Reply to Ludlow-Taylor getting a new a new Principal

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]I think there is a difference between a child who qualifies for FARM in an area which has a huge newly immigrant community which may not have huge resources but does have a stable family life and values education (disclaimer, when we first immigrated I was a FARMs kid despite my father being a pHD and my mother being college-educated, simply because it took them some time to find jobs; my best friend in college, whose parents immigrated from a different country was in a similar situation. But this was not DC). But DCPS does not have this situation - most kids eligible for FARMs here come from systemic, multi-generational poverty which is not going to go away any time soon. And I don't know how much value that environment places on education but I do know that the stressors and instability that brings are different and harder to overcome when it's not a temporary thing. Those kids are absolutely entitled to a good education but toold to educate them can and should be different than educating little Suzie who has her parents hiring tutors for her to get her ahead.[/quote]

I would think someone who's experienced low income would be less likely to throw blanket judgements.

The idea that poor kids can't learn, can't behave, and shouldn't be taking up space in a school gets internalized at a pretty early age.  It compunds the stress of poverty and may be the biggest blockade to learning ability.  I can't blame the former principal if she wanted to prevent that attitude from spreading at her school.
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But that is not what I was saying. I was saying that children of systemic poverty have different needs and challenges than children of poor immigrants who have different needs than children of affluent parents. They all deserve a good education but how to get there is often a different path for each (which is why, e.g., KIPP charters are so successful - they tailor their education to a specific population and do not, unlike DCPS, try to do a one-size-fits-all solution). I am not one of the posters who thinks OOB kids should be kicked out of L-T. I do think DCPS in general (and L-T is a good example of it) is very bad at serving needs of its very disparate populations. I want a school that is good for both little Billy who comes from a homeless shelter and little Bobby whose parents have a $1m house and everyone in-between but DCPS has not managed that at all, ever.

I think it's also naïve to think that a lot of children who aren’t sure where their next meal will come from and how safe their neighborhood is have the same pressures, concerns and priorities than children whose biggest worry is whether they will get the new video game at Christmas. Can the former kid be as smart or smarter than the latter? Of course. Does their environment affect their ability to learn? Yes, of course. Hard to concentrate on studying when you are worried about whether you will get dinner and whether you parent will come home.

I actually think DCPS does a horrible job in general helping its poor population at every stage of life and schools are only a symptom of that, but that’s for another thread. 
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