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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]when the child is just smart the urge by some parents to deny gifted/smart children a chance to excel and advance is just sour grapes, imo.. it's akin to eliminating varsity football and insisting on all children being given a spot on the bench...it ignores the fact that learning, just like physical prowess, is very different from child to child leveling the math curriculum will result in youngsters arriving at college unprepared for elementary engineering courses...[/quote]

That's what advanced placement is for, not magnet schools. By far most "smart" students in high school are not smart in everything, and sports on top of that. Creating magnets for the "smart" and neighborhood schools for the whole rest of them indeed leaves us all worse off. I think that's what another poster meant to point to. It's not even the best solution for the smartest. I teach in a private university (granted not hard sciences so can't speak to that) and I can't tell you how much of an advantage those students have who are used to working with and in the presence of a broad range of capabilities and interests. All this said, there is no way wiping magnets off the map is practical. Reforming incentive structures and bringing schools in line yes, or maybe transforming those magnet schools into charter schools. That's a more realistic and useful approach.

On a separate note, I disagree that anyone who has the means to will inevitably leave DC for schools elsewhere. That statement comes from someone who hasn't looked at the latest Census data, who hasn't followed about 10 years of urban development in DC (and other US cities), and who is oblivious to the continued incline in inner-city home values while the surrounding ones keep dropping. I'm not alone as someone who could more than afford it but just doesn't want to. I love living without a car and love the prospect of my children getting themselves to and from places rather than us adult shuttling them around. I love the opportunities a city brings. I love my neighborhood, my house etc. Magnets/clusters were put in place for a different area in urban development. It's certainly a good time to rethink them but to do so wisely.[/quote]

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