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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][  Thank you for your post, PP. I am not from Germany, I went through the French educational system. I agree with your observations. Why not let kids who can handle it get more advanced work? What's up with the obsession with school being "fun"? Why isn't the emphasis on getting the kids more challenged? I feel awkward when family members from Europe come to visit and they compare my kids' school work to what the nieces and nephews are doing back in Europe. Everyone wonders how the American universities can be the best in the world when elementary-middle and high schools compare so poorly, at what grade do American kids catch up with the rest of the world? What do we do if someday we go back to Europe, the kids will be so much behind compared to their peers.[/quote]

The challenge deficit you European posters are talking about is much more of a DC phenomenon than one observed in the Metro area's affluent suburbs, and competitive admissions urban schools in other cities.  I went to Bronx Science high school out of gifted and talented public ES and MS programs, then to MIT for a BS and advanced engineering degree.  My spouse, despite being from a low-income family, was bused into public schools in an upscale LA suburb and attended Cal Tech - same story.

I'm certain that my American classmates and I were never "behind" European counterparts, at least in science and math.  Top European and Israeli students who attended college with us were not "ahead."  If anything, our science education was superior because we had access to nicer computers and labs in our secondary schools.

As things stand, I won't send my math-oriented children to a DC PS past elementary, but would love to see them at a top suburban program.   If you don't keep such views to yourself in a DCPS or charter school, many other parents, as well as teachers & administrators will attack!   The issue is simply racial politics because so few low-SES AA kids excel and so many high-SES white and Asian ones (more all the time in the system) do, or would with more challenge.  Friends in the burbs don't run away after elementary, and aren't shy about demanding ability grouping and challenge (because no guilt trip or "shut up!" forthcoming if they do).  You're in for a lot of headaches here if you fret aloud about what will happen if you return to the Continent...you're just supposed to enjoy the lovely school community.

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I do hope our DCPS experience will prove better that mentioned above...if not, unfortunately, we'll have to either get DC in private school or move to the suburbs. Or back to Europe for a few years.
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