Reply to Tj teachers - Be prepared!

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "Tj teachers - Be prepared!"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] Agree with your assessment.  I think self-selection will kick in over time and those applying will only be those that that can make it.  First couple of years, kids will drop out after freshman year.  once this info. spreads through the grapevine, few will apply.   By the time this all shakes out, it will be another 5-10 years and a more-than-likely more left-leaning school board and county will decide to shut down the school.  Will be good business for the private schools..

Like everyone pointed out, it's the white kids, whose numbers will go up with this approach that will benefit the most.  [b]Unless you are a certified genius/nerd (not using that in a negative way), why would any URM even want to go to TJ?[/b]  Most intelligent to above-average intelligent URM would be better off going to base HS, doing well while having fun and getting into an elite school.

If you look at TJ, only about 50-70 kids get into really elite schools.  These fall into the genius/nerd category with a few extroverted geniuses among them.   Another 50-100 go to UVA and another 100-200 go to equivalent schools.  Most of this group would have done about as well or better at their base high schools.   Why do they go to TJ?  They all think they are elite.  They find out they are not in Sophomore year.  By then it's too late to move to base for a variety of reasons.  [/quote]

The reason is because there is a much, MUCH bigger delta in terms of educational opportunities between their base school (which in many cases will come from the southern and eastern end of the county) and TJ than there is between, say, Langley or McLean or Chantilly and TJ. Right now the biggest reasons that Black and Latinx students do not want to apply to TJ - or accept their offers of admission, because that happens more than you think - are because there aren't enough students there who look like them and because there is plenty of WOM evidence within their communities that the ones who go are treated poorly by their white and Asian colleagues who assume them to be part of a racial affirmative action process that hasn't existed for decades.[/quote]

I don't disagree on most of your reasons as to why they are under-represented at TJ. [b]However, the "observation" about being treated poorly on the premise that they are in due to affirmative action is just a bunch of BS[/b].  All I was alluding to was, what's in it for them?  The really smart among any demographic will shine at TJ.  The really smart among URMs will get the same outcome regardless of which HS they attend.  Which do you think they will choose to attend?  I bet the majority will chose to stay at base.  Heck, if I was guranteed the same outcome at base vs TJ, my DC will not go there!  Too much work for the entire family.[/quote]

A person who genuinely believes the bolded here is outing themselves as either a) a person who has never attended TJ; b) a person who attended but buried their head in the sand; or c) a person who has knowingly or unknowingly actively engaged in this behavior. It's not an observation - it's a thing that happens. The only reason it doesn't happen more is because there are so few Black and Hispanic students in the building.

It's amazing how often people in this forum tell on themselves without realizing it.[/quote]

If someone doesn't agree with your worldview, they must be wrong.  Get a life moron.  Parent of 2 TJ kids here that posted the above.  Don't make up shit because you and yours can't make it and need "concessions" to win the race. Spend time with your kids, make them study.  Don't ask for handouts.  Jeez, the freeloader wannabe crowd around here is mind-boggling.  The new framework for admissions is based on certain lies that are being pushed as facts, the above being one of them. Get real. [/quote]

So....you didn't go to TJ. So you're a). [i]It's okay that you don't know what goes on there.[/i] But don't act like you do and don't call people names or present yourself as knowledgeable when you're not.

"Black kids at TJ are treated like affirmative action charity cases" is not a worldview. It's reality and it's but one of dozens of reasons that reform is desperately needed. Kids and families in FCPS treat educational opportunities like a zero-sum game and have to come up with reasons why they didn't get selected for the precious space at TJ or Stanford, and if a Black kid gets it ahead of them, they only reason they can possibly fathom is that they got it "because they're Black". They talk about it behind each other's backs and post it on places like TJ Vents, and then there are a few really toxic kids who will say it to their faces - "Man, you're so lucky you're Black, you'll get in anywhere".... "I wish I were Black so I could get into Yale".... all to keep from having to deal with their own mediocrity.

The fact that you don't do it, or that your kid doesn't do it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen CONSTANTLY. Trust someone who has seen over 10,000 kids graduate from TJ and has no kids of their own to artificially elevate.[/quote]

Of course I [i]didn't go to TJ[/i]!  Neither did most people that post here including you.  Not sure what you do to have "seen" over 10,000 kids graduate from TJ (not sure what that means.. unless you consider yourself the fairy godmother of all kids at TJ) but cut that superior attitude.  You don't know more than I do, especially with no kids that have gone through TJ.

I stand by my statement that Black kids at TJ are not treated badly as you depict.  Neither of my kids do it, none of their friends do it and I have not witnessed or have others report witnessing such incidents.  If it happens, it must be a secret that only you are able to 'see' through your visions.

If a kid did say what you implied to a black kid's face, that shows a lack of tact more than racism IMHO.. Here's reality.  All things being equal (grades, ECs, etc.) if a black kid gets a spot at a college that a non-black kid doesn't, it's not wrong for the other kid to feel some resentment.  Why is that automatically considered racist?  Not only are others not supposed to say anything that may be construed as racist (I agree with this) but now they aren't even allowed to THINK anything along those lines?  And y'all keep wondering why Trump won the last election and came close to winning this one?!?!?

[/quote]

Literally everything you wrote here is wrong except for 3 things:

1) "Neither did most people that post here" - that is correct. But I did, a long time ago. My techlab was CAD and the lab director was Ken Domina. I could go on, but that should be enough for the people on here who actually know what they're talking about.

2) "Neither of my kids do it" - I can't say that's categorically false, though really neither can you. Kids generally don't come home and brag to their parents about their microaggressions. Suffice it to say, I've had several TJ students come to me over the years to talk about hearing the "all because you're Black" garbage - AND I've had both white and Asian students come to me frustrated that they didn't get into their school of choice and blaming affirmative action. It's a teachable moment that a lot of kids need because of what they hear at home - and frankly, the outsized importance that they and their families place on admission to prestigious schools.

3) "that shows more a lack of tact than racism" - true, but irrelevant. The fact that it shows lack of tact doesn't help the kid to whom it's directed, and it shows a lack of tact whether it's said to their face, behind their back, or on TJ Vents. The arguments that you're making here are the same types of arguments that these kids make - which is excusable when you're 17 and have a very limited concept of the world around you, but not when you're an adult. Many kids at TJ simply cannot fathom the possibility that a Black or Hispanic kid was [b]simply more qualified[/b] than they were to attend Harvard, or that a Black or Hispanic kid was [b]simply more qualified[/b] to get into TJ than their best friend who went to Rachel Carson with them. The existence of affirmative action anywhere, to these families, implies the ubiquitous presence and application of affirmative action EVERYWHERE.

"All things being equal" is never a thing. All things are NEVER equal. Kids at TJ might have some idea of each others' grades and SAT scores, as well as their ECs, but those are only a small part of the overall picture of each student. Context matters in admissions - it always has and it always will. It's the reason why companies have job interviews instead of just hiring people purely on their resumes.

Kids can think whatever the hell they want to, however misguided it is. It's usually the parents' job to help set them in the right direction - although that last paragraph you wrote [i]kinda[/i] throws that idea out the window.[/quote] [b]Why is this ok to give preferential treatment to black people at school, college, work environment, but nobody is supposed to acknowledge the FACT that the preferential treatment exists[/b]? Colleges have lower SAT and GPA thresholds for black students, TJ has changed the admission standards to accommodate black applicants, companies are paying for free masters degree for black people, see here:

https://www.benefitnews.com/news/pwc-offers-free-masters-degree-for-black-latinx-accountants

I read a long article in the Washington Post recently how Google donated over $100M to historically black colleges, helped to rewrite their computer science curriculum, volunteered many hours of their time teaching black students, offers them internships, but their black employees are still not satisfied with these efforts and demand more and more. [/quote]

Probably because we dragged them over here from Africa against their will 400 years ago and built this country on the backs of their slave labor. Or because we still work to deny them the right to vote. Or because we shoot them in the streets for no reason. Or any of the millions of other things we've done to Black folks over the years.

Here's the key difference. It's not explicitly wrong to acknowledge the fact that there are areas where we're trying to make amends for all of the deep transgressions we've committed against the Black community during America's sordid history. [b]It is explicitly wrong to attribute the success of any individual, or the failure of another individual, to a systemic adjustment such as this one.[/b]

It is WRONG to assume that the person you're talking to or about is less qualified than you are just because of the existence of these adjustments. 
It is WRONG to believe that you've worked harder than someone else because affirmative action exists and is applied to others. 
It is WRONG to assume that someone's family cares less about academics than yours does just because they spent thousands of dollars on preparing you for admission to TJ and theirs didn't. [/quote] Most of us have no ancestors who owned or sold slaves. Actually a lot of black people have ancestors who sold their neighbors as slaves. How do you differentiate a black person whose ancestor sold slaves from a person whose ancestor was sold and why should the same preferential treatment be given to both of them equally, just because they happen to have the same skin color? If I came from a different country that has never had any slaves, why am I also required to be forever apologetic for the behavior of some jerks who owned slaves 400 ago? [/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