Reply to Diversity of schools - can this work both ways? Am I being unreasonable?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Diversity of schools - can this work both ways? Am I being unreasonable?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are your children having a difficult time socially? Are they having a difficult time academically? Do you feel like they are thriving and learning? Those are the more important question I think.

I think there is too much focus on what people should or should not do. You love your children and should do what is right for your children. [/quote]

Agree that people worry too much about what you "should" do. But also totally get why people feel this because especially now, there is a very pervasive attitude that by simply making the choice you think is best for your child, you are perpetuating racism. And in the extreme this actually is definitely true (you can't argue that a wealthy white person choosing to send their child to an overwhelmingly white private school isn't perpetuating white supremacy -- they are).

The question gets thorny though when you are talking about MC people and public schools that range from bad to adequate to just a bit better than average, as in DC. Lots of parents are trying to get their kids into the "just a bit better than average" schools, and thus these schools become more diverse (as in have larger white and Asian populations by virtue of demand). But it means that that may of the adequate schools in DC are also overwhelmingly black and that many white and Asian families wonder if they also need to try to move to those slightly above average schools. It's a much tighter weighing of factors. Both schools are adequate, the above average school is not phenomenal, and some of the benefits of the above average school stem simply from being a community of higher SES families. I'm not a big fan of doing something because you feel you should, but I also get why this specific decision is really challenging for people.

Like I want to send my kid to a neighborhood school. I want to send my kid to a diverse school. And I want my kid to get a good education. In DC, I am not getting all three. So which do I choose and why? There are a lot of implications there.

(Just to lay all my cards on the table, what I decided was to do the neighborhood/adquate school for ECE and now we're going to move to a more diverse school for upper elementary if we can, as much for the additional diversity as for a better MS path. I'm happy with my choices and think I've done right by my kid AND my community to the best of my ability, but I totally get why this is stressful for people as it's not like we reached these decisions without any second-guessing.)

These issues are not straightforward.[/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