they like their kids all going together to the same school and don't want to be split up.[/quote]

The reason they are "tight" is due to being in similar circumstances in a new place with a shared background all living in the same place. This would still be the case whether their children attended school together or not. [/quote]

Would it?  They all walk home together in a caravan after school dismisses (instead of various bus stops/timelines). Their kids hang together after school and help each other with homework since they are in the same classes.  Parents are able to share information and help each other through the shared experience being at the school and knowing the same teachers for years, which is a helpful network for newer families.  There is a Mongolian interpreter at the school who interprets at PTA and other events so Mongolian parents can join, since there is a critical mass.  She brings back Mongolian books for the library for kids.  School emails are sent in Mongolian.  Does this happen at every school, or would it, if all kids were dispersed throughout the county in a lottery?  Not saying these families would cease to be a community, but having the school be a large part of the community strengthens it, and strengthens the school.
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Yes it would but you can't see that since you are viewing it through your white UMC SFH self who was born and raised here with parents born and raised here and family and so on. You are using this argument to continue the status quo.  And people like you conduct surveys or ask these families if they want to move schools by telling them wild tales of how it will so terrible and it will be bad but never bother to mention that a changing schools gives them a better education opportunity and in the long run is better for their child's success.  You would never do that. You don't want to help these families change their situation, you want to use them whenever it's convenient for your purposes.

You see community as something that happens through your child's school and that makes sense given where you are coming from.  That's not the same for immigrant families who come to a new country whether legally or not and don't speak the language well. It makes sense they want to stay close and live close to those who share their background so they can learn the ropes of living here, understand the language, and so on. This starts way before their kids even enter a school building and doesn't disappear when they do. In some cases, they may also have kids back in their home country as well but that doesn't mean they aren't welcomed as members of the community.

[/quote]

I am the PP - I am a nonwhite immigrant myself!  Not born here, not UMC, no SFH.  I live in this neighborhood with these people, who are my friends.  I don't "conduct surveys," and I certainly don't try to scare with wild tales!  What a crazy assumption.  "Using them whenever it's convenient?" I don't know what you're talking about. I do know it is much more convenient for all of us to be able to walk to our school a couple blocks away.[/quote]

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