Reply to South Arlington and North Arlington Schools

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "South Arlington and North Arlington Schools"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]No one thinks the teachers at Randolph/Barcroft/Carlin Springs are anything but terrific.[/b] Probably better than the ones elsewhere in Arlington because they have the toughest jobs.  What gets me about Katie is that she thinks the SITUATION at those S. Arlington schools is fine and that we should just pack more poor kids into them by maximizing affordable housing along the Pike instead of spreading it elsewhere. A "diverse" Arlington means an Arlington with all the poor people in the South; not an Arlington where diverse students learn from each other and attend the same schools.  Also, she advocates for charter schools (imagine what that would do to the most troubled S. Arlington schools). The point is the learning environment is not the same as the rest of Arlington and only someone with a condescending view of what constitutes opportunity for poor kids could argue otherwise. [/quote]

This exactly!  The teachers are excellent, they have to be.  Nobody here is criticizing the staff, or even the facilities, of schools in Arlington that have a higher percentage of children from lower SES backgrounds.  It is the situation; kids who start school already behind STAY behind when they are educated in classrooms where the majority of students are starting off at a similar deficit.  And they are "behind" not from lack of intelligence or natural aptitude, but because English may not be their first, or even second language, or they may have parents who are not educated themselves, or who simply cannot provide the same in-home resources as their more advantaged peers because of lack of money/time.

I find Katie's volunteerism to be commendable, however, I find it troubling that her window into the situation at Randolph has not caused her to question whether children at Randolph, even with all the resources and devoted teachers and supportive staff, would not be better served in a more diverse educational environment.  If Katie is indeed supportive of Charter schools, perhaps it is she who thinks that teachers/teaching methods are part of the problem to be solved.  Personally, I think Charter schools are terrible and I hope we never see one in Arlington.  [/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