Reply to 2017 "Most Challenging" High Schools List (Wash Post/Jay Mathews) is out

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "2017 "Most Challenging" High Schools List (Wash Post/Jay Mathews) is out"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm a white parent and I urged my Washington Latin 8th grader to consider applying to Banneker-- and to SWW and to several private schools and also our IB high school, Eastern.  He refused to even look elsewhere.  (We aren't IB for Wilson.)  He loves Latin too much to consider anything else.  To say that makes him racist is absurd.

[/quote]
Racist, no, short-sighted, possibly. Maybe we should all wake up and smell the coffee about charter high schools in this city - they can be PC fun for kids without being first-rate academically.  1 AP class with a score of 3 isn't a high bar to clear for a group of kids who've been studying the ancient and modern worlds seriously for 7 or 8 years.  Not at all, yet less than 20% has been pulling it off at Latin in the past couple of years. Sounds like he should have looked at St. Anselm's, mom, whatever his skin color.  [/quote]

Thanks for affirming that attending Latin and not Bannaker doesn't necessarily make my son racist.  But your point about St Ansekms is very painful.  I would have loved for him to look at St Anselms, but again he wasn't interested.  The bottom line is that I've raised a kid that doesn't think being in a school for "first rate academic" elites is what he wants. Likes being around a truly diverse group of people and is certain he will have that at Latin.  I really considered bribing or forcing him somehow to go to Bannaker, st Anselms, etc, but these schools all require interviews and his lack of interest would have been evident.  So why waste everyone's time? Latin high school isn't perfect, but neither is my kid, neither is the world.  I attended a rural high school with no IB no AP and only one honors class.  I still got into a top school. And even if my son doesn't get into a top school, he can still have a great life.

if he had gone to a middle school that generally feeds much of the graduating class into Bannaker or other elite schools he would have tried these, but I'm thinking he just would go to Eastern.  [/quote]

We looked at St. Anselm's and SWW for our son 4 years ago.  He also decided to stay at Latin.  We are very happy with his college acceptances  (when I took a peak at SAA's it seemed to have a similar range).  My son has been happy the last 4 years, has had great experiences, has had great teachers, taken classes that are challenging, but also has had time to pursue other interests.  He has also gotten to know a diverse group of people.  Latin is not private, not even a test in school, but everyone he knows is going to college or into the military.  I don't really care how he does on his APs, but his pre-test scores indicated that he would get 4s and/or 5s.  There are lots of school options.  Finding one that works for your kid is more important than where it lands on the challenge index.

[/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