Reply to So much less frenzy these days - does that mean Common Lottery is really really working?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]08:37 here.  Note that I put "substandard" in quotes, meaning allegedly substandard.  I agree that many of these schools are actually quite good, but as a veteran of this process, you will be unable to convince every parent (even those with kids there) that the school is fabulous.  The reality is, some parents will bolt the first time they hit a "better" (again, note the quotes) in the lottery, and nothing the school does will change their mind.  But perhaps some parents who get into the allegedly substandard schools (are you more comfortable if I spell it out like this?) might actually realize the school is good and stay there.  [/quote]

I'd be comfortable if you stop suggesting that people View their neighborhood school as a school of last resort that they should go to with the intent of leaving as soon as they can. Instead, the better advice is to check out your neighborhood school with an open mind and see if you think it would be a good for for your kid. That's the approach we took, and we have been really pleased. [/quote]

I was you, saying the exact same thing, 4 years ago.  What I learned: you cannot open a closed mind.[/quote]

It would be really awesome if people would stop naysaying other people's optimism. We get it. You veterans who tried and failed think that the people who are trying now are naive. [b]I will never understand why some people cannot recognize that other people have different experiences than they do and attempt to rain on those people's parades[/b] by explaining how later, the people who are optimistic about their current good experiences continuing will learn the error of their ways, just like you did.[/quote]

NP and PP, you are so so right!  It is astounding the number of things I've been able to achieve just by staying laser focused on seeing every obstacle as an opportunity.  Not just on small, personal things, but big personal and big community changes.  The "It's not going to get better and you're going to be disappointed" attitude never EVER ever led to amazing positive changes.  Ever.  Because those who are jaded are not still trying, so... no change unless it's by chance.  Parents of young'uns, stay focused, and keep looking for ways not just to benefit from DC public education, but to be part of actually improving it - whatever that means for you.

Some of the neighborhood schools that some are describing as "allegedly substandard" now will be impossible to get into in probably a much shorter time than anyone here can imagine.[/quote]

I just want to say to you guys that you are the type of people who changed other schools, and there is no evidence that you cannot change yours.  I really admire you.

My kids are too old for me to be in the trenches, but perhaps some of this bitterness comes from people who tried, failed, left, and then saw others turn that particular school around.  And maybe they blame themselves for not succeeding, and/or are furious at those who did.  Who knows.  Just remember, we are anonymous.

But the only veterans you all should listen to are the veterans who succeeded.

I admit that there has to be a confluence of forces, maybe even for some schools a "perfect storm," but if everyone had thought the way these bitter people sound no changes would have ever occurred anywhere in this city.

DO NOT LISTEN TO THE NAYSAYERS

Signed,
a parent of more than two children who have attended DCPS and are now at a charter

who grew up here going to private school, living in the same neighborhood basically now that I did when I was a child, but no one in my neighborhood went to public school then............ and almost everyone goes now......... for ES, to our neighborhood ES.

I don't want to say exactly how old I am, but I was born here in the 60s and honestly never thought anything would ever change............ And to me that is so deeply ironic given what was going on in the country at the time.

So when I moved back with already fairly old children, we found things had changed.  We were never the change.  But Lord do I appreciate all of those who made the change, and I really have hope for our city, for our schools, DCPS and charters.....

and for all of you.  If anyone had said to us, someday, almost every child who lives in your neighborhood will be attending DCPS.......... we would have laughed in their faces.

But I really believe this change is happening much more rapidly now - what I mean is that when I came back the ground had already shifted.  Now it is just a question of which schools, what particular ground.  But I just want to say as a very much older parent (the only young'uns I anticipate are grandchildren) that there was a time when no one believed any of this would ever happen in Washington DC.

And before anyone wants to know.  I am white.  My kids are not.  My neighborhood is no longer one thing or another either.  But that is why we had to find a place where a change had occurred, and I was so astonished but so happy to discover it had occurred basically on the same ground I grew up on.  I did not want my kids to be diversity tokens (about the same number as before) at the school that when I went to it did not cost $40k - in yesterday's dollars.  [/quote]

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