Reply to Basis fills a gap that shouldn’t exist.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you’ve never had to think about how low expectations attach to your child before they even speak, you’ll probably miss the point.

I’m not really trying to defend BASIS. Who wouldn’t want a better building, more green space, a gym? Of course we would. But for us, the real value of BASIS isn’t about facilities—it’s about insulation.

For some families, the big question is whether a school “fits.” For ours, it’s how to keep our kid from getting buried under the low expectations that seem to follow him everywhere—public, charter, suburban, wherever. That shifts what kind of environment feels like relief.

And sure, if your child has ADHD or another neurodivergence, BASIS can feel harsh. That’s real. But those are intrinsic challenges a child carries anywhere. They’re not the same as the extrinsic bias that lands before my kid even opens his mouth.

We’ve seen the difference. At our old school, “central-casting” kids—affluent, white, sometimes clearly struggling—still got the enrichment slots and leadership nods, while our child, who outperformed them on every metric, got overlooked. That quiet favoritism doesn’t play the same way at BASIS, and that’s part of the relief.

And look, we can overcome bias anywhere—we do it all the time. But if there’s a school that spares us some of that emotional labor, why wouldn’t we choose it? Why root for it to change in ways that put that burden right back on us?

BASIS isn’t perfect. But it gives our child space to push back against the slow, steady build-up of low expectations. For us, that’s not nothing. And for others who’ve never had to think about it—that’s a luxury.[/quote]

Why do you keep writing the same post over and over.

Everyone is glad BASIS is working for your kid. Good.

Now, what about all the kids for whom BASIS does not work? What about the kids for whom the problem is not that they are underestimated, but that they are presumed to be fine without engagement or challenge because the focus is on kids who are struggling with grade level material? Which, by the way, is a much more common occurrence in DC public schools than the situation of a high achieving kid being overlooked in favor of rich white kids, who are not only rare in DC publics but also tend to be concentrated in a small handful of schools.

So, your kid is getting what he needs. Great. What about everyone else?[/quote]

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