Reply to Ludlow-Taylor getting a new a new Principal

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

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 - [b]most kids eligible for FARMs here come from systemic, multi-generational poverty which is not going to go away any time soon. [/b]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]

This is one of the best responses in this whole thread.   There is a segment of DC's population that have been stuck in "multi-generational" poverty.   We all know the reason why this vicious cycle continues.  It starts with a child being born to young mother without an education and without the means to support the child.  The child is much more likely then to grow up in single parent, dysfunctional environment where certain values are not instilled in the child.  The child can be manageable at 5 or 6 years old, but as the child grows older, the level of dysfunction around the child becomes the child's only reality.  It is very difficult for this type of child to be anywhere near the level of a child that comes from an educated two parent household, where they have been nurtured, cared for, and shown the importance of education.

FYI, I'm an black husband and father of two living in Capitol Hill.   There is no way I want my children surrounded a classroom full of kids from "multi-generational" poverty families.  I want my kids surrounded by kids who come from families like mine.   This also has nothing to do with race to me either.  I wouldn't want my kids surrounded by "Honey Boo Boo's" family, and I wouldn't want my kids surrounded by families housed in DC General Hospital either.[/quote]

The key point is that poor kids are not going away.  And while it's true that they may need a different approach than kids from affluent households, there is no way to segregate by SES without creating worse outcomes for the poorer strata.

And there's no need to do so in order to have a quality school.  There are several examples of charters and DCPS that have figured it out; parents put these schools at the top of their lottery lists regardless of middling CAS scores.  Gentrification is helping to raise the bar in a lot of neighborhood schools and better school administrations are figuring out how to balance needs of a diverse student body.

I have to say, as a married black parent, I also wouldn't want my kid surrounded by impoverished kids.  In fact, I don't want him in a homogenous environment of any kind, including wealthy and white.  But something that would concern me more is a school where a group of parents believes that the school can only be a good once it's rid of the poor kids, and expects the principal to hold the same view.  I can't bear the idea that even one adult - be it principal, teacher or parent - would be disappointed to see him a classroom because they see a brown face and make assumptions.

If poor people don't value education, you have to wonder why they would bother to show up at a PTA meeting.  I don't expect many of them are reading DCUM, but it sounds like they do feel the views that have been expressed here.  [/quote]

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